Nightmare Turns Into Weird Dream

Truly not expecting much, I called our American Family agent, Thursday, to see if any part of the sewer line repair would be covered under our homeowners insurance.  The woman who answered the phone advised having an adjuster review the case.  So I immediately filed a claim and was told the adjuster would call Friday.  But before I heard from him, our agent's office made a follow-up call yesterday morning.  Learning the adjuster hadn't called, yet, they gave me his name and number.

I caught Mike just getting into the office and put him on speaker phone.  I'm glad Jim was home at the time, because he had absolutely no hope of insurance paying anything.  But, to our surprise, American Family is covering everything except the actual pipe.  Therefore, in addition to our $1000 deductible, we will only pay for the cost of the pipe under the house.  The City of Ballwin is paying for the pipe under the patio.  Plus, American Family is putting us up at the Marriott Residence Inn until the job is done!

We are beyond thrilled, especially after talking with Stanley from Sutter Plumbing yesterday. While he was here gathering information to start work first thing Monday morning, he broke the news that the project is much bigger than first realized.  There's now a chance a large part of the garage floor will have to be removed, also, and the entire job will take a full five days instead of two or three.

Sutter has done several jobs for us in the past and are on Ballwin's list of approved vendors. Nevertheless, I'm shocked American Family didn't want several bids.  But their only concern was having us find a company who could get started right away.

This whole experience, so far, feels like a weird dream, beginning with a backed up toilet resulting in a five-figure home repair.  Then the rare experience of good customer service, beginning with our insurance agent's office.  And then there's the discovery that we finally have a home repair covered under homeowners insurance.  But perhaps the weirdest thing has been learning that Stanley, who owns Sutter Plumbing, was in our high school graduating class.  And, after realizing our connection, Stanley saying he had a crush on me in high school, which I now remember.

Someone pinch me. . .I must be dreaming!