My life is never boring...

[superwahz]

The property manager emails tonight to tell us that the drying out phase is still not done, they don't know how much longer it'll take. We were expecting that their estimate of 3-5 days was way off, so no worries there...

But then he added that somehow the fridge either broke or lost power and all our food spoiled! I'm one of those people that keeps a full freezer and this summer was no exception. I had a lot of free range meat, organic seeds and grains, and lots of fresh summer produce (berries) put up for the rest of the year! MEH!

On the upside food can be replaced, but you'd better believe I'm counting the months 'til our lease is up!

[lilychemgirl]

Oh no! That happened to us one time, it costs heaps to replace everything Do you have contents insurance? That would probably cover it.

[Die Marchen]

We had lost our harvest freezed for the whole year 2 times because of the electricity being accidentally cut off. We didn't have harvest like farmers do, but my parents plant eco-vegetables and berries on their week-end house territory and since we have a child we plant even more for him. It was winter both times and when we were coming on the next week-end we were finding a freezed house with the food freezed for the second time as a mess. Cause the house was little warm enough for freezed food to lift the freeze but then the whole house freezed. Too many "freeze" words but this is Russia))) Just wanted to say how sorry I am for you and to tell you a scary story to cheer you up a little)))

[superwahz]

The fridge breaking/losing power must have happened over the weekend, since no one noticed it 'til water from the thawing food leaked enough to damage the hardwood floor beneath it. Yet another spot they're gonna have to rip up and replace! Hopefully some time this morning they'll think to check the fridge in the garage... If the house did lose power, it will be thawing too. Insurance is gonna hate us. We buy in bulk cuz its cheaper...well, cheaper as long as the fridge works!

Lily- We have renter's insurance... I'm not 100% sure if they'll cover it, I'll find out in the morning when I call the claims adjuster! The guys dealing with the house are going to inventory the fridge and toss the food, thank the gods! I'm so glad I'm not there to do it, I'd be crying my eyes out thinking of it all going to waste instead of feeding someone...

Die Marchen- Oh how awful!! It's so hard to put work into preserving good food for your family for the year, only to have a power glitch defrost the freezer....twice! Its gotta be really interesting to come in and find your food has defrosted and then frozen again because the house temp dropped low enough to become a freezer! I would not want to go through winter temps that cold!!

[karen]

Oh man that's gut wrenching...food, and clothes. We spent a Summer picking and freezing fruit- pounds and pounds of it- picking, and prepping and freezing- only to have my parent's freezer come unplugged while they were away. It was years ago, and I still think about all of those cherries we pitted, and the meat that was lost.

It's good that they're cleaning it out...I still remember the stench- yuck. It's almost as bad as losing the food to begin with.

[egerandi]

The guys dealing with the house are going to inventory the fridge and toss the food, thank the gods! I'm so glad I'm not there to do it, I'd be crying my eyes out thinking of it all going to waste instead of feeding someone...

Oh, man, how awful! I would be crying too... I'm such a packrat, I would be crying about losing anything due to a mess like this. Hope you're doing ok!

[tizzylou]

This happened to me when it flooded 10 years ago. The sad then was I didn't have any flood damamge to my house at all, but when the power company cut the electricity off because everything in the neighborhood was underwater, we were affected. We were back in our house with power before it had been off long enough for anything to thaw, until we left for the night assuming that everything was back up and running ok, only to come home in the morning and find out that the old freezer had given up the ghost and refused to freeze anything even though it was plugged in and running, and had been fine up to the point when we had to evacuate. At least I got a new freezer , as our flood insurance paid for it, and didn't even squawk about the fact that it wasn't water, but rather lack of constant electricity that caused it's demise. They replace the contents also, but somethings, like homegrown fresh fruits/vegs/ and bushels of freshly roasted and peeled green chilis can't be replaced.

[Die Marchen]

The fact that the insurance really paid amazes) and the fact they paid for food too. It sounds so strange to me, cause each time we have to communicate with them it's a stress comparable to the cause of request.
And homegrown food is priceless.

[tizzylou]

I think they only reason they paid is that it was under the flood insurance portion of our policy and not a regular homeowners claim. And yeah, since I can and freeze lots of fruits and veggies in the summer, homegrown food is precious and it is a real bummer when you lose it.

[superwahz]

Karen and Tizzylou- Yeah, it's the fresh picked summer produce I put up that makes me the most sad. Products bought in a store can be replaced, but fresh picked local stuff is irreplaceable. I can't imagine how gut wrenching it would be to have grown every bit of food stuffed in that freezer though!

We're still traveling around...no update with the house. I think they are far out of their "estimated" time line. *sighs* Yesterday we checked out of the place we were staying in the mountains and checked into a place much closer to Asheville. About an hour before we left I was downstairs in the basement packing up stuff (they had a living room/movie room set up down there) and heard water dripping... After a little hunting I found water dripping through several spots in the wooden ceiling onto their couch! A quick check in the next room revealed the hot water heater with a pipe inserting into the ceiling where the leak was on the other side, so I'm assuming the pipe was leaking!?

I called the owner to let him know... Some might say we're cursed with water leaks, my optimistic side says nah...we're just really good at finding them!