It's All About The Timing

My parents put their house in Florida on the market last November after weathering Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne and suffering some damage to their home. After many months of searching for a contractor to fix the carport, the siding, and the roofs over the shed and sun porch, they finally completed the repairs in February. Now all they needed was to sell their house since they had already purchased a home in Maryland, right in my neighborhood.

In August, they finally got an offer on the house and they set their settlement date for November 3. Then Hurricane Wilma came along and smashed all of their carefully made plans to smithereens. Gotta love Mother Nature. They lost the carport again, and this time it broke the dining room window. The carpet is all wet since the wind blew the rain right in. The roof on the sun porch buckled and there are some other damages as well. With a week to go before settlement, no one knows what is going to happen. I suppose that my Dad has been on the phone today with the realtor to find out if the buyers still want the house. If they do, they could very reasonably ask to postpone settlement until the repairs are made. This is a huge problem because my parents already gave their notices at their jobs and will be unemployed in exactly one week. It could take months to find someone to rebuild the carport and fix the roof.

They have been through so much in the past 13 months, and the one thing they want more than anything is to be closer to their children and grandchildren. They have overcome so many obstacles in order to make this move, and they feel so defeated by the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma. They are tired, worried, angry, and stressed out. I wish there was some way that I could help them. All I can do is pray that the buyers are still interested and that the repairs can be completed in a timely manner, both of which seem extremely unlikely at this point.

Boy, when it rains, it really pours.