The Checklist -- Part 2

Part 1 pretty much contained all the exciting stuff. This is just a spin-off from what's already happened.

I See Dead People -- CHECK

I didn't know how the whole funeral thing would affect the kids but they seemed to be handling things pretty well. It helped that they spent most the of the time with their cousins, playing. Knowing this, I figured that they knew something was up but didn't know enough to make things scary.

After Ba Co passed away, we met some friends at the park and I happened to eavesdrop on a conversation Kael had with his friend Rachel (age 7).

Kael: Have you ever seen a dead person?

Rachel: WHAT?!

K: You know, a dead person. Have you ever seen one?

R: (Silent with an incredulous look on her face, mouth hanging slightly open.)

Apparently taking her silence as a negative, he continues.

K: I've seen one. My Ba Co -- that's my Grandma's mom -- she died. Like dead. And I saw her.

R: (Still silent but now staring at him like he grew a third eye.)

K: Yeah. So I've seen a dead person. For real.

R: (Still no words, but staring, staring, staring.)

After getting that off his chest, he continued to chug his water before running off to play.

He wasn't bragging or scared. He was very matter-of-fact. I didn't interrupt and really, what was I going to say? He hasn't said anything to me about the events leading up to the funeral aside from that he misses Ba Co so I'm going to let this one... go quietly into the night. Unless he brings it up of course. Coward's way out? For sure. And I've added another couple of dollars in his therapy jar -- just in case.

One Small Bathroom, Two Contractors -- CHECK

Our leaks are fixed and the walls are on their way to being drywalled. We should be close to done, right? Wrong. Our insurance adjuster insisted on sending her contractor out to check the leak, just to make sure. I figured since they were footing the bill, why not? Turns out the contractor found moisture in the walls. Lots of it. And the plumber had already started drywalling the bathroom walls. So Cathy (the adjuster) called a halt to the repairs to allow the contractor to properly dry the walls to prevent mold. Well crap. We don't want mold so I gave the OK. Contractors came in and used this handy dandy camera and detected water in six walls. That's right: SIX walls. So six of my walls all have 2 feet cut out of them to dry. That's in addition to the 2 walls in the laundry room has the wallpaper peeled off but no holes cut out because it's a shear wall. So I guess technically I have 8 wet walls. I've got 2 fans in the kitchen and 2 dehumidifiers in the individual rooms running 24/7. The stupid things are driving me nucking futs. They are so fricking loud and they are blowing crap everywhere. Meanwhile the plumber has been asking when can he come back to finish out the bathroom.

Ugh. What that means is I have the plumber and the contractor both working in my itty bitty bathroom, 2 walls per company. I'm going to let the adjuster referee that one.

The good news is the contractor told me they won't be able to repaint the repairs and have it match so they are going to have to repaint my entire kitchen (oh, rats!). Oh - and, did I want to re-wallpaper the laundry room? The answer to that would be no. When we first moved in to this house, we painted the entire house except the laundry room. I don't know why, I guess we just didn't want to incur that extra cost for a simple laundry room. And now I'm being offered an opportunity to have it painted at no cost to me? Hell yeah, paint the puppy brown!

That we will get the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room repainted at the cost of our insurance (minus the deductible) is probably the only bright spot in this whole mess. I haven't had use of my laundry room in a week and probably won't for a few more weeks is something I don't want to think about. I just focus on: new paint, new paint!