Crystal Groves

So I’ve had to deal with my first home repair this week. I don’t necessarily count the tree falling on the house in May as a repair, since insurance covered it and we got a new deck out of it. The chimney installation last November isn’t a repair either, and didn’t cost us anything.

But on Monday our well stopped working. Well not the well…just the pump. I had to deal with taking a…I guess equivalent of sponge bath in just 1 gallon of water that day. We thought we had it fixed on Tuesday so showers commenced as normal, but it was down again Wednesday (another bucket bath). My uncle came over Wednesday to help fix it since he’s a contractor (same one that built my deck). He also had some extra well line at his house since ours got a leak in it during all this as well (how many times can I say “well” in this entry?).

Yesterday I decided to just drive to my Aunts in Orrtanna and shower there. As of last night everything was working, but we do still need to get one small part for the pump since it’s not shutting off properly. I was able to take a shower this morning and I no longer have a sink full of dirty dishes, so I am happy.

All in all the cost for the entire ordeal is only like $200, so that’s not bad at all. I’m very grateful that my first home repair was so gentle .

Navigate Right.

From Around the Farm

And final deck pictures (also navigate right):

From House After

I’m writing this here for my records, since I like to keep track of everything regarding my house.
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You can view updated deck pictures from today: http://picasaweb.google.com/acousticdryad/HouseAfter

And a few of getting the truck out and such: http://picasaweb.google.com/acousticdryad/AroundTheFarm

In march I talked about how my locality is doing mandatory septic cleanings, but that I had one done for the sale last fall, so I was going to write-in to opt out of this cycle of mandatory cleanings.

In April I sent in my letter requesting to opt-out of this cycle of mandatory cleanings, and inquiring on what information they needed from me. Right away a gentleman from the local township called me back and said that I could fax him a copy of the cleaning invoice and that should be fine.

So the next day I faxed a copy of the inspection report from the local septic inspectors, but the township guy called me back and said that this company doesn’t do cleanings, so the paper I sent in wouldn’t qualify. Which completely boggles my mind because I asked him what does it mean on the report then if it says “tank pumped and inspected”. So I had to call the septic inspector to find out if he had an invoice he could send me for the cleaning.

When I call -him- however, he says they had a 3rd party do the actual cleaning, called Shealers Septic. I got the number for them and called -them- the next day and the guy I spoke to, who was rather rude and sounded in a hurry anyway, asked for the address and said he’d have and invoice made up and mailed out.

Well that was over a month ago and I’ve received nothing, so I just left -another- message with Shealer’s to see if they’ll actually let me talk to a competent person now, as it’s clear the guy I spoke to last month just wanted to get me off the phone.

At least I have until March 2010 to get this straight, but if I don’t get something within the next month, I’m going to have to play hardball.

As noted on my Twitter and Facebook, the insurance company came back and approved our estimate for the porch, minus $250 for the tree. They are granted $3525, which is realistically $2525 due to my $1,000 deductible. The money will be in my account in 3-5 business days, so next week. Then we can get started on the new deck.

I’m not sure how much a new deck will raise the value of the house, but I’m hoping it’s considerable. I will have to do some research on what something like that does for the value of homes.

The most important part of this deck, is actually going to be a ramp at one end, that declines faintly onto the ground. The reason for this is because my dad’s legs hurt him a lot, and he often struggles with stairs. Should he ever be really sore, or hurt himself, then he can use the ramp instead of any stairs in the house at all, which I’m -very- happy about. It’ll be especially nice if I ever have to get him a golf cart or something to do things around our place on.

So I guess the tree is somewhat of a blessing in disguise. I need to take pictures of the carpenter ant damage at the base of the tree, and I plan to plant a maple in its place once I’ve destroyed the carpenter ant colony.

This entire insurance experience was ridiculously easy. I’m going to write a letter of praise to my claims agent and to the insurance company. Literally all I had to do was submit a claim through the website, talk to the agent for some details, submit pictures through their website, and submit a pdf of the estimate from a contractor of -my- choic through their website, and everything else was done for me. She even had my account number on file because I use it to pay off my dads loan, so she knew right where to put the money.

I thought dealing with insurance companies was supposed to be hard?

I talked to an amazingly helpful representative today from the insurance company, and the process is in motion for getting this tree out of here and the deck taken care of. Surprisingly they -don’t- send an inspector to look at the damage. Instead they ask you to send pictures (obviously I had plenty!), get a contractor estimate, and send it in to them for review.

They do not require any sort of licensing or bonding, or even certification on the contractor, which I made very clear to double check, as I plan to have my uncle (who is a contractor anyway) do the work. Since they don’t have any requirements for the contractor, this should be fine.

Hopefully we can get the simple deck that we wanted out of this, and have a better roof over it than that aluminum one from before.

I do have a $1,000 deductible, which is exactly what an emergency fund is for, so I am covered there. They also cover around $500 for hauling of the tree, which my uncle will probably also quote and do. He has a friend who owns a local bluegrass place that has a mulcher that he’ll borrow to take care of all the little limbs.

So I’m not sure when all of this is going to be started, but I’d like to have it sooner than later cause this tree is a bit of a hindrance. Although all of the young strong men stopping by to offer to haul it away certainly isn’t a bad thing