Life's Surprises

People are always saying how Life is full of surprises. I must agree. Things come, good and bad, that you can't see coming, and they sometimes take your breath away or leave you scratching your head as to 'why'.

Such a moment came to us a week ago. We arrived home after ten and a half hours away from the house, to find our entire first floor underwater. After an initial response of groaning, an immediate peace took over. Following closely on the heels of peace, came the thought, "Ok, we're faced with a flood, let's get to the mopping." So, for four hours, we cleaned up standing water. At 2:30 AM we decided to go to bed, as there wasn't a thing we could do about the soggy wall to wall carpet until we called our insurance company in the morning.

Since then we've had a steady parade of people in and out of here. The ServPro people were here within 3 hours of a call, and throughout the week did their work swiftly and courteously. We have dry floors again, minus vinyl and carpet. Mold killing sprays were applied before molds could even think of starting. Their work has been accomplished for the moment, but they will be back after other jobs are performed, to put our house back in order, and to clean dust from the upholstery, etc.

We've been inundated with a non-stop phone ringing for appointment making. We've had contractors and flooring people, and insurance adjusters here to do their jobs and to make our situation less stressful. We've had friends and family come to offer us meals and lodging. I believe this week has brought more people through our door than have ever been here at any other given seven day period, other than holidays. But, I'm thankful for them all.
Where would we be without them?

This morning yet another contractor will arrive. He will come for another surprise....a faux pas by the builder of this house. We've got some obvious 'dipping' in our floor, apparently because the builder did not build a pantry wall with any support under it. (Even I, who can barely hang a picture on the wall, know that walls need support!) South Carolina has a law that a builder is responsible to fix the problems of a new house for up to eight years after it's built. Now we'll have to send him a certified letter explaining the problems, and attempt to get him here to fix it.
He'll have 30 days in which to do that, and if he will not or does not, we must file a case with the state and they will fight for us. Meanwhile, we can't get our floors repaired by the insurance-hired contractor until the 30 days period lapses.

Surprise on top of surprise. It's beginning to look as if, even though the insurance realm is 'Johnnie-on-the-spot' with their people doing their excellent work, that our house will not be back in order until Thanksgiving! Well, we'll just have to live with it, and take this all with an attitude of 'there's nothing we can do about it, so don't stress.' One step at a time will get us to the finish line, and that's how we'll go about it. It's shaping up to look like another busy day of phone calls and letter writing and meeting with a contractor. Carpet, vinyl and hardwoods can wait to be decided on. There seems to be plenty of time for that.

I've got a renewed sympathy for those whose homes were lost to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina and the like. I can't imagine what they've gone through. My home is, at least, still livable.
This surprise has given me a lot of reasons to count my blessings, which are many. Still, I wouldn't mind having a 'fun' surprise come at me in the near future!