One Month Later

It's one month and 3 days later and while no repairs have been made, we continue to take small steps towards repair work starting.

On Monday K and I took a walk up up the block to take some pictures of "one month later". As we walked, and looked around, I thought as I have many times, about how until this event I didn't understand why New Orleans and other areas so damaged by Katrina weren't completely rebuilt yet. How could that be? How in this modern first world country that be the case? While I don't profess to know damage anything to the extent that those poor people have, I do realize the magnitude a little better.

One of the things that S and I talk about often is how fortunate we are to have experienced a tornado such as we did that didn't wipe out an entire area, but rather hit smaller areas pretty significantly. As a result the "systems" needed to run the city and businesses were all still in place for the most part. Our "infrastructure" wasn't impacted by the tornado, only by the volume of need. It's this specifically that makes us realize how difficult those weeks/months following Katrina must have been for the residents of New Orleans and the other impacted areas. One month later and only a few people on the block have made any significant progress. Many of us continue to *discuss* things with our insurance company and adjusters. Others are now going through the process of getting estimates from contractors and signing contracts with them for the work. We're part of both groups. :) All of this also breaks my heart for the people in Alabama. I can't imagine what they're still going through.

We signed a contract for repair work on Tuesday. To say the last two weeks leading up to finally signing was wrought with indecision would be an understatement. Seriously. We bought this house with less discussion and stress than selecting a contractor proved to be. Two days into our contract and we couldn't be happier with the decision we made. We signed a contract with Carolina Restoration. This was also the company that came out the days immediately after the tornado to help secure so many homes on our block, ours included. They were our saviors then for coming when the contractors our insurance company sent arrived and couldn't do half of the work we needed them to do. (I'll remind you they left saying they were going to get a ladder and never came back. Or called.) We called CR and they came, literally, within minutes of the phone call. I'd say I don't know why we had such angst over picking someone to do the repairs - but I do know. It's our biggest investment, our family home and it's damaged. There are so many contractors that are out to try to scam the homeowners, insurance companies and whoever else they can get money from that a lot of folks are uneasy about what to do. We want our home to be fixed, and fixed right. We want to know that the people doing the work are going to be honest with us. I really feel confident that CR has that team.

Within a few hours of signing our contract my newest BFF, Travis, contacted our insurance adjuster about our HVAC. Reminder: It's been 33 days without HVAC. (Still so grateful for Michelle allowing us to borrow the window unit!!! We promise, Rach will have it back in time to go to NY in August!! ;) Hopefully we'll be through with it next week!! Travis emailed our adjuster with the total estimate repairs and requested that the HVAC portion be approved immediately. Needless to say our dear friends at the insurance company didn't immediately oblige. It took Travis' persistence and today the replacement system was approved!! YAYYYYYY!! It'll be 90 degrees this weekend and while I don't think we'll have the units installed by then, at least we'll know they're coming. Hopefully the *thought* will keep us cool. ;)

As for our insurance company... We had two claims approved this week. Our personal property claim was approved and the HVAC approved today. The personal property claim included all of the hours we worked on the house and clean up. I didn't realize that we could have (and maybe should have?) hired someone to help clean up the inside of the house. Had we, the insurance company would have paid that. Since we did the work, we were able to estimate the hours worked and get some money for that. $10 an hour. I might have taken the cleaning people even if to just do the first round of cleaning. Another lesson learned. (Although I'm not sure I could have waited long enough for them to come clean.)

The last few weeks S has been the one fighting with the insurance company. I thought I'd give it a whirl on Monday. I called and had my questions and was told that while there's an adjuster's name on our claim, he's not our actual adjuster. Our "adjuster" is now a bank of folks. Whoever answers the phone is who you work with. Okay. I don't so much like that - but I don't s'pose they care about my opinion. In fact, I can guarantee they don't. My call with La Bruja (thank you Dora for teaching me that phrase) resulted in me telling her three times to lower her voice and stop yelling at me. I reminded her at least twice that I was the customer AND was the one who was having the issues. La Bruja took these opportunities to tell me "I'm sorry I'm yelling at you, but you're asking me these questions!!" Ah. Wellll, Yes. That's my role as the customer. Your role as the insurance adjuster is to, I don't know... Answer them. I think this whole exchange made me more angry by the fact that I'm routinely in this situation at work. While I do have calls where folks call to chat and have a status update, more often than not it's someone yelling at me. Yelling back at them for asking questions? Mmm. Not so much. In fact if anyone on my team ever did that to a customer, we'd be having a serious CTJ ("Come to ..." name your favorite higher power) conversation. I concluded the call with "thanks for your time. I think our conversation has gone as far as it can. Have a good day." I thought given how my head was spinning and snakes were coming out of my ears I was so angry I handled that pretty well. The recording of the call might say otherwise, but whatever. ;)

So there is progress! Each week a little more towards getting back to "normal".

Some special thanks in this blog to some very kind people: A family in Raleigh read about what happened to the families on our block. They decided, along with several friends, to take up a collection to help the folks on our block. They wanted to be able to provide a gift card to each family on the block. Last night the family and many of the neighbors (whether staying on the block or not) were here to receive the gift cards and more importantly, say thank you. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I can tell you I did NOT expect to receive a $110 gift card. Each family on the block received one. They raised what had to be thousands of dollars to be able to do this for everyone. I can speak for those that I talked with last night, and my own family: we were amazed and so very thankful for their generosity. Kellie and friends: Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You're all very special people.

Today we received in the mail a special card and gift from some of our amazing co-workers and friends. We appreciate your support so much and your friendship even more. Our thanks & hugs to the Sherman Family (NJ), Garner Family (CA), Laurie K (IN), Darnell M (LA), Dennis L (NY), Brown Family (NC), Sharon S (CO), Donna T (NJ), Karen F (IA), Bhasme Family (NC), Kitty M (NC), Bloom Family (GA) and The Blanks (TX). Jen, thanks for organizing. No one rally's the troops better than you do. xo

Next update, maybe I'll have pictures of our new HVAC units. I know what you're thinking. Ooohhh sexy!! Mmmmhhhmmmm...*nodding head* Oh yeah. ;)

Love to all!!
Dar, Stephen & KK
xo

Pictures... One month later:

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