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Sunday, August 20, 2017

Progress at last

After three days of fans and heaters, the water people judged we were dry and took their equipment away. And then we waited. And waited. Furniture was still scatter at inconvenient spots around the rooms, making toys, crafts, and books inaccessible. Insulation fluff still fell on our heads. We moved the kids back into their room, where at least there beds were under real ceiling and away from falling insulation. We vacuumed piles of fluff daily - it seemed to make its way everywhere.

Our adjuster finally came over the following Monday to look over everything and agreed to our repair plan. But by then our roofer was on vacation. Fast forward yet another week - and a surprise visit by a roofing specialist brought in by the insurance. He actually pulled up a board covering the hole in the roof, leaving just the tarp. That made for a very loud rainstorm that evening when rain pounded against the plastic sheet (at least no water seemed to come in). Also made for a strange, almost pleasant blue glow as the light from outside came in through the blue:

Finally FINALLY last week, after two weeks of no change, things started happening. On Monday, these appeared:
New slates for a soon-to-be repaired roof. Tuesday rained (AGAIN) so the roofer couldn't do the repairs. Fortunately Wednesday was dry, and I came home to:
A huge improvement over the tarp that had been hanging over our house since the tree fell in late July. Note that we have a new top gutter and a bunch of new slate. The roofer rearranged slates so that the new ones are where we can't see. He used older slates to repair the holes visible from the ground so that they would match. From the inside, we have new wood over the hole the tarp had been covering:
 We were still not sealed though - I guess not the roofer's job to do that part?
 Hi outdoors!
D sprayed some expanding foam through there to block a little more airflow. On Thursday, the water people came back to certify that our house was still dry before we began drywall repair. It was, yay!

Friday the dramatic change occurred and we came home to new drywall and plaster. Also drywall dust everywhere (especially unfortunate since we had the house cleaner here on Friday too - bad planning but originally the builders weren't supposed to start that soon).


Next up, more layers of skimming and sanding and then the painting process can begin. There's a two week wait for our window but at least the rest might start to look normal relatively soon.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Water Damage

On Sunday even after everything had been temporarily patched up, the dripping continued during what seems lately to be our daily evening rain storm. We noticed water damage on the ceiling below the kids' room in a few places in the office. And water continued to drip through the window frame.

That can't be good...

On Wednesday the water mitigation people arrived. They agreed.

I'm trying to remind myself that it will get worse before it gets better.

The kids' room has a tarp up to separate the entryway from the rest of the room so the dehumidifier can be more efficient. The kids, by extension, are both sleeping in our room. So cozy...(that's sarcasm).

The ceiling and walls are ripped back to the studs. The hole in the roof causing the extra leaking is much easier to see now (the patch of sunlight above the trashcan). Someone came back to improve on the patching done Saturday and now the leaking seems to have stopped.
Cloud mural ruined, dust from blown insulation everywhere. Lots of tears and lots of wine...

It will get better.