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Author Topic: Worst weekend of my life so far  (Read 3204 times)

May 03, 2006, 12:24:05 pm

shwartzbewithyou

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Worst weekend of my life so far
« on: May 03, 2006, 12:24:05 pm »
So I couldn't find an off-topic section so I stuck this here.
Follow me on this.
I get sick on Thursday and have to leave work early, Spend Thursday and Friday (beautiful days outside) in bed.  I'm not liking this because I have to help my in-laws move on Monday and I'm dreading being sick during it.  So I get better and start loading the truck on Monday.

Now were driving from there old house to our house to pick up some stuff at our house before we leave to go to my in-laws new house, we get to our house open the door and see water streaming out of the ceiling all over the living room and dining room.  I run down the stairs past all my family that was with us that are standing watching in shock and horror, I get down the stairs to the basement and their is a good 4 inches of water through the entire basement, so I'm running through this water hoping it hasn't grazed any live wires from something plugged into the wall (like our dehumidifier ironically enough), i run over to the far corner in the dark (I didn't want to turn the lights on with water streaming through the wall and thus most likely the light fixtures as well) so I'm feeling around the corner in a dark basement with my brother in-law yelling over the noise "I can't find the main shutoff".  I find it, shut it off, run upstairs to see what was leaking and the supply line has popped out of the valve fitting behind our bathroom sink.  So I open all the fixtures in the house that are down from that fitting to drain the system and then run back down into the dark basement to find the main breaker and shut it down as a precaution.  Now we push the sopping wet "sponge of a couch" out of the way of the streaming water that is still draining out of the ceiling, place down a bunch of buckets and start hammering holes through my new living room ceiling with a hammer.  Then I've got to go calm the wife down and re-assure her that insurance will take care of everything.....and now we all stand in shock and complete silence.....with blank looks on our faces.

So instead of leaving for our 2.5 hour drive to move my in-laws, we are now waiting for the "emergency response crew" to get here to tell us what to do.  So they assure us everything is covered and that we can leave and they will clean up everything.  So we take off.

Now I'm driving the Uhaul (26ft. International Diesel 5spd, fun for the first while) and my brother in-law is following me in my VW.  So we get out on the 401 (major highway for those of you not from Ontario) and he calls me to tell me that he can't get the car into 5th.  So we stop and then he can't get it to get going again either.  So we get it moving enough to get it to a big roadside gas station (Petro-Canada/MCd's in Guelph) and I pop the hood.  The lateral shift linkage is completely missing and the car is stuck in 3rd,4th.  So now we have to leave the car there, unload the stuff into the Uhaul which is already full and now I'm taking 2 more guys so that makes 3 in the cab (these guy's are all 170+ pounds).  So at this point were leaving 6.5 hours behind schedule.  We get there, get them moved in, drive home, pick up the car VW, drive it in 4th the whole way home, get home around 3AM and have to check into a hotel for 2 days.  The next day we spent at the Scrap yard getting another linkage, and now I'm here....at work, in the same clothes i've had on for 2 days, i'm tired and I want to go home.



Reply #1May 03, 2006, 04:21:37 pm

SMOKEYDUB

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Worst weekend of my life so far
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2006, 04:21:37 pm »
All i have to say is thats rough dude.
12mm PUMP 'O' DEATH on a 1.6L
(courtesy of GILES)

2000 NISSAN XTERRA (5 SPD)
1990 VW JETTA 20 VALVE DRAG CAR
1984 RABBIT TD 2dr (SOLD)
1.8t AEB soon around 550 whp

Reply #2May 05, 2006, 05:10:19 am

vwmike

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Worst weekend of my life so far
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2006, 05:10:19 am »
hmm.... nope... I don't think I can top that bad weekend. I hope they get your house fixed. Water tends to do some bad things.

Reply #3May 05, 2006, 07:50:25 am

Laurentian

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Worst weekend of my life so far
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2006, 07:50:25 am »
Things will work out, same happened to some freinds of mine.
Upstairs washer hose broke off, they took the insurance money and redid complete pine floor and repainted entire house.
Funny thing is I have added on water damage to my isurance starting only
this year only because they offered it. I thought a water damage clause was a given on all house insurance policies!
All of you out there make sure you are covered!!
I always turn off my washer supply when not in use now.
Take care Ted, take it one step at a time.
Hugh

Reply #4May 05, 2006, 11:16:07 pm

LeeG

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Worst weekend of my life so far
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2006, 11:16:07 pm »
bummer.
I have had to deal with similar things a few times at work when we had schools flood....my advice is to get to know your insurance adjuster really well and follow up on every detail.  Keep detailed lists of everything thats damaged, everyhting that is removed for cleaning/repair/testing.  Dont take BS answers from 'experts', after having been through this my opion is that a lot of what is passed off as water damage repair is nothing but voodoo and making a quick buck.

An example:  broken 10 inch water main, lots of flooding in the school, a computer lab with flush mounted AC outlets in floor all of which got soaked and all of which the 'restoration company' replaced at the insurance companies expense, based on 'expert opinion that they could not be certified to be safe.  Same flood, same companies removed ~ 30 computers and monitors that were UNDER water so they could be 'tested' to determine if they are operable.  I'm saying WTF, if you cant dry out a AC outlet, how can you dry out a high voltage power supply in a monitor?  Plain and simple, they did it for the $100 each they bilked the insuracne company out of, I was left with computers I dont think are safe to put back in use.....
'97 Passat TDI

Reply #5May 08, 2006, 04:38:56 pm

shwartzbewithyou

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Worst weekend of my life so far
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2006, 04:38:56 pm »
Well thanks guy's.  The "emergency response crew" is done with their part and now I'm left with a dry, tore apart house.  I'm sitting watching T.V. and I have chunks of plaster falling out of the busted up lathe and hitting me in the head.
So now all the stuff is listed and I wait for State Farm's call.

The car's great now though.

 

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