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.