The Great Flood

Hi everyone. It has been awhile since I have posted but this time I have a really good excuse. Almost 2 weeks ago now my house was flooded. I was in Fredericton for a Health Conference and my partner was also in Fredericton for a Masters course. Our 4 boarders were home and they took the brunt of it. A 12 inch City water main in the middle of Grandview Avenue in from of our home burst and by the end of it we had a foot of water in the basement and several feet in the backyard. My garden mulch and driveway gravel were deposited all over the place. I came home from Fredericton at 1:00 A.M. A company was here pumping water out of the basement. The boarders were left without a place to sleep. Needless to say it has been a busy 2 weeks.

In the end, the boarders still do not have a place to stay. Two of them are at a hotel and 1 is at a friends and 1 is missing in action. I have reimbursed their rent, spent a full day moving all their belongings into my garage loft and spent several days trying to find places for them to stay while the basement is remodeled. They will be able to file a claim against the City once the City takes liability for the flood. My insurance is covering the basement repairs. However, it is not an easy process. This is where I warn everyone to read their insurance policies closely and be ready to battle it out with insurance adjusters if something happens.

My whole basement has been gutted and is currently in the drying phase. The only sub floor that was not removed was the bathroom, which is tiled, because supposedly you can dry it from the outside in or maybe it is just because it is too much work and cost for the insurance company. My appliances have all been checked by the mysterious electrical company that I never saw in my house and they are all fine as well. The wall covering will only be replaced to what it was as insurance policies do not cover changes in building codes that occur over time. I will have to pay the difference. My insurance does not cover landscaping and until the City takes responsibility I will have to do that work myself. In a nutshell, it has been a nightmare and a learning experience all at the same time.

I have learned a lot about my home and my insurance policy. But I have also spent a lot of time and money dealing with loose ends. This is time and money that I do not have readily available. You would think that you pay thousands of dollars into insurance so that this process would be simple if you ever had to go through it. My tip to everyone is be prepared and do not let insurance adjusters push you around. In fact, I found out in today's paper that there is a provincial group, the Office of the Consumer Advocate, if you should have concerns or complaints.

Bottom line, I do not have much else to report as I have spent most of the last 2 weeks meeting companies to get quotes, cleaning up my yard, helping my tenants, working, going to my courses, building stuff in the basement and talking on the phone to my adjuster. It has been a very stressful 2 weeks and I hope this never happens to anyone reading this. Hopefully I will be back to my normal blogging routine by next post.

Have a great week!

Cold but Beautiful

It has been a nice sunny weekend but the cold weather is definitely here to stay. I spent a lot of time over the past couple of weekends getting the gardens ready for the winter. Amazingly some things are still blooming including a nice Easter Lily that I planted outside in the spring. Of course the red sedum are also in full bloom and some of the Bachelors Buttons. It will not last much longer with these below zero nights we have been having lately.

In my last post, I left off by saying that my brother was having surgery in Halifax for his Crohn's disease and I am glad to say that it all went very well with the exception of lots of post-op pain. I suppose that is to be expected when you have your stomach sliced open.

My French class is going well and it is hard to believe that there is only three left. The Fall has really went by fast. I have been so busy with my new job and two courses that I probably just didn't have time to notice the days as they passed. On Halloween night we had one child come by for treats. That is down from six last year. I guess being just outside a major subdivision means that children will not come to our house after they do a cost/benefit analysis. It just is not efficient if they want to fill their bags with the most treats in the least amount of time.

Last Friday and Saturday I was in Moncton for the 1st Provincial Summit on Poverty. It was organized by the Common Front for Social Justice and the N.B. Federation of Labour. There was a great turnout of about 250 people from across the province for the conference. They were focusing on solutions that would help to eliminate poverty in N.B. I had a good time and learned a lot about the regions outside of Saint John that are also dealing with the issue of poverty. On Thursday night of last week I had the opportunity to attend an Employment Dinner hosted by the Open Door Club. It was the first dinner they had to recognize and congratulate mental health clients that have received and maintained employment over the past year. It was wonderful to see how happy and proud the individuals were when they received the certificates. It really reminded me about how much some people without disabilities take their work for granted.

Tomorrow I will be heading to Fredericton for a couple of days for a N.B. Healthcare Association Conference: 4th Annual Premiere Health Leadership Conference. It sounds like it will be a very interesting conference and a great chance to see what new initiatives other communities in N.B. are creating to address healthcare issues in the province. I will be back on Tuesday night but will be heading back up for the day on Thursday to attend a N.B. Association of Residential Agencies conference that will explore issues around housing high needs individuals in the community.

Have a great week!

Community Engagement Committee: Make Saint John your home by giving back to the community. Saint John's young residents have a lot to contribute - they just need to know where to direct their resources. The Community Engagement Committee (formerly known as Social Activism) liaises with local non-profit and charitable organizations to find opportunities for FUSION members to be involved. Partnering with the Events Committee, the Community Engagement Committee plans FUSION events that provide great networking opportunities to members and raise awareness of issues within the community. The next meeting will take place on November 16th at 7:00 P.M. If you want to get involved then email dannyj@nbnet.nb.ca.