What a mess :(

[Cholo]

Back in August I posted about my next door neighbor, Roger, dying of a heart attack. Roger was quiet but a very good man. I liked him a lot. I helped his wife, Teresa, in any way I could. She was a stay at home wife and couldn't afford to keep their home. The house has been empty for about 2 months as Teresa told the mortgage company to foreclose.

Tonight my daughter and SIL came over to hook up a new computer. I was on my porch with my daughter and she asked where the running water was coming from. I'm a bit hard of hearing and couldn't hear a thing. We went over to their old house and water was pouring out from under their garage door. We went out back and it was pouring out from their 2nd story bedroom. Obviously the mortgage company didn't have the water shut off but the electricity had been. We got down to 6* last week and have hardly gotten much above freezing since. I don't know how long ago the pipes froze and burst.

I called her mortgage company and had to leave a message. I then took a pair of channel locks to shut the water off at the road. I could find no shut off valve, but the meter was spinning full tilt. I called the water company. We went to the garage door and tried to pry it up a bit. Water gushed out from beneath it and we could hear water sloshing around meaning it was a few feet deep inside. There's no telling the damage inside the home. The pipes broke on the 2nd story. What a mess...

I know it's the mortgage company's fault. I just hate to see what Roger and Teresa made so beautiful come to this. I'd like to go back to the way it was with Roger waving to me, and me to him, while we were both mowing our grass the day he passed away... :(

 

[gramps]

Not pretty! Unfortunately the only constant is change. To get better is an uphill challenge! Hang in there Cholo!
gramps

 

[Jim Puke]

That is a shame...

 

[Xsales]

Sorry to hear this

This IS an example of how stupid mortgage lenders & banks are:
They "save" a little by turning off some or all utilities & now have tens of thousands lost in repairs

As they see it, it isn't "their" money so what's the difference

Damn fools

 

[graygun]

This time last year I was vacuuming water from a friend's house. Sort of similar in that it was up for sale (owner was out of state) and the moronic realtor dropped the ball. It has the water htr in the attic...great place to put it. It was good to go in about two months.

Here's hoping you can help her transition to better place!

 

[blume357]

Happened to my neighbor a few years back but luckily his hot water heater was in the basement where it belongs and I could turn the water off at the street but then had to rush to figure out how to cut the power to the electric hot water unit so that the elements did not burn out... not that this would generally matter because once the hot water units tank goes (usually what is leaking) then it's shot.

the freeze thing happened here again in Greenville last week.... lots of plumbing trucks out and about as well as water restoration companies...

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Know what you mean, Blume.

We lived in Simpsonville for a couple of years. What we noticed was that a LOT of houses down there were/are built over a crawl space on piers. This allows the ambient temperature to get under the house, and we saw MANY houses of such construction being visited by plumbers when the temp fell below freezing for a few days.

Also noted that the "heat pump" systems in many of the newer homes cannot keep up when the temp falls much below forty degrees causing the "backup" electric duct heaters to attempt to make up the difference. Over a couple/three days the inside temp continued to fall. We managed to find a kerosene space heater that, when burned around the clock, managed to help the duct heaters keep our house in the upper fifties.

Fortunately, there wasn't that much of that kind of weather. We decided that if we ever moved back down there we'd have certain requirements for home construction & utilities that would surely brand us as transplanted Yankees . . . and feel zero guilt about it.

;)

 

[RugerHound]

Cholo - Man, the tides of fortune turn on a dime in this life of ours doesn't it? I understand wanting to turn the hands of time back.

*sigh*

 

[mohavesam]

I think I'd call the city/town health dept to ensure they condemn the house or repeal the Cert of Occupancy. That will pretty well upset the mortgage company that caused the damage, and help ensure a potential buyer will get all the facts. Beware "flippers" who'll be under-funded and would only cause heartache for the next buyer/renter.
Get ready for six months of demo dumpsters and re-constructions...

 

[blume357]

reminds me that I have to replace the water line to my roof garden... seems that I forgot to drain it before the first freeze this Fall...

 

[Mobuck]

I've seen those ads that tout "fix flood damage to like new". The guy who used to work for me had a new(under 5 years old) house that suffered a water leak in the finished basement. Well known "flood damage" business did the dry out/clean up. A year later(after the insurance company had signed off on the claim) the guy had to replace everything from the floor up 3'--AT HIS EXPENSE. A flooded house is a ruined house IMHO.