All the flooring that we had put in had done less than two years ago has been to be replaced. Once again – are you kidding me? Just fix the kitchen not the entire flippin’ house. But no. Thus were we down to no useable kitchen but had three days possible that the five of us might have to share a toilet. Oh, no. That didn’t sit well. Initially the insurance company was going to issue a 28,000 dollar allowance to pay for temporary housing and food that would supposedly last four months. Four months? Are you kidding me? The water damage wasn’t only the floor but ALL of our kitchen cabinets would have to be replaced as well. What a nightmare.
The insurance company talked Richard into staying in the house rather than use the money on temporary housing (which we had looked into and had come up with pricing) for the five of us (wait a minute – did I say that I had no intentions of sharing a bathroom? Why couldn’t we just sent away the other three?) which didn’t surprise me.
I had believed
that we would be stuck with the expenses as I had absolutely no faith in the
insurance company (and even less now) The kitchen and lack of counter room has been a problem. Hated the toilet sharing - but at least it was only a couple of days that we were without toilet and not the going on four months of no counterspace in the kitchen. But nobody was allowed to shower for those two days until Richard and I left to go out of town.
I told Clair she could take her shower while we were gone and what a fun experience that must have been. I don't think she realized how claustrophobic one may feel in our poor excuse of a shower (see here) But there bathroom now has a new toilet and are able to use a wider amount of space for their shower.
We
picked out some flooring before the insurance had even approved us. It was on sale. We had to make a purchase. I believe the flooring remained in our living
room for over a month before it was slowly installed (did I mention that the
contractor seems to have a hard time keeping employees?) and had gone down from
four days a week to only one and then a few weeks without. Turns out there was only one guy doing the
floors for how many ever projects they have.
I don’t know if other clients are as nice as we are or if the reason employees
are quitting is because they don’t need to put up with the abuse that I’m certain
they are getting (they are just the messengers doing their job – they don’t
choose where the contractor sends them)
Richard is to the point where he is fed up and has been less than pleasant to the workers trying to finish the job that they had personally not started. I understand his frustration and reminded him not to take it out on the “kids” that are coming in. I don’t really know how old they are but seem to be younger than the last ones who came out. I wonder if the company is being sued if we would be able to hop on the band wagon. We paid for a job that still hasn’t completed (though all of the initial replacement has finally been done - well of the floor that is)
And
then there’s the matter of the cabinets still.
And who knows when that will happen.
Hopefully before Jaime returns home from college but I’m not holding my
breath. The contractor had another call to
report a fire damage that had taken place at the cabinet makers. We thought it bogus as he had lied to us
about other situations, but turns out there was a small fire that did some
damage to the needed equipment used for finishing (he made it sound as if the
entire structure and business had been burned to ashes) and so everybody in
line for cabinets is now on back order. (How frustrating for the contractor as
well as how many ever clients)
