The Summer That Wasn't

Our summer began wonderfully with road trips to Elizabeth IL and a daylong adventure into history.  Bike rides and saving turtles while hiking at the bog.  Ray and I made a list of fun things to do on the weekends and he actually had set some ideas into motion.  With the 4^th of July weekend fast approaching; we knew summer would be over in an instant.  Our day dreams were crushed when we returned from work on June 27^th to find our wash machine located on the second floor had leaked into the living room ceiling below it.  I had gone upstairs to check on something and noticed the carpeting was wet in the hallway.  When I yelled to Ray downstairs that something was wrong, he looked up and saw the ceiling bubbling and stained.  It was after 5pm so of course it was difficult to find out whom to call.  Ray dug the homeowner’s policy out of the archives to find the ever popular 800 number or 866 number one looks for when a crisis arises.  We dared not “drain” the ceiling because we did not know what would come out.  Frustration, being on hold, getting cut off, everything that could go wrong did in about 30 minutes.  Finally a human answered the telephone for us.  What I describe as a customer service with a degree in C.E. (cheeto eating) answered the phone only to question if we are insured at all.  If my husband would have been drawn by a cartoonist at that point, the steam from his ears would have been explosive.  He then placed a call to his agent, as I emailed him frantically.   For the most part, I was numb, trying to think of water restoration vendors I might know.  Goggling furiously and feeling the ever mounting frustration of my partner in life; finally we received some advice via the insurance company and telephoned the local ServiceMaster who is owned by one of our employer’s customers.  We were safe to stay that night in the house, assured the ceiling would not absolutely cave in.  The following day our home became a wind tunnel.   We moved to a hotel. See pictures below.

The culprit pictured on the far right was our GE Stack washer. 

We since learned that the actual tub cracked and seals burst.  Taking planned obsoletion to a new low.  It was less than six years old and just out of the extended warranty by a matter of a few months.  Our adjuster showed up on July 1, the vortex still in place because the drywall was not drying out.  (duh it is Gypsum, it does not dry it sort of dissolves said the tiny blond female to the big bad wolfman adjuster).   Yes, sarcasm was walking around in my head.  The adjuster also told us the washer and dryer could be taken to the curb.  Other thoughts were directed to us when the subrogation department called July 5^th and wanted to “examine the unit to see if they could subrogate the damage from the manufacturer”.  Imagine if we had paid someone to haul it!  We might have jeopardized our own rights.    Our first lesson was to question and double check everything. We discovered early on that insurance adjusters have two faces.  The blessing in all this is that because the damaged areas touched undamaged areas, we learned, all the carpet and home up to the kitchen had to be carpeted and painted.   Let the Construction begin.  The hotel gave me asthma. We rented a condo and moved again.  Thank goodness for good friends with furnished unused homes.

At this point we are physically out of our home for a week.  We think no problem.  We should be home in a few days.  Make God laugh and make a plan right.  We meet the carpet guy at the home and find out the carpet needs to be analyzed by a laboratory.   5 days of Vortex and meeting the restoration people every morning.  Pack out our belongings; and now a laboratory.  You guessed it, we were experiencing a WTF moment.  The carpet guy was insurance preferred provider.  He was amazing and very knowledgeable.  With this guy, why do we need a laboratory?  Young Frankenstein meets Millwork.    It did in fact work in our favor.  Our carpet was a nice one, thus we were able to pick out a nice carpet; the WTF moment was over.  The carpet guy ordered the carpet.  We waited for its arrival and scheduled installation.  Jump ahead to August 3^rd.and 6 weeks out of our home. 

 We schedule the new furniture to be delivered on August 6^th.  After the delivery from hell and the delivery team playing ping pong with newly painted walls and ceilings they left our room out of sorts and even covered the closet door with the mattress.  No unpacking this weekend.  See middle picture.  A return team came out late afternoon the following day after a visit to the store.  They put together the bedroom and replaced damaged bed rails.   This hurdle put our move in date out another week.   We were at the mercy of the delivery schedules.  Though we were compensated for the “repairs” and refunded delivery cost, it did not cover additional rent for the extra week.  And we had moved all of our items back in.  Now we had to take a week’s worth of clothing and food back to the rental. 

Forever a mystical mind I have been asking, what did I learn?  What was this thrust forward all about?  I do know it was more than my desire for new bedroom shades.  First I think it was a lesson in patience.  Always something I personally need to improve.  For both of us, we learned real lessons in discernment.  We trusted no one and checked everything.  There were a few hiccups we had to overcome.  I think because of the stress and being thrust into a situation, if forced us out of “dreaming” about a future and beginning to create it.  It also forced us to purge.  We have put some of this on hold now until Autumn; taking our time finding our “home” again.  All the STUFF one does not use.  Holy cow!  I am saving picture hanging for a rainy day; letting the paint cure some more as we intend to use the large command strips.  We found the small command strips still remove paint.   We sat on our sofa and watch a complete movie last night.  The new washer and dryer are more efficient.   The experience has had a positive outcome.  I think it is the Universe signaling me and saying the next phase is on it’s way chicky, get your stuff together.  So with the new moon phase, I am going to write my intentions again on an envelope, marking them with estimated time frames and not just “wants”, after all I did write down somewhere that I really wanted new blinds in the bedroom.  And I have them now.  I think that is the other lesson; don’t put anything off.   Get Living!