Missed you

We had an informal open house today to celebrate our new floors (before anything bad happens). As it turns out, we already have another leak—no I’m not kidding. Our room off of the closet formerly known as the smelly closet has a leak from the pipe that leads to the outside faucet. Kent just turned that faucet on yesterday for the nice neighbors who maintain the little garden near our window. Fortunately he had to go back in there today and discovered the leak and fortunately we don’t need Nasties or Ferals help in turning that water source off. So it’s off and it will be attended to this week. Still—ironic, no?

Anyway. Here are some pictures from before our open house started:

See the pipe that caused
all the problems?

The spread.

Chloe is dying of anticipation. 

Notice the new floors. 

Now Kent is on a plane to Detroit and I’ve already tidied up from our party. Back to the normal routine (hopefully the normal dry routine). 

Let me ‘splain

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Things have gone from bad to worse to just bad again with Mr. Feral regarding our current water damage. In an unexpected, very last minute development, his plumber will be in our home this morning, supposedly tracing out the pipe that leaked and capping it off. We’ll see if that actually happens—we made the offer to allow access to our home over a month ago but Mr. Feral didn’t move on it until Friday. We've also made it clear that we'll cover the ceiling repair costs but not anything having to do with his pipe. I suspect his plumber may think that we are going to pay for today's work. We are most definitely not paying for that work.  

Our own reconstruction starts Tuesday. We’ve signed our contract, sent deposit checks, and the floors were ordered and are ready to be installed. Bostonian will start with the walls, which should be about a three-day job. The job itself doesn't take three days (we don't have that large of a place) but the mudding compound has to dry. The floors are supposed to be replaced beginning Thursday and that part should be done by the close of business Friday.

I leave for Denver this morning, and I’ll get home Friday night. Even if Bostonian has to come back on Monday, that work shouldn't kick up construction debris into the air, so I should be OK to return.   

My lungs continue to improve, although I will confess I get impatient for faster progress. I'm holding steady at about 80—85% of where I’m supposed to be on the peak flow meter. Still, I’m really happy about that and hope that once all this construction is done, I will get all the way back to normal. You might already know how competitive I am, so I’m slightly driven to see that improvement.

On an unrelated note, I actually won something from one of my favorite sewist bloggers. Carolyn has a truly impressive stash—one I couldn’t duplicate ever because our apartment is so small—but even she reached her limit. She’d found some fabric that just didn’t do it for her anymore and offered them to her readers. Long story not so long, I won a piece! I love to read her blog because she’s absolutely fearless in what she makes and doesn't hesitate to take a pattern into a very different direction based on what she's creating. Sometimes I get a little too fixated on how a pattern is supposed to be rather than considering how it should be for me. She inspires me to take that step. 

Reconstruction junction

Maybe the third time is a charm because we are getting to be quite good at this whole reconstruction thing. Everything starts on Monday, and while that’s almost a week away, I have a lot to do to get ready.

First up, the cats have to be boarded. They’re going to hate being at the vet’s, I know, and our wallets will hate it too. It’s $25 a cat a night and they’ll be there four nights. So I’m already waving bye-bye to $300 plus tax.

Next, I can’t stay in the apartment while the reconstruction is going on. I don’t yet have the results of the allergy tests my doctor ordered but it’s safe to say that even if I’m allergic to nothing, all that dust and debris from dry walls and floors won’t help my lungs any. My peak flow readings have improved over the last two months, and I am a fan of that trend continuing. So I need to leave. The problem is figuring out where to go on such short notice. I’ve recently inflicted myself on visited two sets of family and since then they’ve also had a lot of out-of-town company. So they are both out as options. I thought about going to England to see my sister but the tickets are over $1200. Yeah, that’s a budget buster. No decision on where to go yet but I do need to figure that one out.

Edited to add that I'm going to Denver. My other sister very kindly invited me out and I haven't seen her in about 18 months. It will be great to see her and her family again.

Kent won’t be able to eat in the apartment for at least the first couple of days because that’s when the drywall is getting replaced. Bostonian will tape up the openings to the unaffected areas of the house and move our belongings into those tiny places. There’s just no way Kent can cook when the house is in that condition. Plus I think he’d mostly be eating drywall dust. So restaurants it is.

He’s also got to recaulk our tub while I’m gone. The caulk failed and our first repair also failed. We think it’s because we used acrylic caulk instead of silicone caulk and also we probably didn’t let it cure long enough. So next week is the week for that.

And he’ll be cleaning out the Room of Doom ™ where our hot water heater is. That room most definitely has mold in it and also has some things stored in there which have succumbed to the mold. So out they all go while I am safely out of the house. 

As for those who have been following along with our story since January, the neighbor whose pipe leaked didn't have home owner's insurance. We had to file on our own personal property insurance so that the deductible for the condo association's master policy is covered. It's not fair, but it does let us get things repaired. At this point, repairs are more important to us than being right.

Hanging in here

I’m still really tired here in Boston, but from everything I’ve read that’s part of having this asthma flare up. In fact, I think a lot of what I’d been attributing to lack of sleep ie constantly tired and just having no energy is due to the asthma. It’s been eye-opening to realize that all three times I’ve had severe coughing and exhaustion like this have each occurred after serious water damage to our apartment.

We had one documented case of mold—last May when our floors were being replaced for the second time, the reconstruction company found it, immediately left (Kent said it was like a fire drill) and sent in a mold remediation team. I’m pretty sure we had it after the flood in 2009 and of course the  damn hatch that leads into the mold room got left open in January for a couple of weeks. After the first flood, I had a very bad time with coughing in January 2010, so much so that I pulled muscles in my chest (but thought it must be a cold, everyone gets colds only um no wait, I actually don’t get colds). Last May/June I was in bad shape and got in to see the nurse practitioner for drugs so I could fly on my next business trip without getting thrown off the plane for coughing my lungs out. And of course, I had all those problems last month.

And on a very positive note, the condominium association’s master insurance policy has already approved the claim and cut the check. That means we can get moving with actual repairs, although I’ll need to figure out where to go during that time. I’ve been here during reconstruction before and the amount of debris in the air is truly mind- and lung-boggling. Still, this is real progress.