Hallway

New colors in the hall.

They painted the Walls and Ceiling but we are painting the trim.

Master bathroom

Came home Friday to find that after 7 days, they had finished.  This is the colors in the bathroom.  The wall is all the same color it is just the way the light was reflecting off the walls. 

Downstairs Bedroom

After the downstairs bedroom was destroyed by the water heater, David and I decided to speed up some renovations we had planned.  The main thing we decided was to skip reinstalling carpet and instead are putting down hardwood floors.  

We searched at all the "normal" flooring stores, we looked at Lowes and Home Depot but actually ended up over at Lumber Liquidators.  After seeing what they all had to offer we chose "Qing Scorpion Strand" Bamboo flooring from Morningstar.  They sent out a contractor to see about installation and he will actually be out next weekend to level out the floor and put down the wood.  

We decided to go ahead and work at getting the entire downstairs done in the same material, so the contractor will actually be doing the bedroom and the hallway near our stairs.  Hopefully, we will have him out after Christmas to finish off the living room and dining room.  

One thing we discovered during all of this.  One of the problems we have been having is that our flooring "pops".  We assumed it was because of the floors not being level and the sealant not working.  Turns out the problem is the builder used a water based glue to hold the laminate down.  This is not uncommon, water based glues are fine..unless you are on a slab, which of course we are.  Seems that the slab actually acts as a leech pulling in moisture from the ground, this moisture dissolves the glue so any sections that are not level pop.  Annoying but at least the builder saved money by using cheap glue.

Catching up on the House

Home repairs continue to be an adventure.  We finally got our hot water installed but not without some headaches.  Despite checking with AGS about which water heater we were considering, we had to exchange it for a different model.  It seems he never really looked at the specifications other than the height of the unit.  So when he came out to install it he discovered it was too big to fit through the opening in the ceiling.  Our only options were to special order one (who knows how long the wait would be), or go with a smaller model.  So we changed to a 40 gallon model with a 6 year warranty and he finished the install at about 8 that night.

While he was out at the house the subcontractors came to measure the rooms for how much drywall needed to be replaced etc.  After some hits and misses with the main contractor we arranged to start the repairs on July 5th.  They asked what time they could show up for work, mentioning that the sooner they got started the more work they could accomplish on each day.  We told them David was staying home all day with them and they could come anytime after 7 AM.  

When the contractors started they told us it was a 3 day job, maybe 4 if there were issues.  It might have worked out that way if they had actually worked at it.  To get done in 3 days we figured they would need to get the drywall up and taped/mudded on the 5th.  Instead they hung the drywall in the bathroom and bedroom and then called it a day.  When we asked about the hallway work that needed to be done they told us they were not doing anything in the hallway because it was a "pre-existing condition" and would not be covered.  We spent several hours trying to get our adjustor on the phone only to find out he was on vacation until the 9th and we would not be able to get an answer before then.

On the second day of the rebuild they came out and applied the tape and mud to the walls, then left.  They basically said there was nothing they could do until the mud dried and it would take 8-10 hours for that to happen.  David asked about a problem with the wall of the bedroom that was supposed to get fixed.  They had "forgotten" that and got to work fixing that and remudding the area.

After the weekend the subs came back and asked if we "minded" if they stayed late.  David told them of course not, they could stay as late as they needed to get the work done.  When they entered the house they discovered that 2 separate areas had to be remudded because cracks had appeared.  This could, of course, have been redone on Friday if they had done it all on the Thursday.  After repairs, they sanded the rest of the walls/ceiling and then left at 3PM.  So much for staying late  

Tuesday was the 4th day of actual work, they worked 7:30 am to about 6:00 pm.  When they arrived we informed them that the insurance company said that they did have to fix the issue with the hallway wall that they were trying to get out of.  They called their boss to verify and said "Well we are not finishing today then". They worked the whole time except for when they disappeared for about an hour which is when I assumed they went to lunch.  They spent almost the whole day sanding, and then started painting about 4:00 PM.  

Wednesday.  Day 5 of the rebuild.  We could not stay home again so we let them in around 7:00 am, and they were gone when we got home around 5:15 pm.  In their defense it looks like we lost power for a little bit so they might have left because of that.  As far as work they finished, it looks like they put 1 layer of paint and did half the trim in the master bathroom.  There were also apparently problems with the downstairs bedroom because they have remudded the ceiling (3rd time) and the wall (2nd time).  They "finished" painting the rest of the downstairs bedroom trim, but then dripped paint (including a hand print) on the walls meaning they will have to be repainted.  In addition we found paint stains on the carpet going upstairs.  

Thursday. Day 6 of a 3 day build.  Once again we could not stay home and let them in around 7:00 am, mentioned the paint on the stairs and they claim it is dog poop, said the dog pooped in one of the rooms they are working on and they accidently stepped in it and must have tracked it on the stairs, only problem is the color on the stairs is blue and it feels like paint, they also have plaster or mud from the walls on the hardwoods upstairs.  David and I have started making bets on how little will actually get accomplished.

Frustrating does not being to describe how I feel.

YEAH!! Water heater is getting installed today!

Went to Home Depot last night and purchased a 50 gal., 40,000 BTU gas water heater with a 12 year warranty.  Called AGS to come and install it.  They will be out today to install.  I will be able to take a hot shower at home tonight and a bath without having to boil water first. YES!

Insurance adjuster is supposed to come out and take pictures of water heater once it has been removed from attic.

Got a call from another contractor about coming out today and measuring where all the drywall needs replaced.  

Hopefully my house will soon be put back to right.  Now waiting on some money to buy hardwoods and pay the installer to install it in the downstairs bedroom. 

Depending on your point of view

I am at the point where I have to find something positive.  So, it could be considered a bright side that the water heater waited until this week to explode.  It could have happened at any time while we were at Disney.  If that had happened we could have come home to find the whole house flooded and possibly floating off the foundation.

They have had to move walls, ceiling and flooring.  We know that at least 8 pillows, a European queen size pillow-top Sealy mattress and box springs, carpet, padding are all ruined.  I am trying to save the 6 hand made quilts that were in that room, along with the sheets that were on the bed and the ones that had been placed on the floor to go upstairs for washing before this happened.  We hand dried the 15 year old Amish furniture and hope it will be able to survive. We did not see any water on the tv, cable box, computer, printer, monitor, desk, bookcase, or Amish hope chest that were also in the room.  Right now they think the hardwood floors are fine in the surrounding areas - in the closet off the bathroom, the hall on the other side of the bathroom wall and the sitting area in the master bedroom right off the bathroom.  I did notice the wall this morning in the hall was bowed out and will probably have to be taken down and replaced too.

Right now we are kind of numb and shock.  We look and see lots of work to be done, but just can't thing of where to start.  Cold showers, heating of water to wash dishes.  Kind of makes you not hungry.

We finished painting that bedroom last fall.  I had planned on painting that bathroom this summer.  At least we had not installed the new ceiling fan in that bedroom.  I think I have it sitting in the dining room waiting on us to get motivated to installing it.

Pictures of Damage

Pictures of walls, ceilings, floor.  

these are pictures of the downstairs bedroom floor after they removed the wet carpets.  As you can see the cement is still wet.

 These are pictures of the ceiling of the downstairs bedroom after they removed all the wet drywall.

 Now here is the master bathroom.  They say said the wall between the bathroom and closet did not get soaked.

The water heater was over the half wall between the sink and the commode.