Lance met with our attorney on Monday. The attorney will be helping us out with getting The little house oil spill issues resolved. They will review the case this week with plans to draft a letter by Friday.
When Lance was meeting with the attorney, I actually had a Doctors appointment. I met with Dr. Kessler. Dr. Kessler is the Dr. that delivered Parker. She is really cute. I like her a lot. She told me to take it easy (even more so than I have been) over the next couple of weeks. She said that she will and she knows I will feel much better once we get passed the 26 week marker (when Parker was born).
Thursday, I will be 25 weeks. Finally, we are to viability. I can't believe that Parker was born a week from now. It is truly amazing what we went through with him. It was totally worth it, but very scary and unbelievable looking back on it. We are getting there. I am doing really good, with one exception...I can not sleep at night. The Dr. did say I can take some Tylenol PM so hopefully that works! I am actually looking forward to trying it.
We started this blog as a way to update our family and friends on our preemie, Parker. After Parker passed away, Lance and I decided that it was important to continue the blog as a family journal. We are always up to something!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
Spring Break
We signed all of the papers for the Whitehills house last Friday, then over the weekend we moved into the new apartment. The move went really well. We had lots of help which was so nice. The girls settled in really quickly. We are directly across from a playground and they already have made two little friends in our same building.
On Monday, poor little Samantha got really really sick. She vomited for 8 hours. I took her to the Dr. on Tuesday and they said she had a very bad ear infection. Even today (Friday) she is still very congested, but back to her old self. So the beginning of our Spring Break week was a bit of a bumber for me and the girls.
Thursday, we went to my moms and spent the afternoon in a nail salon. It was nice and relaxing, plus the trip got us all out of this apartment. I was able to go directly from the car to a message chair in the salon. Grandma Baur, my Mom, Erin, Megan, me and the girls all got pedicures. Logan came with us also, but he just wanted to watch. After the salon we went to my sisters. The girls were able to play with the boys as I layed on the couch the rest of the evening. It was such a nice day and very relaxing.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Update on The little House
Lance and I have quickly realized that no one is going to help us with the oil spill situation unless we put the pressure on them to do so. Lance has been working with the previous insurance company over the past month. By the request of the insurance agency everyone that Lance has called in to help have sent their estimates directly to the insurance company.
Lance spoke with the insurance agent last week and he said they would know something by Friday or Monday at the latest. Lance called the agent multiple times and they would not call him back. Finally, on Tuesday he got a hold of an agent and they basically told him that they are NOT going to cover any of the cost and they no longer can discuss this matter with Lance, because he was not the owner of the policy. I think this is very interesting. They have been involved over the last month, and now that they have received the estimates they decide that they are not going to pay for anything. huh?!?!
Lance has been very open with the insurance agency and told them that we cannot live in the house. Even today, the smell is so bad you get a headache within 30 minutes of being inside the house. It is unlivable. He also made sure to let them know that we now have to move to an apartment. The agent told him that they understand.
You truly see the character of a person when they are presented with this type of situation. No one is stepping up to take ownership of the problem. The listing agent, the previous owners, and now the insurance company. They all sold us a piece of property with an oil spill on it. It is amazing the dishonesty they have all shown us. By not disclosing all of this before the purchase just amazes me. Besides this "isn't their problem", they all still have homes to live in.
This is definitely an added stress and with being a high risk pregnancy...I want to know what's going on, but at the same time I don't want to know. I was just really hoping that "someone" would step up to help us.
The silver lining...we now know that the girls will be happy to live anywhere even if it is in a cardboard box.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
22 weeks, but who is counting...
I am 22 weeks now and have been locked up in my house on bed rest so no one has seen me. I feel huge and already very uncomfortable but every week is such a blessing. I know what your thinking I am still tiny, but to put it in perspective I have already gained about 20 pounds.
I had Laney snap a picture of me in the hallway after a Dr. apt. I am still going to the Dr. every 2 -3 weeks. Today was all good news. We had another ultrasound and everything looks beautiful. They said to keep doing what I've been doing to keep the baby safe.
The girls just had to have their picture taken as well. They are such good posers!
We were doing so good with not finding out the sex of the baby. Having ultrasounds as often as I have been having them makes it hard to wait. Every time they get down to the bottom of the baby we have to turn away. Today we didn't and it was pretty obvious.
To explain what you are looking at...pretend the baby is sitting on a copy machine and this is the image you get of his thighs and bottom. Samantha was with us today and all of a sudden when the baby spread his legs she said, "It's a boy, It's a boy. I see a penis!" The lady conducting the ultrasound said, "I think the whole waiting room now knows you are having a boy!"
I am all in my head at this point. We are very excited we are having another boy, however we also know that boy preemies do not do as well as girl preemies so we are counting the weeks. We know we will be a little less nervous as we pass through certain gates. First one 25 weeks, then 26 weeks (when Parker was born), then 28, then 32, then 35. Get me past 35 and I will be one happy girl.
I had Laney snap a picture of me in the hallway after a Dr. apt. I am still going to the Dr. every 2 -3 weeks. Today was all good news. We had another ultrasound and everything looks beautiful. They said to keep doing what I've been doing to keep the baby safe.
The girls just had to have their picture taken as well. They are such good posers!
We were doing so good with not finding out the sex of the baby. Having ultrasounds as often as I have been having them makes it hard to wait. Every time they get down to the bottom of the baby we have to turn away. Today we didn't and it was pretty obvious.
To explain what you are looking at...pretend the baby is sitting on a copy machine and this is the image you get of his thighs and bottom. Samantha was with us today and all of a sudden when the baby spread his legs she said, "It's a boy, It's a boy. I see a penis!" The lady conducting the ultrasound said, "I think the whole waiting room now knows you are having a boy!"
I am all in my head at this point. We are very excited we are having another boy, however we also know that boy preemies do not do as well as girl preemies so we are counting the weeks. We know we will be a little less nervous as we pass through certain gates. First one 25 weeks, then 26 weeks (when Parker was born), then 28, then 32, then 35. Get me past 35 and I will be one happy girl.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Burning Down the House - The Party is OVER!!
This may get ugly. We found out earlier this week that 150,000 gallons of water and 100 gallons + of oil rushed into the basement of the little house. Once in the basement the sump pump kicked on and pumped the water/oil combo into the side yard. 100 gallons of oil is nothing to sneeze at. Everything we have read on the Internet says the house should be condemned. They say that anything less than 1 gallon can be cleaned anything more you're in trouble....I guess we are in big trouble if we are looking at 100 gallons or more...uhg!
Each day as we learn more the story is becoming more and more unbelievable. Lance has been taking off of work to meet different "experts" at the little house to assess the situation. Yesterday, the septic guy came out to check out the septic system. Lance and the specialist looked all over the property to find it buried under the ground under several feet of soil and roots from a nearby tree. The previous owners said that they had the septic serviced a year ago which obviously was not possible by the undisturbed land and the roots covering the top of the septic tank. Lovely!!! Once they finally dug deep enough to find the lid, they removed the lid to find that the septic system is completely full of oil. We now know that the septic must be replaced at a price tag of $30,000. Lance and I believe that we are getting closer and closer to discovering that the house is going to be a total loss and need to be torn down. Our family will need to find some sort of temporary housing to hold us over for possibly the next year.
I keep laughing to myself because this is about as bad as it gets and to add bed rest on top of everything....wow!!! I am not sure at this point if the previous sellers are going to be so cooperative as previously stated. I am sure they would love to just take back the sale and sell to someone else, however we want the property and we are now without a home so there are definite damages involved. Yuck! I may not post about the little house for a while as we need to talk to an attorney.
I will continue to post about our move, the baby/bed rest, and our new life in an apartment somewhere!!
Each day as we learn more the story is becoming more and more unbelievable. Lance has been taking off of work to meet different "experts" at the little house to assess the situation. Yesterday, the septic guy came out to check out the septic system. Lance and the specialist looked all over the property to find it buried under the ground under several feet of soil and roots from a nearby tree. The previous owners said that they had the septic serviced a year ago which obviously was not possible by the undisturbed land and the roots covering the top of the septic tank. Lovely!!! Once they finally dug deep enough to find the lid, they removed the lid to find that the septic system is completely full of oil. We now know that the septic must be replaced at a price tag of $30,000. Lance and I believe that we are getting closer and closer to discovering that the house is going to be a total loss and need to be torn down. Our family will need to find some sort of temporary housing to hold us over for possibly the next year.
I keep laughing to myself because this is about as bad as it gets and to add bed rest on top of everything....wow!!! I am not sure at this point if the previous sellers are going to be so cooperative as previously stated. I am sure they would love to just take back the sale and sell to someone else, however we want the property and we are now without a home so there are definite damages involved. Yuck! I may not post about the little house for a while as we need to talk to an attorney.
I will continue to post about our move, the baby/bed rest, and our new life in an apartment somewhere!!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Taking Care of Business
Lance and I regrouped over the weekend. I think we both needed to take a breather and discuss the situation. Sunday we talked about our urgent to do list. We came up with a list of items to take care of first thing on Monday morning. I was in charge of getting some type of storage facility. I was able to find one right up the street at a very reasonable price. As far as we know all of our stuff could be in storage for up to a year. This weekend my family will be helping take truck loads to the storage unit.
Lance's to do list was obviously much longer. He sure was on top of things. He called the local fire department, the EPA and then a slew of other people. We had a local farmer come out to talk to Lance about leasing the land. We have also received estimates from a contractor to finish the upstairs, a roofer, the oil spill clean up people and several estimates for the build of a garage.
We have received a lot of paperwork from our agent including: the police report, the inspection reports and the insurance report. She also sent us an email from the previous owners. They said that they would purchase the property back from us. They feel really bad about what has happened and would like us to create a list of things we need them to do. I think, because of their age they would prefer us to do the work and then have them write the checks. They didn't do what was necessary for the clean up of the oil, because they said they didn't know what to do.
We should know more in the next couple of days what it is going to take to get the oil cleaned up. We feel better knowing that they will do whatever it takes to make it right by us. I will continue to keep you updated. Thanks for all of the support and for reaching out to us with offers to help. I will know more after this weekend. :) Maybe have a list pulled together of things others can do to help.
Lance's to do list was obviously much longer. He sure was on top of things. He called the local fire department, the EPA and then a slew of other people. We had a local farmer come out to talk to Lance about leasing the land. We have also received estimates from a contractor to finish the upstairs, a roofer, the oil spill clean up people and several estimates for the build of a garage.
We have received a lot of paperwork from our agent including: the police report, the inspection reports and the insurance report. She also sent us an email from the previous owners. They said that they would purchase the property back from us. They feel really bad about what has happened and would like us to create a list of things we need them to do. I think, because of their age they would prefer us to do the work and then have them write the checks. They didn't do what was necessary for the clean up of the oil, because they said they didn't know what to do.
We should know more in the next couple of days what it is going to take to get the oil cleaned up. We feel better knowing that they will do whatever it takes to make it right by us. I will continue to keep you updated. Thanks for all of the support and for reaching out to us with offers to help. I will know more after this weekend. :) Maybe have a list pulled together of things others can do to help.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Bigger Issue - Oil Spill
It has been a week ago Friday that we purchased The little house. We have now found ourselves in the middle of a nightmare. Background - When the crooks stole all of the copper piping from the house, apparently there was some oil spillage on the floor of the basement - NOT disclosed by the previous owners. The previous owners said that they had contacted their home owners insurance and they were taking care of everything that happened during the robbery. We now know that there was a spill and it was not professionally cleaned. After a week, the oil smell still permeates the entire house.
Everyone that has been helping us with the house is getting headaches from the smell. It is horrible. We are down to three weeks before we have to be out of our current home and the little house is currently inhabitable. The previous owners did not disclose the spill and they kept saying that everything that was damaged from the intruder would be fixed. We did not receive and have yet to receive full disclosure on what exactly happened and how big the oil spill was. It is easy to say we should have NEVER signed on the dotted line to purchase the property. What we didn't know, we didn't know. We signed and purchased the house based on the home inspection. Nothing after the inspection was disclosed to us. All we knew is that there was a break in and the owners had contacted their insurance policy and they were taking care of it.
Now isn't this fun?! Yep, I am starting to feel stressed. We have sent several emails to our agent and she is on top of it. I trust her and she has already responded and said that her manager has been notified and is involved. If we do not hear something back from the other agent and the previous owners by Monday, I guess will have to get attorneys involved. Yuck!
Everyone that has been helping us with the house is getting headaches from the smell. It is horrible. We are down to three weeks before we have to be out of our current home and the little house is currently inhabitable. The previous owners did not disclose the spill and they kept saying that everything that was damaged from the intruder would be fixed. We did not receive and have yet to receive full disclosure on what exactly happened and how big the oil spill was. It is easy to say we should have NEVER signed on the dotted line to purchase the property. What we didn't know, we didn't know. We signed and purchased the house based on the home inspection. Nothing after the inspection was disclosed to us. All we knew is that there was a break in and the owners had contacted their insurance policy and they were taking care of it.
Now isn't this fun?! Yep, I am starting to feel stressed. We have sent several emails to our agent and she is on top of it. I trust her and she has already responded and said that her manager has been notified and is involved. If we do not hear something back from the other agent and the previous owners by Monday, I guess will have to get attorneys involved. Yuck!
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