Moving ahead
I figured I really ought to post an update to follow up on my last post.
I'll start with a few little things. Both vehicles came home in working order on Monday. The turbo on the car (times two) was fully covered under warranty, as was the blown seal on the truck. The bag I'd left on the bus was all in good order at Transit's lost and found on Sunday. The house appraisal which was done earlier in that crazy week - before the flood - came back at 20k above where we needed it to be. Which is, by the way, a completely new experience for me, as every appraisal we've ever had done for any house came back to exactly the number that was required to put things through, even if it was worth more. I'd truly come to believe their job was simply to validate the number you asked for, as opposed to coming up with a real appraisal.
Tweetie is not quite back to a hundred percent, but she's doing much better. I took her in on the Monday following the flood, as her cough seemed to only get worse and she wasn't sleeping or eating much. The doc found her ear was still a little irritated, and as I'd suspected by then, the cough had gotten into one of her lungs. Pneumonia. She was given a different antibiotic, and stayed at home for another full week. She responded well to the meds, coughing a little less and sleeping a little better each day. Her appetite took longer to come back, and I must say looking at her by the end of the week was heart-breaking. I estimate she lost close to a third of her body weight. She's been back at daycare this week, and between me and our daycare provider, we're working hard to fatten her up again ;) We've a ways to go, but it's starting to work.
I had a checkup myself on the Tuesday, and despite the deep coughing and related side effects, there were no signs of infection, and the doc said I was actually one of the healthiest moms to be on the days schedule. Obstetrically speaking, anyway. With a little help from the cough syrup at night, the cough has slowly diminished to an occasional tickle, and my sore muscles have recovered as much as they can in a woman nearly 7 months pregnant. Unfortunately Vince, who suffered just a couple of days with us at the start of the cold, has been hit a little harder this week, but I think it's starting to ease again a bit.
And then there's the house. Much has been happening on that front, due almost entirely to the Bear's efforts. We're still waiting on the details of what will be covered on the insurance, but we've been pushing ahead with some of the plumbing and other issues that were a little more visible (and accessible) with the tear down of the kitchen ceiling. I've taken some pictures along the way, but they'll have to wait for another post, as I'm already sitting in bed and the camera's elsewhere. The bear started by running new lines for hot and cold water to the upstairs bathroom, which soon led to replacing all the source lines in the house, as every time he looked he discovered more disasters that could have been. We now have manifolds for all the lines, so washing your hands in one bathroom won't result in burns to the person taking a shower in the other. The upstairs bathroom itself has been completely gutted. Totally. Past the all the plaster, much of the lathe, and down to the studs.
Which exposed a few other things, including a birds nest and three wasps nests, and a complete lack of insulation in the top floor.
We have a new tub on order, which the Bear will pick up on the mainland on Monday. Over the next day or so, he'll be ripping up the old floor up there and putting in a new subfloor to support tiles. We'll have a plumber come in to plumb the new vanity (which has actually been sitting in the basement for over a year). Once the tub's in place we can do the tile on the floor, and at least some of the work for the walls. We'll have to wait for the replacement window before the wall tiles can be finished. But it will be done right, and the biggest liability in the house will have become a feature.
The bear's task today was to pull the ceiling down in the kitchen below the unused attic space, and putting in proper insulation where there was previously none.
As I mentioned, we've yet to hear any specifics on how much the insurance will cover, but there are a few things that might turn out really nice. One big one is the floor on the main level, where the kitchen is. This is almost certainly the original floor, as evidenced by details like square nails holding the boards. There's not much left of it after ninety plus years. Certainly not enough to refinish. But nonetheless there was some damage sustained with all that water, from loosened nails, to deteriorated fill and softened, warped boards. But most of the main level is the same floor, and with so little floor left, the restoration folks also told us it would be very hard to make a transition between a replaced area and the rest. So there's a possibility we'll get new flooring for the whole floor.
One area of the kitchen cabinets was quite badly flooded, and there's some possibility of that being at least partly covered by insurance as well. A number of items from the basement will need to be replaced. Much of our camping gear, including a tent that had the bug screen torn by a friend's young dog the first time took it out, and some good sleeping bags that have spent far too much time stuff tightly in their travel sacks instead of airing out. Some computers were damaged that weren't currently running, but will have to be replaced with the closest equivalent current technology.
It's funny when I think about it. When you're in the middle of things like this you think the timing couldn't be worse. But if it had happened any sooner, we may not have been able to refinance. And I wouldn't have wanted it to happen any later, as my capacity to help the Bear with any of these jobs is only getting smaller as my due date looms larger. Even the fact that we were fighting illness had some benefit, as Tweetie was asleep a lot and I was home and able to step in here and there to help the Bear. It's been crazy, and that continues, but things do seem to be working out for the good overall.
I'll start with a few little things. Both vehicles came home in working order on Monday. The turbo on the car (times two) was fully covered under warranty, as was the blown seal on the truck. The bag I'd left on the bus was all in good order at Transit's lost and found on Sunday. The house appraisal which was done earlier in that crazy week - before the flood - came back at 20k above where we needed it to be. Which is, by the way, a completely new experience for me, as every appraisal we've ever had done for any house came back to exactly the number that was required to put things through, even if it was worth more. I'd truly come to believe their job was simply to validate the number you asked for, as opposed to coming up with a real appraisal.
Tweetie is not quite back to a hundred percent, but she's doing much better. I took her in on the Monday following the flood, as her cough seemed to only get worse and she wasn't sleeping or eating much. The doc found her ear was still a little irritated, and as I'd suspected by then, the cough had gotten into one of her lungs. Pneumonia. She was given a different antibiotic, and stayed at home for another full week. She responded well to the meds, coughing a little less and sleeping a little better each day. Her appetite took longer to come back, and I must say looking at her by the end of the week was heart-breaking. I estimate she lost close to a third of her body weight. She's been back at daycare this week, and between me and our daycare provider, we're working hard to fatten her up again ;) We've a ways to go, but it's starting to work.
I had a checkup myself on the Tuesday, and despite the deep coughing and related side effects, there were no signs of infection, and the doc said I was actually one of the healthiest moms to be on the days schedule. Obstetrically speaking, anyway. With a little help from the cough syrup at night, the cough has slowly diminished to an occasional tickle, and my sore muscles have recovered as much as they can in a woman nearly 7 months pregnant. Unfortunately Vince, who suffered just a couple of days with us at the start of the cold, has been hit a little harder this week, but I think it's starting to ease again a bit.
And then there's the house. Much has been happening on that front, due almost entirely to the Bear's efforts. We're still waiting on the details of what will be covered on the insurance, but we've been pushing ahead with some of the plumbing and other issues that were a little more visible (and accessible) with the tear down of the kitchen ceiling. I've taken some pictures along the way, but they'll have to wait for another post, as I'm already sitting in bed and the camera's elsewhere. The bear started by running new lines for hot and cold water to the upstairs bathroom, which soon led to replacing all the source lines in the house, as every time he looked he discovered more disasters that could have been. We now have manifolds for all the lines, so washing your hands in one bathroom won't result in burns to the person taking a shower in the other. The upstairs bathroom itself has been completely gutted. Totally. Past the all the plaster, much of the lathe, and down to the studs.
Which exposed a few other things, including a birds nest and three wasps nests, and a complete lack of insulation in the top floor.
We have a new tub on order, which the Bear will pick up on the mainland on Monday. Over the next day or so, he'll be ripping up the old floor up there and putting in a new subfloor to support tiles. We'll have a plumber come in to plumb the new vanity (which has actually been sitting in the basement for over a year). Once the tub's in place we can do the tile on the floor, and at least some of the work for the walls. We'll have to wait for the replacement window before the wall tiles can be finished. But it will be done right, and the biggest liability in the house will have become a feature.
The bear's task today was to pull the ceiling down in the kitchen below the unused attic space, and putting in proper insulation where there was previously none.
As I mentioned, we've yet to hear any specifics on how much the insurance will cover, but there are a few things that might turn out really nice. One big one is the floor on the main level, where the kitchen is. This is almost certainly the original floor, as evidenced by details like square nails holding the boards. There's not much left of it after ninety plus years. Certainly not enough to refinish. But nonetheless there was some damage sustained with all that water, from loosened nails, to deteriorated fill and softened, warped boards. But most of the main level is the same floor, and with so little floor left, the restoration folks also told us it would be very hard to make a transition between a replaced area and the rest. So there's a possibility we'll get new flooring for the whole floor.
One area of the kitchen cabinets was quite badly flooded, and there's some possibility of that being at least partly covered by insurance as well. A number of items from the basement will need to be replaced. Much of our camping gear, including a tent that had the bug screen torn by a friend's young dog the first time took it out, and some good sleeping bags that have spent far too much time stuff tightly in their travel sacks instead of airing out. Some computers were damaged that weren't currently running, but will have to be replaced with the closest equivalent current technology.
It's funny when I think about it. When you're in the middle of things like this you think the timing couldn't be worse. But if it had happened any sooner, we may not have been able to refinance. And I wouldn't have wanted it to happen any later, as my capacity to help the Bear with any of these jobs is only getting smaller as my due date looms larger. Even the fact that we were fighting illness had some benefit, as Tweetie was asleep a lot and I was home and able to step in here and there to help the Bear. It's been crazy, and that continues, but things do seem to be working out for the good overall.
posted by Coastal at
10:13 a.m.
1 Comments:
You are indeed busy people! I'm glad to hear that things have begun to settle down a bit. We'll keep praying that you have good results with the insurance company.
By
Anonymous, at 5:02 p.m.
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