Progress report 2
After a very rough start, today improved a lot.
The rough start came about because as I was walking Tammy at about 6:45 I got a text to say the plumber had been called to an emergency and wouldn’t be at our place until 4pm. Some fairly terse SMS then flew around. I thought “What could be a bigger emergency than us not being able to wash or use the toilets?” Myself and Frances were both pretty upset as we drove back towards home.
Now, you should remember that yesterday two plumbers were involved: our usual guy who we cancelled and the insurance company’s guy. As all I’d got this morning was an unfamiliar number, I assumed it was the latter, who still had a live job with us, who had rearranged things.
In fact it was the “practice manager” of our usual guy who had sent her message to the wrong phone. She only realised this about 9am when the guy who had him booked rang to find out where the he was! What a relief!
The first person to front was a loss adjuster from A J Grant looking at the property side of things, including the plumbing situation. He immediately checked on his plumber who was still getting parts in Fyshwick, which is quite OK.
About 5 minutes later a small ute turned up with some wood in the back and two guys I’d never seen before got out. They had been sent along by A J Grant to do a make safe on the purling post. Unexpected but brilliantly helpful. here is what we had ended up with yesterday (note wooden wedge):
I then spent about an hour with the loss adjuster going around and looking at what had been damaged. The process is that he writes a report detailing what has been damaged and recommending what to do about it which is agreed by us (or at least seen by us) reviewed by and signed off by the insurance company and then the assessor’s company use their contractors to fix everything according to the resulting contract.
In the course of this I commented that one problem was the sheets of iron on the (former) roof of the big shed banging in the wind. Not a problem. The two guys doing make safe on the deck which has involved lots of bolts being drilled into things to hold it all together)
were pointed up there and asked to get the sheets of iron off and put them on the ground with something heavy on them so they didn’t blow around.
This they did and it is all very neat and quiet.
The plumber has now turned up and is working on the septic. I am following the example quoted somewhere of a tradesmen – I think in the UK - whose scale of fees was something like £50.00 per hour or, with assistance from owner of premises, £75.00 per hour. Thus I’m staying right out of his way. He has now done his stuff, tested it and gone away. There are a few jobs still on his sheet and he’ll do them on Monday.
Next folk along were two nice ladies from Capital Restorations. They were the representatives of the company looking after the contents claim. Again very helpful in explaining what was going on and how we needed to proceed.
So we are back in the house. There are some strange sights around the place such as this watering can (still with some water in it) and milk crate.
One of our snake repellers also looks as though Dali has had a go at it, in the absence of a pocket watch, but it is still beeping away.
The rough start came about because as I was walking Tammy at about 6:45 I got a text to say the plumber had been called to an emergency and wouldn’t be at our place until 4pm. Some fairly terse SMS then flew around. I thought “What could be a bigger emergency than us not being able to wash or use the toilets?” Myself and Frances were both pretty upset as we drove back towards home.
Now, you should remember that yesterday two plumbers were involved: our usual guy who we cancelled and the insurance company’s guy. As all I’d got this morning was an unfamiliar number, I assumed it was the latter, who still had a live job with us, who had rearranged things.
In fact it was the “practice manager” of our usual guy who had sent her message to the wrong phone. She only realised this about 9am when the guy who had him booked rang to find out where the
The first person to front was a loss adjuster from A J Grant looking at the property side of things, including the plumbing situation. He immediately checked on his plumber who was still getting parts in Fyshwick, which is quite OK.
About 5 minutes later a small ute turned up with some wood in the back and two guys I’d never seen before got out. They had been sent along by A J Grant to do a make safe on the purling post. Unexpected but brilliantly helpful. here is what we had ended up with yesterday (note wooden wedge):
In the course of this I commented that one problem was the sheets of iron on the (former) roof of the big shed banging in the wind. Not a problem. The two guys doing make safe on the deck which has involved lots of bolts being drilled into things to hold it all together)
The plumber has now turned up and is working on the septic. I am following the example quoted somewhere of a tradesmen – I think in the UK - whose scale of fees was something like £50.00 per hour or, with assistance from owner of premises, £75.00 per hour. Thus I’m staying right out of his way. He has now done his stuff, tested it and gone away. There are a few jobs still on his sheet and he’ll do them on Monday.
Next folk along were two nice ladies from Capital Restorations. They were the representatives of the company looking after the contents claim. Again very helpful in explaining what was going on and how we needed to proceed.
So we are back in the house. There are some strange sights around the place such as this watering can (still with some water in it) and milk crate.
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