Like Jesus, Like Tally

Okay... this isn't actually as spiritual of a post as you might assume from the title.
(relatively long personal saga... read only if you have some time to kill)

The joys of home ownership have already kicked in! Yippie! Kristy and I have our first major problem in our home! Whoooowoowwooo! Aren't you excited!

So yesterday Kristy asked me to come into the downstairs bathroom and she starts stepping on the floor in different places. I don't usually see my wife cuttin' the rug in our bathroom (she used to go to a Mennonite church and they don't do that) so I figured there must be something up. She could tell that I wasn't too quick on the uptake with this one so she said... "no.. listen." I listened a little closer only to hear a squishy sound mixed with a suction cup sound. (Put water in your hands and then cup your hands together with your right palm across your left hand and pull apart and you will get the idea)

Sure enough we were Walkin on Water! Peter didn't have the faith we had!

Okay... Water damage! Wonderful. As I'm sure you guessed we were really excited to have a major damage on our hands. Now the task was to find the culprit. Could it be a busted pipe? Maybe a bad seal in our son's bathtub? We searched high and low and found NOTHING!
Resigned to fight another day (and to call our Insurance company in the morning) we could do no more so we did what any great Pastor and his wife would do in the same situation. We went to bed. Well, I went to bed. My wife laid there thinking about the water damage. As I tried to count sheep I was fielding questions about moisture and potential problems that could have caused this to happen. (Been there guys?)
After asking my wife if I could go to sleep I drifted off into La-La land.

Well, this morning I went to our 6am bible study at Starbucks only to return to my wife who was again with that look of concern on her face. As soon as I walk through the door at 7:20a.m. she motions me over to the washer and dryer (which shares a back wall with that bathroom) and she says "Did you put anything wet in the Laundry?" My mind began to recap my days actions of yesterday when I said "Nope" Kristy then showed me the pile of laundry we had laying at the foot of the washer. She said "The bottom of this pile is soaking wet. We have to get someone in here to fix this."

So, I waited around until 8 a.m. and I called my Realtor at exactly 8 this morning. I asked her about the home owners insurance policy she recommended we get instead of a traditional inspection. I had visions of our conversation when she said "Tally, if you have an inspection and something goes wrong the week after you're in the house... it's on you. However if you buy a policy and something happens a week in, they will cover it. My advice... go with the INSURANCE!" We did. I'm very glad we did.

Our Realtor gives us our policy numbers (I could have looked them up but someone else has to join me in my concern and since we just gave her a several thousand dollar pay-day two weeks ago, I figure she should be willing. She was.)

So this morning at 8:20 a.m. I filed a claim via the computer voice whom I normally hate talking to (but this time wasn't so bad b/c they didn't repeat every number) and I was told who would be coming out including their phone number--pretty cool. Well, about an hour ago a guy showed up at my door as promised and began his investigation. After showing him the extent of my water damage he said "wow... this is bad." I thought "Thanks! Now fix it!"

We looked around a bit and I leaned over the wash machine to reassure him that the problem couldn't possibly be my washer... he said "Do you mind if I look back here?" I said "No.. that's why you're here you idiot!" JUST KIDDING. I said "sure" and he began to look. Within about 10 seconds he said "Here is your problem. Your hose on the washer are leaking." Ohh my goodness!!!!

So he shows me the leak and sure enough... my multiple-thousand dollar problem is coming from faulty seals on the hose (I can't say for sure if it's the seals or Kristy's dad who sealed them but I'm not asking questions at this point) and he begins to tighten them. Ultimately he finds out that one of the hoses is missing a washer and he fixes that.

Now I ask the obvious question. "Will the Insurance cover the damage?" He says "Nope. They would probably cover it if it was in the wall or if your washer itself was broken but since it is a hose that you put on they will probably not cover it."

This is the time when I about lost my Christian manners. (not really)

So he calls in the third-party insurance company and begins to tell them the problem. When he tells them that it was the hoses I hear the repair man say "Huh? You cover them? Well, I dont' know what they cost. Let me call you back." He calls his boss who tells him that the hoses cost about $20 and instructs him to go get them.

So here I sit. I'm under the belief (and will continue to pray) that the logic is in my favor. IF the Insurance company covers the problem... they surely will cover the damage caused by the problem! It's only logical that if they fix my leak that they will repair any damage cause by my leak. Unfortunately for them (or me) the damage is likely to require wood floors and tile floors to be replaced in two rooms of my house.

This story is too be continued but man... THANK GOD FOR GOOD ADVICE AND A GOOD INSURANCE COMPANY. Hopefully when this is all fleshed out in the end we will be more like Jesus in some ways but not because we walk on water in our bathroom!

*Update 1*
Well, the first layer of insurance didn't cover it. They call the water damage "Secondary Damage". The primary damage was my water hose going bad. They cover that. The secondary damage is the ensuing flood. They said that my homeowners policy covers that stuff. So, I called my friends at Allstate and the gentleman who handles my policy and now knows me by name (I've had to switch my policy from renters to owners in the last two weeks) says that I CAN file a claim but he'd recommend I start getting work done up and until I pass my deductable limit. His reasoning is that if the damage doesn't meet the deductable, then I would have filed a claim that costs me more than the actual repair.

I had already found a water damage company and they were in my home when I talked to Mr. Allstate so I was one step ahead of him on the whole 'call and get the damage taken care of' part.

Anyway... the water damage guy says that he's seen worse damage that didn't require hardwood floors to be replaced. He thinks I should be fine once he's done his job. He used a pretty cool suction device that looks a lot like a medal detector to suck the water out from between the wood panels. He also used it on the tile in the bathroom. What joy!

That's the scoop for now. Ohh... the water guy is also a carpet steamer/cleaner guy... so on Friday when he comes back (he left industrial fans to air dry the rest of the water) he said he's going to clean my downstairs carpets for free. He's smart... now I'll recommend him to others.