2011 Feb: Robertson

Hello Everyone,

February was even more adventures with water for us. We had a pipe burst on us under the floor of the newer addition on our house. Because of the nature of the house, it ended up building up and then sweeping the ground out of shallow foundation to an older expansion. The end result was a basement full of mud. The girls woke up to find that their beds had turned into islands in a sea of muck. We called insurance and they called a restoration company to help us out. The restoration company ended up tearing up all of the flooring in the basement. They also took out all of the baseboards and most of casing for the doors. Several of the girls’ stuffed animals and books that were on the floor were also ruined and had to be thrown away.

Long story short – we feel a bit blessed with the entire situation. The night the pipe burst really wasn’t that cold. It had survived more of the colder nights we have been having. We looked at the pipe, it had a foot long crack in it. It was a galvanized pipe and the interior of it was pretty corroded. It was only a matter of time before the pipe cracked by itself. However, if it had cracked from corrosion, our insurance wouldn’t cover it replacement. But a pipe burst from freezing is covered. The plumber said that the pipe did freeze and it was the freezing that cracked the pipe (even though the pipe was already pretty weak). He felt that insurance should cover the replacement of the pipe. And they did. The restoration company that was brought in did a really nice job and wrangled the insurance company for us. They made sure that insurance didn’t ding us too hard for depreciation for our carpet and flooring since they were new when we moved in. Because of the work of the plumber and restoration company, we were given a very generous compensation check. With it we have put in all new flooring, we have the baseboards, and casing bought and ready to install. We even had enough left over from insurance to purchase a mini-van (Morgan’s idea) since the Buick also died this month and we had to sell it for parts. So, all in all we are coming out of this month a bit ahead even with all of the hassle.

Everyone here is doing well enough. Jamis has developed a spreading rash, but it doesn’t seem to bother him. We took him to the pediatricians and were told just to watch it. We were given some prescription hydrocortisone cream to see if that will help. Who knows. Other than that, the girls love preschool, I’m trying to stay afloat in all of my various school responsibilities and church callings, and Morgan has been kept very busy with all of our house and car problems. And with that, we are bracing and getting ready for the next month and just hope that March gives us some sort of a break.

The Robertsons