Emotional Rollercoaster

The past 48 hours have been turbulent. Get ready, because this is another post about another home disaster. But without revealing too much of the ending, I'll just say there is light at the end of the tunnel. So let's go 48 hours back in time and explore my latest overly-dramatic adventure . . .

I arrived home from Phoenix at 5pm on Tuesday. I was exhausted and oh-so-proud of my forensics team, which placed 18th at the AFA-NIET. GO BLUGOLDS!! I was met at the door by Tonks & Luna, who demonstrated how much they missed me by head slamming and body slamming me over and over again. As I scratched their ears and answered their meows in my high-pitched-kitty voice, I slowly became aware that I was hearing something odd.

I listened more closely, and realized I was hearing water ping against metal. Time stood still for a moment as my brain worked at decoding what this meant, and then started to panic as I realized what it was. There was water dripping into my heating vent. BOOM! The bottom dropped out of my stomach. I ran through the living room to the guest room, which was the source of the sound. As I stepped across the threshold, water lapped over the top of my foot. Crap. My eyes went from the water I was standing in, to the water covering the floor, to the water standing in the guest bathroom, which was coming from the overflowing toilet. I splash-ran across the room and turned off the water at the base of the toilet. Then I grabbed a blanket off the day bed and threw it on the ground, thinking I could sop up the water. The blanket floated for a moment, then sank, completely submerged in water.

With the background noise of water dripping into the vents, I ran back out to the living room to retrieve my cell phone. I called my insurance agent (Dan Flynn with American Family - I HIGHLY recommend this company!) who gave me a list of things to do. Next, I called the claims number to start the claim process. Then I called Servicemaster and spoke to Mike, who said he would be to my house within the hour.

I hung up the phone . . . and completely fell apart. WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING??? What had I done that screwed up my karma so badly that I continued to have this string of bad luck??? How was I going to survive another disaster?? I called my mum and then completely freaked her out by crying so hard and talking so incoherently she had no idea what was going on. She finally figured out I wasn't injured and something horrible had happened to my house and she just kept repeating, like a mantra, "You'll be OK. You are a strong woman. You'll be OK." After hanging up with her, I continued to hyperventilate and cry for another 20 minutes while I started moving stuff out of the guest room.

All the stuff from the guest room & bathroom, sitting in the kitchen!

Then I realized Mike, the Servicemaster guy, was going to show up any minute. I really didn't want to ugly-cry in front of a complete stranger, so I pulled myself together.

Mike arrived with his son Mitchell, and they got to work doing moisture readings. It was worse than I originally realized. I hadn't even noticed that 1/3 of the living room carpet was also wet as the water had seeped under the wall. Mark and Mitchell used a bunch of equipment to extract as much water as possible.

Then they set up a dehumidifier and 5 air-movers to start the drying-out process.

He said he'd be back on Wednesday with more guys to remove carpet and get to work on the water in the vents and bellypan of the trailer. They were here over 3 hours. By the time they left, it was after 9pm and I was physically and emotionally exhausted.

Monday morning, Mike and Sam showed up. They got to work removing carpet and freaking me out. I kept overhearing things like "Well, that doesn't look good." "Oh, that doesn't look good either." "Yikes, that's really bad." Sam was able to shimmy under the mobile home and make some holes in the bellypan, and tons of water poured out. Mike was getting ready to call in a rough repair estimate in to the claims adjuster, and I was shocked when he said $17,000 was the estimate.  (Why so high? Because 3 rooms need new sub-floor & carpet plus the insulation and bellypan need to be completely replaced.) I told him this 30 year old mobile home, while in good shape, wasn't worth that much.

Today, I got a call from the claims adjuster. She said an appraiser was coming out early next week to appraise the value of the home. If the home is valued less than the repairs, the insurance company would do a "cash buyout" - kind of like when you total a car. I may have "totaled" my house. But in a way, this could be good news.

This summer, my plan was to sell my house. Now, it's quite possible that the insurance company may take care of that for me with a cash buyout. Wait - WHAT?? As I've been processing this today, it occurred to me that this could become a big mess because I still don't have my title. I've been trying to get the correct combination of paperwork in to the state so they will finally send me the title with the correct name on it (not my married name!)

When I went to get the mail today, guess what was in my mailbox? Yep. The title. I feel like God is telling me "Yes. All the angst of the last 48 hours leads to this. Perhaps you should have trusted in My plan from the get-go!"

In all honesty, I have been praying for guidance and calm in selling this mobile home. But it seems I forgot to actually listen for an answer. There is still a lot up-in-the-air regarding my water disaster, and I have many questions and decisions to make, but already I feel calmer. I'm going to remember that when I ask, God always answers. I just have to remember to listen.