I have yet to post about the chaos we experienced this past week. Mainly because I have yet to digest it myself. Monday night was already off to a rough start, with the kids fighting bedtime, waking up every 30 minutes or so. They ended up in our bed by 11p.m. Yes, we are those parents who just give up and let them come in. It’s not so bad, they’re awfully cute. Just a night full of sweaty babies and no room for mom and dad. By midnight that night we were woken by the loudest wind/hail/sleet like storm we’ve heard in a looong time. We’re used to having harsher weather being so close to the lake, but this one kept us up allll night long. Around 3 a.m. I may have (whoops) woken from my sleep with not the best wording around children. A sleepy “What the —F— was that?!” flew out of my mouth, before I remembered the kiddos were tucked beside us. Dan figured it was our storm window un-hinging, and there was nothing we could do until the morning about it. Well, the sun rises, and our little chipmunks look tousled and still tired from being woken the entire night from noise. I look out our window above our bed and see a strange mass swinging back and forth. “Dan, it’s our gutter, I think our gutter flew off last night,” I said. “Your kidding me,” Dan replied in true dan-thome fashion. We marched downstairs and Dan went outside to take a closer look while I started fixing the kids their breakfast. “Or half our house is missing!” Dan shreaked as he walked back in the door. He pulled his Iphone out of his pocket and showed me this wonderful picture that jump started our awful week…
We quickly got on the phone with our insurance company, and had a wonderful contractor recommended by family out by that afternoon. Home owners insurance is a big melting pot of shitty soup. We have never experienced such awful customer care, and it really got our blood boiling with a week-long waiting time until someone could come out to see it. In the mean time, the bad weather continued and the siding is worse now than in that picture above. Today, someone finally came out. And the words we knew would come stumbling from this adjusters mouth were like nails on a chalkboard. He explained how contracting companies now-a-days, the ones who go door to door trying to claim “damage” on your house (so they can make money off of you) pretty much ruin it for the rest of us who have REAL damage to their property. With that being said, the cost of insurance for a lot of people went sky-high. Our deductible is outrageously high now for wind/hail damage, and the chances of things being covered for what NEEDS to be done is a fat chance. What’s even better? This adjuster explaining that some insurance will not cover siding that is more than 10 years old. I think Dan and I both rolled our eyes, and shook our heads at the same time to this guy. Why wouldn’t our home owners insurance stress that in the first place? We would never pay for something that wouldn’t cover our house . Needless to say we left this meeting today feeling winded (no pun intended) and with our heads barely above water. Just when we get our house to a point where we are done shoveling out the big bucks, this has to happen. So, we need some good energy over here! Let’s hope that honest people like us, with true storm damage can get our house fixed. If not, looks like this tornado of a week will leave me wishing I was Dorothy and was knocked unconscious for this entire process.
Our neighbors were SO nice this entire week. They couldn’t park their cars in the driveway due to the siding flying off the handle randomly during the day/night. We owe them a BIG thank you, and cupcakes. To distract us from the uneasy feeling about the house all week we decided to do something productive that we have pushed aside for far too long. We are repainting the kitchen cabinets, and they are looking so nice! Not only is our house a mess on the outside, but the inside is blocked off left and right from the boys. I’m just waiting to see a tiny hand print on this oil based paint. So far, so good. Brody keeps explaining to people who come over that our house is broken, and then proceeds to tell them not to go into the kitchen. It’s quite funny. Here is what our house looks like right now…
My Sunday routines of baking and cooking for the week has been challenged to the max. But, I am proud to say where there is flour, butter, and sugar, there is a way. Here I am today, making cupcakes for my Step-dad’s birthday on Brody and Owen’s craft table. It wasn’t so bad after all, the bookshelf next to me came in handy to hold the ingredients! (Ignore my roots. There is no hope for my hair.) I just pulled the cupcakes out from the oven, and I cannot wait to let them cool so I can fill them up. I will post the recipe this week!
There was not a tornado this week like Ms. Dorothy had to experience in the Wizard of Oz. But the outside and inside of my house sure looks like one ripped through here. Here’s to hoping our Insurance Adjuster finds a heart like the Tin Man. Our Contractor finds courage like the Lion, to stand up to our Adjuster. The Scarecrow wanted a brain right? We have that, just hope ours isn’t scrambled at the end of all of this. “There’s no place like home…”