“Saturday mornings with Theresa,” I said. “I paid half. I have some of those records but not all of them.”
“Okay. How long did that go on?”
I thought back. “Years six through eleven, roughly. So about five years. Once a week, I paid my half, which was usually around fifty dollars.”
“So roughly twelve to thirteen thousand dollars total?”
“Maybe. But I don’t have all of it documented. We should only count what I can show.”
Maya looked at me. “You know that’s going to make your total lower than it actually was.”
“I know. That’s the point. If I come in with a number and I can show the records behind it, it’s solid. If I come in with a number that includes estimates and assumptions, Daniel’s going to take the estimates apart and the whole thing starts to look fuzzy.”
She nodded. “Okay. Conservative with documentation.”
The roof was the easiest item, because it was the largest and I had all of it: the original estimate, the two invoices, both check copies. $22,000, clean and documented.
The vehicle situation required more explanation because of the multiple steps involved. I walked Maya through the timeline: original car sold, minivan purchased, difference paid by me, subsequent maintenance that I covered rather than split because it was caregiver transport rather than general household use. She input the documented pieces.
At the end of the day, we had a partial number. Not the final one, because we hadn’t gotten through everything. But we had enough to see the shape of it.