You've got to be kidding me!

Just when I thought we were getting closer to a more "normal" or settled stage of this ... um ... process we had a ridiculous hiccup today.

Lisa and I get the girls to school (OK, Lisa really does) and then we're to meet at "our" house where people were arriving to pack up the contents of the house in preparation for the break down and rehab.  There were just a few last things Lisa and I needed to grab before saying goodbye to most of our things until, well, we don't really know.  An office lamp, tupperware, plants, a few winter jackets, crafts for the girls... and Jonah (Lisa's and Meredith's fish).  And some Aboriginal art and my beloved Purvis Young painting that nobody else appreciates. :)

After way too much time and too many miles in my car dealing with cable tv and banking stuff I get back to the rental home around 1:00-ish to find that we have NO WATER.  Are you *!&#!X* kidding me?!?!?

Calls to the temp housing company and to the property management company follow with assurances that the water utility has been called and that we'll have water sometime this afternoon.  3:00 no water.  4:00 no water and calls to the same companies provide similar assurances.

5:30 -- still no water.  Now things are getting tense at the Andersons.  Staff at the two companies have rotated and/or are about to sign off for the day.  The water utility is now closed.  Nobody has answers except "hopefully the guy who works for the water company and who turns water back on will get there eventually."  Hmmmm. REALLY?!?!

We start contemplating heading to a hotel.

Finally the property management company sends their handyman (a kind man probably in his 60s who also handles the yard work, today in fact, and who was on his way home and had to turn round and drive close to an hour back to the house) to try opening the water valve at the street.    Lord bless and all praise the handyman!!!!!  Water flows!!!

I think it's safe to say several people are not going to have happy Tuesdays having now just spoken with our top contact at the temp housing company.  And my guess is that she won't either since we also contacted AllState about this.  My guess is that the property management company is the party that screwed up but we'll see.

Meantime, here are the girls enjoying the retro Risky Business shades I broke out for the recent 80's party and our newest addition to the family, Jonah.

The "master" toilet

If there was ever an inappropriate way to describe a toilet this would be it.  There is nothing "master"-ful about this.  As I mentioned earlier, this space must be less then what you would find in an airplane or Greyhound bus lavatory.  So, by popular demand, here it is.  Pictures surely won't so it justice...

In limbo not so much any more

Let's try this again (but on the computer, not via Blackberry).

So we moved into the rental house on Monday after CRS moved in a bunch of furniture and other stuff.  More than we had anticipated and not horrible by any means.  Beds, dressers, sofas, coffee tables, end tables, lamps, dining room table and chairs.  2 televisions and a DVD player.  Bedding, towels, kitchenware, coffee pot and washer and dryer.  They even put some art on the walls.

The house itself, being a rental property, is showing a lack of care (but nothing terrible).  It's a small 3 bedroom 2 bath.  It has a 2-car garage and fenced yard.  Small deck in back.  There is an odd extra room off the entryway that has two sets of French doors and a wet bar.  Will likely put another TV in there and use it as an office/exercise room.  Another strange element of the house is the toilet in the master bath.  Mind you, the bathroom as a whole is a decent size with separate shower and tub with jets and double sinks.  The toilet however is in a space behind a sliding door that is the size of a tiny broom closet.  I'd say it's smaller than the space of an airplane lavatory.  Very strange.

Small things we discovered... ants, clogged sinks, squeaky doors, burned out light bulbs and a/c that wan't cooling the house.  On Tuesday, after a trip to the store, the Raid seems to have stopped the ants and the WD40 has stopped the squeaks.  The sink drains responded only slightly to Draino.  The property's repair man did something to the a/c that seems to have worked but looking at the filter screens on the interior I'd say they're asking for trouble if the filters aren't changed soon.

Wednesday was a big day for the Andersons -- Cox came out and transferred our phone, internet and cable TV.  Whoo-hooo!  I imagine a picture of Lisa and me would have been pretty pathetic on Monday and Tuesday nights -- with the girls put to bed, Lisa and I sitting in the living room curled up with our Blackberries reading email, texting, updating Facebook and checking on CNN and NYTimes.com.  Oh, and the paper was delivered here (though with our subscription to the Oklahoman due soon I'm questioning if we really want to spend money on such a bad paper). 

So today is Thursday and it was a day I wasn't too excited about.  The adjuster and contractor were to walk through the house (our real house) and start making a plan.  The good news was that the house is dry.  So Servicemaster did a good job of that.  The bad news was that they anticipate more extensive work to be done in terms of ripping out walls, floors and ceilings.  What that means -- and what we were hoping against -- is that they must move ALL of our belongings out of the house and into storage.  We have this weekend to decide what else we need/want to bring to the rental houe and get it moved.  Fun, fun, fun.  The only good thing is that AllState will bring people in to pack out what is going to storage and when it's time to move back in they'll have people come in to unpack and place things where they belong.

The other unfortunate thing today was that it was confirmed that we'll be lucky to get back into our house before Christmas.  That is still painful to say/type/think.  We still can't believe this has happened.  But we do know it could have been worse (ceilings could have caved in, girls could have been hurt, we lost no furniture). Still, these last 10 days have been emotionally draining and knowing that we'll be dealing with the result of the roofers' mistake for the next 4 months or so is hard to swallow.

But we know that we must keep things in perspective.  The girls have handled it all incredibly well (so much better than their parents) ... it could have been worse ... we'll be able to change the look of the house ... and insurance is covering everything.

And finally, speaking of insurance, if you are ever shopping for homeowners insurance we can't say enough about AllState.  They have exceeded all expectations.  Always available.  Super responsive and attentive.  They have made us feel that they truly are looking after our interests and that they want to ensure that the house is fixed right. 

Well we're in the rental but in a bit of limbo

Well, my first attempt to post an update via the Blackberry was an utter failure. Spent close to an hour typing an update on these tiny keys, hit preview and ... poof -- into the ether. Very. Annoying but I'm too tired to post again tonight. Until tomorrow!

Looks can be deceiving...

Here is a sense of what the inside of our house looks like now after 6 days of ServiceMaster working to dry things out.  It will only get worse when the contractors get to work.  These are shots of my office, the dining room, by the fireplace, the master bedroom, the girls' rooms, the garage and the underside of the roof.  Other walls were affected to a lesser extent and had drying holes drilled into them.

6 days later: a re-cap

So ... it's Sunday afternoon and the Andersons are hopefully going to be finished with casa La Quinta after tonight. All things considered, we were very lucky that CRS, the temp housing company, put us up here as opposed to another property on Memorial Road. 

Adjoining rooms, great beds, an indoor pool and hot tub, easy wireless, good breakfast and no need to get into a car to eat.  Mimi's Cafe and Abuelos are right across the parking lot.  And a putting green outside that I only noticed yesterday.

So where to begin...

Monday, August 17.  Day before school started for the girls. Great day meeting teachers... helping Madie get situated with her locker.  Dinner with friends at Old Chicago ... all the while roofers are working at the house.

They leave around 8:30pm.  Clouds and lightening in the distance.  Everyone's asleep when around 11pm a thunder storm rolls in.  Instantly think, "Crap.  This may not be good."  Jump out of bed, walk out toward the foyer and sure enough water starts pouring out of the door frame to my office.  Then across the foyer water starts pouring out of the ceiling between the stairs and the dining room.  Then it starts coming through the light fixtures and light switches and fire alarms.  Scramble for towels, buckets, trash cans to catch the water.

Then the real fun starts.

The alarms go off throughout the house and outside.  Can't turn them off. We call the fire department and the roofer.  Friend Shelley arrives with extra towels.  Fire crew arrives.  They can't get the alarms off.  We call the alarm company.  Even they can't help.  We end up needing to clip the wires at every alarm to turn off the deafening sound.

Roofer arrive and put more tarp on.  Rain stops, dripping stops.  Fire crew and roofers leave maybe around 1:30am.

Back to sleep. 3am the rain starts again.  The water starts streaming in again.  What a *&%^X&! nightmare!

These pictures don't look too bad, do they?  So we get the girls up around 6 and off to school.  Insurance company contacted.  ServiceMaster heads out to survey the damage and start drying things out.  If you're ever shopping for homeowners insurance, we highly recommend AllState.  They have been unbelievable!  So far have exceeded all of our expectations.  Determine that we'll use them and they will get reimbursed by the roofer's insurance. 

Will put us up in a hotel and if necessary short term housing.  ServiceMaster arrives and starts poking around.  Soon becomes clear that looks are deceiving and that water has made its way through just about the entire house. 

They start tearing into walls and ripping up floors.  CRS books us into La Quinta that night (Tuesday). 

Wednesday through today, ServiceMaster has been tearing up more walls, pulling out wet insulation and blowing fans everywhere to dry things out. (The crew from ServiceMaster has been awesome!)  The adjuster has been out with a general contractor.  Initital estimate:  $200,000 claim.  Wow!  (I guess we can put plans to refinance the house on the backburner.) 

On Friday Lisa signed a lease for a house, maybe 5 miles from our house and convenient to school.  It's a house used for temp housing.  Most recently used by a family hit by a tornado.  Turns out friends owned a house there before and their parents still do.  We learned yesterday we're confirmed to move into the house tomorrow (Monday) along with rental furniture and appliances.  It will be very nice to get out of the hotel and back to some degree of normalcy. 

Thank you to everyone who has helped and offered to help!!!  The bourbon and wine were much appreciated.  It's still hard to believe this has happened but we're doing well (with occasional moments of near emotional breakdown).  The girls have handled this soooo much better then their parents (though Meredith has come down with a cold today).  The dogs, cat and fish?  They are great and seem happy to have new visitors daily to play with.  We're thinking they will be able to stay at the house with daily visits by us.  (I can't say enough about electric fences -- it has been wonderful since we installed it a year ago.)  Last night we all enjoyed some down time -- the girls went to friends and Lisa and I went to an 80s themed birthday party.  I think that's plenty for now.  We'll be walking to Abuelo's for dinner shortly.

You've seen the initial signs of damage.  I'll post pics of ServiceMaster's work next and you'll get a better sense of the extent of it.