Silver Lining

At 4:30 this morning, my bedroom door opened, and there stood Daisy.  The very image of forlorn. 

"Mummy.  I think I'm going to be sick."

I ushed her into the bathroom and steeled myself to rub her back.  I don't do sick, really.  If I'm around for sick, I tend to just join in and so, in the main, I leave the children to it and offer comfort and cuddles once the purge is over.  However, last time I tried leaving Daisy to it she came with me, and I ended up having to mop diced carrot out of my slippers, and the small of my back.  I figured if I stayed in the bathroom with her, at least we might *both* make it to the toilet...

So today, Daisy has been mostly snuggled on the sofa while I work from home.

And the builders sawed and banged and hammered in the kitchen and Dan's bedroom.

And the dogs whined and snickered and whinged and yapped because the builders were exciting, and sunlight sparkled off their nice, shiny saws.  ("go on, cut her nose off" whispered a small, spiteful voice in my head).

Occasionally, my phone would ring and I'd have to explain some of the finer points of the resource allocation methodology to the senior Professor of Finance, or some such eminent individual.  This is an interesting experience, with the kind of background noise that's been going on here, today.

Dan's room is all but done - it needs skirting boards and a lick of paint.  He's chosen a pale caramel and a bright,  bright red which I think will look great.  I have kickboards back in the kitchen, which looks incredibly clean and tidy as a result.  I have a floor in the airing cupboard.

This weekend, we will be able to put the house back together again.  It will feel so minimalist and calm and still.  It will feel lovely.  I can hardly wait!

Drying Out

I now have a value for dry!!  On the wet-o-meter, 17 is dry.

The first day, my walls were measuring at 70+, up to 1m high.

Last week, the kitchen wall was 19, Dan's bedroom was 21, the cupboard under the stairs was 20.

We're nearly all dried out - hooray! 

They come again on Tuesday, to check progress and when they're satisfied they'll issue a certificate of dryness, which they will fax to the builder.  The builder will then come and re-panel and re-decorate and re-floor Dan's bedroom, and give me new kick-boards in the kitchen.

I can't quite believe it's been so quick (although I guess by the time the driers go it will be the best part of 3 months, so not all *that* quick).

Meanwhile, Moo comes home this weekend. I will have to clear some space on the bedroom floor for a mattress for her - that will be a challenge!!

Wet, wet, wet.

The nice assessor man has been out again today.  He spent four hours this afternoon.  He's taken up the floor in Dan's room which was all wet as it turns out, and re-measured the wet in all the walls.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that the leak was around for 5 months, all the dehumidifiers have barely made a dent yet.

He wasn't able to take the panelling off Dan's bedroom wall - there are electrical sockets on the panel, and the phone socket is there, too. 

He has given me a verdict, now:

• The damp does not reach up to the ground floor ceiling, and therefore upstairs is dry. (phew!)
• Dan's floor is in a skip, even as I type.
• The kitchen units which run along the party wall between the kitchen and Dan's room need to come out (including the fridge freezer), and *possibly* those that run along the wall under the window (including the sink and dishwasher) (at which point, I guess we have to move out).  But he thinks we might get away with that.
• The dehumidifiers (whose number has now gone from 3 to 8) will be here for at least a month, and the nice man from Rainbow will let himself in once a week to measure the wetness of the walls.
• A builder will come out (hopefully this week) to look at the kitchen, the panelling in Dan's room, and the false floor in the airing cupboard, and will then come back at some time to rip all that out (hopefully in  the next 3 weeks).
• He thinks the kitchen floor, and the oak floor in the dining room/living room is ok, but we're playing that by ear for a bit, as he can't get readings off them, so we're waiting to see if they lift as everything dries out.
• The plaster is an unknown quantity: we may get the kitchen out and find the water has damaged it so much it's coming off by itself; it may look fine but hold up the drying process in which case it'll need to be taken off; it may survive the drying process and crumble when everything's dry as a result of having been so wet at all; or it may just be fine and stay fine.  We won't know until we know.
• The work needed exceeds the cost his firm is authorised to authorise, so they will be recommending that Royal Sun Alliance appoints their own loss adjustor to assess what needs replacing and how and when and by whom (ie how do we work out matching units for the kitchen, or do we just replace the whole lot?  Do we get to stay living in the house while all this is going on, or are we moved out?  etc.)
• Nothing can be repaired until the house is dry, and unfortunately all the insurance approved builders/plasterers/decorators etc. are all fully booked sorting out flood damage from the summer - so everything is taking a bit longer than usual
• Therefore, all he can say is that it will be fixed and back to normal by this time next year - but *when* during that timeframe it will all be done, nobody can guesstimate.

In the meantime, the insurance will cover my electricity bill, and I need to speak to them about getting BT out to move the phoneline to a different point in the house so that we can keep phone and internet communication during the work...

And today was my first day in my new job!! 

Oh, and I'll send a free non-Nestle Mars Bar equivalent to people who send me a water-related headline that can be used in future blog posts :-)

Waterworld. This one could drip and drip...

Well, the loss adjustor has been.  He spent yesterday afternoon in the house.  And the verdict?

Actually, there is no verdict yet, he needs to come back on Monday.  I've been asked to completely clear the linen cupboard, the glory hole under the stairs in the kitchen and Dan's bedroom.  He had a little water guage, which he stuck in all the walls and his initial finding is that the wall between Dan's room and the kitchen is at the guage's maximum to 1.5m high, merely wet to 2m, and damp thereafter.  The kitchen wall (the front wall of the house) is maximum up until the window sills.  He wants to take the panelling off Dan's bedroom walls, and lift the laminate floor on Monday. 

He wouldn't be drawn on whether the kitchen units will have to be removed in order to dry the walls.  He also won't be drawn on the kitchen floor, so I still don't really know what we're up against. 

He's left us with a de-humidifier, a blow heater and a fan in the kitchen - a constant wall of white noise, which sounds like the washing machine is on constant spin cycle.  I'm wondering whether the electricity bill will be part of the claim...   

The linen cupboard is mouldy, but miraculously the linen itself all appears to be dry - the only casualties are a couple of old kids' coats which were lying on the floor, and a scarf of mine.  Minor miracle!  In clearing Dan's bedroom, I've discovered that the valve on his radiator is also dripping - bloody good job that boy's not asthmatic, really!  And we have struggled and juggled to fit all his stuff into Daisy and Moo's bedroom.  Lord alone knows where Moo will fit in when she gets home, but at this rate I'm thinking we might all be moving into a caravan on the driveway!

I am deeply pissed off.  I hate the idea that my house will not be a well organised haven of calm for the next god knows how long.  I'm resigning myself to having stuff stored in plastic crates all over the house, and jamming the attic as full as it can be.  Still, I keep telling myself that it will be an even lovelier house when it's all finished, and we're jolly lucky we found it after only 5 months, cos I truly shudder to think what might have happened if we hadn't found it.  How much water can a wall absorb, before it crumbles??