Now you know that Darla would find this whole experience fun and exciting. Not me, I just want the adjuster to get moving, get us a budget and get our contractors moving on putting in our flooring and get us back home. Darla has enjoyed our "staycation". I've been pretty stressed about the whole thing. I'm concerned about what this is going to cost me out of pocket and especially when we will get back in our home. My furniture is all stored away in a POD and the majority of the house is down to bare slab and carpet tack strips.
We moved into our current hotel on Tuesday after spending two excruciating nights at the Extended Stay hotel here in Roseville. I set up a week's stay there without finding out that the hotel is used as a half way house for homeless, recently released prisoners and county patients. Darla even used the facility for some of her clients and still let us move in there. The first night there Darla went out to get some ice and ran into a woman in the hallway with mental issues. How do I know that? She commented on Darla's Silpada necklace and then went on to tell her that she should wear a garlic necklace because vampires live in the hotel. On the first morning I rode down in the elevator with an 80 year old guy with a Duck Dynasty white beard in his socking feet and pajamas that smelled like "butt". We moved out the next day. Darla jumped all over Expedia and the Extended Stay people and got them to refund us three days of our hotel. We went from the Extended Stay with drug addicts and nut jobs to the Larkspur Inn on Tuesday night where I was sitting in the fireplace room of the hotel and enjoying an IPA and skewers of barbecued shrimp. Very nice. I told Neil that it was like staying with Dad and Shirley with appetizers and drinks every night. They also have hot chocolate chip cookies every night. The Extended Stay smelled like smoke and Darla swore she could smell Meth on the second night. (how she knows what Meth smells like is beyond me.) The floors were sticky and we only got housekeeping once a week. This place is $18 more a night and has very nice furnishings, the evening hospitality, every other day housekeeping and a nice Spa and work out room.
We just got the cost for our carpet on Friday and it came in higher than we expected. we are working with our contractor now because we are going from carpet in the living and family room to laminate flooring. At this point, we just need a budget to know what it will cost us to build out the house. I want to be back in the house by Thanksgiving, but Darla thinks that is being a little too hopeful. We'll see. If we can get the materials ordered tomorrow, we can get the laminate in this week and they can start to work on the carpet by next weekend. We'll see.
I did pull the VP card on Friday when I talked to my adjuster and said that it had been ten days since our damage and she hadn't even got us an estimate on the flooring yet. I told her that I was a VP with an insurance wholesaler and that if one of my companies took that long to work on claims I'd fire them. It seems to have worked as she got us the estimate on Friday night. She promised to have everything to my contractor by Monday morning so that we can work on ordering our materials and get going on the repairs.
I did play in our final event of the year and the last time that Neil and I will work together as Handicapper and Tournament Director. It's kind of sad because we have worked together so well and the new TD is a real nerd. I'll see how it goes this next year, but know that I'll miss Neil's administration skills. He is pretty "no nonsense" and rubs more than a few people the wrong way, but I like it. I struggled on both the front and back sides today and felt myself getting pretty irritated as the day went on. I admit that I've been edgy, but living in a hotel is not for me. I shot 44+45=89 and only had one good hole with a birdie 4 on the par five 6th hole. I likely won't be playing much golf the rest of the year as we work toward getting our house back in shape. I know the golf course has an event in December and I may work toward playing in that one.
Darla and I were over at the house on Saturday and I spent some time working on the year long Eclectic event for the club and getting the flights set up as this was the last event of the year. I also spent about an hour and a half clearing the leaves off of the lawn and out of the flowerbeds and getting them piled up for the city crews to scoop up and haul away on Monday. I also cleared out leaves from the pool and the patio and flowerbeds surrounding the pool to keep them from blowing into the pool. As we were driving away, some young punk in a "raised" pickup truck turned the corner onto our street and drove right along the line of leaves scattering them in his wake. The little bastard.
Next weekend is the celebration of Life for Rick Rusk and we will be there to laugh and cry with his family as we fete Rick. Rick was my Vice President in the club the year that I was President and he was such a help to me that year. His ability to break down problems into smaller pieces and work through them was phenomenal. He was a manager for the State of California and I would say that with his abilities, he should have worked in the private sector. I miss him now and will continue to miss him any time we do anything with the golf club. He was a great man and a good friend.
Well, this is short. You see the picture of Samantha that was shared by Jennifer on Facebook. Jennifer, McKenny and Samantha will be in California during Sam's Christmas vacation from school and we can't wait. All of the hassle of this property claim will melt away when Sam is sitting on my lap or playing cards with me. I hope you all have a good week. Dad and Shirley, Darla and I will try to call you some time this week or weekend. I hope your vacation was awesome and I'm sure it was. Ciao.
No comments:
Post a Comment