Post-Christmas Catch-Up

 I hope everyone had a lovely, peaceful holiday, however you celebrated this year.

 

Unfortunately, with the approximately 60mm of rain on Christmas Eve, coming out of the west and pounding against the outer side wall of my unit, my master bedroom ceiling started leaking again, worse than before. Coupled with that was the water dripping behind the partition wall that separates my master bedroom from the home office, and that was so bad that water managed to seep down and completely saturate my carpet in a 6x2 ft area. It took 3 days of sopping it up with thick bath sheets and bath mats, plus running my (mercifully silent) heater all day, to dry it out. I was not a happy camper, given this has been an ongoing problem, now allowed to have become worse, for 16 months. Of course I sent texts, with pics, to my property manager and the president of the management company as soon as I discovered it, which was late Christmas Eve evening. Yesterday I sent an email for official record purposes, with photos, detailing the issues ongoing since September 4, 2019 and reminding them of their "assurances" first that it was fixed, then that it would be dealt with first thing in spring 2020, and then, last month that my "unit is still in queue." (I have all my emails to/from them saved, for a legal record.)

 

Not good enough!

 

I will be contacting my insurance company tomorrow to apprise them of what's been happening. I did try today, but forgot it's the Boxing Day statutory holiday.

I suspect that it might come down to engaging the services of a lawyer and having the lawyer deal with them. Legal action should not be required to have them do the job they're being paid to do, out of our condo fees, but it is what it is. I will see what advice, if any, the insurance people give me first. Presumably any damages would be paid for by the condominium corporation's insurance, but I still want to give my own company a heads up.

I'm so very thankful I've been in the guest room for almost 4 weeks now. Even when (if?) the leaking issues are resolved, I'm not certain I'll ever feel at ease being in the master bedroom again.

Other than that cluster-you-know-what, the holiday was good! Derry was spoiled, as you can see in the pic above, and I spent the day on the phone, on Skype, emailing, texting, and doing that Zoom "meeting" with the maternal cousins (and others) I don't know. It was sheer chaos on that Zoom call; with that many people it really needed a moderator, but at least I was able to put faces to names, though I remember only my first cousins. LOL. I was exhausted at the end of the day; I'm not used to having that much interaction with people anymore, even virtually. (My insular life has become so much more so since we've been working from home.)

Derry had fun with the tissue paper and an old feathered stick!

Now the province is in a full lockdown, with areas south of Sudbury shut down for 28 days. Grocery stores and pharmacies still are open, and I walked to Loblaws yesterday for a few fresh items that I needed. I expected the store to be busy, but it was almost empty. The cashier told me Boxing Day had been slow as well, which was surprising. Maybe everyone was at Walmart and Costco, stocking up on holiday deals, given that those stores also are open. (So let's close the small mom and pop stores that won't survive life under COVID, but let's keep Big Business open, so people can go get a 60-inch TV with their groceries. Don't get me started on our provincial premier's "logic!")

Derry out in the Boxing Day snow, above. I wish I could say that he was just fluffy, but no, he's  quite overweight, totally my fault. He gains weight so easily, as do I, and it's a struggle to get it off (for both of us).

Anyway, that's the holiday "excitement" here. I probably won't be able to get out anywhere to take pics, as I typically would over the break, but that's okay. I have projects to keep me occupied at home, so am content.

Take care and stay well, everyone. Enjoy the rest of the holiday, and here's to a much happier, much more hopeful new year. 

Peace.

P.S. Not long after I posted this, the property manager for the complex got in touch. I noted this in my reply to one of my comments. So we shall see what happens, if he actually does follow through.