Richardson V. Ike

And life goes on...

2009-01-22T21:40:00.000-08:00

It is funny to go back and read those posts and look at how emotionally devastating I thought life was. Really, its not that bad...
We heard from the insurance company, they shorted us a significant amount of money but oh well. I am taking the path of least resistance and jsut realizing that we will not come out even and we are going to fix our house and it will cost us a lot despite our insurance, way to go having insurance. Useless. But whatever, as a good friend pointed out, annoyingly and numerous times...you do live near the coast in a hurricane zone. Ding, ding....like I didn't know about that. But thanks for the reminder that this is really all my fault for picking my home.
Bitterness is exiting every pore.
Anyhow, we will rebuild, stay in Houston for a bit, and throw one hell of a hurricane party that EVERYONE will be invited too. Just to say F-u ike and get one with it.
Anyhow, I don't have much else to add.
we have a kick as snew fence. i am looking at weeding my yard next week and i graduate in may and healthcare for the homeless will hire me...
so all is well.

Time for an update..

2008-10-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

So we are truckin' through all of this stuff. I am still feeling bad. Just tired I guess. Anyhow, I got rear-ended on the freeway yesterday. So that could be another reason I feel bad. I was stopped, and she was doing 40-50...fun times. So I am tired, sore, and sick of dealing with issues.
Add another one to get my car fixed. By the way, her car was a lot worse off and I love the CR-V more for how well it held up, slight scratches and some possible undercarriage damage. yippee.
Fema offered us a hotel room until the 15th of October, not much help, but a nice governmental gesture. I would rather take the 50 - 100 bucks a night that that costs and apply it to my new rent. Ick.
So there are good things. Lucy hasn't pooped in the new apartment, not once. I have cable TV and watch re-reruns of "What Not to Wear", Law and Order, Without a Trace, and The Soup.

Rodeo Cowboy

2008-09-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Guess what...the adjustor came today....
And his other job is a bona fide cowboy. Yes, he ropes. Team roping and calf roping for those who know rodeo. How cool is that. He is good enough to have a big ol' truck given to him. He does the circuit and even did the Pacific Northwest rodeos a couple of years ago. He liked Ellensburg and Omak a lot and thought it was pretty cool that Nick went to Omak and I to the Puyallup Rodeo this year. And that we actually knew what roping involved. So yeah, nmy adjustor is a cowboy.
He also thought our house looked pretty bad. Now he types out his list, gives it to his supervisor to approve, they send it to Texas Windstorm to approve, who sends it to our agent to approve and then we get paid. It should cover everything...but he is not sure about the apartment and the extra high cooling bill for the house sure to come next month...we will cross our fingers.
meanwhile, my adjustor will be missing some rodeos the next few months while he adjusts.
Bummer.

Take care and stay dry!!

No Cable, No problems...

2008-09-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

Sooo....
A little visitor named the maintenence man came over this morning...actually it was like 11 but that is morning for me.
And suprise, there is a leak somewhere from my apartment into the garage below, no big deal or anything they think they can fix it from the garage....
So Patty, Dad and I went to the mall...I didn't buy anything other then nice smelling things to put in my new apartment. Dad sprayed his hands with room spray and tested mixing together pumpkin spice with caramel and so forth. He then tried to cover his new creations with coconut lotion. Quite funny and that's my dad for ya! His hands smelled lovely, and later when I smelled them in the checkout line at Kroger the lady thought we were nuts...but I explained what happened....and she still thought I was nuts. Oh well.
Anyhow, when we got home, lo and behold the drywall was on the floor in the doorway of my apartment. Oscar and Lucy were soooo mad, someone was in there home and breaking stuff up...
The water leak was in a pipe in our apartment. Joy. Joy. Joy. Easily fixed, after removing the drywall, drying it out and then re-applying. LIKE I DIDN'T NOW HOW THAT GOES!!!!
So I have decided to move to the desert.
Anyhow, just thought you'd laugh at that.
And by the way in the race of the adjustors, looks like FEMA may beat the actual insurance adjustor here...amazing.
Oh and today was supposed to be the very first full day in my adult life that I had cable TV. Nick and I have never gotten it and as a treat to ourselves we decided that as long as we were living in an apartment, we'd have it. Well they didn't come yesterday from 4 p to 8p like they said they would because when they called the number and talked to Sean, he said he didn't want cable. WHO IS SEAN?? Why does HE decide about MY ability to have TV and internet???!?!?!!! They had a phone number mix up and even though SEAN's name is nowhere on the Richardson "making decisions" list, they went with it. Darn it all....so no television. Go Comcast. I guess that helps my studying.
okay more next time...
Heather

Tired...

2008-09-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

Today was Nick's first day back at work....ergh...kinda.
He couldn't find his badge, his truck is still not working and so instead he did some work from one of the three untouched rooms in the house....
I found him there at 430p today sleeping soundly! 10 days of non-stop work, stress, and chaos will do that to you. I am recovering nicely from a long weekend of work. Seriously, I made it through Friday night fine, but Saturday was so busy.... lots of angry people getting shot and stabbed.
Okay, enough about us. The house is roofed (ish) and we await the arrival of the adjustor to decide on when and what we fix. We are getting AC guys to come in and electricians as well to decide what we need to replace. We both have a feeling that it will be a new AC unit and some of the wiring may have to be redone.
On to the new place, we succesfully rented a truck and transferred the last few items into the new apartment. It is smaller, a lot smaller but kinda fun to get creative on where we put things. All that is left to do now is organize the chaos that is my living room, bedroom, and every other room. The kitchen is ready. Laundry is probably going to take the most time. I have bags and bags of clothes that were dampened or not clean before the storm. I should have done laundry as part of the evacuation. We will manage and I cannot complain.
Okay, I have to go start on homework that I am a week and a half behind on....good times for all.
Take care

Back to Work

2008-09-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Last night there was no update because I went back to work, really it was an adventure in itself. A mild night compared to Friday nights in the past, but sadly the curfew is over tonight....so I expect some action.
There are still people being flown in from Galveston, and many are very sick. I think I was happiest to be back so I could just do normal things because everything has been so abnormal. I mean really, just to help my patients, give a homeless guy some pants, and get called one not-so-nice name made it feel like everything woudl eventually be better.
I was fine until I drove home and didn't know which house to go to...the apartment or the old house. I wasn't sure if they moved in or not. So I guessed correctly and went to the old house.
Today I slept and now I know why we moved out of the apartment before, loud. Especially on the first Sat after a major storm when everyone was moving in. Lucy was barking at shadows and got squirted by a very sleep Heather dozens of times....
Oscar is still just freaked out. I guess last night when they got to the new apartment the christened our coats. More laundry....greeeaaatttttt.
Anyhow, the roof is being semi-repaired and the best news of all for last....some insurance guy called today and the adjustor may be out in just a couple of days. Yippee. So we may be rebuilding sooner than we thought.
I work again tonight and need to pack up my office before then...sooo....au revoir!

Heather

Irony

2008-09-17T21:19:00.001-07:00

This morning I was awoken to a call from an unknown Texas number, thinking "Yipee!" Its the insurance adjustor I answered.
It was Tyra. Not Banks offering me a million dollar talk show deal for the strains of a hurricanes (NOTE: Ike is NOT even in the news anymore, there are still more than 20K people not accounted for....WHY ARE THE VICTIMS OF THIS STORM BEING IGNORED???)
I digress. Tyra is from the Apartment complex where I just rented my sweet new pad.... guess what...its water damaged. We can't move in until tomm afternoon now....
CAN you believe it!!??
Anyhow, a small set back in the whole swing of things....but another just the same. Tomorrow marks my first day back at work. I am excited at the normalcy and unexcited at the lack of sleep i will be getting before that long shift starts... Since I have to move into the afore mentioned sweet new pad. Nick is off for the rest of this week and taking vacation for the next week to work on the home.
We gutted the bathroom today and some of the living room, we moved the stuff going to the apt into the guest room and i have to pack up the rest of the clothing and house stuff for tomorrow's ig move.
It still is surreal to see this happening to my house and knowing that there is still so much more to do....exhausting too. Nothing a bit of sleep won't cure, but at the same time....i am not sleeping all that well...ick.
Dad and Patty will get here today, like in minutes. Which will help. Kathy G. stopped by today and jsut sat with me and chatted, which was much needed. we even took the dogs on a long walk. Although she failed to tell me I looked ridiculous in pink shirt, blue, pink and white striped socks, red shoes, long shorts, crazy hair and my stained sweater...Like a crazed woman for sure...my neighbors think I have lost it....
But that's okay. I get new neighbors tomorrow
More soon...

Rudeness.

2008-09-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

So Courtney said that it was RUDE to go ahead and say bad news and not say WHY...so here goes.

I was crying too hard earlier to type.
Basically, our windstorm Insurance company ( by the way no one insures for wind in the disaster zone known as the gulf of mexico so the state provides it, RAISE your hand if you have ever had probs dealing with the state...Drivers license anyone??) said it could (not would so thats a bit better) take months to get an adjustor out, so we can't start repair until they see the damage. So good thing I got the apartment....
It is just a bit overwhelming fitting a big house into a little apartment....just have to be choosy...
And I just didnt want to deal with all this crap, but then again. And i cannot emphasize enough, we are LUCKY, we will make it through and we have a place to go.
Nick continues to deal with the swinging of my mood from stable to crazy crying with grace. If the insurance were just slightly more understanding.....
So that was the bad news, all and all not that bad, but pile it on top of all the other things to deal with and that makes it the icing on the cake.
I like cake, but now with a lot of icing and Ike has had a lot of icing...
Until tomorrow, when operation bye bye living room commences....
Heather

A new place to live. Not a FEMA trailer

2008-09-17T17:36:00.001-07:00

Okay, so today I got an apartment. We realized today that we cannot live in our house as we remodel it, because we cannot even keep it cool enough to work in, let alone live in. So now we regress to the days of college and newlyweddedness and live in a 2 bedroom, delux model apartment. No balcony, which does kinda suck for two bbq-ing lovers like ourselves, but I suppose we can go back to our home and cook out. So we decided that the house is home and the apartment will just be the apartment. Temporary, for like 6 months....
So today we called the insurance adjustor and they kindly told us that windstorm insurance covered our problems and they were homeowners. Felt like a fool and besides THEY COULDN'T HAVE TOLD ME THIS EARLIER....like maybe before I spent an hour on the phone describing in detail every bump, bruise, loss and water stain we had. I was livid. Luckily Nick took over.
I am trying to log onto the FEMA site and its saying my password is wrong and so on...strange as I have reset it once, and copied it down, had Nick re-read that I was typing the right thing and so on. I guess we get to enjoy the joys of working with not one but two government agencies...FEMA and Our Texas Windstorm Insurance. Yippee.
The news is that we have a claim in place....and the state will send someone, when they get someone...hahhahhhhhaaaahhaaaaaaaaaaa. <----- That is psychotic laughing. Just got some more bad news and I will talk more later.

What the heck happened?

2008-09-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, since a good friend of mine recommended this (and my Aunt), I am going to go ahead and leave some messages here in between demolition and so on....

From the Beginning:
Last Thursday night, we evacuated on the command of the city to Houston, to my friend Amanda's house. She lives in Midtown area of Houston, which allowed Nick to be close to me as I worked throughout the storm over at Ben Taub. Mid-day Friday we were entranced by the news from Galveston of terrible winds and flooding, long before Ike hit. He was a very large storm, which kinda made it worse. I was at work so I experienced the storm through the windows and the injuries before and after, while Nick spent the time at Amanda's enjoying the Hurricane Mix that we waited so long to use. He and our friends, John, Kelly and Melissa spent he night safely in the townhouse. In the morning the damage was obvious, trees downed everywhere, fires burning in some of Houston's most famous restauraunts and people started arriving to the hospital flown in from Galveston, we didn't know about our house though. We knew Kemah and Seabrook were hard hit in some places, at as those places are very close to us, we weren't sure how bad it would be.
Hurricane Ike ended up being a direct hit on Galveston Island, and from pictures and the news, areas are just about gone, so over all we are lucky. Essentially, the direct hit prevented some of the nastiest storm surges from hitting us, however, it did not spare us the ill effects of a lot of wind. Althought we are lucky, we do have electricity, we have a structure to start from, and we are all okay. Oscar and Lucy are a bit screwed up, they are kinda confused at to all the movement, all the people coming in and out and the packing and moving.
On to damage.... Ike took out one of our vents in the roof and tore some of the roof down to the plywood, allowing some water to enter. Well, honestly it allowed a lot of water to enter, and travel through all the ventilation ducts, throughout the entire house.... well 75% of it anyhow, but enough to be a bit of damage. I dare say, extensive. Nick was a bit stunned, and the worse damage was the dining room, where the ceiling was actually bowed. In the night, that collapsed and caused Oscar to have an accident and Nick a heart attack. By morning, we had more problems (I was STILL at work) another round of rain showers blew through. Nick called me at work as I stayed there for 50 hours to ride out the storm, and stated, " You might want to not come home right now, our house is leaking like a seive." I sobbed. Again. So we have travelled through the house taking pictures of all spots with water on the ceiling. And soon realized there weren't many rooms that didn't have some form of damage coming through, mind you that doesn't count what may be under the insulation in the attic. So, it looks like most of our house will likely be torn to the boards. Which means, I pack, find a storage unit and oraganize the three rooms that we HOPE we will be able to live in. Otherwise, apt hunting is high on my list. Nick meanwhile gets to pull out insulation, knock down walls, and fix the roof before the next rain storm.
We have had so many people offer to help, neighbors, friends, family and we are taking people up on those offers now that we have some idea of what we need to do. It is weird, the worst part for me is tha despite all of this Nick and I are extremely lucky, we have AC, power and plenty of supplies to make it through all of this. Others don't but you really get an idea of how great this nation, state and so are when you see the volunteers out delivering as many supplies as possible to those in need. Hopefully, Houston will have power soon, because that is the most difficult part for most right now. I am so used to being the helper, I am not taking to needing help very well.
We have started a process that will go on long after the news stories have died down and CNN deems this story unworthy, but at least we have a strong group of friends and family backing up up and we get to redecorate.
Funny asides... I was at a wedding last weekend where my good friends Tim and Lora told me of how they "turned" a house, buying it in sub-par condition then selling it for some profit. I thought it sounded fun and they said it was hard, but cool to see the results...little did I know that I would get to "turn" a house so soon!
We are doing okay, I think I am a bit more emotional than Nick is, but mainly because I can be...because I am a giiiiiiirrrrrllllll. So, this is a start. Not the finish. Not by a long shot. But I will try and do this daily so you can all rebuild with us!!
By the way, THANKS!!! (And if I missed you, forgive me, there will be more to come!) Mario for taking out the front room....and Melissa for making dinner and keeping us both sane in the early stages...and Karen for being at Taub with me and rushing me outside everytime I needed to cry...and Amanda for your house...and Dads for being on the way before the storm even hit...and Court, because you know what....that that that that don't kill you....

More soon,
The Richardson's