We met with the adjustor and the contractor yesterday and today and it looks like things are finally starting to move a little bit. Here is the general scoop:
We will definitely be displaced for the next 6-8 weeks if not more, so we are working on getting our insurance company to rent an apartment here in town for us. In the meantime we're mostly staying at a local hotel. Our phone and Internet still work and we have to come back to the house at least 2-3 times a day to let Shadow out so just keep using our regular numbers/addresses.
Jacob went back to Sheldon with his grandparents for a few weeks but since Sean has a doctor appointment in Iowa City this Friday he had to stay home for now (that's a whole 'nother story - lots of nasty UTI's lately so I definitely didn't want to cancel the appointment.)
Our insurance does not allow for homeowners' participation in the construction so it does not help us to have people come over and tear stuff down or do the drywalling or whatever. They will pay the contractor and professional cleaners directly. We can still use help with sorting through the mess upstairs and making piles of what we can save and making lists of what we can't so we can eventually be reimbursed, so definitely let us know ASAP if that's something you can help with. Mark also suggested that if people really want to come over, we plan to take advantage of the dumpster being here and go through the cellar and throw stuff away - all the recent flooding has destroyed a bunch of boxes and stuff down there too and we haven't really done anything about it yet because we didn't know where to bring it all.
It doesn't sound like anything is going to get done this week yet so that leaves us a little time to sort through the mess upstairs and find a place to live before they start destroying our house. (Right now the estimate is at $46,000 so I imagine it will be a BIG mess!) In the meantime, we did go to Goodwill to get a few items for everybody and we're gradually moving more and more stuff into our van, so we're doing okay. If anybody has an extra set of suitcases, we might like to use those instead of plastic bags once we get some clothes back from the dry-cleaners. (Right now we each only have two sets of clothes anyway so it doesn't matter a whole bunch.)
That's all I can think of for now. Mark started his Habitat job today so it's just me and Sean and Grace here and I think we need to go find a hotel for the night. Thanks for reading and talk to you later!
Laurie
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
List of Needs and Wants
Okay, I'm getting a little overwhelmed with offers of help, so I thought I'd start here with a short list of things we will need eventually. Unfortunately, this weekend is kind of a lost cause since the insurance adjustor hasn't been out here yet and we can't really get started on anything. Very frustrating but we know we're in this for the long haul.
Immediate needs:
- A long-term temporary place to stay. The contractor says it will be 6-8 weeks and although they'll technically be working upstairs most of the time, it's not really possible to stay here with all the construction going on. We're hoping to find an apartment or maybe borrow someone's camper so we can come home to work but still eat and sleep somewhere else.
- Clothes for Jacob. He really just needs summer clothes for now: shorts, tees, underwear, socks, and a swimming suit. I don't want to buy these new unless I can't find a source for hand-me-downs.
Immediate wants: things that would make our life a little less complicated but aren't really "necessary:"
- Gift cards to local fast-food places or restaurants since we can't eat here (we have electricity but everything is covered with soot!) We will eventually get another place to live and then we won't have to eat out as much but it's kind of unavoidable at this point.
- A pre-paid cell phone for coordinating the construction. Not truly "necessary" since we do still have a real phone but I'm sure they'll turn off the power once in a while and it would be nice to have one at our second location. I'm kind of hoping someone has one they're not using or something...?
- Cash is not really necessary at this point because the insurance agent gave us a check to start staying in hotels, etc.
Later needs/wants:
- After we get the scoop from the adjustor and contractor on Monday (hopefully) we will start calling local people to help with the clean-up. We're hoping that if we do part of the clean-up and/or destruction ourselves we can save a little money and use that to pay the deductible, but we don't know if that's possible or not.
- After the whole thing is over, we will need to replace a lot of carpet, furniture and mattresses. They can stay for now but they're pretty smoky and we'll have to replace them. Everything we currently have was found at garage sales or whatever and I plan to re-furnish the house with all used things again so keep us in mind if you come across any good deals. :)
- Jacob is kind of sad that he lost all his books so I will also start asking for donations to his new library. He had a pretty good collection for an 11-year-old and he'll be anxious to get more books.
I think that's it for now! Like I said, we really don't know anything yet this weekend so we're kind of just hanging out in hotels and coming home to clean every once in a while. Thanks again for praying for us this week!
Laurie
Immediate needs:
- A long-term temporary place to stay. The contractor says it will be 6-8 weeks and although they'll technically be working upstairs most of the time, it's not really possible to stay here with all the construction going on. We're hoping to find an apartment or maybe borrow someone's camper so we can come home to work but still eat and sleep somewhere else.
- Clothes for Jacob. He really just needs summer clothes for now: shorts, tees, underwear, socks, and a swimming suit. I don't want to buy these new unless I can't find a source for hand-me-downs.
Immediate wants: things that would make our life a little less complicated but aren't really "necessary:"
- Gift cards to local fast-food places or restaurants since we can't eat here (we have electricity but everything is covered with soot!) We will eventually get another place to live and then we won't have to eat out as much but it's kind of unavoidable at this point.
- A pre-paid cell phone for coordinating the construction. Not truly "necessary" since we do still have a real phone but I'm sure they'll turn off the power once in a while and it would be nice to have one at our second location. I'm kind of hoping someone has one they're not using or something...?
- Cash is not really necessary at this point because the insurance agent gave us a check to start staying in hotels, etc.
Later needs/wants:
- After we get the scoop from the adjustor and contractor on Monday (hopefully) we will start calling local people to help with the clean-up. We're hoping that if we do part of the clean-up and/or destruction ourselves we can save a little money and use that to pay the deductible, but we don't know if that's possible or not.
- After the whole thing is over, we will need to replace a lot of carpet, furniture and mattresses. They can stay for now but they're pretty smoky and we'll have to replace them. Everything we currently have was found at garage sales or whatever and I plan to re-furnish the house with all used things again so keep us in mind if you come across any good deals. :)
- Jacob is kind of sad that he lost all his books so I will also start asking for donations to his new library. He had a pretty good collection for an 11-year-old and he'll be anxious to get more books.
I think that's it for now! Like I said, we really don't know anything yet this weekend so we're kind of just hanging out in hotels and coming home to clean every once in a while. Thanks again for praying for us this week!
Laurie
Updates
I'm kind of pressed for time here so I will try to keep this short and sweet.
Mark accepted a position with Habitat for Humanity and will start working there next week. It doesn't pay very well and we don't know if it has benefits but it's a start! And he's very excited about working for a good company. He says he's tired of making rich people richer.
As most of you know by now, we had a fire a couple of days ago. I posted lots of pictures on my facebook page so look for me on Facebook and check them out. It started in the small space above the upstairs ceiling and the insulation caught fire and it just spread along the whole roof line very quickly so now we have a bunch of big holes in the roof but at least it's just on the top floor.
Mark and I don't really believe in "coincidences" and the story about finding the fire is truly amazing. Mark "happened" to still be awake at 1:00 at night and he just "happened" to hear some weird clunking noises upstairs in Jacob's room and headed up to investigate. He thought it felt very warm in there, despite the A/C so he started poking around and discovered an orange glow above the ceiling so he grabbed Jacob and tore downstairs and woke everyone up. We were outside waiting for the fire trucks by the time the smoke alarms went off and we heard a loud crash when the ceiling right above the stairway collapsed and we realized that if we had waited until the smoke alarm went off Jacob would have been stuck upstairs! So despite a very messy house and the prospect of being homeless for the next 6-8 weeks, we feel TRULY blessed! We all had plenty of time to get out of the house and the vast majority of our belongings are fine.
Anyway, I will share more later but I wanted to at least give out the basic story. Our insurance agent has already given us a check to get started with hotels and finding some clothes for Jacob (he lost virtually everything he owns!) and we're meeting with the contractor on Monday to start working out the exact plans. We're also very blessed to have such a caring insurance agent. He's already been here like 3 times to check out the damage and see what we need.
The house smells pretty bad and I'm getting a headache so I think we're heading out for a bit - there's a parade this morning and they always hand out lots of candy so we need to get a good spot. Take care and God bless!!
Laurie
Mark accepted a position with Habitat for Humanity and will start working there next week. It doesn't pay very well and we don't know if it has benefits but it's a start! And he's very excited about working for a good company. He says he's tired of making rich people richer.
As most of you know by now, we had a fire a couple of days ago. I posted lots of pictures on my facebook page so look for me on Facebook and check them out. It started in the small space above the upstairs ceiling and the insulation caught fire and it just spread along the whole roof line very quickly so now we have a bunch of big holes in the roof but at least it's just on the top floor.
Mark and I don't really believe in "coincidences" and the story about finding the fire is truly amazing. Mark "happened" to still be awake at 1:00 at night and he just "happened" to hear some weird clunking noises upstairs in Jacob's room and headed up to investigate. He thought it felt very warm in there, despite the A/C so he started poking around and discovered an orange glow above the ceiling so he grabbed Jacob and tore downstairs and woke everyone up. We were outside waiting for the fire trucks by the time the smoke alarms went off and we heard a loud crash when the ceiling right above the stairway collapsed and we realized that if we had waited until the smoke alarm went off Jacob would have been stuck upstairs! So despite a very messy house and the prospect of being homeless for the next 6-8 weeks, we feel TRULY blessed! We all had plenty of time to get out of the house and the vast majority of our belongings are fine.
Anyway, I will share more later but I wanted to at least give out the basic story. Our insurance agent has already given us a check to get started with hotels and finding some clothes for Jacob (he lost virtually everything he owns!) and we're meeting with the contractor on Monday to start working out the exact plans. We're also very blessed to have such a caring insurance agent. He's already been here like 3 times to check out the damage and see what we need.
The house smells pretty bad and I'm getting a headache so I think we're heading out for a bit - there's a parade this morning and they always hand out lots of candy so we need to get a good spot. Take care and God bless!!
Laurie
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