"It looks big but it's really not that loud." So said the contractor on Monday morning as he set up the behemoth dehumidifier that is now whirring in our kitchen. On the spectrum of fans, it's not quite jet engine… but it certainly feels like we're living in a hangar bay. I don't blame him. Perhaps he's never tried making supper with the high volume fan blowing at his feet or having a conversation over the incessant drone. In the end, it's a good thing to have around.
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| I had been thinking "dishwasher" in this spot... |
We got in touch with the insurance company on the weekend and they called me up on Monday morning. Good thing my office is a short 15 minute walk from the house because the agent wanted to get in ASAP with a flood remediation team. There aren't too many things that will make you feel as tiny as seeing your little shoes next to 4 pairs of giant work boots. Yep, there were 4 of them plus the insurance agent following me around as I explained what happened. They had a hygrometer to measure the amount of moisture still hanging around and figure out where the water has pooled. It beeps when it gets past a certain threshold of moisture and when they plonked it down in front of the bathtub, it sounded like a bomb about to go off! They also had a thermal camera, which shows wet/cold spots. The neatest thing with that actually had nothing to do with the water damage - it was seeing the thermal bridging on the exterior wall.
This is the first time either of us have claimed anything not health related on insurance so we're learning lots. When it comes to flooding, there are two main categories of work. There's the "emergency" service, which is all about containing and minimizing the damage. Then there's the "repair" or "restoration" work, which is all about bringing the house back to the state it was before the incident.
In our case, the emergency service will end with the bathroom floor, kitchen ceiling, kitchen floor, and at least two kitchen walls getting torn up/out so that they can properly dry things out and check for/treat any mould spores. On Monday, the crew took some samples of the plaster to get it tested for asbestos. 99 times out of 100 it's clean but in the 1/100 chance that there is asbestos, they will have to take lots of extra precautions during the tear out and put us up in a hotel during it all. Once the tests come back, we'll schedule a time for the crew to come back and start ripping things up. They got started on Monday with this ceiling panel to get access to the plaster above… and took out our main light source in the process.
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| Ceiling with one panel removed. You're looking at the plaster covered in strapping and the light fixture box... sans light. |
When it comes to the restoration, insurance will cover any work required to, well, restore. The goal is always to get things back to the state they were in before. But since we've been planning to remodel the kitchen anyways, there's really no sense in restoring it to its former glory only to tear it all down again in a couple of years. The details have yet to be ironed out but it seems like we may be able to work the the insurance to take us part of the way and then deviate to a new layout. Which has thrown us into mega planning mode. Since the kitchen reno was roughly scheduled to happen after the two bathrooms, we hadn't had any truly serious discussions about how exactly things would get laid out. Now, we've taken pen to paper. Lots of ideas are bouncing around and we're excited to share them and get your thoughts.
In the meantime, Garrett is meeting with the insurance agent and remediation contractor later today for an update and to talk abut next steps. This whole thing has thrown our plans for a loop and the timing is awkward (oh, how I miss being a student with extremely flexible hours!) but, once all is said and done, I think all will be OK. The fun and games of home ownership!
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