Post-fire progress report #6

Well, folks, it's been another loooong day, but worth it. I'm also here to tell you, all the hard work of the past ten days has paid off!

I took a great deal of trouble to keep in touch with the various contractors, making sure that their bids were in on time and in the right format, querying every problem they identified with the insurance assessor before they put it into their quotes, getting him to agree that it was a legitimate claim or repair and not something designed to maximize the contractor's profit. All that work meant that I was running very hard to check and double-check everything - but it paid off big-time today.

The assessor tells me that all the quotes together (a little over $30,000) came in at a few hundred dollars below what his computer model said the repairs should cost. As a result, he's not only given blanket approval to everything, but he's even giving me a "bonus" by settling accommodation costs (while repairs are carried out) for a lump sum, giving me a bit more money to put towards repairs if I can spend less on a hotel. He's also given blanket approval to my claim for damaged and destroyed personal property. No quibbling, no hesitation. That makes all the effort worthwhile!

Hurricane Gustav permitting, I've booked the crew from Servicemaster to start the cleanup on Tuesday next week. The painters will come in the following week, and the carpet people the week after that. Of course, if Gustav takes out half the State, I daresay it'll be this time next year before I get everything done! The contractors will (quite rightly) have to give a higher priority to those whose homes are more severely damaged than my own.

Peter