Happenings while being gone in the winter....

Happy Easter!!

Back in the third week of March, my son Ben called me to explain that we had had a mishap here in the Kansas home...   It seems that an upstairs toilet had given up the ghost and began leaking out of the bottom of the tank....

It was only about 12 hours since they had been in the house until his wife stopped by to pick up some old towels to use bathing their new doggie.....  Augie...  And it was raining in my living room...  Right over the console piano...

The piano was acting like a sponge and soaking up most of the water swelling in the process....   So as I was returning home this was on my mind...  I really didn't even want to come in here..  The piano has been in our family since 1984 and my kids took lessons on it....

The house is damaged in the drywall and ceiling of the living room and the carpet is stained brown from the wood stain in the piano...  In the finished basement several tiles of the suspended ceiling are damaged and one wall appears to have been wet..  

The piano is considered too old to be worth much but they are sending a check for $1, 000 to cover it..   It is a Baldwin from before that company went bankrupt and was made in Ohio back in the day...  It is no longer made anywhere in the world...   Baldwin is now a line of the Fender instrument company...   As in Fender Guitars..  One of which I currently own..

The modern pianos are uprights not consoles, and grands that are room filling monsters...  They are now made in China!!!   And the uprights cost $9,600..

But wait I asked the insurance adjuster, don't I have replacement coverage?   And yes I do, but things are only worth what they are worth used.....  If I go ahead and find a replacement of like kind, I can apply for the value it takes to replace it...

Kind of like they threw down a gauntlet...  Why heck yes I'll replace it just to make them have to pay up....!  So some internet research found a 1980 model Baldwin that looks almost identical and I purchased it on the spot without even seeing it...  It was in Mahattan, Kansas...

They had a truck coming this way and it is now in my living room...   Cost $2,500..   And the adjuster just said send me the bill...  We'll see how much they decide to pay...

So on Monday I have an appointment to have the living room ceiling and walls deconstructed along with all the other damage we find as we tear into things...  The new to me piano will be covered up in the formal dining room along with the other pieces of furniture from the living area of our house....

Again, Loyce would have freaked out over this one.....  Her sofa's are white, and the living area was hallowed ground....   So I have spent the last few days removing the insides out of the 9 year old toilets, replacing all of the mechanicals starting at the wall shut offs...

The fixtures didn't freeze, as we keep heat in the home all winter, but the gasket at the bottom of the float valve that seals it with the porcelain tank had become hard and shriveled allowing it to give up and leak...  The bathroom is between the children bedrooms that Loyce used as sewing rooms and wasn't used that often..  So perhaps it had leaked slowly without attracting attention until the dam broke...

So if I am not blogging every moment, just understand I am dealing with construction folks and the fact that my home isn't my own for a few weeks....  Maybe I should just move into the motorhome over in the storage lot...  But no electricity over there....

But since it is now Easter morning, "The Lord Has Risen.....!"

Retired Rod