It Pays to Pay

It also pays to procrastinate! The hail storm was only two days before Bill & Jared arrived in July to build the deck. I didn't think anything of the damage until a couple of weeks ago. I noticed very sizable holes in the siding of my house. That is not good as moisture can collect inside. Plus, 100 years ago, houses were not insulated as they are today. I had already figured that the damage to my car was minimal, thus not even thinking about calling the insurance company. I rethought things when my good friend John was here for a visit. He said that there might be roof damage, and even if insurance pays for a portion of that, it's worth the deductible. Well, folks, right now, a grand is a huge amount of money. Actually, a grand is always a huge amount of money. I went ahead and called State Farm just to see. She gave me the number that I thought was a number for me to open the official claim. As most of you know, I hate the phone, thus did not make any follow-up phone calls. Guess what? About three days later, they called me. State Farm, as most insurance companies probably do, have a service where they can have their prescreened companies contact you to set up appointments and such. How wonderful! Now, they call me, and I follow them around when they poke and prod at my old home. The guy last week found substantial damage to the siding. He took pictures and notes and left. Then I got a call from a State Farm employee. He came out today with his really long ladder and went up on the roof. Did a bunch more poking and prodding around. Guess what folks?? After years and years and years (you get the idea) of paying INTO the system, I get the big reward. No, not winning the lottery, but pretty darn close! It appears that the house, as well as the garage, needs a new roof. So, for the aforementioned grand, I get a new roof, gutters, snow shields, replaced facia, downspouts, screens, siding, AND a claim form to report the damage to my flagpole, a planter, and two of my A/C units. Pretty damn awesome in my opinion! Now, with winter approaching, just when will these repairs happen? That's where the procrastination comes in. Everyone else called right after the storm, so over the past almost six weeks, their claims have been processed and work completed. Making room for my repair/replacements!!

Another exciting thing happened today. The furnace/boiler/heater whatever it's called that burns the oil from the big tank in the basement was serviced. Good thing too. Since the oil tank burned empty twice this past winter (HEY! I wasn't living here yet to monitor), the filters and pipes were filthy. That was nothing until the serviceman opened the air filter cabinet. YUCK!!!! A year of using the furnace, not changing air filters, having major renovations completed, etc really took their toll. Luckily the previous owner had a spare - IN the filter area, so it was pretty much useless. Off to the hardware store! I also need to get something to kill the poison ivy decorating the east side of my driveway....

Happy reading.