Quarantine Journals - Plumbing Nightmare Levels Up

Today was a bad day, a stressful day, a long day, an exhausting and emotional day. I woke up this morning and the toilets were making a weird noise again. So I went straight into the bathroom and turned the bathtub on and flush the toilet and sure enough water started leaking. So I called and I mean, like, a medium amount of leaking for what we've been experiencing so I called the city of cappelle. And I asked them to come out and check the line that they had just fixed and they came out and said they didn't see anything that everything looked fine so it had to be in the house. And I even called the guy that had been out here on a cell phone which may or may not have been appropriate and asked him, his thoughts and he even sent them back out here to look at a different clean out that they weren't really supposed to mess with, and it was fine too. And so he said you know I think you're just gonna have to call a plumber It sounds like you might have had more than one issue going on. 

So I called the camera guy that had been out here and he came out here almost immediately. And he was trying to run a camera down the vent, so that he could do it from outside instead of coming inside which required him to get up on the ladder and then get up on the roof which he's technically not allowed to do. And so he told me, like, you can't tell this to the company because I will lose my job. So he ran the camera down there, and there are routes all over that are over those pipes, and they're extensive and he basically said this is why you keep getting blockages and then they're cleared and there's blockages again because he sent me pictures are just like all all across the pipe horizontally. And so everything is getting stuck on it. So he said he needs to come inside. He needs to jackhammer the floor, and did like a three foot by three foot space, and then go in there and cut out all the routes and replace all the pipes and he's hoping that from one hole he can also access everything he needs to the other toilet but that there's a good chance that he'll have to then do the same thing in the other bathroom. And it's going to take several days. And he's saying it would cost between like 6500 to $9,000. I told him that I just needed to think on it, and I wasn't like that wasn't going to be able to happen today. So I asked him if he could try to just clear it out a little bit so that we could maybe just flush, a couple times a day, until we figure out what to do and he was just like I can't really there's, I don't, there's nothing I can do. And so he left. 

And I had, I probably over 30 phone calls — I was literally on the phone from 11am, until 7pm. I took a 30 minute break to eat my first meal of the day. And then I was on the phone again for another hour and a half. That's like that's been my day... I can't even exaggerate it because it was literally every second. I got off the phone with him I called a friend's husband who's a plumber and talked to him for a little while, then I called the plumber company that the guy we used to use sold his company to and ask them to come out and take a look so that we could get an opinion from them. And then I called the insurance company because though no one else had mentioned it. My friend's husband said they'll probably cover some of this so you need to talk to them. 

So I called them and they said that they would cover everything pretty much except for the pipes that have to be replaced. We don't have that in our coverage, which isn't a relief because our deductible is like 2800, I think, so hopefully that saves us a lot of money. So then after I taught and like he asked me like is there water damage, can you use the toilets and I'm like we can't really use the toilets. And I don't know if there's water damage I told him, I've been on the phone since 11 My brain is mush I haven't been in there right now to like look and see what's happened I don't think there is but then again there might be and I don't know. So he went ahead and created a claim seven adjuster would be in touch with me in a few days but that if it was an emergency just to go ahead and get started on the work, and let them know what was going on. So I talked to my dad multiple times, I even talked to my brother. I was talking to him about  How we finally took a walk yesterday, and we ran into Miss Oswald. We stood across from each other about 12 feet or so, and I mentioned it to my dad because I thought he deserved to know if we were coming over this weekend. And my dad felt like it was reckless behavior to go on a walk without masks and wanted to think overnight about whether or not we should come out. And so I did some crying last night and felt really terrible that this is happening to jeopardize our visit, but I also didn't have a whole Lotta control over the situation. And I don't really feel like we were being reckless even though every encounter we have with any person makes me uncomfortable and nervous and anxious. Anyway, I had emailed him last night and told him that we shouldn't come because if he even had a little bit of concerned that it might jeopardize his health, it wasn't worth the risk.

All this was such a huge contributing factor to just like the underlying stress of the entire situation, because it was like... there's nowhere to go. There's nowhere to go. Where am I gonna go, while they're doing all this. 

So, more phone calls... second plumber came out he said he saw the pictures he agreed that it sounded like some, you know, some work needs to be done but that they wouldn't do an estimate without running their own camera and they wouldn't run their own camera without charging us, so there goes another $350. So we're already up to $750 out of my pocket just to have people come look at this effing mess. And I paid him because what he was saying just sounded more reasonable and more trustworthy than the guy that with the camera and the high numbers. There was just something about. I just never felt like he was giving me the whole picture I guess. This guy like sounded more like my friend's husband in terms of what he was thinking needed to be done and I just thought maybe that's more trustworthy. 

So I paid him the money and had him go ahead and look which he just confirmed yeah there's roots in there and it needs to be taken care of ASAP and every time you flush it may back up again. He also said like if you've had water in here, then you need to call a company to come out and mitigate the moisture and you need to do it sooner than later because insurance can say that it's neglect, if you don't do it fast enough. So then he called them and have them call me which was nice, but then they called me while I was talking to him. And then my dad called so I was like on a three way call at one point in time. Actually I was on a three way call multiple times today because dad's a structural engineer and they're talking about busting at my house apart so they can just talk to him.  

So I just got my dad on the phone multiple times to talk to these different plumbers and ask the questions that he had. And so this guy gave us some quotes, I had my dad talked to him about his foundation concerns, then I had to call the mitigation company, and they're basically saying like it doesn't really matter what's going on here you've had sewage water in your house which automatically makes you a category three which is the highest category, and it's a health hazard, and they're saying there could be bacteria and we don't want to put fans on it because it could be airborne—at which point I went and turned all the fans off that my dad had told me to turn on 45 minutes ago. 

This guy's basically saying that they're just gonna have to gut the bathroom, especially the guest bathroom it's so small and flooded entirely. And then possibly also part of the master bathroom. And so he's not going to give me an estimate until they can come out here and look— they weren't even going to talk to me because they want to do the free estimate and then give you numbers right but I told him I need somebody to give me an idea of what it is that you guys are pitching before I have somebody in my house.  

So the supervisor called me like 8pm on a Friday night and talk to me for like an hour and a half. And he was actually really nice and very helpful and said that they would like manage all the insurance stuff for us, and we'll have them come out and they will just go ahead and rip out the baseboards and cut out some drywall and put some moisture meters in and put some dehumidifiers and some air scrubbers in. And at that point, they can get in contact with insurance and let them know what they've seen and what needs to be ripped out and replaced which at that point is almost my entire bathroom. And he said that he would help to get us set up somewhere else, and that it would probably be for four to six weeks, and that he could get a service to come in and sanitize the house after they're done working in here and usually he's had good luck with having insurance cover that. And they can set up a lockbox for everybody who's coming and going, so that we don't have to worry about that. And he just really seemed like he knew what was going on.  I don't know maybe it's all just a big hustle and I'm falling for it but the idea of just having somebody who knows what insurance will cover and what insurance will do and manage it sounds really appealing so at this point in time, that is the plan.

Last time I talked to my dad he said if you really think that it's safe, and that there wasn't any risk in your encounter on Friday, or Thursday whatever yesterday, then you guys can just, just go ahead and come out and you can stay here for as long as it works for you or you can have them get you an Airbnb if that's what's better. He said bring out whatever plants you can bring out, we'll find a space for them in the house and I'll move some stuff around for Richard have an office— he was really sweet. But I really wish that he had said a lot of that earlier in the day, but I think also just like everyone's opinions of what needed to happen were changing throughout the day.  At one point we thought we could just dump some root killer down there and maybe everything was be fine for a little bit, and then we thought, you know what, at least maybe it'd be fine for a couple of weeks until my dad felt comfortable for us to go out. then it became clear that we've got like a health hazard situation on our hands and we can barely use the toilets and I don't know why we thought that we could just sit here and do this for two weeks. obviously we can't. So anyways, it was nice I guess to hear him say that even though he's already infused anxiety and worry of the whole situation in me. So we're gonna go out there on Sunday. 

I have tomorrow to pack up a month supply of stuff. And I'm pretty sure we're going to have to make more than one trip if we're talking about taking out Richard's computer and my garden stuff out there, which I mean I guess that's just that right. We're going to try to see if we can get the moisture people to come out on Sunday and just leave a key for them, and then let them be in charge of that key on the lockbox or whatever. And then we are going to have the plumber hopefully come out Monday or Tuesday and get started and it sounds like the plumbing stuff should be resolved within a week, but the rebuilding of the bathroom, that they're saying could take up to 28 days. And Richard is like. I mean I handled every single phone call today, and he worked for the most part, until like 330 when he realized that there was no way that I was going to be able to do everything that I was doing and also take Oliver for a nap. It just wasn't happening. I was on the phone with a plumber and when I came out they were both gone so they just took a short nap. 

He fed them lunch while I was on the phone with somebody else. And he came out and got dinner started when I was on the phone with the other plumber and the mitigation guy. And then like when it was all over I told him he was very even keel.  i mean he's picking up pieces of it while I'm walking around right and I've been explaining it to my dad this whole time but not always coming out to talk to Richard, because, like you're just in it right? you're just trying to figure it out. 

So once I told him everything like he just seemed really even keel about it but then he had like a panic or whatever this evening, saying that he doesn't know how he's going to be able to work at my dad's house he's not going to have a workspace he's going to have to have his full computer out there, and he's like if I can't figure out a way to like my dad has a really terrible inner internet connection he's like if we can't make that work then we're just gonna have to go into the office and I'm like you can't go into the office while we're staying out at my dad's house that's not an option. So then it becomes: We're gonna have to get an Airbnb just so he can go to the office so that we're not putting my dad at risk and I'm like if we're getting an Airbnb then we just get one over here and then you have the internet and you still have to go into the office. Anyways, he was really stressing me out with his like office thing and he was like everybody's pressuring me to come into the office anyways, and I'm like yeah but were you planning on bringing that up? like was that a change that was coming that was happening this weekend and he goes, Well no, and I'm like okay then can we just shelf that conversation for now and get on the other side of our house is a toxic wasteland and we need to make arrangements. 

I said I will turn one of the bedrooms into an office we can bring your computer, we can bring your chair will make multiple trips to set it up how you need it, you'll probably have more privacy honestly from the kids than you do now. And I think it's gonna be fine. we're going to figure out a way to make it fine. I hope. Because if we don't, then I have to tell my dad that we're leaving which I feel like is going to hurt his feelings. And then go stay in some random house that I don't know anything about and that's just another stress. I guess on the upside, we just got groceries for us and for my dad which I thought we weren't even going to be able to take out there because we weren't going out there. So now my dad's gonna have like a shit ton of groceries and we have a shit ton of groceries so at least I don't have to worry about having food. But I do have to worry about how to get it out there and I don't know if we're taking two cars or we're just gonna have to make like four trips.  I guess just whatever we have to do is what we have to do. 

So, I'm being evicted from my house for like a month. And that is very stressful, and my outdoor garden that I have been growing for like, since March is just going to die. Which sucks, a lot. But I'll take whatever indoor plants I can and try to find the place to spend it. I know this is like a stupid thing, but it's just like when everything else piles on like that one little thing just seems like too much. My dad has no toys so I'm gonna have to like literally pack half the house for them to have stuff to do. And it's just tomorrow is gonna be a hard day because Richard's gonna be at work, and I'm going to be responsible for somehow packing a month's worth of supplies for our family to go live in a different space. And that is a lot. Today was a lot, and I'm hungry and I'm tired and I'm dehydrated. But I don't want to drink a bunch of water, because I can barely use the toilet. And it's bedtime. So I feel like I'm just gonna feel like shit for 72 hours until I can get out of this house. 

I'm really struggling with everything that happened today, and just processing it and just like physically being exhausted from it like I've, I've paced the house, I wish I was wearing my fitness watch for once because I don't sit down when I'm on the phone— I have paced this house, a million times today. The battery on my phone is dead the battery on my air pods are dead and I've charged them fully three times. So that's, that's some more of what's happening here some 2020 bullshit. I'm glad that we're going out to see my dad I hope that it really is safe and I'm not putting him at risk.  but I feel like this is going to be a struggle and I hope it doesn't explode into some giant argument about him going to the office. I hope we can make it okay. And it's crazy to think that my daughter is going to start school, virtually out in Weatherford now. Because madness.

Transcribed by  A voice to text service while I was making a video for Rachel because I just couldn't fathom typing this all up.