40 days and 40 nights

Well not quite that long but a fare wee while!


We decided that this Blog might be the best way to update everyone with progress on the house.


For those of you that don't know...


Sunday 20 May

• Last Sunday, we asked Rex Chapman (the new owner of Don Nicholson's two weeks in 7A and 7B Willow Place), to take a look inside the house to make sure everything was OK


• He discovered that water was flowing from a light socket in the ceiling of the kitchen and that most of the bottom floor was flooded


• He phoned us and we started sorting things out


• Rex organised a plumber for us to turn the water off at the street (thanks Rex!)


• We phoned State Insurance and started the claim process


• State put us touch with a builder (John Cameron) who started the process of clean up
  
• State Insurance also contacted Jae Cleaning Services who a couple of hours later were in the property and starting to clean up and dry the carpet
  

Monday 21 May

• I flew down to Queenstown to check on the damage. We felt it was important that someone was there for the insurance assessor etc


• By the time I got down there the carpet had dried out significantly


• I spoke to Jae's and the builder and organised for them to come in on Tuesday to look at the damage
  

Tuesday 22 May

• After a very loud and damp night from the blowers downstairs and the humidity of the water in the air, I woke to a very damp house


• The builder, John, arrived at 9.00 and assessed the damage
  
• Significant!


• The pipes in the ceiling of the kitchen had split and water began leaking into the ceiling cavity


• The only way out was through the light socket


• Water had also gone through the wall cavities in the kitchen causing irreprable damage to the gib board


• Water also ran down the outside of the walls and into the kitchen cabinets causing them to swell
  
• The water ran over the floor causing the bottom cabinets to swell including the Pantry


• Most of the items in the Pantry were mouldy


• Water also flooded into the lounge and stained the carpet right to the bottom of the stairs


• The dampness in the carpet led to the skirting boards swelling and eventually all skirting boards in the lounge became mouldy

• The wall adjoining the laundry also was damaged causing swelling in the bathroom vanity unit and the laundry cupboard plus the gib board and skirting boards in the downstairs toilet


• You'll be pleased to know the upstairs is OK apart from humidity causing water to run down the walls in the stairwell and upstairs toilet


• John assessed the damage as we said and decided that everything in the kitchen had to go, walls, cabinets, pantry everything


• He then asked a plumber to come and look at the pipes...


• Apparently when the house was built in the 80s, a certain type of piping was used all over Queenstown that is now starting to cause issues


• Most houses in the area that are still standing are having to have all the pipes replaced


• We will too unless we want to face insurance problems in the future


• So...all pipes in the kitchen, bathroom and upstairs will need to be replaced at some time and given the walls are now missing it seems a good time to do it


• This will mean an outlay of approximately $3000

The good news...

• The damage in the walls and to the kitchen cabinets will be covered under insurance - yay!


• The damage to the carpet is currently being assessed


• The carpet was taken away and is being dried in at Jae's


• It will then be cleaned and if the stains are able to be removed, the carpet will be reinstalled


• If they are unable to be cleaned they will be replaced but only in the room affected and only if the carpet is less than 10 years old
  
• Alison and Andrew have confirmed that the carpet was installed in 2000 so we should be okay there should they need to be replaced


• We will know in the next couple of days if they have to be replaced

The bad news...

• When the builders (a nice bunch of chaps by the way) removed the gib behind the pantry, they noticed a lot of rot in the external wooden cladding


• They believe this had been happening for some time and could be due to a crack in the stucco outside that has caused a leak into the wall


• Upon further investigation, John advises that this continues along this entire wall


• It could be due to the flood back in 99


• Back then, they had to dig out the parking pad and added a trough along the wall (you can see the black drain outside the kitchen window)


• Unfortunately this did not continue along the side of the house and we are now paying for this oversight


• They require an engineer to come out and look at the property and it could be that we will have to dig out the path and garden on the side of the house to be able to install a similar trough


• Hopefully we won't have to do this but even if we don't we will be up for a repair bill of approximately $3000 to repair this unrelated water damage


• We also need to have an electrician look at the oven (this was filled with water) as this may need replacing

So the upshot is:

Under insurance we will get:

a new kitchen cabinets and bench

a new bathroom vanity cabinet

a new laundry cupboard

either cleaned carpet or new carpet in the lounge only (not the stairs)

possibly a replacement oven

We will have to pay for:

• Replacement plumbing for most of the house - $3,000-$3,500
• An engineer to look at the damage to the side of the house and for this to be fixed - $3,000
• Possibly the retaining wall, path and garden dub up - cost unknown

Isn't this fun! I think the painting of exterior of the property will have to go on hold.

Next steps:

• The builder to get an engineer out to look at the side of the house
• The plumber to replace the pipes
• The electrician to check the oven
• Jae's to confirm the carpet situation
• Confirmation from the Insurance Assessor as to the extent of insurance cover

We'll keep you posted...

Geoff and Bridge