We have a fair amount of house fires here, too. Although most people use oil heat, there are more wood-heated homes than in most places, as well as a lot of older homes, so I suppose that might have something to do with it, although homes rented by drug-addicted people seem to burn at a higher rate than those housing retired owners. The above, of course, is in reference only to the fires I've heard about around here. It is devastating to lose your home in a fire. Even when no one is harmed, and the insurance coverage is good, you still lose stuff you can't just go out and replace. My dad's house burned to the ground while I was in college, and this is why I have very few photos of myself or my family, as well as things that I had saved from my childhood, my high school yearbook, and so on.
So sorry to hear about your son's tragedy, I can only tell you from our experience It took a while for it to sink in and to think of all the things We had questions about. The blessed news is no one was hurt. If you son had homeowners insurance there is a thing called alternate living expense(ALE )where he can rent a house or put a moble home on the property and they pay for it. We chose a Moble home because I wanted to monitor what was going on with the repair of the house. They should call the Insurance Company ASAP because there's a time Element involvd.
Thanks @Tony Page . They contacted their insurance company late yesterday and learned that an adjuster will be out sometime today. They were advised of the living expenses allowance but don't know what they will do yet. I told my husband they could stay in my MIL's house temporarily since it is empty, but that's a 2 hour drive to their burned house. The fire originated in the garage. It has been warm this week (70s and 80s), so no furnace/heat was running. I don't believe their water heater was in the garage, either. Sadly, they lost a dog to the fire. My DIL has a home office (she does insurance claims coding for doctors) and is on the phone a lot so she kept the dog in another part of the house so that barking, whining, etc. would not interfere with her "professional" business. So when she noticed the smoke and ran out of the house, she was unable to get back inside to let the dog out so she is devastated about that.
I'm so sorry about The dog, My heart goes out to all of you I feel so bad. I hope you all will get through this Smoothly without a lot of grief. If I had to do it over, I probably would not go with the mobile home instead I would have rented a house. We had a public adjuster who in the beginning was fine, However, after a while we were doing most of the work And interfacing with the insurance company ourselves so we didn't need him. Our public adjuster got 6% of all the claim money, In the end it wasn't worth it.
I hope I'm not being a pain. But there's another thing just popped into my head that you might want to know. The ALE will pay for all your meals until you rent a place. It's very important you save all your receipts. For instance We are not paying the rent for the mobile homes, but we are paying the utilities. The utilities in the trailer are higher than what we paid in the house they will pay the difference. After a year We put a claim in with the backup bills and received payment for the difference about a week ago. Our claim included eating out, takeout, Utility differences, cost of motels, etc. That's why it's important to save Receipts.
Thanks so much, Tony. You definitely are NOT being a pain... I truly appreciate all these tips from a Veteran of House Fire Wars!! There is certainly a lot to learn with this stuff and I will pass along all your tips to my son. Thanks again.
Candles and chimney fires used to be common fire starters during holidays . Not so many use fireplaces to heat here anymore.
My husband is over at my son's burned out house today. I'm not sure what they are doing other than poking around. Apparently the insurance company advised my son not to remove anything from the burn site... um, what? He had already removed all his guns and his wife's jewelry... and why on earth would he leave them there for some scavenger to steal?? I'm annoyed because I drove across town to pick up my new glasses. Got there and the associate brought them out for me to try on. I put them on and she handed me the card to test read. Hmmmm... everything blurry. Can't read anything but the giant E on top. What the hell. So she hemmed and hawed and took them "to the back". Came back and said, "you did order single-vision lenses, did you not?" I gazed at her for a minute and said, "No, I did not. I came in here wearing progressive lenses, had an eye exam, and was fitted for glasses. At NO TIME did anyone mention "single vision lenses," not me and not the optician fitting my glasses. All I was told was that I needed a slightly stronger prescription." I asked to see the written prescription which naturally she couldn't produce. So instead of simply apologizing for the misunderstanding, she was trying to insinuate that the mistake was on my part somehow. I was not having it. She said she would have them corrected and I "wouldn't have to pay the additional cost." I told her in no uncertain terms that I certainly will not pay any additional costs, and if they can't make it right then to refund my money and I will go elsewhere. If she had only said, "sorry, we made a mistake and we'll fix it" I could have left there with normal blood pressure. But noooooooooooooooooooooo. I had not had anything to eat all day, so on my way home I pulled into a McDonald's drive thru. There was a short line and I sat there for 5 or 6 minutes, an eternity in "McDonald's time." No cars moved in that entire time, so I pulled out of the line and drove home. I can wait only so long for "fast food."
It probably takes longer to grinf up the dried crickets. Sorry you had a bad experience, @Beth Gallagher
I was just thinking that I should have told the woman at the optometrist's office that if I had wanted "single-vision glasses" I could go to the Dollar Store and get 10 pairs for $2.99.
It seems this year is not a good one for getting glasses made right the first time. They put the prescription in my left lens upside down. The guy said I needed to wear them for 3 days to get use to them since they had prisms. I told him that I had been wearing prisms for a year now and they worked immediately. Then he says it is getting use to progressive lens. I reminded him I have been wearing progressive for 30 years and I also got use to them immediately. I took off my old pair, handed them to him and told him to compare the prescriptions because something is off with the left lens. He went in the back where I heard him talking to the technician gal that said quickly, "you wrote the prescription upside down and that is the way it was ground and installed." He didn't know I had overheard them. His comment was that there was a slight mix up on my prescription and they would have to put in a new lens. The good news was that it wouldn't cost me anything. I fought hard to keep from verbalizing my thoughts. Sorry about the disappointment you felt when you donned those new glasses, Beth and the following lightly veiled denial dialog causing your blood pressure to rise.