Tag: lessons learned

I start this blog out hesitantly as I don’t feel that I embody the braveness that is sometimes needed to assert myself. I know, I know. If you are my friend you are likely smacking your forehead and screaming BS at the screen right now. I’m bold with the ones I trust but when it comes to strangers, I question myself. What if I’m wrong about my takeaway? What if I misread the body language? Did I misunderstand? Do I know enough about what I’m talking about? Do I really want to take this one on? Allllll the doubts. Maybe everyone does this, I don’t know. All I can say is that I learned a lot of lessons during this phase and can only share my opinion of how things transpired. So here goes…

Timeline (for reference only):

• We called the insurance on the night of the December 17th.
• December 18th: The water mitigation company came and began the process of notating the damage, tearing out and placing fans to dry the space. (These fans our very loud and they don’t smell great but they are necessary.)
• December 19th: the estimator calls (representing the construction company) to schedule a time for him to come and evaluate/estimate the damages.
• December 23rd: The estimator comes, evaluates the damage, writes an estimate and submits it to the insurance for approval.
• December 29th: We receive the detailed estimate from our insurance agent. The hunky hubby and I combed through this thing with a fine tooth comb so we could understand everything that would be repaired and be ready to discuss with the project manager.
• January 5th: Project Manager came to discuss repairs.
• January 6th: We began to demolish the bathroom.
• January 11th: We began the laundry room renovations ourselves.
• January 12th: We hired our own hardwood floor guy.
• January 13th: We had the insurance company release the money to us for dispersement.
• January 17th: The laundry room renovation was completed by us.
• January 18th: The estimator and the project manager came back to re-discuss repairs.
• January 22nd: We received updated quote.
• January 24th: We were dropped as clients by the construction company.

The Insurance Company

As the water was dripping from the ceiling, I realized immediately that the damage was going to be bigger than we could remedy ourselves and that meant a call to our homeowners insurance. I have to admit that it made me nervous, would they deny our claim over a washing machine drain hose? I didn’t have enough experience or knowledge to know. So my first lesson to impart upon you, get to know your homeowners policy.

Despite being nervous, dealing with the insurance was probably the easiest part of the process after we understood what to expect. Our agent explained that if we would like, they would coordinate with a construction company, from an approved list. Should they do the repair work, it would be warranted for three years AND they wouldn’t depreciate the cost of repairs. If we chose our own contractors we’d have to show proof of work completion and we’d only receive the depreciated amount until we prove the higher costs via receipts (minus the deductible).

We were fine with someone else doing the work (especially that ceiling) and therefore said yes to the coordination with the insurance approved construction company. In an ideal world, here’s how that worked: The estimator comes to review the damage and provides an estimate to the insurance company for the repairs. Once the amount is approved by the insurance company, the project manager would be scheduled to come and talk about the repairs and timeline. If we agreed to terms and signed off, the funds (minus the deductible) would be released straight to the construction company from the insurance. Repairs would be complete and warranted for three years.

The Construction Company

Definition of Mansplain : (a blend word of man and the informal form splaining of the gerund explaining.) is a pejorative term meaning “(of a man) to comment on or explain something to a woman in a condescending, overconfident, and often inaccurate or oversimplified manner.” (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

The “Estimator” came to our home and politely took notes, pictures and measurements. We stayed out of his way for the most part so we wouldn’t distract him. My pretty house was on the line and I needed him to be thorough. He was great and did everything he said he would, when he said he would.

The “Project Manager”. I find myself weary trying to describe him. He seemed to be a nice guy but he was also a mansplainer. He was a little arrogant and only really talked to the hunky hubby. Is that really nice?

As our first meeting to discuss the repairs began, our message was clear and polite. 1) We are DIY’ers (which I think made his figurative eyes roll immediately) with the ability to do a lot of the work ourselves but those ceilings were the main reason we’d chosen to go with them. 2) We further explained that we also wanted to take this opportunity to upgrade the flooring as well as update the master bathroom so we’d need to get a new estimate to include those installation costs. (We’d already bought the materials.) 3) Lastly, to clearly state that if he thought it would be weeks before he could get a team here…we’d likely do a lot of the work ourselves…since we could.

He went out of his way to talk about how the crew could get started later that same week if we agreed to the terms and questioned whether we could have our part of bathroom demolition and the shiplap wall in the laundry room ready to go that quickly. We assured him we could and would.

First mansplain moment: As we were discussing the ceiling work, he talked about how easy it was going to be to repair it…blending it is so that we would never be able to tell it was patched. As cool as that sounded, in my mind I’m mentally reviewing the estimate and there was a hefty lump sum associated with the repair and it didn’t include the description he was using. Perplexed, I asked him if he meant to just patch and repair instead of skimming the entire ceiling (per the insurance estimate)? I further said that a patch and repair could never cost as much as what was on the estimate. Surely not….but here is where I doubted my own knowledge….could I be wrong? Maybe.

His response: He smiles (that smile….you know the one) and simply tells me its expensive to do drywall work. Walking away and on to the next explanation. Clearly, the conversation was done. That should have sent up red flags up. Was I misinterpreting the fact that he was glazing over this as though I wouldn’t understand what it would cost. Again, maybe.

When he didn’t show up, update the quote or return phone calls when he said he would, we should have recognized those flags and backed out but we remained ever hopeful.

TWO WEEKS LATER, both the estimator and the project manager came back. We’d conveyed our concern to the estimator about the lack of communication so he accompanied the project manager for the meeting. It was explained that our upgrades to the contract were the cause of the delay. Ok…I can see where the upgrades might cause confusion…no, I can’t really see that. I see that as an opportunity to make more money and would be all over it.

We reviewed the remaining projects and this time, I asked about the ceiling work in front of the estimator. Would it be patch/repair and blend or patch/repair and skim the whole ceiling? Confirmed: patch, repair and blend.

Do you know what’s stronger than doubt? A woman that thinks she is right but now knows she has to prove it. The insurance provided estimate said 590 sq ft of skimming and had an associated figure….their intent was not the same as prescribed. Do you smell it yet?

Second mansplain moment: During that second meeting, I conveyed how important communication is and how we’d worked very hard to tear out our master bath based on our last conversation with the project manager. We all needed to be clear going forward for sanity sake. He smiles…(that smile again) and tells me he’s been busy and that we’d want a busy contractor because someone that is not busy doesn’t do good work.

Honest to goodness, the hunky hubby and I looked at each other dumfounded. We couldn’t believe that was an explanation. What??? The hunky hubby was ticked.

The gentlemen left, the new quote arrived four days later and the figure for the ceiling was still the same as the insurance quote…not reflective of the latest verbal communication. So we emailed back and questioned how it could be that high of an amount and that it should be reduced to reflect the actual work. A paper trail at this point, voicing our concerns.

They dropped us as clients. It was an all or nothing deal and they were out. I don’t know about you but I smell something and it doesn’t smell good.

To say that we were done with them as well was an understatement.

In Summation

Remember all of those doubts I talked about in the beginning. Don’t listen to those jerks. You can be kind and assertive. You can and should be able to ask questions and get real answers. Most of all, you should educate yourself. Read everything. Research what you don’t know.

Every. Single. Day.

We did educate ourselves, albeit through the school of hard knocks but we came out on the other side of this with our integrity intact, sore from the work, mentally tired, learned a hell of a lot of what to do and what not to do and that dang ceiling looks great!

Stay tuned! In my next blog post, the real work begins!