The Long Ordeal - Final Ending...I Hope

If you've been following along then you know that my 2017 did not end very well and 2018 picked up the suckiness that was my life at that point and ran with it!

Here's PART ONE and PART TWO in case you want to catch up or refresh your memory.

Before I get started, I want to thank all of you that made a point of telling me it was not my fault mom fell. Thank you! I know in the back of my head it wasn't, but sometimes my head doesn't communicate well with my heart! Someday I will tell you of the ordeal that was my marriage and you will totally understand!

I'm in insurance, but I've never had a claim and I'm not an adjuster, so that doesn't make me an expert in claims. I figured the pipe had burst and damage was caused and I could understand that perhaps the insurance company would not cover the pipe but surely they would cover the resulting damage.

When I called the insurance company in the beginning to report the damage, they immediately told me to call a plumber, have him make sure there was no mold or asbestos and then let them know and they would send out an adjuster. 

I did that and called them again to report no mold, no asbestos. The lady I spoke to at the time understood it was the holiday's and that my mom was ill and just out of the hospital and she told me that the pipe would more than likely not be covered because it's the responsibility of the homeowner to make sure that maintenance is done on a regular basis, but that she was pretty sure the resulting damage would be covered. (I had no idea how important it would be to me that she said this.) So I gave the go ahead to the plumber to fix everything.

Remember I said in part one that they would have to tear down walls? Well they did. They completely gutted the bathroom and since the pipe was bad they knew they had to break walls in the kitchen and the laundry room and the second bathroom and replace all the pipe throughout the house. To make a long story short, it took forever and in the end they handed me a bill for $10,400!!!

Total shock!!! But, I was counting on the insurance company covering most of that minus my deductible of $1000 so I figured I would probably be out of pocket a couple of thousand dollars. I sent them the bill and photos and waited to hear.

The adjuster told me that because the leak was caused because of non-maintenance by the homeowner that in normal circumstances, they would have paid a big fat ZERO! But...because they had in the notes that the insurance representative I had spoken to had told me the pipe would not be covered, they were standing by that, it would not be covered. However, because she also told me the resulting damage would be covered they were obligated to pay that...whew!

You know how much they paid? $5,000 minus my deductible, so that means they sent me a whopping $4,000! I was crushed. Again...to make a long, long story (three blog posts long) short, I came up with the balance of the money and now have to eat beans for the rest of my life. 

So we've moved back in. Did 2018 get any easier? Any more disasters? Well yes and no, but I've always been a "look on the bright side of things" kinda person. I have a gorgeous brand new bathroom and brand new plumbing throughout the house. I eventually would have had to replace all that pipe anyway, I just hadn't planned on it being so soon. Mom is back in her home and no long term repercussions from her fall. 

Sure, there are still things going on in my life that aren't perfect, that will require time to fix, but at least it's not raining hell on my head all at once. You know the old saying...

Thanks for reading and commenting and we'll just have to see how the rest of 2018 goes.

The Long Ordeal Continued...

It's been a while so you may have forgotten about my first post detailing the ordeal of the ending year 2017 and the bad beginning to my 2018 year. If you need a refresher you can click HERE.

When last we met I was telling you about having a plumber come out the check the leak and check for mold and asbestos. Luckily there was none...whew!!! Finally caught a break there, but unluckily we would have to move out while they made the repairs.

So...here I have a mother that is ill and trying to recover from pneumonia. She's coughing morning, noon and night and she needs her oxygen machine 24/7 and a warm dry place to sleep and somewhere to spend the day. Of course my sister Lisa and her husband would not hear of us staying in a hotel, we had to stay with them and they gave up their bedroom and moved into the spare bedroom. They were troopers and I can never repay them their generosity and patience with us.

You would think that this would be the end of my story, but unfortunately not. That first night it was difficult to get to sleep, my mom was coughing constantly and we were sharing a bed. Finally in exhaustion I fell asleep only to be awakened in the wee hours of the morning by my mom taking a fall!

She had gotten up to go to the bathroom and I believe she was disoriented and weak (she refuses to use her walker) and as she was walking towards the bathroom she felt dizzy and tried to come back to bed and fell, hitting her head and face on the nightstand. My sister came running and we got her back up and safely into the bathroom but there was no more sleep to be had that night, we were all to wound up and scared!

By the end of that day mom had a black eye and scrapes on her face and I felt so awful that I had not heard her get up, it still haunts me. I was right there, a foot away from her and I let her fall. Luckily the fall was not too bad but she could have been seriously hurt! Mom took it hard too, it scared her (she started using her walker by the way!) and I could see that she was realizing that she may not get better and that she may end up needing more help from us than she was comfortable with.

For two weeks it was a whirlwind of working eight hours, texting back and forth with the contractor, rushing home to feed the dog and mom and helping Lisa with whatever she needed around the house. Finally most of the work was done and I submitted all the photos and the contractors invoice to the insurance company.

and again...To Be Continued

The Long Ordeal. A Bad Ending to 2017 - A Bad Beginning to 2018

The long ordeal is almost over and I’m so glad it is because I don’t think I could have taken one more day!

Photo Credit - Tucson Daily Photo

Let me backtrack and provide some history. On Nov 11^th my sister Lisa and I drove our mother to Arizona to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with her Arizona family. She had a wonderful time but somewhere along the way she picked up what we think was a “flu bug”.

When Lisa and I went to go pick her up in Arizona on Nov 25^th, poor mom was coughing and miserable and she continued to be miserable the whole way home. She went to the doctor and got some medication and inhalers and a Nebulizer, we thought this would be the end of it. Unfortunately by her birthday on Dec 19^th she was still miserable but she put on a brave face for her children and grandchildren as we celebrated her 81^st birthday.

On Dec 21 at about 11 pm she asked me to take her to the ER room. She was in pain and having a hard time breathing. I called Lisa and we took off with her and stayed there throughout the night until around 5 am when we both went home to get a few hours of sleep and a change of clothes. I was back at the hospital about 9 am and mom was still in the ER room as there were no rooms available.

Unfortunately there was a horrible Flu Bug going around and because of our bad air there were lots of elderly folks and kids with respiratory issues. It was a tough couple of days for mom, she hates hospitals and especially hospital food but on Dec 23^rd at about 8 pm they finally released her and I was able to bring her home. 

We had planned a Christmas Eve family get together, but we had already discussed it and decided to postpone it until the following weekend. So it was a sad Christmas Eve; where we had expected everyone to come over now it was just a quiet day. Mom did cheer up because she got to open the present I gave her and it was a Google Home system and we had fun setting it up and teaching her how to use it.

Life decided to throw another monkey wrench into our lives as on Dec 23^rd when I got back home from the hospital with mom, my daughter took me into one of the bathrooms and showed me the walls that appeared to be bubbling…I knew right away there was a leak. 

So here I have a sick mom, it’s Christmas holiday time and I have a leak somewhere! I tried to call my insurance and left a voice mail and called a plumber who said he would send someone on Dec 26^th.The assistant plumber came in on the 26^th as promised and went into the attic and said there appeared to be a small leak, the insulation was barely wet to the touch and said he could come back on Dec 30^th to make the repairs.

Dec 30^th the actual plumber came in, went in through the attic, said it appeared to be much more serious than his assistant had stated and because of the extent of the damage and the condition of the existing pipe he would have to make major repairs and there was no way they could make the repairs in the small crawlspace attic so they would have to tear down walls!!! 

He told me he believed it would be covered by my homeowners policy but to call them and get approval to start.I still had not heard back from my agent, so I went to her office and of course it was closed so I called the 800# and just asked to speak to anyone, I set up the claim, this was on Dec 30^th. 

To make a long story a bit shorter I had to keep calling my insurance company and could never get in touch with the adjuster but kept speaking to whoever answered the phone so who told me to have the plumber start immediately by making sure there was no mold or asbestos issues.

To Be Continued...