ServiceMaster and Elite

I would like to take a moment to send out a few words of praise to the folks at ServiceMaster of Nashua, NH. They were professional and courteous, and they were understanding of our situation. They made us feel at ease quickly, and they did very good work. As is the case with any company, they had a few hiccups and accidents, but they maitained their professional attitude throughout.

However, ServiceMaster has a sister company called Elite Construction. I assure you that, in my opinion, the only thing elite about them is their name. They started out really well "out of the gate". Elite had just started a few months before we had our fire, and they needed the business and the references. However, after an ice storm and a few episodes of heavy rain, they had more work than they could handle.

Instead of turning away work or hiring additional people, Elite spread themselves way too thin. There were periods of a week or more when nothing of substance was done at the house because workers were at other jobs. When they got a very skilled carpenter on the job, he was let go, apparently because he spent a little bit of overtime to finish off what he was working on.

The job foreman did a walk-through with us to discuss what was going to be done, and then they did things completely differently from what had been discussed. They installed a footing in the basement that was for the specific purpose of moving one of the support columns to open up the space. We ordered furniture that would fit properly without that column there. What a surprise it was when we saw that the column wasn't moved! They forgot to insulate the attic. They removed the old insulation, and neglected to replace it. When we contacted them to ask about it, they said that was what we had asked for. Insulation is not an option in New Hampshire, it is an absolute must. They have a nasty habit of trying to put the blame on the homeowner.

Elite broke fixtures (screens, fans and a sink) in the house, and then charged the insurance company to replace the items. They also waited over five months to send us the bill for the services. This may sound like a small problem, but we spent those five months wondering how much we still owed them.

The Home Stretch?

We are currently scheduled to be moving into the house this coming weekend. It still looks like it will take more time than that, but they assure us that we should be able to at least move in. It might not be 100% complete, but the only things left will be cosmetic.

The unexpected costs of recovery

The work is ongoing, and as things move along, it seems to cost us more and more. First, we have decided to upgrade the type of lights used in the house, so we have to pay for that. Then, we wanted to run a few additional outlets and lights, so we have to pay for that. We wanted to do something special in Steven's room, so we need to pay for a few things there. We wanted to make some upgrades to the appliances, out of pocket. These are all things that we made a conscious decision to pay a little for. If it stopped there, we would have been fine.

Then, we realized that the chimney is falling away from the house. The people that inspected it suspect that it is because the footing (and they haven't determined that there is a footing) is inadequate. The chimney was added after the house was built, but we don't know when. It has been standing for many years, with no issues. Now that they are doing work on the house, the chimney starts to fall away from the house. I don't think this is a complete coincidence. I personally feel (and this is just my own opinion) that it has something to do with the huge (and heavy) dumpster that is sitting on the grass about four feet away from the base of the chimney. Regardless, the insurance company doesn't feel that this is a result of the fire or the work, so we need to pay to have the chimney taken down. We will not be putting another one up. The 5-year plan included getting a pellet stove insert for the fireplace. Now, we will get a freestanding one when the prices come down after the winter season (assume this to be fairly soon). The contractor provided us a quote to take the chimneyt down and reside that side of the house (since there will be a huge area without siding where the chimney was). He asked if we would like to look into residing the whole house. The difference in price between doing one side and doing all four sides was less than we expected (more than we were looking to spend, but probably the cheapest we will ever get, since they are already on site), so we have decided to reside the whole house.

As if that wasn't enough, we have a small attached storage shed on the back of the house. While we were getting an idea of what it would cost to reside the entire house, we realized that the foundation of this shed has shifted. Again, not an issue before the fire and the work started, but it has happened since the fire. Again, not considered to be caused by the fire (or the firemen ripping the door open since this was close to the area of the basement where the fire occurred), so it is on us to get this repaired.

All in all, we are spending more than we were expecting to spend, but we realize that these are the pains of being a homeowner. If what the professionals are saying is true, these are repairs that would have been needed in the next few years anyway. As I said, the costs to us will probably never be lower for each of these repairs. However, incurring them all at once is a bit overwhelming.

This probably sounds like I am complaining. I am not complaining, I am not asking for sympathy. I use this blog to express frustration, because I am just tired of being out of the house, and it just seems like I am never going to get back in, and it feels like each of these things is just going to extend the time that we are out of the house. Since these things are all exterior to the house, I really don't thgink that they will, but it is the unknown that bothers me.

I have felt this way twice before, when I was in boot camp, and when I was in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. Both times, it felt like the day I was waiting for was never going to come. In both cases, that day came. Ironically, boot camp was far shorter than this experience, and i certainly hope that it won't be the length of my stay in the desert.

Current estimate of getting back into the house is mid-May. My Birthday is on May 12, and the keys to the house and permission to move back in are all I am asking for.

Acknowledgements

This is an overall listing of all of the people that have helped us out.
We will try to keep this listing updated. I know that I will overlook some people, and I assure all of them that it is not deliberate.


All of our families, especially our parents

• The police and firefighters that responded to the call on New Years Day (and all police and firefighters)
• Joel and Martha Ackerman
• Ms. Janice from Kindercare
• Michael Codega
• Battelle Natick
• Fidelity Merrimack
• An anonymous donor at the Comfort Inn in Nashua
• Knights of Columbus Chapter 11573

People and/or Businesses that have helped us to plan the recovery:

• Carl and Mark at Home Depot in Nashua
• Sarah and Ben at Best Buy in Nashua
• Servicemaster of Nashua
• Godecke Home Center
• All of the Insurance representatives that have answered our endless list of questions.

Update on status

OK. Work is well underway. It will always be going too slow for me as long as we are out of the house, but it is actually going quite well.

The entire basement and first floor are completely clear of our belongings, save for a few items. Since the construction includes removing several walls in order to make the repairs, we have been afforded an oportunity to make a few changes to the layout. I only hope that I am happy with the results.

Everyone has been very supportive. We continue to get offers for assistance. So far, we haven't needed much. One type of help that we have accepted is babysitting. There are so many things that require both of us to participate, but are much easier to accomplish without a 2 1/2 year old running around. I thank everyone that has volunteered time to watch him.

Allstate Insurance has been helpful, and has been responsive to our requests for information/clarification. They obviously understand that we have absolutely no idea how this process works, and they have answered every question with respect and patience.

So far, we have completed the following:

• Gave the contractor our ideas for the new layout of the house.
• Met with the electrician to give him our requests
• Met with Home Depot to lay out the cabinets (met with them three times)
• Met with the home design center to select floor coverings and wall colors
• Ordered all of the major appliances as well as many of the other electronic items

The first month

It has been just over a month since the fire. We are in the third different temporary housing location, but this should be the last one.

Allstate has been so helpful so far. They have had people available to field our questions every time we called, even when the questions were probably considered trivial to them. They have kept us in the loop at every stage of the game.

After the two investigations were completed, things started to move, albeit slowly. That is not the fault of anyone, nor is it any company "dragging their feet." The slow movement is because they wanted everything done right, and they only wanted to have to do it once. Also, because the job is just so complex. We had A LOT of stuff in the basement. We had clothes, computers, summer things, blankets, furniture, pots, pans, tools, books, games and a whole lot more. Every item needed to be inventoried before it could be removed. There were about 40 pages of items. Then, after it was inventoried, we had to review the inventory to make sure that there wasn't something overlooked.

We are expecting to have the necessary permits pulled this week, which will be followed by the demolition process. After that, they need to start the repairs and the restoration. Every room needs to be painted, floor coverings need to be cleaned or replaced and other items need to be assessed to determine if they can be cleaned.

The first week

It has been eight days since the fire. I should start by saying that I appreciate the outpouring of support. Almost everyone I know, and a few that I don't, has offered to loan or donate items and/or money. Fortunately, the insurance company has been very helpful and there is little that we need. It took an event like this to teach me a few things: 1) that my family and friends will do almost anything for us, 2) that we can get by with a lot less than I thought we could and 3) I have a wife that is far more organized than I thought.

The Restoration (Part I)

On the day of the fire, we were met at the house by a representative of Servicemaster. I had heard of them, and I had never thought I would ever need to use them. To the outside observer, they may look like vultures circling our tragedy. To us, they were a helpful company that was there in our time of need. The representatives of the company put us at ease fairly quickly, telling us that their goal was to get the damage cleaned and repaired so we could get back in our home as soon as possible.

The firefighters had put our two cats in their pet carriers and had brought them outside to get some fresh air. We brought them to the vet for an exam. The vet wanted to keep them overnight for observation, and that sounded good to us as well.

By 7 p.m. that night, they already had a generator in the yard, and the water was being removed from the basement floor. they also had heaters, dehumidifiers and air cleaners in the house, and the doors and windows were all secured.

We got a call from the restoration cleaner to have us put together an "emergency clothes" pile. We put together enough clothes to last us for a few days, mostly work clothes and clothes for Steven. There wasn't much more they could do until after the insurance company adjuster did a walk-through.

Fortunately, that happened relatively quickly. The adjuster was there by Monday afternoon. He did a cursory walk through to identify the amount of damage. He said that the damage was significant enough that a fire investigator would need to conduct an investigation, and that we could expect a call by the end of the week.

We got the call on Tuesday. He did his investigation and identified a suspected cause. Ironically, the suspected cause (and I want to stress that this has not been confirmed) was the carbon monoxide detector that we had mounted in the basement to protect us. He took the remains of the detector back to his lab for further inspection.


Accommodations (Part I)

All of this time, we haven't been able to live in the house. We needed to find a hotel that would allow pets. The Best Western in Nashua was great! The staff did everything in their power to make us feel comfortable. They worked with the insurance company to get all of the room charges paid for. While the accommodations there were OK for a short time, there was only one room. We contacted the insurance representative to ask if they could find us a place that had a separate room for Steven. The found us a suite at the Residence Inn in Merrimack.

The Residence Inn is nice, but the estimate of time we will be out of the house has gone up to two to three months. With that timeframe, the insurance company is now looking for a house that we can rent.


So far, everyone has been so helpful.