My story starts last year. My name is Stacey and I am a therapist in a nursing home in Millington.  I also had a second job in another nursing home and a 3rd job doing home health. When the pandemic hit my main job hours were greatly reduced because people wanted to go home and not to a nursing home. My second job disappeared altogether and my home health hours basically stopped by June. 

My household consisted of me and my 3 fur babies. Money was tight and I had to live on a budget but we made it work. I survived 2020 and thought 2021 had to be an improvement.

I was living in my house with my 3 fur babies, Mackenzie, Clover and Sadie. Mackenzie is my old girl at 14 1/2 years old. Clover is my baby at 7 1/2 and Sadie was 10. Sadie had been sick for awhile and during the week of the big freeze of 2021 in Memhis she was staying at my daughter's house. I still had to go to work despite the snow, going back and forth from work to my house to my daughter's house to spend time with Sadie. She received lots of love that week but sadly she passed on that Tuesday. 

When I got home to my house on that Thursday I opened my front door to discover a river in my house. Apparently, a frozen pipe in my kitchen burst sometime during the day and there was about 4 inches of running water throughout my entire downstairs. Mackenzie was on the bed and Clover was on the couch. Called my son-in-law and he came over to get the water turned off. 

The damage was evident from the start. I immediately started a homeowner's claim on my phone. What I didn't take into account was the high deductible of $2500. My adjuster reached out within a few days. Pre Covid they would come out and survey the damage and settle quickly. Not so much these days. I had to send pictures and receipts myself.

Within 2 weeks I finally found an available plumber to fix my pipe. Next I had a company come out to check the moisture level. Shocker, my house was fully saturated. The only furniture to survive the deluge was my kitchen table and china hutch. They had movers come and pack up my entire downstairs and put it in storage. All of my water damaged furniture is in my garage. 

I knew my doggies couldn't stay in the house. I would have to board them. Clover could care less. She just likes to get out of the house. But Mackenzie is my girl. I have had her since she was a puppy and she is terrified whenever she has to go to the vet or groomers. I decided to board them together so at least they wouldn't be alone.

The next day they came out to completely check everything out. My carpet had to go as well as my lami ate and linoleum flooring. But I knew that was going to happen. Turns out from the water damage to the time they could check turned into mold. My cabinets had to be ripped out and all of my walls had to be cut out and removed from the floor up 2 feet. Basically my house has been gutted.

Giant fans were running in my house for a week but my house is finally dried out. I have a different adjuster now and I have spoken to her several times. Also sending more pix and receipts. Spoke to her yesterday and she finally understands the extent of my damage. An actual adjuster is coming to my house next week to give me their estimate. A contractor is also coming. Hopefully their estimates will be similar.

Regardless of all that, whatever it costs I will only get paid for anything minus the 2500 deductible. I will have to get all the repairs done to make my house livable for me and my fur babies. I miss them and want to bring them home. None of the extra expenses would be a problem if I had the money to cover it but I don't. I will probably have to go without furniture for awhile. 

2020 was undoubtedly a trainwreck but it took 10 months or so to get there. 2021 took 6 weeks to really suck for me. I know a lot of people are worse off than I am. I am blessed in many ways. Any little bit will help.