Quarantine Journals - Plumbing Saga Continues

I really want to try to go to bed at a decent hour, so I'm going to try and make this quick and snappy.

The diggers came out and spent 8 to 5 digging the tunnel underneath the house. They told us that they would cover it to prevent the rain getting in, but they just threw a piece of plywood on top of it. The plywood isn't even as big as a whole, and I felt very angry that they didn't do what they said they were going to do by topping it. Also, no one ever sent me a picture, that picture that I saw was the one that Richard sent me when he went over to the house. We went back-and-forth about whether or not he would still go because it was so late when everybody finished digging, but it turns out they flipped the breaker in the front yard which meant that the freezer in the garage was off. So we had to go over there to turn everything back on, and he also got some more food and then brought over two Aerogardens and the tomato jars.

Meanwhile, we had multiple conversations back-and-forth with Dry Force and the insurance adjuster.

DryForce came out today to do an evaluation and said that the house is almost dry. So they will be by tomorrow morning to pick up the equipment.

I reminded them that no one had come out for reconstruction yet, and they sent a guy out to do an evaluation. He called me, but the call was not confidence inspiring. He was making weird comments about how instead of replacing the cabinets we would just replace the toe kick in one side of the paneling, which makes no sense because it's real wood cabinetry. One piece. When I pointed it out he said that he would try to get it replaced, but he just didn't sound like he knew what he was talking about or that he cared. I have been looking forward to this phone call because it sounded like they were going to know everything we need to do with insurance, but it was a huge letdown, and I got pretty emotional about it.

On a fun sidenote, while I was waiting for this guys call (which was an hour late), Oliver came in And said there was something on his back. I soon discovered that Oliver had pooped in his diaper, and it had gone up his back and into his shirt, as well as on some of his toys and on the bed. So I had to take him into the shower and hose him off and wash him, while he mostly screamed because he didn't want to be in there.

The plumbers didn't end up coming by until late afternoon, and pretty quickly called to let me know that there was a problem. He said that he's unable to access enough of the pipe to make the repairs, so he was proposing digging an additional 10 feet in both directions until he could get fall on the pipe.  As you can imagine, no one was a big fan of this plan. My dad was already unhappy with the amount that they were going to be tunneling under the house in the first place, and I can't imagine anyone really wants a 20 foot tunnel underneath our house and all of the foundation repairs that that entails. His estimate was at least an additional $7500 because he didn't know for sure the 20 feet would suffice.

Of course, he called the minute that I had gotten Oliver to sleep, and I stepped out only to hear all of her screaming moments later. My dad and Penny went into the bedroom and kind of helped him wake up into a better mood while I was on the phone with the plumber. They were lots of conversations and lots of phone calls on speakerphone with the plumber to try and get all the information that we needed to make an educated decision. Dad went back-and-forth with him about different ways that they can address the issue and corrected some mistakes that he was making in terms of the structure of the house.

The plumber sent pictures back-and-forth, and I took a break to call and talk to Amy's husband, Brian, who is a master plumber and get his opinion on the situation. To him, he felt like everything sounded on the up and up, and didn't really seem to have any concerns. So I called the plumber to tell him that we would be moving forward with the dig crew, when he told me that he had actually just finished talking to a master plumber himself.  He said they discussed the issue, and that the master plumber had agreed that the concrete that he was seeing in the way it was not a beam, as my dad had said, and that they could drill into it a little bit until they could access the pipe and have to do the repair. So instead of tunneling an additional 20 feet, we're now looking at tunneling an additional 5 to 7 feet. Instead of $7500, the invoice was 5600. And I still have to cross my fingers and pray that INSURANCE is going to be accommodating and cover the additional expense.

We finish the evening by having dinner, but Oliver was super fussy and it was a very stressful affair. After dinner, we all played an epic game of Uno. It lasted over an hour and a half, and Penny ended up going to bed late yet again. We were going to go swimming tonight, but the whole (Plumber) thing pretty much botched that. So I thought the one thing I would have going for me would be an early bedtime, but that didn't happen either. I'm praying she sleeps late tomorrow, but she just never does. They are both so tired and so fragile.

That's it for now, I guess. I'm going to call a different reconstruction company tomorrow and see if they'll come out and do an evaluation. I'm hoping to talk to somebody who's gonna be able to handle the whole account and make me feel like they actually have our best interest at heart.

I want to go to bed. I'm super, super exhausted. Every night up until three taking care of one thing or the other, and every morning up at nine at least, and just dragging.  Can't catch up. I should've brought my vitamin D… I'm sure that would've helped. But I left it at the house along with my calcium supplements I had a little bit and them. I've been trying to drink orange juice because I guess at least there's a little bit there.

Anyway, I have to go fill up some of the plant jar so I can go to bed.