For those of you that have been following the saga of the repairs to our house, well, it’s almost over finally. As I wrote in the last post, we had a meeting scheduled with Delta Disaster about the finalization of our repairs. Their rep showed up and tried to present us with a check for just over $50 to pay us back for the repairs that we did that they didn’t do. This was of course discounting our $500 deductible that we worked off by emptying the contents of our dining room. It was set to cost $518 to move our dining table, six chairs and empty a closet that was supposed to tek three hours and take two men. We did it in a lot less and had those charges placed against our deductible l no problem.
We advised their rep that we had done far more the the $50 they wanted to pay us. Far more! She said she would have to look into it and get back with us as well as call our insurance company. Tracy and I sat down that evening and went through their list of what they were billing our insurance company and what we had done. In the end, we had done $1033 of what they had billed our insurance so less the $500 deductible, they owed us $533. I emailed the estimate sheets we had worked off to the company rep and contacted our insurance company and emailed copies to them as well. Well, the repair company had to look into it and just again call the insurance company. They really dragged their feet and finally last Tuesday called us and said there was a problem. Three of the items we had claimed, “labor minimums” that they add to the bill for painting the baseboard moulding, final cleanup,and the labor to install the baseboards( we did all of these thing, not them) they couldn’t pay us for them as “their computer system” wouldn’t allow them to take them off the estimate. Total fees involved were over $203 if the $533 they owed us! I told their rep that that wasn’t our problem. We expected to be paid for our work since we had done it and they hadn’t. She was a bit surprised that we wouldn’t accept that scheme of defrauding us of what we were owed. She wa svoing to have to have her supervisor call us and “explain” the problem. An hour or so later, we got the call. He was the “general manager”. He again explained that their system wouldn’t allow deleting these “labor minimums” and there was nothing he could do. My response was that was fine, cut us two checks, one for the $230 for the work we did and a second check as a straight refund for the $203. No problem, right? Well he had to talk to the owner to see what could be done about this. Gee what a surprise! Ever since this job started back in early August, they have dragged their feet. As long as our insurance was paying for the first part of the claim they were fine but once they screwed up and caused lots more damage to our house they have dragged their feet. This could all have been done in about ten days, not the five months it has dragged on. On Thursday, we got an email that they were cutting us a check for the full $533 on Friday and we should have it on Monday. This debacle may soon actually be over! I’ll believe it when the check clears.

I got another call yesterday from our insurance company about the repair debacle we’ve had to endure all Summer long. Apparently she’s the head agent whose job is to resolve problems between the client(us) and the contractor hired to fix the damage. We spoke for about 30 minutes with me outlining everything we’ve had to go through during repairs and the additional claims forwarded to the insurance company. It’s such a long list that it took time to go through everything. I clarified what the original claim had been($4600) and what it covered and the new claim($5300) submitted as an addendum to the original claim to cover what the repair company had done to our home while trying to fix the original damage. In the end, she understood what had happened and the timelines of the additional claims. She couldn’t quite understand why the original claim was registered back in June and the supplemental claim wasn’t filed till November 15th. When I explained that the supplemental claim had nothing to do with the original claim but covered the damage they did to our house. The bells went off and she agreed that there was no reason for our insurance to cover the damages that the repair people caused and were going to call them and request they return the first supplemental check for $1,425 and let them know that they would not be sending the second check for the additional $3,850. I asked her to call us back and let me know what happened. A few hours later, we got the call letting us know that the repair company had agreed to refund the first check back to the insurance company and understood that no secondary check was coming. FINALLY, someone from our insurance company was taking the action that I’d been asking for for months!!!!!!
Earlier in the day, I received a call from the repair company that they wanted to meet to discuss the invoices I’d gotten late last week that made no sense. Now that they were no longer going to get money from our insurance to pay for the damages they caused to our home, I have a feeling that it’s going to be an interesting meeting. These people are known for putting liens on peoples houses if bill are not paid by insurance companies. Sure glad we lined out everything on their “repair order” that said we were financially responsible plus the letter from them that said the same thing. Now if they file for a lien, it won’t stand up in court with the documentation we have plus I’m sure they don’t want to upset our insurance company that sends them so much business. Our meeting is for next Thursday so we will see what happens. Stay tuned, it not over yet but we are much closer.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted but just wanted everyone to know we are both still alive and still in Colorado. As for the work on our house, well the roof is long since done and done well. As for the oak flooring in the first floor, for those of you that have been following know what we have been going through with the contractor the insurance hired to fix our damages, well it’s still not over. A few weeks ago we found out that they(the contractor)had submitted lots of additional bills to our insurance company to pay for the damages that THEY caused to our house. Strangely, my insurance company seem intent on paying them for the damages they caused to our house. I’ve made numerous calls to the insurance company about what they did and encouraging them to disavow the new claims. A few weeks ago, I got an email from the CEO of the insurance company touting how wonderful they are. At the bottom of the email was a link to respond so I did just that. A few days later I got an email that they would have another person contact me about my concerns and a few days later I did get the call. Heck, they even recorded it! I outlined what had gone on and encouraged them to disavow this new addendum to our existing claim. We talked for about a half hour and in the end she agreed with me. They didn’t insure the contractor just us and would relay what I had said and they had taped to the arbitration department with the recommendation that they stop this new payment. Our original damage was $4,600. This new addendum for what they had done was almost $5400 far more than what was originally damaged. When I was in the business world, if I went into a customers house and caused damage, well it was my responsibility to fix it, not pile it onto the homeowners insurance. I got another call last week from the young lady at our insurance that I had talked to and she told me that there had still been no definitive answer yet but would call me once it is made.
The attached photo is of out Thanksgiving dinner. Diana really pulled out all the stops from our best plates to great wine.

With the death of Blue, one of our kitty crew, we waited a few days and with the house being so quiet, we went to the Denver Dumb Friends League and got another crew member so we are back to our normal. Let me introduce Sierra, a 3.5 year old ex-female. Sweet kitty with a bit of a weight problem(don’t we all)weighing in at over 13.5 pounds. With there being another kitty in the house, we’ve been trying to get some weight off her and so far she has lost a bit over a pound. She’s been checked by our vet and came through with flying colors so all is well and so far, she ifps getting along with Snowshoe, our big white Persian. We kept them separate for the first week and after getting a clean bill of health, let them get together. So far so good. Now as to boating, well we will see when we get back to Zephyr in a few months.

Two men from the company hired to repair our house showed up to move our washer and dryer back into the laundry room since the new vinyl was laid on Thursday. It only took four days to get them moved. It was the last thing workers need to do. Now we have to wait for the companies rep to call us so we can settle up the final accounting. I called my insurance company yesterday to tell them we were finally done and to see if the repair company had submitted another claim to have my insurance pay for what they broke. Sure enough, they had submitted a claim for another $1,000 to off set some of what they have had to pay out to fix everything that came after they broke the waterline to the ice maker in our fridge. We were out running errands when they called so I pulled over so we could talk without being distracted by traffic. The adjuster told me about the add on claim ($1,000)to the original. I spent a good fifteen minutes going through what had happened and encouraged them to deny to additional claim as it had nothing to do with my insurance company. I went into great depth of what they did that took a job that should have been done in ten day but ended up taking 90 days. The agent for the insurance company went through what the repair company was claiming and I did my best to tell them what they had done that caused to necessary additional expense. In the end, I think I persuaded her not to pay the additional money but she was going to call the repair company and discuss it. For all my years of dealing with insurance companies, most make it hard to get money out of them. This time they seem bound and determined to pay for something that’s not their responsibility. I asked her to call me back and let me know what happens because I have a feeling that if the claim is denied(sure hope so) that they are going to play hardball getting more money out of us. They’ve put leins on other customers from what I’ve read on reviews of their company.

We just might be in the home stretch today. Yesterday, I called the owner of the construction company my insurance company hired to discuss our situation. He told us that they still needed the “work order” signed and to feel free to cross out anything we didn’t like. That was fine by him. Putting the shoe on the other foot, I requested a letter from his company stating that we were not financially liable for any of the repairs that were made after they broke the copper water line. That was agreed to and a letter was emailed to us later stating just that and a signed copy was delivered to us this morning when the workman showed up to finally install the vinyl floor. He was told to make sure he had the signed “work order” in his hand before starting any work. By the time we were done crossing out all the provisions on it, you would have thought it was a redacted file from the CIA!
The workman has already pulled out the washer and dryer and is now about to cut the vinyl floor after taking numerous measurements of the room. This is the third attempt at getting the floor in. The first time, it was ordered wrong, the second was cut wrong by the workman and I just came back from outside where the workman is cutting the newest vinyl to make sure he cuts it right this time. Measure twice and cut once. Lots of the woodworking project I’ve done, I’ve measure three or four time. Paranoia is my friend!
The glue that holds this new flooring down takes between 24 to 48 hours to cure so they will have to come back either tomorrow or Saturday to put the washer and dryer back in. I made sure to read the can the glue is in last night as I figured they would be trying to move the appliances back in immediately(which is what he’d planned on doing). We made sure to do our laundry late last night so we would be ok if this went sideways again.
So now we sit back and watch and see what happens. I’ll let you know.