Sunday was our 23rd wedding anniversary. Today is my 3 week sabbatical anniversary. Today is also the 1-1/2 week anniversary of our kitchen, bathroom, and hallway flooding from a pipe bursting in the condo unit above us. Then it happened again on Monday (pretty bad but catastrophes aren’t additive if they’re the same type). And again last night (much less, but our psyches are pretty frazzled at this point).
The wood floor likely can’t be patched and will likely be replaced entirely because so many different locations throughout the condo need replaced; the kitchen bar, sink, and cabinets have to be replaced; drywall in many areas need replaced (and we had the whole place painted a year ago); the bathroom completely gutted–however, we were a few months away from a complete renovation so free demo… yay?
Things to be grateful for: no artwork (it’s at this point that I wonder whether it’s smart for me to own expensive art in an older condo), the piano is untouched as are books and the new bookshelf. The smaller bathroom that was renovated a year and a half ago was untouched. Laptops, server, and piano keyboard in my office were clear of the deluge. Couch, bed, and chairs that would have soaked up nasty ceiling water were also spared. Silver lining blah blah blah.
The first step is to document everything. We’ve got videos and such like that, but for me the most important part is a diary. Writing down what is happening each day with insurance, remediation, HOA (oh man, that’s going to be a bitch), and renovation when it starts.
We’ve lived with the drying fans and dehumidifiers drowning out everything since the remediation guys first came. Noisy, but I close my office and put on noise-cancelling headphones and I’m good to go. Even so, to alleviate sleeping and food issues when they tear apart the kitchen, we rented a B&B a few blocks away. Staying a week at first and I’ll “commute” to work in my office and be on hand for the demo, then we’ll play it by ear.
Demo starts next Tuesday.