A small update on the cleanup
Well… it looks like the crew is almost done. Basically everything is out of the house. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Because of water damage & mold & bugs (etc etc etc) some rooms are down to the studs. Mostly the kitchen. So the cleanup guys think they’ll be done today or tomorrow. Then they’ll be back off to North Carolina. THEN we have to start the process of making the house actually a house again. She needs all new appliances, new cabinets in the kitchen & 2 of the 3 bathrooms & new flooring for the entire first floor. So we do that & pray it takes longer than a month for her to destroy the house all over again.
We’ve actually gone so far as to talk to our family lawyer & try to figure out what we can do (ie: have her declared incompetent or unfit to care for herself & thus force her to get therapy & maybe get on some meds) but apparently the answer is: nothing. There’s nothing we can do. She is just on the able side of things enough that we’d be laughed out of court. We’ve been trying to figure out a plan of action, but other than simply never letting her be alone (in the 4 HOURS she was alone ALL weekend she literally filled her entire truck, cab & bed, with things she pulled out of the dumpster at the house) and/or doing daily walk throughs at the house calling her out on even the earliest HINT of a restart in the behavior. But it’s just not enough. How can it be? We all work full time & have various responsibilities outside of work. We’ve given up and rearranged and tweaked any & everything we possibly can to help….but she just isn’t having it. And now without her “treasures” some of her other issues are becoming more apparent. For example: they had to treat every wall in the house with that Killz paint as well as setting off bug bombs. Between these things & the fact that there is currently zero furniture inside, Lisa took her to stay at a hotel over the weekend. Lisa paid extra to get a room with two double beds. Where does my grandmother sleep? On the couch. She REFUSED to sleep in the bed but could give no explanation why.
Of course the drama & threats surrounding this whole ordeal haven’t diminished. They haven’t gotten any worse thank God, but we had really hoped things might get easier as we progressed. If she isn’t yelling at someone about something or other….Yesterday she got so mad at one of the workers she kissed him. Seriously. She was up in his face screaming & cussing & finally sputtered, “I’m so mad I I I” SMOOCH. Then she stormed off. Still not sure what to think of that one.
We can now see where a certain redneck cousin (by marriage) royally ripped her off a couple years ago. He did a partial replacement of the shingles on her roof for 7k. Both our cleanup guys & an insurance adjuster have said they did MAYBE $500 worth of work. It’s sad that people take advantage like that. Yet my grandmother refuses to see the truth of it. She’ll say he ripped her off, but then want to call the same guy to come do other repairs in the house. Sigh.
This whole thing is just such a strain on all of us.
