leaking roof separation saga

After spending a long, hot, dry and unhappy summer being separated, Pixie was delighted when the storm clouds finally arrived - presaging a washing away of bad memories of a bad marriage - but her joy turned to misery when she discovered the roof of the old marital home had sprung a leak before the divorce settlement had been finalized and she could sell the place.

"I will never forget that day - and the months that followed," sighs Pixie, "and I dread the day that something else goes wrong with the place because without a husband - or any guy - around to fix things for me I am stuffed."

"The first thing I did was ring my insurance company and rather than telling me to get the damage fixed up immediately I was told to wait for a loss assessor," explains Pixie.

"Ordinarily, I wouldn't have minded," says Pixie, "but it rained and rained for the whole week I waited for the insurance guy to come and the more it rained the more damage it did to my kitchen ceiling."

"The kids and I had a bucket run to catch the rain - it was awful," sighs Pixie, "and we were telling the rain to go back to Spain where it belongs!"

"I suppose I was lucky in that the roof didn't get blown off - like it did some houses," sighs Pixie, "but then I suppose I was unlucky, too, in that I missed out on getting four star accommodation for myself and the kids had my roof blown off rather than spring a leak!"

"Finally the loss assessor arrived and asked me a lot of personal questions that I didn't think he had a right to ask - such as am I married and stuff like that," says Pixie, "and ordinarily I would have told him to mind his own business but because I was making an insurance claim I had to bite my tongue about being recently separated.”

"There was no major damage - just a wet patch and a gaping hole in the kitchen ceiling," says Pixie, "and he said that my claim should be okay and the next step was for him to arrange for an insurance accredited builder to give a quote on fixing up the damage."

"Can you believe it?" laughs Pixie. "I had to wait another week for the builder to come - and it rained on and off all that time, too!"

"A week after the builder came I got fed up waiting for the insurance company to contact me so I rang them and was told that my insurance would cover the ceiling damage but not the roof damage. They said it was classed as a maintenance job, not storm damage."

"Fair enough, but I wonder how long they would have taken to tell me this bad news had I not got fed up waiting and telephoned them?" sighs Pixie.

"Already three weeks had gone by, I was fed up with buckets catching water in my kitchen, and now I was faced with the job of finding a tradesman to fix the roof leak."

"I live out of town and it really isn't easy getting tradesmen at the best of times," says Pixie, "and because it was still summer vacation period I wondered whether I'd have any luck."

"As I'd already put up with the leak for three weeks - and it had stopped raining - I wasn't in a rush to pay big bucks for an emergency job," explains Pixie. "I wanted to take my time and get the best person for the job, at the right price."

"I ended up calling 16 tradesmen - within a reasonable distance - and I was gob smacked by the experience."

"All of the so-called local numbers I called ended up being answering services for tradesmen who do not live locally at all," laughs Pixie. "I wouldn't have been surprised if my call got transferred to another state or country!"

"Four of the 16 calls I made were to dead/disconnected telephone numbers," sighs Pixie, "and three were to roof repairers who only worked with tiled roofs not tin roofs (but didn't say that in their advertisement)."

"Another three were only interested in roof restoration (despite an advertisement under roof repairs); two wanted a hefty upfront charge for a quotation; one said he's snowed under with work and wasn't interested; and three took my details and said they'd call back to arrange an appointment (but only one did)."

"Because only one guy actually turned up to give me a quotation I grabbed him," laughs Pixie. "I had no idea whether his price was good or bad. I just wanted to get the job done before the next rain storm."

"Two months later my leaking roof was fixed and the ceiling damage repaired," laughs Pixie, "but what a long two months that was, and how long is it going to be before the old roof springs another leak?"

"Like I said," laughs Pixie, "I dread the day when something else goes wrong with the house. I really can't afford to replace the roof, so - as much as I know we need rain - I won't be dancing with joy next time the rain clouds appear!"

“I just can’t wait for the divorce settlement to come through so that I can get out of this place!”