Back in the house!

We're finally back in the house and most of our stuff from the rental has been moved over.  We still have more furniture, etc in storage but that's being moved over next Tuesday to give us time to get some of the current stuff put away before we're completely buried.

The house is great....but there are still a few things wrong.  Like the toilet in the new bathroom keeps running and we can't get it adjusted so it's not wasting water.  Or the door to the hallway that won't close or latch because they put it back up wrong.  Or the closet door in the babies' room that was hit so hard it broke the pin at the bottom and bent the track.  Seriously though, these are fairly minor things and we'll be following up with the contractor on Monday when he stops by.  Since we hold the final check, my guess is he'll be motivated to work with us.

Still no word from insurance about the additional invoices from the contractor.  He's been historically slow on any sort of responses so I'll wait a few more days before I follow up again.  I need to scan and send more receipts anyways and I'll ask then.

The house is done...

... as done as a house ever is really.  We're still waiting on one more screen door for the back porch and the dumpster and port a potty need to be picked up.

Now the moving begins.  I've already started moving over some things from the rental and the ServiceMaster folks will move over the rest of it and the furniture on Tuesday.  I'm glad I'm going into the office that day!  The rest of the stuff from storage will be moved out on the 19th.

Today is the day?

We have electricity!  Today between 11 and 1 the propane tank is supposed to be delivered.  Also during that time the AT&T repair guy is supposed to be out to see what's up with our phone line and why I don't have service yet.  Also during this time the contractor is supposed to be out to finish up the last little things....like the tub handles being backwards and the light in the hallway not working and the kitchen and bathroom sinks leaking, etc.

More delays

We did not pass the final building or electrical inspections today.

The electrical inspection went pretty well, all things considered.  There are a couple of outlets that need to be added and one of the smoke detectors didn't work and needs to be replaced.  This should be easy to remedy.

The building part of the inspection is pretty frustrating.  There's a beam under the one end of the house that is sagging.  This whole time the inspector hasn't said a thing about it until TODAY during the final inspection when he decides it needs to be replaced.  This is not a minor thing.  This requires a 30 ft engineered beam with a couple extra piers and will cost around $2000.  The contractor called the insurance guy to see if it'll be covered and we still don't have a clear answer on that.  We're supposed to have the contractor write up the invoice for the work and submit it to the insurance guy and then he'll decide if it's covered or not.

Never mind that we still don't have an answer on the $15k worth of additional work the contractor did that was submitted to insurance earlier this week.

I'm really trying not to stress about this.  One way or another I'm moving back into my house and everyone is just going to have to figure this stuff out somehow.  I don't have the money to cover all this extra stuff so I guess if it really comes down to it the contractor can keep a lien on my house and we'll end up in court or something.

Oh, and I pulled a muscle in my lower back so I'm in incredible amounts of pain, can't stand up and it hurts to move or stay still.  This should make moving back into the house interesting especially because I'm supposed to get all this stuff magically done in the next couple of weeks.  Sure, we'll get "help" from the ServiceMaster people again but there's a lot of stuff I personally need to move and take care of without them.  I really don't know how I'm going to pull this all off.

Restocking the pantry

One of the reasons why we originally bought this house was because it has a huge pantry/laundry room.  I think the room is 14' x 16' or something monstrously large like that and there's space for freezers, the washer and dryer, and a whole bunch of shelving and cabinets for storage.  I like to purchase things in bulk because it's so much cheaper that way but my pantry has always been a disaster. It's where I shove stuff to get it out of the way or the other rooms.  Now it's all gone because it was all pretty much destroyed when the tree crushed it all so we're rebuilding, bigger and better.  Part of that is restocking the shelves.

At one point a few years ago I decided to try an experiment and just eat out of our freezer and pantry (except for fresh fruits and vegetables) and see how long we could go.  After about three months I got tired of the experiment but it became clear that I had enough stocked to last six months or more.  It has been making me crazy that I don't have my in-house stores to cook from.  We just don't have the storage space at the rental for me to re-purchase everything until we're able to move back home.  That hasn't stopped me from planning though and I've been updating my price book and clipping coupons like a mad woman for the past week or two.

I have a few goals for the new pantry.  I want to keep it organized so it's easier to find things.  I want to keep it inventoried so I know what we have and how much of what we have.  I want to keep track of expiration dates better so I don't find a can with a best by date that's a couple years past.  I'd really like to know how much of each food item we typically eat on a monthly, quarterly, yearly basis so I can more effectively buy in bulk or shop sales.  I'm still trying to figure out the best and easiest ways to do this but I've definitely got some ideas to start off with.  I know there are plenty of blogs out there that cover exactly this sort of topic but I really want to throw my two cents out there too.  At some point I'll quit writing on this blog (since the house will be back together again and my tree disaster will finally be over) but I'm thinking about morphing it into something else or starting with another blog as I track my pantry and trying to stay more organized overall.

Almost done

They're down to the final bits and pieces so I thought I'd show some pictures.

This is a view of the pantry from the dining room.  This was completely demolished by the tree and totally rebuilt.

This is the main bathroom completely redone. There is now a jacuzzi tub and a huge shower area.

A view into the living room from the kitchen. No more drop ceiling or paneling here!  The carpet isn't in yet.

A view of the kitchen from the main hallway.  There are still some finishing touches to be done (appliances, etc. but it looks great with the counter top in.

Another view of the main bathroom with the new cabinet and counter top. It no longer looks as though we have a second kitchen in the house.

This is the kitchen from the dining room.  It doesn't look like the same house with all the changes.

Oh, and the final bill from the contractor for items not in the initial scope of work is around $15k.  I've submitted it to insurance so hopefully they'll cover it.  I'm not sure what happens if they don't.

Additional casualties

Our string trimmer and three 5 gallon cans full of gas were stolen from our house yesterday evening.

I spoke too soon

This issue was apparently not about the money. Rich went over and the issue is that the place we picked the carpet from needs a two week lead time to get that particular carpet.  There's another type that's similar that only requires a one week lead time.  I'm super annoyed because I gave him the carpet specs weeks ago when we gave him the paint chips with the colors we liked.  If there isn't enough lead time for the carpet why didn't he order it then?

Not that it matters much. I've already pushed out the final inspection with the bank because the propane tank won't be delivered until November 5th and there's no way I'm signing off on the house until I'm sure the furnace, water heater and stove work properly.  Two weeks on the carpet really wouldn't delay us.

No more money

I've decided that I've spent enough extra on the house and I'm not letting the contractor squeeze me for any more cash on this project.  What started as "I think we can do everything you want for what insurance is giving us" has turned into almost $5000 extra that I've paid out of pocket.

We've picked out the carpet we want and it's more expensive than what is listed in the scope of work.  By my calculation, it's approximately $550 more than what is covered.  Today's text reads, "If you get a chance I would like to meet up with you to go over some carpet details thanks". There are no details to go over. There's one room that's getting carpet. We've picked out the carpet and pad.  There's already tack strips around the room (or were) so those shouldn't need to be replaced.  Well, unless his guys who pulled up the carpet tossed them too.  They have a bad habit of throwing away things they shouldn't.  Anyways, there's a little extra expense on the carpet.

The scope of work also included money for new ceiling fans in the dining room, office and pantry.  $259 per fan (roughly) and I've already purchased these out of pocket for each of the rooms.  So by my calculation that's over $700 that he owes me back for the fans.  Yes, I understand that that amount probably includes the installation work too and that's fine. If he doesn't want to install the fans, we'll do it ourselves.  At this point I'm so over all this all I want to do is move home.  If we have to we'll finish up the rest of the work and take him to court over the rest of the money and how the final bits all shake out.

Almost there?

The cabinets are in, the tile is down, the paint is being sprayed up this week.  So far things are coming right along.

That does not mean, however, that the rest of this is without stress.

I somehow need to get the front porch pained before next Monday before they put the screen up.

I'm still incredibly worried that the contractor is going to ask for more money at the end of all of this in spite of originally saying all the work would be done for what the insurance company would give us.

We have to spend an extra $1100 to get our well going again because sitting for 4 months has killed the motor.

The library is up but I still need to paint the exterior and we need to finish off the interior.  I got the estimate from the contractor and I'm really torn.  The quote on the electrical work is way more than he originally said it would be and it doesn't cover enough electricity for what we need.  The insulation and drywall is really expensive and way more than I anticipated it should cost.  We were already planning to put the laminate floor ourselves.  I just spent $850 on a heater/ac unit for the building.  At this point I don't know if we can afford to get everything done or if all the work can be done before we want to use the building for storage so we can move back into our house.  We're still thinking through all the options.

Home stretch!

Things are moving much more quickly now (or at least they appear to be).  The inspections all passed so now the interior finishing work can be done.  Drywall is up and being finished. Tile has been selected. The tub and fixtures have all been purchased and are ready to be installed.  The outside work is coming along - siding is up, soffit is repaired, porches are being finished.  I'm practically itching to get back home.

I still don't know how much all of this is going to cost me.  We decided on tile that was more expensive than budgeted so we covered the $600 difference.  I don't know what the other changes will be.

HALF WAY

Earlier this week the bank inspector came out and deemed that we were far enough along to be considered half way done. This means they'll release more money so I can continue to pay the contractor so he'll keep working.  I got a call from the bank on Friday telling me they'd be sending a check on Monday.  Good thing they called though because when she told me the amount it was wrong and I would have been really upset next week when I got the check and then had to try to fix the mess with the wrong amount.

We also have work starting on the library and I'm super excited about that.  There's a big pile of dirt and a bobcat sitting where the library will eventually be.  The extra space will be nice and I know this is something that Rich has always wanted.

I've been replacing some of our contents that were lost and managed to update my paperwork yesterday.  Now I just need to scan all the receipts and email them to the insurance adjuster.  I also need to follow up on some paperwork that he should have been updating.  I've given up on quick responses from him though. It took over a month to get the initial scope of work from him and three months to get the updated content list.  That seems really excessive to me.  Then again, two weeks from when I call to get the halfway inspection by the bank until when we might possibly see money also seems excessive to me.

So I guess we're halfway done and yet the contractor is still saying that we'll be in the house mid to late October.  I know things go faster once the drywall is up but....the drywall still isn't up.

Slowly...

Things are slowly coming together.

The trades work (electrical, plumbing, etc) is slowly getting done. I thought it was supposed to be complete a few weeks ago but there's still evidence of more work being done on it.  I stop by the house frequently just to make sure I see progress somewhere and I'm happy to report that most of the time I do see something done.  The back porch is framed out like an actual back porch and that's awesome.  It's never looked so nice.  The little metal overhang that was an afterthought for covering the grill now is an extension of the roof and actually goes all the way down to the door of the porch so the dogs will have a dry place to stand when they want back in the house.  I'll be able to get wood for the fireplace without getting wet and we'll be able to grill with actual overhead lights instead of me trying to guess in the dark or juggle a flashlight while I flip burgers.  The pantry has windows on the back wall and they look fantastic.  They're actually centered and will bring in a little more light.  I ordered the shelving units and pantry cabinet and we managed to get them into the house this week too.  The front porch has been stripped in preparation for new screen - this reminds me that I need to ask my contractor if I can paint the posts before the new screen goes up.

Did I mention about the septic problems?  I can't remember now and if I've already posted about it then I guess I'm going to post about it twice.  When we had the bulldozer out to move the tree the guy went back just a little too far and broke the lid on the septic tank.  I had the septic guy out this week to pump the tank and he'll be back out Monday or Tuesday to fix the tank and put on a new lid.

I know I didn't mention about the well problem.  The well pump isn't spinning up probably because it has been sitting idle for three months with no power.  They ran a line out to the well house to give it some juice and the motor just hums.  The contractor doesn't want to touch it because it's not part of the original scope and if he touches it and can't get it working then he'd have to replace it.  This means that as soon as we can get real power out there I need Rich to go over and see if he can get the motor spinning again.  If not, it's another well pump and that whole mess probably isn't covered by insurance.

The other big news is that we got the details worked out for the library.  Because the back porch has to be turned back into a porch (we had temporarily closed it in and were using it for storage) we need a place to put Rich's monstrously huge book collection.  We finally decided on a 20' x 24' cement floor building between the house and the well house that we're going to turn into the largest man cave/library ever.  Hopefully we'll be able to put up enough shelving to hold everything he has.  I'm currently, in what little spare time I can find, cataloging all his books to see what he has and what was damaged so it can be replaced.  I think we're both as excited about the library as we are the rest of the house.  Initially we'll use it for storage so we can bring boxes into the house in a rational fashion and unpack at our pace.  This, of course, was not part of the original project so we're covering this separately.

All of this is supposed to be done mid to late October.  It can't happen soon enough. I am so ready to be out of this rental.  We have no space, the water pressure is barely high enough to shower and the a/c went out twice this past week (although the guy we're renting from is fantastic and had someone out to fix the a/c very quickly both times).  Still, I'm ready to go home.

Day 83

The contractor wasn't at the house again today.  Or yesterday.  I didn't expect Monday because that was a holiday.

I thought the electrical stuff was supposed to be done last week but it's still unfinished when I stopped by earlier today.

I still can't get a straight answer about how much extra this whole project is going to cost me above and beyond what insurance is paying. I'm going to send Rich over to have a discussion with him tomorrow when he's supposed to be working at the house.

Stress

Jake killed another chicken. Someone (probably our neighbor) is pulling stuff out of the dumpster to sell it for scrap and in the process is spreading broken glass all over our yard.  I can't get a straight answer from our contractor about whether or not there are going to be additional costs to us above and beyond what insurance is paying and if so, how much. I'm tired of living in this little dump with too much stuff and too little space.

We have a roof!

The new roof was finished up yesterday and the house looks back to normal from the outside.  I met with the contractor briefly to go over some details and so far everything looks like it's going ok.  The cabinets are designed and it's all pretty basic stuff but I think it'll look fine - better than what we used to have.  They're supposed to be working on electric this week so we'll need to stop by again to make sure everything is where it needs to be. It's still another month or more to get back in the house but soon....

Roof!

Shingles showed up at the house today!

Kitchen cabinets

The rough framing is now complete (or mostly complete) so we met with the kitchen person and contractor and picked out cabinets.  Rich and I had already been looking at catalogs and online and knew pretty much what we wanted.  Surprisingly, they showed up with a sample cabinet door that looked very much like what we'd already selected.  We wanted a lighter color than they picked but that's just because we know how dark the back of the house can get because of the limited windows.  We also picked out cabinets for the bathroom that are a slightly different style but will be in the same color.  We're also going to get a much larger island than I originally thought we'd have space for.  Sometimes I forget how big our kitchen really is.  We still need to pick out granite for the counter tops, figure out what type of backsplash (either a strip of granite or tile), and pick flooring.  I'd really like tile in the kitchen and dining room but we need to see about costs because the room is huge.  We also talked through the electrical stuff for each of the rooms with the contractor to make sure that we'd get all the outlets and boxes that we wanted in the right places.  This means I should be able to get the ceiling fan in the dining room actually hanging OVER my dining room table instead of next to it.  I also dropped off the specs for the tub we want.  It's maybe a little bit shorter than we'd hoped for but it's nice and deep and will be a whirlpool type.

So, at least it feels like we're making progress.

I spoke too soon...

When I checked the mail late Friday night there was a letter from the insurance company about the loss of contents.  What a mess.  I had the pantry packed full because we were remodeling the living room and it's generally full of stuff anyways.  I'd tried to write down everything I could remember but it's hard to do when the room has the ceiling all caved in.  So I guess they turned this list into an itemized list and tried to assign replacement costs and actual cash value amounts.  The problem is that most of what they gave me credit for was the absolute cheapest version of things.  I had to go through the list and correct a bunch of stuff and send it back to the adjuster today.  Hopefully they won't make this all difficult.

No progress

I've been waiting this week for something to happen so I could post about some exciting progress but....nothing has happened.  No word from insurance about loss of contents, no apparent progress at the house (although it does look like the framing is mostly done).

I guess I need to make some calls on Monday to get things moving again and see what's really happening. I really need to nail down with the contractor exactly what is going to be done at the house anyways so this will be a good excuse to get that done.

Money

The first check from the bank finally arrived on Monday.  I'm not sure why it took a week from when they disbursed the funds until it showed up at my mailbox but at least it's here so I can finally pay the contractor.  Work has been progressing at the house but most of it is in the foundation and framing so it's nothing glamorous or exciting to photograph.  We meet with the contractor tomorrow to sign over the money and discuss some of the details about exactly what we're going to get with the house because at this point, there's a whole lot that's fuzzy about what the final product is going to look like.

7 weeks

We're at 7 weeks post-disaster and work is underway to put things back together again.

Here's a quick list of the updates:

• I've received an updated scope of work that includes a little more money for work on the chimney and a shed that was completely demolished when they moved the tree off the house.
• Inside demo is mostly done I think.
• Wood showed up Monday and they've been pulling off roof and re-framing the house all week.

• We had the bulldozer guy show up to move the tree.  Now we still have a mess to clean up from the crushed shed and the bulldozer wasn't quite careful enough and cracked the lid on our septic tank.  It's just one thing after another it seems.

• I stopped by the scratch and dent appliance place and left information about what I'm looking for along with my name and number in case something good comes in.  Since they tossed my stove and dishwasher when they demo'd the kitchen I'll need to find replacements.
• We've put down two loads of mulch along one side of the big tree.  I wanted to get landscape cloth and mulch down in preparation for the playground.  I also didn't want grass and weeds to grow up along the tree and make it more of a mess to clean up later.
• I've been looking through catalogs for cabinet styles to get some idea of what we might want in the new kitchen.
• I can tell that the mortgage company has received my checks and paperwork and it looks like they've set up the escrow account and made the first disbursement.  We haven't received the check yet but I'm hopeful that it's on it's way.

Moving the tree

The tree trunk couldn't stay where it was so we had Peewee Stillman bring out his bulldozer the other day and he and his guys moved the tree over where we're going to put in a swingset and playground for the kids.  Some day when they're old enough we'll let them climb all over it.

Here are some pictures...

More tree issues

I'm not sure what I've done to piss off mother nature but we just had another storm roll through and a HUGE branch just came off the neighbor's tree here at the rental and narrowly missed hitting the truck.

Progress, of a sort...

Finally work has started on the house.  The general contractor has a couple guys working at the house and they've removed all the debris from where the pantry used to be.  I stopped by yesterday and the kitchen, bathroom and some ceilings were ripped out.  It's good to finally see progress on the house because hopefully that means we're one step closer to getting all this fixed.  Good except for the fact that they threw away our stove and dishwasher.  The really nice dishwasher that we paid an arm and leg for just a few years ago.  The stove I don't care about that much but the dishwasher I was planning to reuse.  I sent a text to the general contractor and followed up with an email and got a call in reply not long after that where he profusely apologized and said he'd take care of it.  I just sent Rich over to the house with a package of post its and a sharpie to label a few other things in rooms where I don't want them to throw things away - a small ceiling fan in the office bathroom, the built in bookcases in the office, a bookcase in the hallway, etc.

Progress is also very slow going on the money part of all of this too.  The first check to pay Service Master for the tree removal and house tarping still has not been returned by the bank and it's been almost two weeks.  It also took a week for me to receive the package of paperwork from the bank that needs to be completed so that we can cash the insurance company checks to actually start paying the general contractor.  At my best estimate, it'll take another 2 to 3 weeks before we actually see any of the money.  The general contractor has started work anyways but in theory he doesn't have to do anything until I get him the first installment of the money.  I'm not sure I understand why any of this is taking so long.

The other piece of this whole mess is the outstanding insurance claim I have that still deals with the damaged belongings that were inside the house.  The insurance adjuster asked for a list of contents that were in the pantry and office that were damaged and I provided that on June 16th before he left town.  The pantry contents were from memory and since I couldn't stand over there all day while they unloaded the pantry to watch and take pictures, I'm sure I've missed things.  I sent a few updates to the list with items to remove because we were able to salvage them and a few items that have later been damaged by mold a couple of days ago in email.  I have not received a response to that email so far.  I'm not sure how long is reasonable to wait, especially because it's been over 5 weeks since the initial claim happened and I've heard nothing about this part of the claim.  I wasn't pushing on this part earlier because I was so concerned with getting the work on the house rolling.  I wonder if I should have been pushing on this part too.

Little things

It's the little things that really get me down.

I was over at the house again last night trying to clean up and move the last of things before work begins hopefully next week.  The house is hot and stuffy and smells from what is draining out of the 26 cubic feet of food and milk rotting in the deep freezer in the pantry.  I took a break and as I sat on the front porch to cool off for a couple of minutes I noticed on the table outside, between other random detritus from the house, a broken wine glass.  I picked it up and realized that it was one of a dozen hand blown wine glasses that were given to us as a wedding present from Rich's aunt.  These particular glasses were in the buffet in the dining room along with the wedding china and managed to not be damaged during the tree falling.   The china and other items from the buffet were packaged by the Service Master people directly after the tree fell and the only thing I can think is that it was damaged then.  I wonder how the rest of the china is faring.  I have no idea how much this particular glass is worth monetarily - my guess is not much - but I started to cry when I saw it because of what it meant sentimentally and how it can't be replaced.  We can't get another set of hand blown glasses from his dead aunt for our wedding.

I know we're very lucky that no one got hurt and the rest of this is just stuff.  I try to keep that in perspective every time I play with my babies or kiss my husband, but it's these little things like the wine glass that make this all suck just that much harder.

Day 26 post tree disaster

I heard from the general contractor and permits have been applied for and he's waiting to hear back from the county.  He said he does not anticipate any issues.  I did not hear back from the insurance adjuster so I called around 3:30 pm to make sure he's received my emails with the scope of work updates/corrections/additions.  He said he had and that he was on his way to another site and that he would look at my emails tonight.  I went on to tell him about the mold issue and he sounded surprised that I didn't already have a temporary power pole set up so we could get the sump pump running again.  The problem is that he sent the preliminary scope of work late Wednesday night. The next day was a holiday. Then it takes the county some amount of time to review the permit and hopefully grant it.  Then it takes some time for an electrician to set the pole and the power company to turn power back on.  While all this time is going on, my house continues to mold.

I've been moving items out of rooms that were not damaged because of the humidity and all of the clothes in my husband's closet will need to be washed in order to salvage them.  Everything smells like mildew.  A pair of his shoes are ruined because they're molding.  One of  my double strollers is covered in mold.  And this is on items that are in rooms that were not initially damaged by the tree.  This is all from moisture coming into the house and from what is coming up from underneath the house.

I also went around the house tonight to look at the foundation and there are multiple places where the block is now cracked all around the foundation.  I have no idea what the extent of the damage is to the block underneath the house or closer to the point of impact.  The preliminary scope of work didn't include anything at all about the foundation.

At this point, even if MetLife does manage to come up with a scope of work and my house gets put back together again I don't know how I'm ever going to feel safe moving my kids back in knowing that there's mold growing up through the walls because of how long the house has been exposed to this moisture and heat.

Videos of the tree

I posted a bunch of videos of the house and tree that I took the first weekend it happened.  I haven't edited the video and it's all likely to be pretty awful but it does show how big the tree was and what it did to the house.

Everything is posted on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/HouseOfMischief/videos

Day 25 post tree disaster

It continues to rain almost every day and even with the house tarped there are leaks in the dining room and office.  The basement is a swimming pool and the furnace and water heater are now ruined.  I'm really worried about the rest of the foundation, especially after the house bouncing from when the tree hit.  We're moving belongings from the rest of the house because almost every room will need to have some work done and with the damp, things are beginning to mold.

I'm incredibly frustrated with how this whole process is going right now.  The engineer's report was to the insurance adjuster on June 28th and when I sent email to the adjuster to find out what the scope of work would be, he was still finishing it up and wrote that he'd have something done by end of day.  End of day came and went and no scope.  I sent email to follow up and he's gone on vacation for the 4th of July holiday and hasn't mentioned anything about it.  If he'd just sent me something at the end of the day saying he wasn't quite done and would be out of work for a few days that would have been different. Instead he left me hanging and then left without letting me know when he would follow up with me again.  I sent more emails, including some to the contact name he left in his out of office reply, and I finally did get a response.  I felt like he was trying to blow me off about the whole thing because he was telling me to pick a general contractor while he finished up.  I'd already picked a general contractor the week before.  This whole process is not held up because I'm not doing what I need to do.

The big issue is that it has been raining almost every day here.  Sometimes it rains multiple times per day.  With no electricity at the house the sump pump isn't running and the basement is completely flooded.  At this point the water heater and furnace are also ruined.  I'm really worried about the water damaging the foundation.  I'm beyond worried about the heat and humidity inside the house causing mold to grow.  The last few car loads of stuff I've carried out of the house has had some items with mold on it from rooms that were not initially affected by the tree damage.  Even though the house is tarped, water is running through the broken rafters and when it rains outside, it rains in the dining room and office as well.  If we can get a temporary power pole set up then we can get the sump pump running and some dehumidifiers set up in the house to try to deal with this humidity problem but we can't get the power pole set up until we get the scope of work.

I finally got a preliminary scope of work last Wednesday night.  That's day 20 post tree disaster.  I looked through it quickly and noticed that some big items, such as the chimney, were completely missing.  I set up an appointment with the general contractor to go through the house with us to review the scope to see what else was missing or incorrect.  We did that on Friday (day 22) and I had a long list of corrections.  I finally got everything typed up and sent off on Sunday (day 24) so that the adjuster would have the list before this work week.

It's currently day 25 and I have a long laundry list of things to do or check on or wait for...

• Wait for a revised scope of work from the insurance adjuster. What time frame is reasonable? One day? Two?
• Follow up with the general contractor to make sure the permits are applied for so I can get a temporary power pole.
• Once the permits are obtained, make sure the electrician gets out there to get the pole set up.
• Once the power pole is set and live, contact the Service Master folks to get dehumidifiers set up in the house and go plug in the sump pump to start drying out the basement.
• Continue to sort through the last couple of rooms to get things packed up to move to the rental or to storage.

There's more but that's more than enough for now.

Day 18 post tree disaster

...and still no word on what they're going to do with the house. We've had some big storms roll through and under the house is full of water since the sump pump isn't running. I'm worried about the water heater and furnace being under water and being damaged. More of the ceilings are coming down in the dining room and office and mold is flourishing in the damp environment.

A few co-workers came over on Saturday and they moved a huge pile of branches and leaves out from the front of the house so I could mow and the place doesn't look deserted. I had to bring the babies too and just getting them ready, working in the sun, feeding them there and then later mowing for three house wore me out. It's too hot and muggy for this mess but what can I do really but continue to slog through it.

The good news is that insurance will pay us the "fair market rental value" for our house and then we use that money to pay for the rent on the rental.  Still, I want to hear back from insurance soon so the work can get done and we can get back to our home.

A giant tree crushed our house

No one was where they were supposed to be.

It was 5 pm on a Thursday and I'd taken a couple of hours off of work to run to the store. I drove home from the store through a terrible storm that whipped up seemingly from nowhere and fought to stay on the road through the wind and rain that poured down so hard my windshield wipers couldn't keep up with it. As I pulled into my driveway I realized something was wrong and the few breathless seconds it took to drive up, park and run into the house felt like forever. The giant white oak tree behind our house was down and covering the entire house. The tree was so large that branches and leaves were arched over the peak of the roof and showing on the front of the house. I knew without going inside that the back half of the house was crushed. The back half of the house where my husband and babies should have been sitting down for dinner because it was 5 pm. I hadn't gotten a phone call and my stomach dropped because I was afraid that I'd find my family dead under the tree in the dining room.

He answered immediately when I yelled entering the house and the sound came, not from the dining room, but instead from the nursery. This was one of the rare days when he was running late and instead of having both babies in high chairs at the table feeding them cereal and milk and some type of pureed vegetable, they were were still in the middle of diaper changes. There was no time to really feel relief past what hit me initially. This was a crisis and there were suddenly a huge number of things that needed to be done. The babies were secured in car seats and moved to a running car outside because we weren't sure how stable the house was or whether or not it would suffer more damage with the tree on it. Phone calls were hard to make because the storm was affecting available cell lines so we struggled to make outside contact while we feverishly worked inside. Gather up baby gear, try to move furniture out of the damaged rooms where water was pouring through gaping holes in the ceiling, load up money, firearms, prescriptions, clothes and anything else that needed immediate attention. I got a call out to my mom 500 miles away so she could report the damage to our insurance company and get us help immediately. My next call was to a friend who happened to be out of town on a consulting gig. I think he could hear the panic in my voice as I begged him to call anyone we knew for help. The third call was to 911 to get someone out to disconnect power lines and gas lines because they were both compromised. The firemen showed up first and after securing the power lines and making sure we weren't in imminent danger, helped move a freezer full of breast milk out of the demolished pantry so that I'd be able to continue to feed my kids. Our friends showed up second and in a flurry of activity working in the now dark house, packed up the entire contents of the nursery in trash bags and loaded up vehicles. By then I was overwhelmed and they effortlessly took over directing and packing and making sure I'd have what I needed immediately for my kids. Bins and bags and boxes were moved to a friend's garage nearby for temporary storage. A hotel room was secured and the kids were fed and changed and loved on while I took care of pumping and then went back to the house. A tree service had shown up, hired by the insurance company, to remove the tree from the house before it did more damage. They worked late into the the night swinging from cherry pickers with headlamps and chainsaws cutting down branches as large as most normal sized trees.

I don't think we really slept that night from the adrenaline. I was up early and scavenged breakfast from the hotel lobby and before it was fully light outside we were back at the house to survey the damage and see what else we could pull from the wreckage. The pantry/laundry room was destroyed. The dining room ceiling is down a foot or more lower than it ought to be and was really only saved by the three stack chimney, now leaning from the impact and weight of the massive tree. Bits of flue liner and bricks were scattered around the roof under tree branches and the fireplace insert was pushed out of the fireplace. A huge branch had pierced the roof of the office and was aimed down at the office chair where my husband normally sat. Ceiling tiles, wet insulation and bits of bark and leaves littered the desk and floor. The ceiling in the back porch was almost completely down and we're guessing that the only reason there was anything left of the back porch was because we'd put up plywood to enclose it a few years ago when we decided to use that space for storage. Water had run through the bathroom and kitchen and dining room and office and puddled in some spots and run down the walls and into the floor in other spots. All of the walls have a slight tilt to them having been pushed forward by the weight of the massive tree. Outside, most of the tree was still on the house and it wasn't long before the tree service showed up with two large trucks with grappling arms and a swarm of hard hat covered leather skinned men wielding chainsaws to chip away at the remaining limbs. Piles of branches and leaves that dwarf our truck started popping up all around the house. The trunk of the tree itself was too heavy to move and was pushed to the side a bit to get it off the house, bumping into the propane tank that is now going to need to be reset, if it can be moved at all.

The next few days were a blur of tree service men, a service company that helped us move and pack and store belongings from damaged rooms, more hurried packing and attempts to salvage belongings from rooms still wet from the storm. The insurance adjuster showed up on Saturday because no ordinary insurance guy would do - we required one who handles large claims because so much of our house was damaged. Then more packing and moving and getting lucky enough to be friends with the realtor who handed us keys to a three bedroom rental house just down the road so we had somewhere to move the babies that was close enough to keep track of our house. In the midst of this it was Rich's birthday that Saturday, Father's day on Sunday and the kids turned 6 months on Monday. We even managed to go to dinner one night because of someone who loves us enough to watch after the kids for us.

As bad as the damage is, as uncertain as things are right now because we're still waiting for the report from the structural engineer to get to the insurance adjuster so he can determine how much they're going to fix, as stressful as moving and trying to deal with the never ending list of things that must be attended to has been, we're lucky. Lucky that no one was where they were supposed to be that day. Lucky that Rich was running a few minutes late. Lucky that I'd taken a couple hours off work and wasn't sitting in the office like I should have been. Lucky that we have friends who arrive with one panicked phone call and swarm in to do whatever they can to help. Lucky that we happen to be friends with the realtor who just happened to have a house down the road from us that would work. The rest of this mess is just stuff and stuff can be replaced.