blarg

so if you cant tell by my 5-6 month absence this year, ive either been busy, pre-occupied, or lost interest in this thing... im not entirely sure which is the winner. some morbid manifestation of them all? perhaps.

[cincy.house]
most of you are pretty up to date because one of the main reasons i started this thing was to update my long lost family back home on the status of the house and cincy in general [this was before the name change & relocation obviously] since relocating, i talk to most of you much more often and we discuss these things more often. but i suppose there are perhaps those of you out there that have read this blog from afar or perhaps dont stay in such close contact with me - to you, i do apologize, and will henceforth briefly update you.

the short answer is that nothing has happened. we finally finished reconstruction the last day of september, and we've paid everyone everything we owe them. we put the house back on the market, but had no interest worth mentioning in it since [nearly two months now?]

the crazy girl has popped up over and over and in the last 6 months we were forced to retain legal services and subsequently pay a shit-ton [i think thats metric] of money for essentially nothing. about every two months she pops back up with some nonsense amendment or letter that we have to pay to have our attorney, yet again, squash, disprove and render pointless... and then she disappears for two months.... i guess its about time for more of her nonsense? who knows. who cares. shes certifiable.

other than that, we discussed at great length the option of renting the house and have since gone through all the necessary paperwork and such to hire a property management company to handle things and get it rented out. they have another couple of weeks to find a tenant before the 45 day deadline - that come to think of it, i have absolutely no idea what happens after it expires. they seem certain that they can find a tenant before their time is up, so here's hoping they are correct. if we do manage to successfully rent this thing out it would cancel out the payments we're still making on it and in the end actually service as a modicum of additional income - sweet!

and that my friends, is the house update. such as it is.

[work]
work is good. staying moderately busy working on a handful of things. i still really enjoy my job and the freedom its granted me in addition to the obvious benefits of being gainfully employed. no worries here, i appear to be quite secure in the continued availability of my position as well as the continued happiness of my superiors. time and again i appear to have exceeded their expectations and they continue to assign me more responsibility, more respect, and more inclusion in things than i ever really could have imagined. as far as fellow employees go, i honestly like everyone ive met and have reoccurring contact with. there are certainly a few here or there that tend to have less than ideal personalities, but hey, to coin a common cliche - thats why they invented 32 flavors, eh? i dont mind. if im having a day where someone or someones are becoming an annoyance for whatever reason, i can simply turn up my headphones, shut my door and drown out my surroundings while i work away in the comfort of my office. [well, until i start to cook and have to allow in some ventilation, but those are sufficiently spaced intervals.] in summary, work is good.

[everything else?]
not really sure what to say. i could update you all on my wifes life, but really, shouldnt she be doing that? i dont really have the inclination.

||gadgets||
i did get a new toy for my birthday last weekend - yes, you missed it, and i'll only forgive you in the wake of lavish gifting - a kindle fire. you've probably seen them in the news, theyre supposed to be one of the most popular gifts this holiday season and are expected to be the only realistic rival to the ipad2.

i can say that in the few days ive had this thing it has completely abducted me. i am engulfed in its intricacies and discovering what all it has to offer. the main reason i wanted one was for games, movies, and books to take along on our cruise in a couple of weeks and so far im not disappointed in the offerings.

i havent yet started to purchase books for it, but ive done extensive wish listing on amazon and will soon make some decisions about purchase. the quality i can get in video is more than satisfying although i havent yet figured out how to get movies/tv shows directly to the device instead of streaming from the cloud... [apologies for all the tech-jargon if youre clueless] and lastly the games.

ive never been too terribly into mobile device gaming, but im starting to understand it a little better. other than a few word games that were mostly encouraged by the wifey, i hadnt really found any games that interested me much on them. oh sure, i test drove a few and they were fun for a little while, but after about 5 minutes, i was bored with most of them. not that i really have a ton of time for gaming anyhow, but its certainly part of the device experience these days. well, since acquiring my fire, ive found a few games im really enjoying. one is a pinball game that really took me back to pinball on our old win95. man its been years since i played that, but i rather enjoyed it then, and had a good time tinkering with it on the fire the other day. and then last night i really found some winners. i rediscovered mahjong [again, probably not since win95] and had a good time cussing it as i relearned the game, and even better was a crossword puzzle game. never been huge on crossword puzzles, but this proved to be very enjoyable as karen and i teamed up and spent a solid hour or two trying to solve the puzzles. we dont really play a lot of games together and this was actually a lot of fun for me, so that seems like a winner.

other than that, karen seems to be a bit annoyed with the thing, and im afraid shes starting to regret gifting it. i dont feel like ive really been playing with it to the extent of ignoring her or neglecting my husband-ly duties, but she certainly seems off-put whenever i pick it up. im not sure why really, but im obviously not seeing things from her perspective. honestly, im just really enthralled with figuring out all that it can do and how it does it, and once the newness and the mystery wears off, im sure itll be less enthralling, and hopefully less intrusive. either way, i am enjoying it. =]

||house||
the only other item i really feel inclined to comment on is houses. not the one in cincy though, here in houston. for those of you that dont already know, karen and i have taken a serious look at things and have decided we are ready to buy in houston, and as such, have begun the process. we met with a mortgage adviser at our bank and found out that i have awesome credit and we've been unofficially approved for a more sizable  mortgage than i had ever expected and with a very reasonable interest rate in my perspective.

we've enlisted the help of a close friend/realtor to help us with the search and have started scouring the city for that perfect house. so far we havent found it, but have been able to really start nailing down what things we do want, dont want, areas and neighborhoods we are and arent interested in, things we're willing to compromise on, and the price range we actually want to be in - and what that looks like in terms of potential houses.

its a process and its ongoing. ideally we'd like to close on something before january 1st for financial reasons, but at this point its not looking terribly likely. who knows, perhaps that perfect-for-us house is lurking just around the next corner. in the meantime we have some solid options that we're planning to try and get showing for by the end of this week. we've already done one round of these that was a little disappointing, but thats all part of the process, im not discouraged yet.

hopefully it all turns out.

hmm...
so i guess thats all i have for now. not much of an update, sorry. hope i didnt ramble too much. really hope you all had a happy thanksgiving - please do me a great favor and ignore anything and everything fox news is reporting about the president's non-official thanksgiving you-tube video. actually, if you really want to do me a favor, never watch fox news again - what a bunch of idiots...

okay, thats it.

ststststatus.update

hello blogonites.

so i guess its been about a month since my last update on the state of affairs in the htx. while i cant say its been a terribly eventful and exciting month, its certainly had its milestones... as follows...

[june 4]

we attended/participated in the houston aia's annual sandcastle competition in gtx... see pictures of some of the castles here...

[june 7]

the wifey and i had our annual anniversary [heh, i crack myself up...] and as usual i showered her with gifts, threatened to take her to wendy's, and then took her somewhere much fancier [well, at least a little, lol]. this year was a particularly difficult dinner to plan as i was trying to rival last year's dinner at the melting pot ...which is pretty much the all time greatest karen dinner imaginable... it was quite an experience. not only that, but having just moved back to the h-o-u, i really had no idea what my dining options were, and ended up spending hours on yelp, open table, and other such websites trying to find a good idea [and ended up with like 40... geez... ] eventually i settled on Philippe, a fairly new, fairly swanky, establishment in the greater galleria area owned and operated by a fairly famous chef [allegedly... id never heard of him, but then again, im not exactly a houstonian-socialite-extraordinaire...]. it ended up being a pretty great experience and a pretty great night overall. the food was fairly excellent overall and for my "foodie" readers ill take a short deviation from the flow of the blog to discuss our meal, those of you uninterested, feel free to skip ahead a little...

*****

for drink starters we had a few cocktails. i had my standard crown & coke while karen sampled one of the special cocktail concoctions from the menu, the sheriff - el jimador tequila, pink grapefruit + red chile flakes. mine was ethereal as ive been off soda for a good month and a half at this point and that one half glass was beyond amazing... karen absolutely loved hers as well. she pretty much loves anything with grapefruit [more on that later...] and really enjoyed this drink. i had a sip and can say that i agree, it was quite yummy - for a fruity girl drink with an awesome name. ;]

for food starters we chose the crab + avocado from the 'contained decadence' section of the menu. id read a number of reviews boasting this particular appetizer and was pleased that karen wanted to try it as well - sounding pretty delicious be the description - crab + avocado with lime, cilantro, olive oil emulsion. mmmm.... the contained description above alludes to the fact that this little dish is served in a mason jar and comes with toasted bread slices to spread. the crab was absolutely some of the best crab ive ever had. it was so tender and juicy and the complements of avocado, cilantro, and lime made for a southwestern savor that was over the top. my only complaints [and i hesitate to call them that] were that the emulsion made for a frothy substance on the top that was a little strange at first, and that it didn't really come with enough toast to compliment the entire jar. however the second point is moot, considering they served some quite satisfying bread complimentary to the meal, and were happy to refill as needed - it was warm and delightful.

on to the main course. karen decided on the texas caesar - with bbq-brushed skirt steak, cactus, & shaved grana padano. i chose the mascarpone risotto - with red wine-braised chicken, bacon, & mushrooms. and to celebrate the evening, we decide to buy a bottle of bubbly and chose the segura viudas, brut cava - which one of the managers later made a point of mentioning was one of his favorites. im by no means an expert on wine vintages or brands, but we enjoyed this one very much and were glad we ordered it. first off, the presentation was excellent.

karen's salad arrived on a large boat-shaped dish and was loaded with ample skirt steak. she was satisfied with her selection, but wished the bbq sauce wasnt quite so prominent - it pretty much covered up all the other flavors. but the steak was definitely tender and juicy and prepared exactly as she liked it and all of the greens were crisp and fresh.

my risotto was certainly no disappointment. in fact, id say it was in the top 3 dishes ive ever had! the risotto itself was creamy and soft, the sauce was amazing! in addition to that, the thick cut bacon was delicious and complemented the mushrooms - so flavorful! - and braised chicken perfectly. the chicken was well cooked and melted in my mouth. my dish certainly had all of its flavors represented and i couldn't really pick any one outshining the rest.

and finally, for desert. we just couldnt pass up the texas "millionaires" tart - chocolate-caramel-pecan tart, texas grapefruit salad, & jasmine cream. [remember the mention of grapefruit?] now if youre anything like karen and i, when you first read that combination of ingredients you probably took a double-take and pondered the idea of chocolate, carmel, grapefruit and jasmine and scratched your chin a little... and we certainly dont blame you! what an odd combination to image... but if you are in fact like us, then you couldnt resist indulging your curiosity either - and boy-howdy, we were rewarded. the flavors compliment each other in a way you just wouldnt imagine! i was stuffed from my early dishes so i only had a couple of small bites, but karen certainly enjoyed her dessert =] [sorry, forgot to photo that one!]

*****

overall, a pretty great dinner, i would definitely recommend it! on top of that the restaurant had a very well designed interior, with kind of an edgy industrial feel over a chic elegance. karen and i loved the wine-box-lid bars and the super tall backed booths. our only complaint was the use of acoustical ceiling tile over the stairway/lounge [eww!!] but then again... we're rather snobby about acoustical ceiling tile, haha, so that was an unavoidable criticism from us ;] other than that, it was a little on the noisy side, but we were able to enjoy our light conversation between mouthfuls just fine. the management and staff were extremely friendly and went well out of their way to make sure our night was special. i give the entire experience 4.5 out of 5 stars and will certainly keep it at the top of my list for any special occasion dinners in the future. [at $$$ its not exactly something karen and i can afford to enjoy on any given day, lol! although was completely reasonable for the meal and experience!]

by the end of the night we were stuffed silly and ended up relaxing on the couch with the mutt watching one of our favorite tv shows before turning in with satisfied tummies =]

[june 11]

fragment/ornament - an installation intervention by artist karen brasier.

some of you may remember the blurb i posted in my last blog about karens upcoming [at the time] art show. well on june 11 that show came to fruition - after lots and lots of hard work on karen's part [and only a moderate lots on mine, haha, ever the artist's assistant...]. as part of the ongoing art-walk events held in downtown galveston by the galveston art center karen hosted a special showing of work shes been working on recently in the original home of the galveston art center in its gutted and partially reconstructed state [see:hurricane ike...]. temporarily the gac has relocated to a new location to maintain the day to day while the original building is under reconstruction. however, the progress has stalled out for the moment as theyve run out of money and need approx. a million dollars to be donated to complete the renovations fully. the space is pretty interesting to be in at the moment, and the show was quite successful in my humble opinion - presenting both the opportunity for people to see karen's recent works and also a forum to expose the public to the current state of the facilities and discuss whats still needed to bring it back to life. karens work for this particular show was a fitting accent to the state of the building as we were required to construct temporary walls for occupancy and the theme of her show focused specifically on elements of fragmented architecture. im quite proud of her and this most recent endeavor and can attest to all of the very hard [extremely sweaty!] work that went into getting this show together.

she still has big dreams and goals for her art, so expect much more in the future - ill certainly post as things happen =]

well... theres much more i could say about the house at this point, but this post has gone on long enough, and i think ill save that particular topic for the near future - and hopefully have some updated pictures to show for your patience!

hope youre all having a fantastic week, hug your dads this weekend and have a happy dads day!

sayonara.

catastrophe_part...five?

i think thats where we left off... i suppose i could just look and find out, but wheres the fun in that? sounds like work to me ;]

so when last we left.... crap i am going to have to look to see what all i need to fill you in on... hold on...

...

...

...

...

...

...oh yeah, it is five, cool!

...

...

...

... ah. okay, so lets do this right.

[house erm... recon]

so when i last updated you fine folks, near the end of the previous post under the heading [substance] i notified you that the roof was finally finished ::dance!:: and we're very excited about that. =]

additionally, it hasnt leaked at all since ;] and we hope it stays that way indefinitely...

well, i also told you the interior was being prepped and cleaned for reconstruction to begin and while i didnt know it at the time... that wasnt exactly accurate.

as it turns out cincy had been getting a LOT of rain and if you remember, rainbow intl. is primarily a disaster response type business. [thats how we found them in the first place] well as it turns out, they were getting so much rain that all over the city people were having issues with basements flooding, sump-pumps breaking down [which caused basement flooding] and so on flooding this and that. well... rainbow ended up getting a ton of calls and basically made the call to abandon our house for 2 weeks to go help these other unfortunate souls and work halted altogether on our house. now we didnt know this at the time, but thats what ended up happening. luckily, our roof is in good shape and as far as i know our basement didnt flood, so no harm - no foul.

when i did end up talking to him again [early last week] greg apologized profusely for the circumstances and assured me that my project was now their primary focus again and that he intended to make up as much lost time as possible. honestly, i cant exactly be mad about it, after all, WE WERE IN THE EXACT SAME SITUATION, and besides, thats what they do. and we love them for it. =]

so since then, they have in fact started, and last i heard completed, the cleanup - further demo - prep work - etc -in preparation for the reconstruction to begin.

in fact, as of yesterday i found out that theyd started re-framing in places where they needed to rebuild walls and stuff and the electrician was working his way through the house as well! whoop!

so things are definitely back on track as far as the recon goes.

additionally, i had a nice long conference call with greg and the rainbow estimator middle of last week and we did an in depth review of their estimate, going over just about every item to make sure that we were on the same page. and cool thing we found out, we're basically getting a new kitchen! =] all new cabinets, counter-tops, island, plumbing - all of it! the only thing they arent replacing is the appliances, but those were all second hand junk anyway ;]

so that certainly increases the value of the reconstruction. and in addition to that we're also getting a few things here and there added in that werent really on the list originally, but hopefully we can get covered, so when this is all over the interior of this house is going to be almost completely brand new!

[now the not so good news...]

we're not happy about this buyer. so far they have been completely unwilling to work with us in any way to negotiate compensation for all of this new work thats being done and the added value of the work to the house. we've made dozens of attempts to get them to work with us, even going so far as to give the buyer anything she wanted as far as customization when we started the recon process, but she has been nothing but silent. either her realtor hasnt passed along anything to her [in which case hes a pretty shitty realtor and not representing her best interests at ALL] or else shes really just not interested in working with us at all. either way, we've had enough of the bs, and we're looking for a way out of this contract. the realtor has assured us that there will be interest in the house when this is all over [we've had 2 already!] so if we can get this thing back on the market, its looking good.

if that wasnt enough of the bad news, if we cant figure out how to get out of this contract, based on preliminary estimates of what we know is going to happen, the realtor is estimating the value at the house at about DOUBLE what we agreed to sell with this buyer. that is just so far beyond not fair or legit or anything right that i cant stand it. so if it comes to it, we WILL find a way out of this contract with this buyer even if it means getting lawyers involved. however, that probably wont be necessary. we've been doing a lot of research and as far as we can tell we have a number of options for an "out" based on the way we handled [or didnt, as it were, lol!] the contract throughout this process. nothings been decided yet, but we have 2 very good possibilities to get out of this contract right now [one i just found out about half an hour ago!] so we're feeling pretty confident. if it comes down to it though, we'll do what we've gotta do to make this right.

[other non-house stuff]

so thats really it for an update on the house, things are going well with the recon, and will hopefully work out well with the contract in the near future.

other than that, life has been steady. karen is working a lot, im working a lot, outside of work we're doing the norm. im still working out consistently and i think ive lost some weight even though the number on that scale hasnt budged yet [muscle weighs more than fat you know...] but im feeling good about it. if nothing else i feel better and my clothes fit better [actually, some of them are starting to sag a little] so i know something is happening.

coming up in the near future, Karen has a show as part of the galveston art centers monthly "art walk"s where shell be exhibiting a bunch of art shes been working on since moving back to texas. anyone in the area is welcome to attend, and you can read more about that... here.

and heres a little taste as well.

[image courtesy of the artist]

alright kiddos. i think thats it for now. feel free to comment if you'd like to know something else, or e-mail me... whatever. =]

out.

ineptitude.

do you ever feel like youre simply spinning your wheels? like youre seeking some grander purpose thats just beyond your grasp? ever contemplate if you actually do anything of merit with the time god has allotted you? or like youre just drone-ing along, a worker bee in a cosmic hive, fulfilling your day-to-day responsibility, a cog in the proverbial machine... do you ever walk away at the end of the day questioning if you've actually done anything of real worth?

im having one of those days.

dont get me wrong. im not unhappy, im not sad or depressed, im just feeling a little... well, inept. i chose that word for a reason. its about as perfect as it gets for my current state of mind.

ive been thinking about design more and more recently. partly because im actually being afforded the opportunity to do some in limited degrees, partly because im not really doing it. partly because im starting to yearn for it again... that friend ive lost touch with over the last 3 or 4 years... stupid economy...

and the more i contemplate... the more i experience...

the more focused my vision gets on the areas in which i truly want to design...

i wish id finished my second masters - urban design. i really do enjoy it [or wish i enjoyed more of it to be more accurate... sigh...] i was so close, i could almost touch it... seriously, 9 credits... thats just... nothing. thats a light [please note the formatting irony, haha! i kill myself...] semester in grad school. i could have done it with half my brain turned off... and yet... life tends to take us on a path inevitably not the one we set out on. im not bitter, not by any means... but ive been thinking a lot about urban & landscape design. along with my typical musings of architectural, graphic, and web design of course. and well, im a designer. there's no escaping it [granted, i didnt add any adjectives to that term. ill be the last to ever admit anything ive designed is "good" but design itself, alas... you are my curse...] my mind is incessantly toiling over some idea or another... im also a doer, ive certainly discovered that. i have a passion for getting my hands in the actual work. ive gotten hooked on the high that comes with accomplishing something you can touch, see, something with resolution. to whatever degree that may be... and i miss design... ...did i ever truly have it?

i digress...

[substance]

i know i havent update anything on the house recently, and well... thats because things have stalled out for the moment. as far as updates go, i can happily report that the roof is finished. whoop! [for all those fellow ags out there] they finished the roof about a week and a half ago and have since been getting the interior of the house thoroughly cleaned and prepped for interior re-construction. and then theyve had some rain delays [will it ever stop raining in cincy?] and so they should be getting to actual work very soon. in the meantime we've been working with the flooring guy to pick out flooring and we've done that successfully as well. we're going with a light-mid-tone neutral carpet throughout the majority of the house and then in a few key places we have a medium-dark hardwood laminate that will replace vct, tile, etc. as needed.

we received some discs in the mail yesterday from rainbow with pictures of the carnage and devastation that has become our house being gutted, and then some pictures of the roof going back on - my first actual glimpses at the roof of our house! [3 years too late?] the roof looks fine enough to me, im satisfied. but the interior... it hurts going through those pictures... knowing how much we put into that house, and seeing what its been going through... i may post a handful later, we'll see...

at work things are slowing down a little, but at the same time, gearing up. i feel kind of in limbo between projects right now. one is winding down and my services are limited on it, another is starting up and my services arent needed yet. and in the in between, ive been working on revising our standards, templates, documents, etc. to stay current with the better ways we've discovered to do things [as well as overhaul the copious grammatical and spelling errors of my predecessor.... heh. hes a really nice guy, but he certainly was not an English major. to that fact, nor am i. however, i do have a knack for seeing blatant errors at times.] as well as a new pet-project on the side that is filling some of my time - but i wont get into that here. truth is, its an internal thing, any information i could potentially divulge is more or less restricted, so im pretty well unable to say much on the subject anyhow.

outside of work.. karen and i finally joined a gym. we'd been talking about it for a good 2 or 3 months, and then 3 weeks ago i just, did it. i can be impetuous like that at times. just, stop the talking and do it already. at any rate, since joining and then getting back on a better diet and a supplement regime, im feeling much better physically, but im frustrated with the overall state of my physical self. 4 months outside of a gym took its toll on me. im fighting just to get back to where i was before i left cincy. which is troublesome, because when i was in cincy, i was fighting to get back to where i was in denver. needless to say, the road ahead is long and arduous, and im impatient. ive worked too long and too hard in the past to get to where i was, and now to have lost it all and feel like im starting over... its a mental obstacle to say the least.... luckily, i have all the drive and discipline in the world when it comes to working out [plus ill admit... i can be a bit of a workout junky at times. it is an addiction, although i wouldnt say a negative one, haha!] so i should have no problem sticking with it. i just hate the waiting and the time it takes to actually see results.

and other than work, and working-out. well... there's not time for much else.

saw the fam for easter and had a great time. took the mutt to the beach and he had a blast.

things are generally fine, although some things are frustrating and trying on my patience [do not even attempt to broach the subject of finances with me. seriously.] finding a church in houston is proving even more difficult than id imagined [and i have a pretty wild imagination], and i regret to say, im getting disheartened with the search. ill never find what i had in denver again, i know that. but its so difficult in texas. finding any church that isnt plastered with a denominational marker is difficult enough, finding one that actually fits... harder still. finding the perfect one, well... i wont say impossible, but i think you get the gist. i love texas, i do, but dammit... i do not like closed minded people. and sadly, we have more than our fair share.......

all in all. its just one of those days. ineptitude. yep, that does it...

catastrophe_part.four

[and we're still going... ]

for those of you just joining us, the title of this post specifies part four. so... go read the first 3 if you want to get caught up. for everyone else, im not re-capping, so lets dig into the meat & potatoes.

at this point the house was drying-out pretty well.

i'd been in fairly frequent contact with greg, who was more than happy to keep me apprised of the situation. however, i was having no luck finding a roofer that would put on the torched-down modified roof, and i was getting frustrated.

then saturday i get a phone call from ryan - not happy again. great, now what?

apparently he'd stopped by to check on the progress of the house dry-out [during yet another rain storm... this has got to be one of the wettest seasons on record in cincy, its just been non-stop.] only to find that the new tarp was billowing up and water was once again getting into the house. are you freaking kidding me.... obviously he wants me to get something done. and now.

so we hung up and i gave the roofer a call... and got his voicemail. what kind of a roofer doesnt take calls on a saturday? frustrating... so i leave him a voicemail and let him know that the tarp is coming up and i need him out there asap to get it fixed. and... he doesnt call back...

in fact, its not till monday that i finally hear back from him and hes not happy either. he says he'll have his guys go out and look at it, but ensures me that they installed it properly and theres no way it should be blowing up.

the next morning i finally get some news on whats happening with the tarp. the roofer calls me back and lets me know that he sent guys out monday and as it turns out the tarp was in fact blowing up on one of the front corners of the house. the bad news, is that from what he tells me the tarp was obviously tampered with. [what??]

the tarp was brand new when they installed it and they used a series of 2x4 nailers on top of the tarp all around the edge to pin it down uniformly so that it wouldnt tear out around a nail. well that makes sense to me, so what the hell happened?? apparently someone got out there and removed the nailer boards in the corner area and when they put them back they somehow did so wrong [im still lost on how the hell you can do that wrong!] and the roofers guys could obviously see new nail holes in a different place than where they had them originally and somehow this accounted for it blowing up in that corner. [again. im still lost. if they nailed it back down in the same manner as before, even in a slightly different place, then how exactly did it come up?? and while we're on the subject, who the hell was tampering with the freaking tarp? whats the point in that??]

anyway, hes pissed and informs me that i will be billed for them having to go back out and fix it after someone else messed it up. great. whatever, the insurance company said they'd handle the temporary roof repairs, so im not worried about it. at this point anyway...

since i have him on the phone, i take the opportunity to discuss the situation with the estimate for the repairs. i tell him what the insurance agent told me and discussed what money they were going to provide and what they were and werent going to pay for and asked if we could negotiate on his estimate at all. to which he replied flat-out, that its their company policy not to come down on their prices, period. [wtf??] seriously?? who has a company policy like that?? i tried to reason with him, i tried to make him understand that there was no more money, i tried to get him to help me out at all, and he just was not willing to budge. instead, he started to tell me that the insurance company is screwing me over and that theres no way in hell i'd find anyone to do that roof for cheaper than what hes quoting me if they do it right, yada yada yada.... great. im truly screwed here.

so eventually, after hes been chewing on my ear for a while, he decides hes done and lets me get off the phone. and now, i dont know what to do. i dont have an extra $7000 just laying around to put into this stupid house[nor would i want to if i did!], hes not willing to budge on his price, and the insurance company isnt willing to give me another dime. so... now what??

well, at this point my old buddy greg just happens to give me a call to update me on the dry-out. mmm-kay... what else could go wrong?

well, luckily, on greg's end. not much, lol! considering hes already all but gutted my house, what bad news could he have? "we've decided to bulldoze the whole thing and start over"?? ;]

apparently the house isnt/wasnt drying out as fast as they'd hoped, so its probably going to take another week. additionally, there are some places that the walls just arent drying out and they were hoping they would. one wall in particular is the one between the kitchen and dining room and theyre pretty sure theyre going to have to open that one up to get it to dry out, if not tear it out all-together. but other than that, everything is going well and they're very optimistic about the process being completed sooner rather than later.

well this is good news to me. something actually getting done, i cant wait! so again, while having him on the phone already, i take the opportunity to discuss with greg the situation with the roof and ask if he thinks he'd be able to help me out. and greg of course says he'd be glad to and will have his guy come look at the roof as soon as he can to put together an estimate on it for me.

not long after i hang up with him, i get a call from the estimator from rainbow, rob - whod id spoken with a little before when i gave the interior work to rainbow, and who is also always happy to speak with me - who wants to briefly discuss the roof. so i give him the whole story and tell him whats going on with the insurance company, etc. he says no problem and they'll get something to me as soon as possible.

/*/ now to clarify on a few things mentioned in the previous section.

1. tearing out walls. i dont know about you in particular, but when my mother heard this specifc little factoid she was very concerned about the structure of the house, and understandably at that. so for any of you out there that had the same initial thought, let me put your mind to ease briefly.

our house is over 100 years old and is essentially a long skinny rectangle in shape. the way it was built is through exterior structural brick walls [that are nearly a foot and a half thick] with timber floor joists that span from one wall to the other along the narrower width. this is traditional construction for that time period, and is perfectly legitimate and structurally sound if done properly. this is also why if you've ever been in a really old neighborhood, you may have noticed that nearly every house was less that 25 feet wide and was long and skinny from front to back. this accounts for the basic material limitations that they had to work with 100 years ago. and responded to the same type of construction that we have here, where the exterior walls support the entire house and the floor/ceiling joists span directly across the house from one side to the other. what this does is put all of the load of the house on the exterior walls, which is then taken straight down to the foundations [typically stacked stone in these 100 year old houses] and then again into the earth. this basically means that every wall on the interior of the house is typically a non-structural wall unless there were some kind of modifications made after the house was originally built. you can further verify that this is the case by simply going into the basement. if none of the interior walls go down to the basement floor [which most of the time they dont in these old houses] then they obviously arent being structurally supported by the ground directly, i.e., not structural. [well, not structural in the sense that theyre not holding up the entire house and you could have some serious issues if you removed one.]

2. secondly, i hadnt mentioned this before but its important to understand how these estimates are being made in this process. in the case of your typical contractor [the first one we were working with for instance] they do a walk through, inspect the condition of things, decide what they will or wont have to repair or replace, and then they do some quick multiplication assuming certain percentages or dollars per square foot, or ratios of man hours/material. its about as simple as that. if you ask them for an itemized breakdown theyll then typically do a little more work/research and give you some estimates on material pricing/square foot or linear foot depending on the material and potentially the number of guys they plan to have working for roughly how many hours. at this point however, once theyve had to give you more specific numbers, you'll probably see an additional item pop-up that says something along the lines of "any additional or unexpected work to be hourly cost plus labor." this means that if the job takes any longer than they originally estimated or anything gets more complicated than they originally thought, its going to cost you a lot more because theyre going to bill you hourly[and depending on the company or type of work, they'll typically bill 20-40 dollars an hour per worker]. just something to keep in mind.

contrary to that, insurance companies do things completely different. when they do a walk through/inspection/assessment, they take measurements and notes on materials the very first time [and hopefully pictures as well] of anything that is damaged and they simply plug in their numbers and materials into a program that spits out all the reports they need [which are your estimates]. this program essentially contains a database of the going rate of labor [either a national average or based on a given region], the costs of all different kinds of materials [same as before] and the quantities. the program then calculates everything and spits out an itemized list of what each piece will cost all broken down and tabulates the total cost.

its actually a neat little tool that certainly gets you very specific numbers very quickly. the only downside is that these numbers are typically a little low. mostly because any contractor youre going to find to work with is going to beef up their labor costs, material costs, time, etc. to increase their profit a little and make the job worth-while to them. they're certainly not going to walk away without making any money, but they're also not going to tell you where and how their profit is being factored in to their estimate, so more than likely the contractors estimate is almost always going to be higher [if not much, much higher] than the numbers being calculated by this program.

luckily for us, rainbow international is a company that specializes in working on disaster claims and working with insurance companies, so theyve made it their business practice to use all of the same methods and programs that the insurance companies use to calculate their estimates, so rainbows are typically near identical to the insurance company youre working with [yes, each insurance provider uses a different program and calculates things slightly different]. so... the estimates for the work that rainbow does, are almost always completely covered by the insurance company.

3. in addition to that, if the company youre working with happens to be approved as a "preferred service provider" [or 'psp' - this may be a slightly different term depending on the situation, but it will mean essentially the same thing] with your insurance company, then this whole process gets even simpler. it basically means that your insurance company trusts them, and basically stops asking questions and everything gets that much smoother. i wish id known about this preferred service provider business up front, it would have saved a LOT of headaches. it's my advice to always find a preferred service provider when dealing with insurance claims [this goes for vehicle too, been there, done that] it just makes the entire process so much easier on you. i havent discovered yet if theres a publicly available list of who these preferred service providers are for your insurance company, but if there is one, its definitely worth getting your hands on at the beginning of the process, instead of stumbling into later. /*/

a few days later i got an email laying out the estimate for the roof, which was well under the other guys $13,000 and i immediately faxed over to state farm.

however, after faxing it, i looked over it more closely and discovered that there'd been a little confusion in our phone conversation and they hadnt estimated for the torch-down modified roof, and they hadnt accounted for removal of the existing. after calling them back i discovered that their guys had only looked at one place on the roof briefly to establish the existing condition, and that wherever they checked the condition, they only found two layers of membrane [probably because the rest was blown off in that corner, lol!] and they were planning to just go over it. i explained that the entire existing had to be removed before hand and that i needed to see numbers for torch-down mod. if they could get them and he assured me he'd get new estimates out asap.

[meanwhile...]

on the insurance side of things, the dry-out process is taking longer than they expected and my mobile rep is now having to become mobile again. bye, ryan... this time around however, because of the type of claim, and the situation we're in, they decided to hand the case off to a local regional office to handle the remainder of the claim. [enter agents 4, 5, & 6] over the course of the next week i spoke with 3 different people who were at the local office and were passing my case around to get it in the hands of the right person to deal with the type of claim i had. [apparently communication is a little off from one branch of the insurance company to the other..] but eventually we got it settled and we have a very nice girl working on the case now with an actual phone number i can call her on if i ever need to, and shes been working closely and quickly with rainbow to get this all expedited and get the work started to put things back together.

monday morning i got the two new estimates, and while they were now higher to accommodate the cost of removal, they were still $4,000 less than the other guys, and since they were itemized and calculated the same way the insurance company would, i was hoping it would give us a little leverage to get it completely covered. sent those off to the insurance company immediately as well, and at this point we're all but caught up to real-time.

the most recent update after all that came the middle of last week.

1. dry-out is complete. woohoo!

2. walk-throughs with new insurance agents have been completed and estimates are being put together.

3. rainbow had been approved as a preferred service provider and the roof estimate has also been approved.

4. work is scheduled to begin on the replacement of the roof this week.

5. an estimate for the interior work has been started [although it's being split up into different parts for different kinds of work] for the interior and we should be getting numbers this week for flooring and then for the rest [hopefully!]

stay tuned, and i'll update again when i know more.

everyone have a great week!

catastrophe_part.thrice

[this saga never stops...]

alright, so where were we? oh thats right, waiting for monday to see if everyone does what theyre supposed to.

[monday]

so monday morning arrives and at 8am central [9am eastern] i give the new roofer a call to see where we are. much to my surprise he answers the first time i call, and to my slight disappointment they are on their way to the house [instead of having been there the last 2 hours, lol]. but this is great news! its going to get done!

around 11am i get a call from greg who confirms that the tarp is on, the roof is sealed, and that his team is setting up and getting started with the tear out phase. sounds great, we're finally making progress! but wait... whats the tear out phase?

so heres my understanding of how water extraction works... first of all they have a list of items that over time and with whatever testing they do, have decided cannot be dried/arent worth the time it takes to fully dry/some other reason they dont dry them. so the very first thing they do when they go into a house is clean up any debris that has accumulated [such as ceilings falling down? yes...] then they begin to remove any type of material that is both wet and on their list. now to determine the level of wetness they have gauges and testing requirements and such to determine the relative level of water penetration and saturation of whatever the material is. in our case, the house has for all intents and purposes not had a roof to prevent water coming in for the last oh... week? week and a half? and through a series of large heavy rain storms no less. so... its kind of pointless to test a lot of this stuff at all when youre wading through water ankle deep...

items on the list for immediate removal? well. carpet, carpet padding, linoleum, vinal composite tile [or vct for you architecture types], anything with visible surface mold, ceramic tile [if the grout is visibly cracked and has allowed water penetration] mastic, caulk, underlayment boards, plaster, drywall, insulation.... hmm.... im not sure if there's more than that, but that just about covers our house.

so really, after the first couple of days, the only floor surfaces remaining in our house was the subfloor decking through out the entire house with the exception of the kitchen [where the ceramic tile held up pretty well and they decided to try and dry it from underneath in the basement] and the second floor bathroom - which magically managed to avoid almost all water getting in altogether. as far as walls go, they were going to wait and see how much they could dry out after the first week before tearing into them [with the obvious exception of any places that the plaster or drywall had already come off the walls - although there was little of this at this point to my understanding]. ceilings - all gone. drywall, plaster, insulation, i think the only ceilings that remained unscathed were again the 2nd floor bathroom, and then the first floor front room [parlor] and entry way - these two they were going to try to salvage if possible and attempt to dry them out.

so... end of week one, my house has officially been gutted. [see pictures here] the dry out process has begun and is going well by all accounts from greg, the roof has stayed sealed up with no leaking, and ive gotten a bill from the first contractors roof tarping attempts [about 500 bucks at this point]. but things are looking up!

at some point during the week i had spoken with ryan again who was glad to hear everything was going well and that we were back on schedule. however we discussed the interior remodeling once the dryout process was completed and he confirmed that there would be absolutely no money upfront to cover any material costs. if i was going to continue working with my original contractor he was going to have to eat that cost and he would be fully reimbursed when the job was complete.

heh, i'll give you 3 guesses how that went over when i gave the contractor a ring... if you guessed not well received, then you were right. so after a conversation with him about the situation we agreed that he wouldnt be doing the interior work either and that other than the bill for the tarping [attempts] still needing to be paid our business together was dissolved.

to be honest with you, i was a little relieved... dont get me wrong, i like the guy [still] hes a hell of a nice guy. but this whole fiasco and his refusal to work with the insurance company was just more than i could handle in added stress on top of the destruction of my house and being 2000 miles away.

however, now i was stuck, right? who the hell am i going to get to do the interior once the dry-out is finished [which i was told they were optimistically thinking would be no more than a week - however at weeks end that was no longer the case] well.... if youve done any snooping online since the last post then you probably have a good idea of what i did next. given that my relationship with rainbow international had been so positive from the first minute i happily called them up and informed them that id be giving the interior remodel work to them. thats right, if youve checked out their website you know, they are a full service disaster services company. not only do they do the abatement [and that includes mold and asbestos as well if i remember correctly] but they also do the work to come back and make it as good as new.

well at this point i was about as happy as i could be given the circumstances. rainbow was doing a hell of a great job, and greg was a hell of a nice guy, and i was sitting quite comfortably in the assurances that this was going to get done and get done right.

[meanwhile...]

i recieved the estimate from the roofer and faxed it over to the insurance company hoping for the best and was soon entangled in a new nightmare... for those of you that are as ignorant about insurance claims as i was, and specifically those that involve the destruction and repair of your home, get ready for a little morsel of information to chew on that i have been fighting with for weeks now. i cant speak to everyone out theres coverage, but if you have the standard coverage that i do, then yours probably looks near identical to mine.

in the event that you have to go through this hell that i am currently stuck in, it will be valuable for you to know up-front that when the insurance company does estimates and decides what they will and wont cover as far as replacement goes theres a little preface that they dont always mention up-front: no matter what damage occurs or what condition your home was in before the damage, the insurance company will only give you enough money to go back with exactly what was there before. thats it, no more, no less, exactly to the state it was in before the accident.

okay, now while you mull that over, ill clarify things for you with respect to my situation.

the roof.

the roof i originally had, if youll remember, was 100yr old roof joists, with 100yr old wide plank spaced decking, followed by a layer of tin/metal roof, followed by 6 layers of torch-down modified roofing membrane, [keeping in mind that because of the weight of that roofing system the structure of my roof had begin to sag in the middle causing a bowl effect and was holding water - which by the way had worsened significantly since this whole thing began and was now visibly sagging something like 3 inches from the reports i was getting] along with a large skylight cut into the middle of the roof [that was a great feature, but was never installed and structurally reinforced properly which added to the structural issues and was an on-going source of minor water infiltration].

so based on all that, just guess what that meant as far as what the insurance was going to cover... the tearing off of all existing roofing membrane and tin roof, and then coming back with one layer of torch-down modified roofing and the recommendation that we remove and cover up the skylight if we know whats good for us. the end. and they werent really allowing enough for the proper removal and disposal and cleanup of the entire flat roof at that.

so um... heres why this is worse than it sounds.

1. they determined that the structural situation was essentially a "pre-existing condition" that was unrelated to the storm damage and they would cover no structural reinforcing or repair. this means that if we put a new roof on top of the existing structure it would more than likely support the much lighter roofing system with no problem, however water would continue to pool and i guarantee that within a year it will have found its way through the new roof membrane and into the newly-remodeled interior of the house.

2. they determined that the skylight was not effected by the storm damage at all and wouldnt have anything to do with it, period. so.... whos paying to have it removed? me. and what about the fact that its a feature of the house that the potential buyer is expecting to remain? dont know, dont care. thanks guys....

3. the method of installing a torch-down modified roof system requires that the underlaying surface be completely smooth and solid so that the membrane has a surface to adhere to when it is torched-down. um... this doesnt work with a "spaced plank" system! that means there are litterally spaces between every plank in the decking that range anywhere from 1-3 inches... in the case of a tin roof [the very first layer] this isnt a big deal, you nail it werever you want and it covers everything. with a membrane system, there will essentially be sags in all the cracks and every one of those would hold more water and create a point of potential penetration.

4. no one [out of the dozen or so roofers i contacted, not a single one] will put a torch-down modified roofing system on a 100 year old house. in fact 90% of the roofers i talked to wouldnt install a torched-down modified system if the roof was in a condition they could! the risk of fire is too great and the system is decades out of date. the current standard in flat roofs is a fully adhered rubberized roof membrane, that is glued to a sublayer of insulating deck board, that is fastened to a smooth solid roof decking system, typically 3/4inch plywood.

so where does this leave me?

um... effed.

i finally convinced them that at the very least they had to pay for new decking for a membrane to go on top of if i ever found someone to install the system they wanted, and they agreed to 1/2inch [not what you want, will result in a more bouncy roof decking] plywood deck to cover the entire roof.

well at least theres that. now heres the worst part yet... all this is going to result in their estimate being right around $6000. the estimate that the new roofer gave me was upwards of $13,000. so um.... wheres that other 7 grand coming from? yeah, my pockets...

and so begins the next exciting phase of hunting for roofers that would be close to their numbers and provide the roof system they would actually pay for [thus the dozen or so we tried, to no avail] and that would install a roof on my 3 story house to begin with. [which only about a quarter of them would do. the majority only did shingle roofs and only 1 or 2 stories max height.]

joy oh joy...

stay tuned for more exciting catastrophe to come....

catastrophe_part.two

[the catastrophe continues...]

/*/ i forgot to mention in my previous post - and it probably goes without mentioning, but just in case, ima do it anyway - that as soon as all this roof business started things with the house selling got put on hold until we were able to determine what was going to happen and when that might be. through a series [i think 4 or 5 now...] extensions on the "inspection period" in the original contract we have been able to legally extend the deadline of the contract with the buyer, pending the outcome of this mess. to this day we are still in constant contact with the realtor and through him the buyer's realtor and the buyer and we have been ensured that she is still very much interested [possibly now more so, pending the anticipated improvements] and that she's just sitting back and waiting for things to get resolved on our end.... /*/

[agent 3]

so when i left off yesterday we had just said goodbye to jane [who was fairly worthless in this entire process so we werent exactly disappointed to see her go... bye jane.] ryan was also not from ohio. at first we were lead to believe that he would be from the local region and we wouldnt have to deal with another mobile agent from here on out - we were mis-lead. ryan was indeed another mobile rep. 3 or 4 days after we said goodbye to jane i got a phone-call from ryan. ryan wasnt irate or fuming, but its sufficient to say that when ryan called, he was extremely concerned.

apparently there had been another series of huge storms that blew through cincy and had yet again blown the tarp to hell [although apparently it was still on the roof and visible through the skylight on the 3rd floor - billowing and blowing around as it may have been....] and when ryan made his appearance on the scene and began to walk through the house he discovered that the tarp was doing absolutely nothing and that it was in fact actively raining in my house. his exact words were "water is pouring into the house" actually... at this point the new damage report was as follows:

ceiling down in every room on the 3rd floor, all but 2 rooms on the second floor, all but one room on the first floor. the carpet was saturated and puddling on the 3rd floor, 2nd floor, and the first floor was puddling in every room but the front room at this point. additionally, paint and drywall were wet, running, drippings, etc. all over the house. so... this is a bit worse, eh?

however, he did confirm that he could see the tarp through the skylight as i mentioned before and that this did confirm for him that we had made attempts to temporarily seal the house, but given the storms blowing through and the amount of rain they were getting, there was no kind of temporary repairs that would have sealed the roof from water infiltration and that we would continue to be covered under the original claim. [whew...]

at this point he advised me to immediately get my roofer back out to the house to re-tarp and seal the house and to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that the tarp was secured to the roof and would prevent any water getting into the house as best as possible - in fact he recommended that we find a tarp large enough to cover the entire flat roof and then roll over the edge onto the mansard roof approximately 6inches to 1ft so that it could be secured directly to the mansard roof [think of a lid on a jar]. in addition to getting the roofer back out to the house, he advised immediately getting in contact with an emergency water extraction company to come in and get the house dried out as soon as possible. with that, he said his goodbye and let me know he would give me a few days to get the roof sealed and the drying process started and hed be back in touch in 3 or 4 days.

obviously my first call was to the contractor. he didnt answer.... my second call was to our local insurance agent to get a recommendation on a local water extraction company that could get in there right away. he gave me a list of options [because legally they cant support one company over another of course] and i just called the first one on the list - rainbow international. well thankfully, the people at rainbow were extremely friendly, understanding, sympathetic, and eager to help me in any way that they could. we discussed the situation briefly and they got the paperwork going, within 10 or 15 minutes they faxed me the contract to go in and begin the extraction process which i immediately signed and faxed back to them. a few minutes later i got a phone call from the project lead for my case who had already been informed on the status of the house and was really just calling to quell any fears or worries i might have, to introduce himself [greg. we like greg.] and to see if there was any other way that they could help me out. i told him about the roof/roofer situation and gave him the contact info for the roofer and let him know that i hoped to have the roof sealed immediately so that i could get them in there to get started asap. obviously this sounded good to him so we hung up with me feeling much better about the whole situation although peeved to hell that the roofer hadnt called me back yet.... [anyone else seeing the pattern here?]

finally a few hours later, after several previous attempts that day, i was able to get the roofer on the phone and apprise him of the situation. the first thing he said when i was finished was that i already owed him money for the first time [and apparently 2 times following that after the wind had blown the thing up...] that he'd had to go and tarp the roof and he wanted to get paid for that as soon as possible. however, given the circumstances, he understood that the payment wasnt my fault [really, considering id seen no bill for it? how generous of you...] and that hed get over there as soon as he could [heres another one...] to get it tarped the way i wanted. at this point he also made sure to explain to me the cost that would be associated with a tarp that size and how hard it would be to find, etc, etc, etc... [whatever dude, i dont care! ill pay the 200 bucks for the tarp just stop the damn waterfall coming into my house!]

[4 days later - approximately 4:45pm eastern time]

i'd actually gotten so busy with work and greg from rainbow had done such a great job of calming my fears that i'd almost managed to forget about all of this shit. well, almost. and certainly not once i got the phone call and saw the number [or lack of number, for some reason any time these mobile reps called it was always from a blocked number, so at least that way i knew who it was. no one else ever calls me from a blocked number...] my heart sank and i knew i had to deal with this mess again.

this time.... yeah, ryan was irate and fuming. just guess what was happening...

thats right. the roof hadnt been tarped yet, and the water extraction team had yet to begin. he was beyond pissed and STRONGLY advised me to find a roofer that would get that roof sealed up asap.

obviously i called my contractor as soon as he hung up [and yes, i was PISSED]. the contractor answered the phone amid a coughing sneezing attack and let me know that he had the flu, and had been in bed the entire day and that there was really nothing he could do for me right then. hed looked for a tarp big enough to cover the roof that week but he was going to have to go to a special roof supplier to find something that large and he wouldnt be able to do anything till monday at the earliest and even then he didnt know if he was going to have the cash on hand to front me the cost of the material and labor to get the roof sealed the way i wanted.

at this point id had enough. however, i calmly asked him if it would be alright if we severed our agreement on the roof and i would find someone else who could get it done [and wouldnt worry about the upfront cost, apparently that was a big deal.... in fact, ill take a brief moment here to discuss that very aspect of all this.]

/*/ up-front payment vs. payment upon completion or some other mixture of the two...

in my working with this contractor before he had always asked for a rather large portion of the total cost up-front in order to buy materials and supplies for the job and then final payment would come on completion. well in my mind, this does make sense. after thinking it over it made sense to not have expected someone to buy potentially thousands of dollars worth of material out of their own pocket to begin a job not knowing if the client was suddenly going to bail on them or be unable to pay or whatever else. it was a kind of insurance in my mind, so i understood, and i happily paid what he needed without question - in the past.

however, when mentioning this to ryan [soon after our initial conversation , i think later that day actually] the warning bells went off in his mind that that was definitely not how this type of business was done and that i seriously needed to consider finding another contractor...

so at this point i have learned that in the contracting business [and we're talking about residential construction and repair work here so this may not be all-encompassing. im still learning all the ins and outs of the larger commercial contracting and how they go about things] it is in fact the standard of any reputable and serious contractor to have capital on hand and set aside for the sole purpose of procurement. if a contractor ever asks to be paid up front for any part of their services, walk away. just. walk. away.

this basically means one of two things. 1. they are possibly trying to swindle you and get as much money out of you as possible before either not finishing the work, disappearing, or doing a really shitty job. 2. if they are actually trying to do a good job, this is a warning sign that they are a very small company and they potentially dont possess all the experience or knowledge necessary to do a good job for you. you are much better off to walk away and find another contractor - even if it means you arent using someone youve worked with before, or is a friend of the family, or that the process of getting your work done may be extended.

and just a side note to that, always, always, always get at least 3 estimates on any work you are going to have done if at all possible. /*/

anyway, he agreed between coughing and sneezing fits that that was fine by him and assured me he was still up for the interior work [well of course he is now that the entire interior of the house has been destroyed. shit, hes seeing dollar signs....]

anyway, i hung up with him and called the only other roofer i knew in cincinnati. they are a huge company, lots of billboards, and id had them out to give me an estimate on the roof a couple of times in the past. they answered the phone and seemed genuinely sympathetic to my situation, but explained that it was now 5:30 on a friday there and that all their people had gone home for the weekend and that there was really nothing they could do for me till monday morning, but that first thing monday morning they would have it taken care of - i could count on it.

and so.... we wait for the weekend to see what happens on monday morning i guess....

meanwhile. more storms blow through over the weekend. greg calls me saturday to see whats going on and i fill him in on the roof situation. he confirms things with his suspicions that in his conversations [ i think there were 2 or 3 of them] with the contractor that week that he was going to be extremely difficult to work with on this. i assured him that the new company had guaranteed to get the work done monday morning and that there was no way they could be that large of a company and not make good on their promises and that he should be able to get in the house and get his extraction team started late monday morning. he was happy to hear it and again tried to reassure me that everything was going to turn out alright and that he'd get the house dried out for me and that he'd be there monday ready to go.

and so... we're at another stopping place. i have to finish getting ready for and go to work, so ill try and post another part of this on my lunch break later today. happy thursday!