Sandy vs. Ceiling



Yay! Another home improvement post since I know at times they can be few and bar between! While Justin and I were gallivanting around Europe, Superstorm Sandy was making it's way through the Northeast. Although we didn't get hit as bad as New Jersey and New York, the DC metro area was hit with its share of stormy weather. That stormy weather brought rain...a lot of rain. The amount of rain we received coupled with the intensity of it cause our roof to leak again, specifically in our new kitchen addition. It seems like we can't get a break when it comes to leaks, since I've discussed leaks on two separate instances here and here.

Here's some shots of the bubbly damage. Don't mind the mismatched paint. That is due to our contractor trying to touch up the paint, but using the wrong color/type. That's a whole other story all together...

Luckily, my sister was home dog-sitting, so she was able to do some damage control by preventing the further spread of the water.  With the careful placement of buckets and puppy pads, our cabinets weren't ruined and our floors were still in tact. Can you imagine if we we had come home to the storm damage without any of my sister's preventative measures? I'm sure it would've been a lot worse.

After some careful thought, Justin and I decided that it would be best if we filed an insurance clam.  We figured the amount of damage exceeded our deductible. The adjuster came a few days later, provided a write up, and told us that our water damage did exceed our deductible.  Our experience with the claims process was running smooth; however, instead of the insurance company finding a contractor to do the repairs, it was our job to find someone to fix the damage within the cost of our deductible. Justin did some research and decided on Carl's Home Improvement because he gave us the best price compared to other estimates we received.  In addition, he could start the project right away.

Here are some shots of the work in progress...

When he replaced the damaged drywall on the ceiling, he discovered that our former contractor didn't install the drywall properly. He didn't screw the drywall sheets in properly, and otherwise did a haphazard job. Why am I not surprised?

The cool thing about Carl was that after he starting working, he discovered that he didn't have to replace entire sheets of drywall.  Carl was able to just patch up the damaged parts, which resulted in him lowering our price, and finishing a day early! Because he was already under budget and ahead of schedule, we asked if he could could repleace our island light fixture with one that we picked up a few months ago.

So now instead of this little, ugly light fixture:

We have this:

It glows like a UFO. ;) It's a new light fixture to match our chandelier over our dining table. Here are some shots of the finished product.

Crack free ;)

The water damaged parts are all patched up, the ceiling is all painted uniformly, and all is good in the Briones household. :)