Day 1, Feb. 10, Thursday:
Called the driver's insurance company, AAA. They said they will have their home insurance agent call me back in 20 minutes. They never did.
911 came and called construction engineers. Cut off the gas and power, set up a board to support the 2nd floor.
HOA sent a construction vendor, Drague, who built a patch on the wall. And said they will return the next day to check the gas line and hopefully we could have gas back.
Called State Farm, our own home insurance company, who said they will help us with a claim to AAA.
Basically, there were more than 10 people from a few different organizations worked on the house. We felt cared and didn't feel it's a big tragedy.
But actually no one provided a solution forward for us.
Until everyone left, and it got dark, we realized there was no power, no gas, no heat in that house, basically we could not stay in that house at night. We decided to call State Farm. After calling a few different numbers, we got their authorization to stay in the hotel for that night. We booked one in Campbell, close to where we live.
Scott said everything will be fixed, take it easy.
We were too optimistic.
Day 2, Feb. 11, Friday:
Drague did come in the morning. The guy test the gas and said he found leaks. He fixed the leaks. But it seemed he could still not get the pressure. He said he had to get a smaller guy to get on the top of the roof to check the gas line there. But that will be next Monday, for they don't work in the weekends.
So basically we still could not stay in the house. We called State Farm again, but could not reach them. We had to book another hotel for the weekend. I had classes on De Anza on Saturday. So the hotel must be close. We booked one in Cupertino village. We re-packed. There was nothing we could do in the weekend. So we just waited.
Day 5, Feb. 14, Monday:
Drague came again with 2 guys. They checked the gas on the roof and said they found 4-5 leaks. And those leaks are out of the project HOA signed with them. So unless we make sure either we or HOA will pay them, they can not continue.
We called HOA in the hope of finding who should be responsible for the gas, no one answered the phone call. No one responded to our voicemail either.
We called State Farm, the same thing - no one answered the call either.
We waited, with patience. State Farm responded and said they will have to book their contracted hotel for us. They booked one in Sunnyvale with kitchen for a week. We realized that actually we've been eating out and leftovers so far.
We left our three cats in the house even though we were living in the hotel. So we had to come home every day to feed them breakfast and dinner and check if they are doing ok. Peter had some problem eating his dinner. We decided to take him to the vet.
We packed again, this time, for a whole week, and moved to the third hotel.
Day 6, Feb. 15, Tuesday:
We figured out we actually never heard back from AAA since I called them from the first day. Scott called them. They said no one told them about the case. Or they've been waiting for us? Thank God they said they will take full responsibility. They will send a construction guy to come and inspect the site the next morning. They agreed to book a hotel for us for the whole week.
I asked a friend for suggestions. Her landlord happened to hire a couple of construction companies before. She gave me a number of a licensed company to call. I called. The guy could speak Chinese. He said he could come the next morning to check the place for me too.
I took Peter to the vet. The doctor opened his mouth and found infection on both sides. He had to give Peter two anti-biotic shots and said we should watch him not to eat too much.
We decided we should take the two young boys to the hotel. Scott called the State Farm and they contacted the hotel and said it is ok. We had to sign a liability agreement and add an extra cost. We went back to the house and packed the cat stuff and carried them to the hotel.
Day 7, Feb. 16, Wednesday:
AAA's construction contractor came and checked the spot. Took some pictures. Made some marks on his form. And he said they might get back to us on Friday. If not, the next Monday.
The Chinese company also came. He thought it was not bad when he just saw the outside. But when he saw the inside, he said it's much worse than he expected. Scott said, just like a bullet's hole in a human body, the outside is just a small hole, but the inside might take a few surgeries.
He said we may need a architecture/construction engineer to check the structure and decide whether the 2nd floor is impacted. He could come up with an estimation of repair cost and send it to me the next day.
State Farm also showed up.
But no one mentioned the repair process or gas line.
The house was cold and dusty. Our third cat, the girl, was left in the house all the time. At night, we found her vomited badly with blood. It was scary. We had to take her to the emergency vet. The doctor had to do a few examines. But they couldn't find anything. So they say we'd better leave her there overnight and they would observe her. But we should come back and pick her up 7am the next morning.
It was a short night for Scott.
Day 8, Feb. 17, Thursday:
Scott picked Twiggy up in the morning and dropped her off in the house. Then he went to work.
The Chinese company sent me the estimation. I forwarded to Scott.
We didn't hear anything from HOA, AAA or State Farm regarding the repair.
Day 9, Feb. 18, Friday:
We figured out probably we had to look after the repair ourselves. At least start from the gas, because our understanding is if the gas can not pass the inspection, we can not move back nor can we start the repair. Scott called a few plumbers. One of them was fully booked. Another one said we should ask PG&E to come and check because they have professional devices. We thought that's very reasonable. They are the professionals. So Scott called PG&E and told them the story. PG&E guy on the phone reported to their manager and then they scheduled a time to inspect the house.
Scott went to the house and PG&E found the gas was cut off by Fire Department, and then they are not allowed to do anything. We had to go through the construction company. They left.
So Scott had to call plumbers again. One plumber showed up and looked at the place, and said it was too complicated for them.
The whole process was just too frustrating for Scott.
We haven't heard anything from AAA's inspection.
Guess we'll have to wait till Monday. Monday is the President's Day. So not sure if AAA is working on that day.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
1:14pm, 2/10/2011, Thursday. Town house crashed by a car.
I thought it was earthquake.
Normally I am very un-sensitive to earthquakes - a few times, my friends felt earthquakes and called me, I didn't feel anything. Never.
But this time, it was like a strong earthquake. I was sitting in my bedroom upstairs working on my computer, I felt my hips were shaked hard! My heart beat so fast that I haven't felt for a while. My cats were taking a nap, but they escaped immediately, leaving the bedspread and the rugs on the floor twisted.
I took 10 seconds to wait and see if there were continuous shake. No more. Ok, so i went to the balcony and checked the garden of Casa De Anza. Things looked normal. I thought it might be ok for me to go downstairs and check out. I went downstairs and I saw a big mess in my living room: the wall on the west side fell off on the floor, my TV was on the floor, my end table was broken into pieces, my plant was on the floor, and my planter was in pieces. Lots of mud and trash. How come earthquake only shaked one side of my wall? What's happened?!
There was a huge hole in my wall. I could see the bush outside. Wait! I could see a red car bumper!
I went outside and saw this woman and her car.
She crashed my house with her car.
She was talking on the phone.
One of my neighbors was there too.
I went up toward her car. She got out of her car but still on her phone, she said to me, "I am so sorry! I talked to my husband. We have insurance!"
She went back to her car and took out a slope of her insurance. "This is our insurance company. It's AAA. You can call this number".
I wasn't able to say anything. I thought i should call my boyfriend first. I called him but couldn't reach him. I left a voicemail.
I went back home and got my camera. I took pictures and sent one to him via email.
The driver started to take pictures as well.
Then i called the AAA number. It's answering machine with lots of options. I didn't get my option at the first time. And i called it again and somebody answered the phone call. They asked for her name and insurance number, whether there is any injury. I said fortunately no. And then they said they will have their home insurance agent call me back in 20 minutes.
I tried to call my boyfriend again. I couldn't reach him. I took pictures with my iphone and sent them to him via MMS.
The wall looked terrible. I didn't know the wall could be so vulnerable. I realized that it might not be able to support the 2nd floor. All of sudden, I realized that I should call 911.
911 lady asked for address. I told her. She asked me when it happended. I said about 15 minutes ago. She said why didn't you call earlier? I said I just thought of this :-( She didn't blame me more and she said, ok, we will send people there soon.
My other neighbor came and told me I could call HOA. She was next door to us and she heard the sound too and got shocked so she came out and check what happened. It was indeed shocking. I never heard of HOA. So she went home and got the number. The HOA asked me for the address and my contact info and said they would call me back in 20 minutes.
911 indeed came soon. All tall big guys. One tall lady. They came in asked if I am ok. I said i am fine. They asked if there were pets. I said yes. Then i realized I am not sure if they were all home. I checked upstairs again and found the two smaller ones were hidden under the bed. The big one was wandering around not sure what happened and if he could go downstairs. I locked them in one room.
911 checked the room and asked me a couple of questions. They went out to check the outside. They found there was a gas line in the wall but i wasn't sure if it was connected. They decided the gas line should be disconnected. They sent for the fire department. I told them i was worried about the 2nd floor. They said they would send for a construction engineer.
And the police came soon too. The police asked the driver about the situation. Also asked me a couple of questions. I left my name and contact info.
Soon the construction engineer came. And the fire department came.
Finally my boyfriend got home. He was so shocked.
911 said we must leave the house for a couple of hours. They have to disconnect both the power and the gas and build a board to support the second floor temporarily, it's not safe for us to stay in. They put a red label on the door. No one is allowed to enter. We had to take the cats out too. We decided to put them in the car. They were so scared and they complained a lot.
I didn't heard back from AAA. HOA called me back and said their construction engineer would be here in 1-2 hours.
I realized i didn't have lunch. It was past 2:30pm. My boyfriend stayed outside and i went to a pho restaurant nearby. After half hour, i came back and saw two trucks were there. Two teams with different uniforms were working on the woods and saws and nails.
The cats pooed in the car. It was stinky. I know they were scared.
After about another 40 minutes, they finished setting up a board. We were allowed enter the house again. They had removed all the trash outside and the furniture to the dinning room. They put plastic on the couch to protect it from the construction. It was a new couch we just upgraded for the Chinese new year! They did a good job. I think they were very professional and impressive!
They told us now the 2nd floor should be ok. But there is no gas no power. We are not allowed to turn the power back on. We have to wait for the construction engineer to test the gas pressure before we could have the gas back. I said it's going to be cold at night with such a big hole in the wall, and i am not sure if it's going to be safe. They said the construction engineers would fix the hole for us. And then they collected all the materials and tools and took off.
Another two guys took it over. They were sent by HOA. They said they were supposed to build the board and they never saw fire department do their job. But anyway, now they had to build a patch on the wall to fix that hole temporarily.
I asked my boyfriend, should we talk to the neighbor driver about the expenses. He seemed hesitant. I asked him what we should do? He said he has home insurance.
He called his home insurance company and left a voice message. They called him back and said he could request a claim.
After another hour, the hole was patched. There were air holes but least no one can enter the house from that wall anymore. They said they would return the next day to check the gas pressure and hopefully we could have the gas back by next day. And then they took off too.
Finally it's getting quiet. It's getting dark and colder too.
I asked my boyfriend where should we stay tonight. Should we look for a hotel? Will that be covered? Who should cover it? The driver? The driver's insurance company? HOA? Our own insurance company?
I realized we were left without a solution.
My boyfriend called his own insurance company again. They finally responded with his insurance limits, but they were not sure if it covers hotel room. He had to call a few numbers, and finally they authorized him on the phone that we could stay in a hotel for tonight.
He started to look for hotel on priceline. I think we were not sure if we could get the money back eventually and how long it's going to take. We decided to go for a budget. I had a conference call the early next morning. But we didn't get internet. So i had to inform the organizers that I could not make it. We found a hotel in Campbell. We packed a couple of things in the suitcase. Fed the cats. And drove to the hotel.
What a day!
Normally I am very un-sensitive to earthquakes - a few times, my friends felt earthquakes and called me, I didn't feel anything. Never.
But this time, it was like a strong earthquake. I was sitting in my bedroom upstairs working on my computer, I felt my hips were shaked hard! My heart beat so fast that I haven't felt for a while. My cats were taking a nap, but they escaped immediately, leaving the bedspread and the rugs on the floor twisted.
I took 10 seconds to wait and see if there were continuous shake. No more. Ok, so i went to the balcony and checked the garden of Casa De Anza. Things looked normal. I thought it might be ok for me to go downstairs and check out. I went downstairs and I saw a big mess in my living room: the wall on the west side fell off on the floor, my TV was on the floor, my end table was broken into pieces, my plant was on the floor, and my planter was in pieces. Lots of mud and trash. How come earthquake only shaked one side of my wall? What's happened?!
There was a huge hole in my wall. I could see the bush outside. Wait! I could see a red car bumper!
I went outside and saw this woman and her car.
She crashed my house with her car.
She was talking on the phone.
One of my neighbors was there too.
I went up toward her car. She got out of her car but still on her phone, she said to me, "I am so sorry! I talked to my husband. We have insurance!"
She went back to her car and took out a slope of her insurance. "This is our insurance company. It's AAA. You can call this number".
I wasn't able to say anything. I thought i should call my boyfriend first. I called him but couldn't reach him. I left a voicemail.
I went back home and got my camera. I took pictures and sent one to him via email.
The driver started to take pictures as well.
Then i called the AAA number. It's answering machine with lots of options. I didn't get my option at the first time. And i called it again and somebody answered the phone call. They asked for her name and insurance number, whether there is any injury. I said fortunately no. And then they said they will have their home insurance agent call me back in 20 minutes.
I tried to call my boyfriend again. I couldn't reach him. I took pictures with my iphone and sent them to him via MMS.
The wall looked terrible. I didn't know the wall could be so vulnerable. I realized that it might not be able to support the 2nd floor. All of sudden, I realized that I should call 911.
911 lady asked for address. I told her. She asked me when it happended. I said about 15 minutes ago. She said why didn't you call earlier? I said I just thought of this :-( She didn't blame me more and she said, ok, we will send people there soon.
My other neighbor came and told me I could call HOA. She was next door to us and she heard the sound too and got shocked so she came out and check what happened. It was indeed shocking. I never heard of HOA. So she went home and got the number. The HOA asked me for the address and my contact info and said they would call me back in 20 minutes.
911 indeed came soon. All tall big guys. One tall lady. They came in asked if I am ok. I said i am fine. They asked if there were pets. I said yes. Then i realized I am not sure if they were all home. I checked upstairs again and found the two smaller ones were hidden under the bed. The big one was wandering around not sure what happened and if he could go downstairs. I locked them in one room.
911 checked the room and asked me a couple of questions. They went out to check the outside. They found there was a gas line in the wall but i wasn't sure if it was connected. They decided the gas line should be disconnected. They sent for the fire department. I told them i was worried about the 2nd floor. They said they would send for a construction engineer.
And the police came soon too. The police asked the driver about the situation. Also asked me a couple of questions. I left my name and contact info.
Soon the construction engineer came. And the fire department came.
Finally my boyfriend got home. He was so shocked.
911 said we must leave the house for a couple of hours. They have to disconnect both the power and the gas and build a board to support the second floor temporarily, it's not safe for us to stay in. They put a red label on the door. No one is allowed to enter. We had to take the cats out too. We decided to put them in the car. They were so scared and they complained a lot.
I didn't heard back from AAA. HOA called me back and said their construction engineer would be here in 1-2 hours.
I realized i didn't have lunch. It was past 2:30pm. My boyfriend stayed outside and i went to a pho restaurant nearby. After half hour, i came back and saw two trucks were there. Two teams with different uniforms were working on the woods and saws and nails.
The cats pooed in the car. It was stinky. I know they were scared.
After about another 40 minutes, they finished setting up a board. We were allowed enter the house again. They had removed all the trash outside and the furniture to the dinning room. They put plastic on the couch to protect it from the construction. It was a new couch we just upgraded for the Chinese new year! They did a good job. I think they were very professional and impressive!
They told us now the 2nd floor should be ok. But there is no gas no power. We are not allowed to turn the power back on. We have to wait for the construction engineer to test the gas pressure before we could have the gas back. I said it's going to be cold at night with such a big hole in the wall, and i am not sure if it's going to be safe. They said the construction engineers would fix the hole for us. And then they collected all the materials and tools and took off.
Another two guys took it over. They were sent by HOA. They said they were supposed to build the board and they never saw fire department do their job. But anyway, now they had to build a patch on the wall to fix that hole temporarily.
I asked my boyfriend, should we talk to the neighbor driver about the expenses. He seemed hesitant. I asked him what we should do? He said he has home insurance.
He called his home insurance company and left a voice message. They called him back and said he could request a claim.
After another hour, the hole was patched. There were air holes but least no one can enter the house from that wall anymore. They said they would return the next day to check the gas pressure and hopefully we could have the gas back by next day. And then they took off too.
Finally it's getting quiet. It's getting dark and colder too.
I asked my boyfriend where should we stay tonight. Should we look for a hotel? Will that be covered? Who should cover it? The driver? The driver's insurance company? HOA? Our own insurance company?
I realized we were left without a solution.
My boyfriend called his own insurance company again. They finally responded with his insurance limits, but they were not sure if it covers hotel room. He had to call a few numbers, and finally they authorized him on the phone that we could stay in a hotel for tonight.
He started to look for hotel on priceline. I think we were not sure if we could get the money back eventually and how long it's going to take. We decided to go for a budget. I had a conference call the early next morning. But we didn't get internet. So i had to inform the organizers that I could not make it. We found a hotel in Campbell. We packed a couple of things in the suitcase. Fed the cats. And drove to the hotel.
What a day!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
My accomplishments from 2010
1. Completed my MSOD classes
2. Passed the MSOD final exam
3. Took mom to Mr. Xu for her knee problem
4. Completed China Water Project
5. Renewed my Chinese Driver License
6. Bought my first car (in USA)
7. Passed DMV tests in USA
8. Applied BoA credit card
9. Facilitation Workshop/Sarah Fisk
10. Public Speaking Bootcamp/Peter
11. Open Space Workshop/Lisa Heft
12. Snowboard to Sugar Bowl
13. Snowboard to Kirkwood
14. BAodn Board Member of Events/4 events
15. Gold's Gym membership
16. Sell stuff on Craigslist
17. Boyfriend
18. Trip to the east coast/NYC/Broadway
19. Trip to Chicago/Odile's family and my brothers
20. Yosemite Trip
21. Science Museum in SF
22. Watched an opera in SF
23. Technology Museum in SJ
24. Monterey Acquarium
25. Road trip to SouCal
26. Watched Nutcracker
27. Renewed my passport
28. Visited Disneyland in LA
29. San Diego Safari Wild Animal Park
30. Bear Valley/NYE
2. Passed the MSOD final exam
3. Took mom to Mr. Xu for her knee problem
4. Completed China Water Project
5. Renewed my Chinese Driver License
6. Bought my first car (in USA)
7. Passed DMV tests in USA
8. Applied BoA credit card
9. Facilitation Workshop/Sarah Fisk
10. Public Speaking Bootcamp/Peter
11. Open Space Workshop/Lisa Heft
12. Snowboard to Sugar Bowl
13. Snowboard to Kirkwood
14. BAodn Board Member of Events/4 events
15. Gold's Gym membership
16. Sell stuff on Craigslist
17. Boyfriend
18. Trip to the east coast/NYC/Broadway
19. Trip to Chicago/Odile's family and my brothers
20. Yosemite Trip
21. Science Museum in SF
22. Watched an opera in SF
23. Technology Museum in SJ
24. Monterey Acquarium
25. Road trip to SouCal
26. Watched Nutcracker
27. Renewed my passport
28. Visited Disneyland in LA
29. San Diego Safari Wild Animal Park
30. Bear Valley/NYE
Movies watched in 2010 in the theatres
Alice in Wonderland
Avatar
The American
The Back-up Plan
Black Swan
Date Night
Easy A
Eat Love Pray
Harry Potter 7-1
Hereafter
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
The Karate Kid
Knight and Day
Life as We Know it
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Sex and the City 2
Shrek 4
The Social Network
Tangled
Toy Story 3
Tron Legacy
True Grit
24 movies I watched in the movie theatre in one year, excluding the movies i watched at home. That explains partly where my time has gone!
Avatar
The American
The Back-up Plan
Black Swan
Date Night
Easy A
Eat Love Pray
Harry Potter 7-1
Hereafter
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
The Karate Kid
Knight and Day
Life as We Know it
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Sex and the City 2
Shrek 4
The Social Network
Tangled
Toy Story 3
Tron Legacy
True Grit
24 movies I watched in the movie theatre in one year, excluding the movies i watched at home. That explains partly where my time has gone!
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