So, it's been, what, 3 months since I posted? What have I been up to?
Well, as I mentioned in one of my last posts, we had some issues with the house on New Years Eve and we ended up spending 3 months (yes, 3 months!) in a hotel. A hotel about 10 miles from the house. A hotel with one "high speed" internet connection (which, during the evening, was about as high speed as a 2400 baud modem). A hotel with only about 15 channels and NO TiVo! Oh, the humanity.
Well, we're back in the house now, the re-construction is almost all done (just a few bits and pieces remaining), we've been compensated for part of the living expenses for which the insurance company owes us (luckily, the contractor is billing the chunk of work the insurance company pays for directly to them and the hotel was direct charged to the insurance company) and we're almost back to normal.
It was a drag of an experience and not one that I want to repeat any time soon, I'll say.
What I had to keep telling myself was, "You're getting a new kitchen for about 70% off, You're getting a new kitchen for about 70% off, You're getting a new kitchen for about 70% off..."
The new kitchen is great (though I'm still getting used to the re-arrangement) and the changes in the dining room (we paid extra for those plus a good chunk of the changes in the kitchen) are great.
Plus, we have TiVo again - and not just any TiVo - we finally have been able to hook up and use my wife's new HD TiVo, which can record two things at once! Sweet, sweet Tivo. In just the living room now we can record 3 separate things (including the older TiVo there). Woo hoo!
I'll post separately on other news.
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, January 06, 2008
More plumbing woes
An update on my house's plumbing situation: First, the insurance company finally called us back - on Friday, though! It took them over three days to get back to us on a problem that was going to get more and more expensive the longer it took to get started on a "real" cleanup. Idiots...
So the first contractors finally showed up Friday about mid-day. It was the "remediation company". Apparently their responsibility is to assess the water damage and then perform the water cleanup. The contractor started his investigation, thinking it wasn't too bad (we *had* cleaned up quite a lot in three days, you know?), but later on said, "Well, this is much worse than I thought." Duh....
The net was: The floor in the bathroom upstairs (tile) will likely need to be removed, the cabinet pulled out; the floor just outside of that bathroom will need to be dried out with their special drier; the carpet there will probably need to be replaced; unbeknown to us, the water had also made its way into the floor in my daughter's room so that will need to be dried out. On the first floor of the house: the linoleum will need to be removed; the soffets will need to be removed; the cabinets (at least some of the) will need to be removed and probably replaced; the sub-floor will probably need to be replaced; the floor in the toy room and family room will need to be dried and the carpets replaced; we will have to have the ductwork all cleaned to ensure moisture is removed.
Looks like we will be staying in a hotel at least for about a week while this goes on because there will be no access to the kitchen. My hope is that the hotel stay will only be necessary during the clean up and not the construction.
As for the construction - that will be separate contractor. It's still not clear how this all works in terms of identifying the cost and approving.
We also need to put together a list of the items destroyed by the flood for reimbursement. That's going to be a big part of today.
In the midst of all of this, I haven't managed to get in a run since my road race on Monday :-(. My soccer team has their first game of the session tonight, which I'm planning to try to play even with my bum knee (which hasn't been bugging me as much for the last few weeks!).
So the first contractors finally showed up Friday about mid-day. It was the "remediation company". Apparently their responsibility is to assess the water damage and then perform the water cleanup. The contractor started his investigation, thinking it wasn't too bad (we *had* cleaned up quite a lot in three days, you know?), but later on said, "Well, this is much worse than I thought." Duh....
The net was: The floor in the bathroom upstairs (tile) will likely need to be removed, the cabinet pulled out; the floor just outside of that bathroom will need to be dried out with their special drier; the carpet there will probably need to be replaced; unbeknown to us, the water had also made its way into the floor in my daughter's room so that will need to be dried out. On the first floor of the house: the linoleum will need to be removed; the soffets will need to be removed; the cabinets (at least some of the) will need to be removed and probably replaced; the sub-floor will probably need to be replaced; the floor in the toy room and family room will need to be dried and the carpets replaced; we will have to have the ductwork all cleaned to ensure moisture is removed.
Looks like we will be staying in a hotel at least for about a week while this goes on because there will be no access to the kitchen. My hope is that the hotel stay will only be necessary during the clean up and not the construction.
As for the construction - that will be separate contractor. It's still not clear how this all works in terms of identifying the cost and approving.
We also need to put together a list of the items destroyed by the flood for reimbursement. That's going to be a big part of today.
In the midst of all of this, I haven't managed to get in a run since my road race on Monday :-(. My soccer team has their first game of the session tonight, which I'm planning to try to play even with my bum knee (which hasn't been bugging me as much for the last few weeks!).
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Plumbing pain
So as I posted the other day, the family and I ran the Belle Isle Fun Run on New Years' Eve. A good start to the day of partying, right???...
That night, we all went to our friends' house for a New Years Eve party - mostly eating, drinking and playing video games (lots of Guitar Hero among the kids and the parents).
We left and drove home through a minor snow storm at about 1AM...
My son and I were the first two to walk from the garage into the house - he opened the door in front of me and I was right behind. As soon as he opened the door, I could hear a sound I did not like at all - the sound of a LOT of running water with splashing.
We walk in and there's a veritable waterfall coming out of the light fixture over the kitchen table right onto the table and, from there, it splashed all over the kitchen. Realizing it was obviously coming from the second floor, I ran upstairs and found that one of the supply lines under the sink at the top of the stairs had apparently broken.
The water had flooded that bathroom floor, seeped into the carpet right outside of that bathroom and made its way down to the first floor (the kitchen is right under that bathroom). It was coming out of the light fixture over the kitchen table and also the one over the sink. From the sink, it made its way onto the floor in that area and seeped into the carpet in the dining room (which we really use as a toy room). From the kitchen table, it made its way into the carpet of the family room... At this point, that's 5 rooms affected so far...
So the family starts cleaning up the water as best as we can - the kids' initial reaction of, "Oh my god, what's going on??!!" quickly transitioned into a heroic effort to help my wife and I clean up (yay, kids!)
I realize that the basement needs to be checked so I go down and find... Water everywhere. Oh goodness...
So we finally get the kids to bed at about 2AM after they've immensely helped with the cleanup and we really start to dig into the basement. We finally feel like we have the bulk of the water cleaned up by about 5AM and decide that we need to get some sleep so we head to bed, where neither of us can sleep but we each got about 45 minutes in. The prime problem we had at this point was that the furnace (which had gotten damp but which didn't seem to be otherwise that affected) would not stay on; we could hear it light but it would then not start the blower. By the time we got up again, it was 54 degrees in the house. I turned off the thermostat for a while and turned it back on and the furnace finally did come on. Yeah! At least something good!
So we get to spend New Years Day trying the best we can to clean up the mess. Luckily, we have incredible neighbors and they sprang into action with us to help figure out what to do about the carpets and what we needed to rent in terms of equipment to help with the drying.
My wife called AAA about noon on New Years Day and now, almost 48 hours later they still have not called back or had any contact whatsoever! I am extremely angry about this at this point - we need some help figuring out what we need to do next to deal with this problem.
Of course, on top of this all, I've been battling with a cold of some sort since Monday evening as well. What joy...
That night, we all went to our friends' house for a New Years Eve party - mostly eating, drinking and playing video games (lots of Guitar Hero among the kids and the parents).
We left and drove home through a minor snow storm at about 1AM...
My son and I were the first two to walk from the garage into the house - he opened the door in front of me and I was right behind. As soon as he opened the door, I could hear a sound I did not like at all - the sound of a LOT of running water with splashing.
We walk in and there's a veritable waterfall coming out of the light fixture over the kitchen table right onto the table and, from there, it splashed all over the kitchen. Realizing it was obviously coming from the second floor, I ran upstairs and found that one of the supply lines under the sink at the top of the stairs had apparently broken.
The water had flooded that bathroom floor, seeped into the carpet right outside of that bathroom and made its way down to the first floor (the kitchen is right under that bathroom). It was coming out of the light fixture over the kitchen table and also the one over the sink. From the sink, it made its way onto the floor in that area and seeped into the carpet in the dining room (which we really use as a toy room). From the kitchen table, it made its way into the carpet of the family room... At this point, that's 5 rooms affected so far...
So the family starts cleaning up the water as best as we can - the kids' initial reaction of, "Oh my god, what's going on??!!" quickly transitioned into a heroic effort to help my wife and I clean up (yay, kids!)
I realize that the basement needs to be checked so I go down and find... Water everywhere. Oh goodness...
So we finally get the kids to bed at about 2AM after they've immensely helped with the cleanup and we really start to dig into the basement. We finally feel like we have the bulk of the water cleaned up by about 5AM and decide that we need to get some sleep so we head to bed, where neither of us can sleep but we each got about 45 minutes in. The prime problem we had at this point was that the furnace (which had gotten damp but which didn't seem to be otherwise that affected) would not stay on; we could hear it light but it would then not start the blower. By the time we got up again, it was 54 degrees in the house. I turned off the thermostat for a while and turned it back on and the furnace finally did come on. Yeah! At least something good!
So we get to spend New Years Day trying the best we can to clean up the mess. Luckily, we have incredible neighbors and they sprang into action with us to help figure out what to do about the carpets and what we needed to rent in terms of equipment to help with the drying.
My wife called AAA about noon on New Years Day and now, almost 48 hours later they still have not called back or had any contact whatsoever! I am extremely angry about this at this point - we need some help figuring out what we need to do next to deal with this problem.
Of course, on top of this all, I've been battling with a cold of some sort since Monday evening as well. What joy...
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