*Bangs head against the wall* Ouch! That hurt! :-)

I am going to be hit and miss for the next few days, maybe a week and a half till things settle down here.

Sunday morning I woke to the ceiling and the kitchen cabinet leaking...oh joy! So the hubby and I moved everything out of that cabinet and then proceded to find a reputable plumber that hopefully had a good standing with the Better Buisness Buerau. And we did on the 2nd try. In Germany, nothing was open on a Sunday and certainly not a plumber, so when we seen ads in the phone book that said 24 hours / 7 days a week, we were like 'ooo wow'...lol.

A company out in Dallas came to our rescue. They were here for a few hours but they were really nice and were ready to work and not mess around.

They took out a chunk of the wall in our bedroom in order to find the source of the leak and they found it within seconds, thank God. They replaced 3 items that needed the replacing (don't ask me what the real problem was because I don't remember anymore and I can't read the dude's handwriting on the paperwork), and put the wall temporairily back together.

$708 later we said our goodbyes and they were gone ($150 of that was just for them to come out on weekends, it's $60 on weekdays).

An hour later the water restoration gentleman came. He is awesome! I think it's because he is our age, plus he was prior military, plus he really knows his job well.

Anywho, he did paperwork, and set up dehumidifiers, 2 in the kitchen, 1 in the bedroom and 1 in the bathroom (plus he had to tear up our baseboards in order for the dehumidifier to get in the wall where it was still wet) and then we talked about getting the claim filed through the insurance company and what needs to be said, ect, ect.

Then he goes 'do you know you have a leak underneath your kitchen sink?' I said 'yes, the plumber told me an hour ago'...lol. Then he went on how I needed to get that fixed ASAP before mold starts showing up and all that fun stuff.

He said he knows a great construction man who would be willing to assess all the damage and even put all the cabinets and what not in, and he said he would even talk with the insurance company as he better knows the situation than I do.

After more chit chat, he left and Robert and I watched The Christmas Shoes on DVD and went to bed.

Of course neither of us got sleep because of that noisy machine in our room.

Today the insurance company made contact with me and we began the claim process.

The same water restoration man came out today and he said the moisture is almost gone but still needed to leave the dehumidifiers for one more evening.

We chatted about the issue with the sink, and his contracter buddy he wants us to meet who will make my kitchen beautiful (lol), he took pictures of the damage, did some paperwork and said he would be back tomorrow.

Well the insurance company sent some contractor over and as he stepped in my door, my 'hmmmm' radar went up. :-)

As this guy took pictures and measurements upstairs and told what repairs would be made, I was like 'okay, that's cool', but then when he assessed the downstairs, he started getting shady about how this didn't need replacing and that didn't need replacing (mind you, these various places have visible water damage), and the wall is fine and it will dry (uh, hello...mold grows inside the walls too, or I guess he didn't know that) and he pretty much said there was nothing wrong with the kitchen! The only thing this guy carried on him was a flashlight and camera.

If he had a moisture reader thingy like the water restoration guy, he would see that the water has damaged the counter and the wall and the cabinet and if that wall doesn't get opened up and taken care of it's going to mildew over. The contractor was like 'well it's just water it will dry'. How is it supposed to dry when there is no ventilation? Ugh! There were also some other things said from this man that left me thinking in my head 'what do you mean you don't know what that means'?

I wanted this contractor gone so thankfully he stayed 5 minutes and left. Then Robert came home from college and I explained everything that was said and even he was like 'okay, I don't have a degree, but I do have common sense...look at the wall and counter...' so he called the insurance company and told them that this man was off a little and that we had someone else in mind to come out and assess the damage. They yapped about how they are going to send an adjuster or something out to assess the damage and then after that we can hire who we want, or something.

We tried to get ahold of Josh (the water restoration guy) so he could call his construction buddy but the agency wouldn't give us his number, but he will be back tomorrow so hopefully he can chat with the insurance company and tell them what's really going on instead of USAA sending out some shady person in order to save money.

I still haven't called about the sink. Josh said it needs to get done before it gets worse and I agree and he said that if it gets done soon he will go ahead and get it aired out there for free for us and what not.

He's actually a life saver. So I will ask Robert if I should go ahead and call the same plumbing folks tomorrow or what.

Ahhhh the joys of being a 1st time home owner....

Friday evening my laptop seemed to acquire a virus (I am using DH's laptop right now) and the warning thingy says I have 32 infected files...oh joy! I can't even down load the Norton's Anti Virus stuff without the computer flipping out and turning off and on or going to some other weird site.

We may have to buy one of those $50 anti virus CD-ROM things....unless one of you has a better and cheaper alternative. :-)

So, that is that for now. I guess we will see what this week has for us. Either way, I am not worried about it. :-) Life happens. Houses get old and wear out, cars break down, kitty cats run away....

God Bless You!

~Dawn