Quarantine Journals - Plumbing, Grandpa’s House, Catch up

It was no small feat that we got out of the house, all packed up, Sunday afternoon.  We were probably packed and ready to go by 11AM, but we hadn't really decided what we were doing with the plants, so I ended up finishing packing and then turning around and watering all the plants in the house.  We decided to leave them there until Dry Force could come evaluate the water damage and go from there.

We didn't actually leave until around 1.  Richard's new car was packed to the brim, and about 20 minutes into the drive we realized that we had forgotten the muffins that we made as well as the leftovers he had just made and a few other things.  

When we got here, my dad had made Chicken and Eggplant for lunch.  I had told him we were eating lunch in the car, meaning the kids, so he had eaten alone. I still feel bad about that.  But Richard and I had our first meals of the day, and then Richard turned around and left to go back to the house to get the stuff we had forgotten before Dry Force arrived.  I got Oliver to sleep.

After Oliver took his late nap, I buzzed around the house unpacking things while Richard finished doing whatever he was doing at the house.  Dry Force was running late, and they didn't even arrive until after 8PM.

We had dinner with my dad and watched some TV.  The kids ended up staying up late because I was still waiting for phone calls from Dry Force. We talked back and forth multiple times, but the end result was that they cut out several parts of the walls in both bathrooms, said we will have to replace the cabinets, set up his equipment, but he wasn't sure about the tile in the guest bathroom shower, the floor tiles, etc.  

They ended up working well into the morning, 2:30 or 3, which I was able to see because I set up some security cameras as an extra precaution since we wouldn't be anywhere near the house with multiple people coming in.

The next morning, I ended up calling the adjuster multiple times, as well as emailing her, and I heard nothing back. When I spoke to her on Saturday, she had said basically the same thing John had said on Friday.  Everything but the pipes would be covered.  But when we kept talking, she said the tunneling probably wasn't covered and she needed to do some research. She knew I had already scheduled everything and I needed to know ASAP.  She had me send over some estimates, which I did within hours.

But on Monday, I had heard nothing. She wasn't answering her phone, she never replied to the emails, and I was getting frustrated. The plumber had called to confirm Tuesday's schedule, but I couldn't confirm anything without knowing coverage. So I called one more time before nap time, and she answered.  She acted super aloof and then just said "Oh, this isn't my claim anymore. It was re-assigned."  And I was furious.  Were you planning on just... ignoring me?  UGH. But then she put me on hold for maybe 3 minutes and came back to say that she wasn't covering the tunneling.  When I asked how I could appeal that decision, she said I could talk to my "actual adjuster" about it.  Worthless.

So our new adjuster, Albert, called us after his lunch break, and he was actually really nice.  He sounds like the guy that plays Spider-Man to me.  He said that BJ was correct in that tunneling would only be covered if they were investigating the issue, but because they already knew it was roots, and roots aren't covered, the tunneling wouldn't be covered. I told him that I had already been told TWICE that it would be, and he was able to trace back the notes from the first call and see where the adjuster had actually told me that.  So he said that he would advocate for USAA to cover it on the grounds of honoring their word, even if the coverage wasn't justified.  He said it would probably take a day to get it all sorted out though, which didn't help me with feeling confident to schedule the plumber.  There was also a big chance of rain for Tuesday, so we pushed the digging back a day.

The new adjuster also said that he would cover both plumbers costs for investigation (which BJ wouldn't), and that he would cover whatever dryforce deemed necessary.

That evening, a dry force supervisor went to the house to quality check all the work done the night before. He ended up determining that more needed to be pulled out and felt it was justified to pull the tiles off the guest shower as well.  So he cut out more of the walls, removed the tiles on two walls, and then headed out and said we would just let everything dry for a few days. They are monitoring everything wirelessly.

While he was there, he flipped the breaker, and when the power came back on, the cooling sensor on the thermostat didn't reset, which I found out when I saw an alert at 1:30AM that the house was already 85 degrees.  I totally panicked because obviously the fish and turtle are still there, but I was able to remotely turn off the unit, let it sit for a bit, and then restart it.  Once it started back up, it was cooling immediately, thank goodness.

That brings us to today. I woke up with a phone call from the adjuster. He said "Mrs. Cardenas, it's Albert. I have good news!"  He got the tunneling covered.  What a freaking relief.  He cut us a check for the plumbing minus our deduticable and said all the other work would be paid for by USAA outside of the cost of the replacement pipes. I am so grateful that our claim was reassigned because truly that other chick, BJ, didn't give 2 fucks what was going on.

I confirmed with the plumber, and discussed the preventative measures that we would like them to take to prevent any rain from getting underneath the slab. They will be starting tomorrow at 8AM, and there is a 40% chance of rain, so my fingers are crossed. I guess we will also see if they manage to do their work without destroying what little is left of my garden.

Richard and I talked about him going back out there, maybe tomorrow afternoon, to get a few things, feed the turtle and fish, and maybe bring back some of my plants. 

We started talking about reconstruction tonight. Richard told me to start looking at how I want the bathroom to look, so I have been saving images, but all my favorite seems to look pretty much the same, ha.  I asked him if we could get a quote for redoing the master bathroom as well... that would make me super happy.  But my dad keeps bringing up how we need to move to a bigger house, and man, I didn't really need that anxiety pile on right now.  He also pointed out that we should have claimed all the water damage in the kitchen with insurance, any and all the times that it happened.  I have a lot of regret about not doing that. And I'm also starting to worry about our insurance rates going up or getting dropped from USAA insurance, honestly.  The latest sink leak was February, and we could probably still claim it, but at what cost?  Losing our policy? I don't know.

That's it.  We were suppose to pick up Penny's yearbook today but obviously that didn't happen. I'm glad to be here with my dad, but I'm starting to feel really stressed out and sad about him having us here for so long and then being here all alone again.  It breaks my heart.  I brought it up to Richard about, maybe us all living together somewhere in a bigger house.  It feels impossible to do and still stay in the area of Coppell and school system that we want to be in.... the houses are so expensive.  But it makes me happy to be with my dad.  I don't want him to be alone anymore.