Exhausted!

The amount of time and energy it takes to keep up with the insurance/repair process amazes me.  As time passes, we find new obstacles.

On Friday, one of the insurance claim representatives we have been working with called and said “Obviously you are going to use up the full 9 months of living expenses provided by the policy so we need to make some decisions”.  Fortunately she was mistaken and looking at one of our neighbors’ files.  That has, however, caused us to realize that construction/repair will probably be ongoing through the next 12 months.  I don’t imagine that will be good for property value when we try to sell the house this coming fall/winter like we’d planned.

Tomorrow morning (Monday), I hope to get even more information from the condo association (specifically from their insurance company and their contractors).  We met with them on Thursday afternoon but they had proposals to put together and other planning to do.  By laying low on Friday and over the weekend, I’m hoping they’ll have a wealth of updated information to pass on.

Once we are allowed back in, we’ll have to make some arrangements for cleaning.  The gross food in the refrigerator, the nasty wet laundry that was (and still is) in the washing machine, and the cat’s automated food bowl (that has likely overflowed and I hope hasn’t drawn critters in) are at the top of the list for disgusting things I’d rather not have to deal with.

More serious than that is carpet cleaning, water damage/mold in the fire wall between our unit and our neighbors, water damage/mold behind the siding outside our door, and the smoke smell that continues to linger in areas of the house.  Until all of the neighboring debris is removed, the smell gets worse every time we open the door!

On top of all of that, we’re chasing down silly things like mail and packages.  We had a couple things shipped by UPS that they tried to deliver after the fire.  Their tracking information says that they cannot deliver to the address.  Easy enough, lets just have them deliver it to us at the hotel, right?  Nope – they mail you a postcard with a number on it.  You need that number for UPS to redirect the package.  Okay.  Except that USPS isn’t delivering mail EITHER!  So now UPS has two packages they are holding for us.  They’ve notified us by mail but the post office isn’t delivering our mail.  I hope to get to the post office and clear some of this up tomorrow.

The kids are having a blast – we went swimming a couple days ago and they enjoyed it.  They’ve enjoyed riding the elevator, running up and down the halls (and Josiah’s enjoyed trying to open other people’s doors!).  The space we have at the hotel is tight but more than adequate.  We never expected we’d be here this long – now we’re starting to wrap our heads around the idea that we might be a few more weeks depending on what needs to be cleaned and/or repaired at the house.

 

As always, we’ll keep you updated.  We appreciate your interest and concern, as well as the time investment you make to keep up with us!