Where is the Calm ? Part Deux

So after exactly six days since last week's incident, ServiceMasters were finally able to remove the 10 blowers, 2 dehumidifiers and the desiccant machine (the one with the hose that goes up the ceiling). We can finally hear ourselves think again. The noise from all those machines were starting to drive us crazy and making our skin look like prunes because it was so dry.


On Wednesday, the Construction manager came to reassess the restoration needed and will submit a report and breakdown cost to the Insurance company. Once the Insurance company approves the cost and receives our deductible money, they will pay ServiceMasters 50% downpayment before they can commence the restoration work.

So we hope everything will be back to normal within the next 2 -3 weeks. In the meantime, I found a plumber to install the Pressure Release Valve in the sideyard. I hope he shows up tomorrow.

And we need to schedule the tile guy to fix the two broken tiles in the bathroom.
So those are the two costs that we will bear including the deductible for the Insurance company, which works up to what we just received from Uncle Sam last week.
That totally sucks because I was hoping we would have some money from the tax refund to "play" with.

Where is the calm?

We had just come home and realized that the water pressure was suddenly very strong, causing the toilets to "sing" and it would not stop running. So we fixed that and barely 5 minutes later, I heard Jason yelling downstairs that we have an emergency.
I ran down and saw a waterfall coming from the ceiling close to where our fireplace is and soaking the carpets. And then more water gushed down on the dining table and three other spots in the living room. I just blindly grabbed all the pots from the kitchen and a couple of buckets and some old towels and placed them where the water was gushing down, whilst Jason stopped the busted pipe in the Master bathroom upstairs (actually, it was the hose-pipe that hooks up the bathroom faucet that had broke). The bathroom was flooded and it seeped right through to our bedroom soaking the carpets in there too.

We called the County Water & Sewer Dept. and the line was transferred to 911. We guessed all the piping work that they had been doing on the streets outside the neighborhood for the past couple of days caused the sudden increase in our water pressure which busted our pipes.
So anyways, there was nothing they could do to help.

Jason's parents drove over immediately (bless their hearts) and brought the heavy-duty vacuum to suck up all the water and more towels to dry up the floors. We moved furniture around and did whatever we could.

Tomorrow, we'll have to call the Insurance company and we made an appointment with the plumber to come look at the situation.

My heart is still racing and I am paranoid that the ceiling will fall in because the water is still trapped between.
But we're just so thankful that we decided to come home a little earlier tonight. If we had not, we might have lost the whole house, and Trouble might have drowned.

Finding some Malaysians at last

Last month, Jason stumbled upon the Charlotte Asian Potluck Club blog. He asked me to email them. I did and we were invited to join them for their next gathering which was held last Saturday.
We met four other Malaysian couples and another guy from Asheville who came without his wife.

The hostess, Sally and Kumar, made a fabulous spread and everyone else brought a dish or two. All Malaysian dishes. And everything tasted sooo good. It was just great seeing some Malaysian faces again and even better getting to know them all. Everyone was so friendly and easy-going and I felt right at "home". We talked about almost everything under the sun, including teh tarik, milo and the sarongs.

We were formally inducted into their group after getting the thumbs up for our Char Siu pastries. So Jason and I will be hosting the next gathering in Spring. We hope to not disappoint anyone with our culinary skills.