Last month, I talked about the water damage we found in our house and how the insurance claim worked. Well, we have spent the past month getting repairs done and dealing with the insurance claim.
Picking Contractors
Any time you have work done on your house, one of the things you have to do is choose a contractor to do the work. Most people will recommend that you talk to multiple contractors and get estimates. Unfortunately, we’ve had to have work done on our house before, but fortunately, that meant that I already had contractors that I knew and trusted, which made the process a lot easier. We had to work with two companies – a plumber to do the pipe repairs and a mold abatement company to do the mold removal and the repairs to the walls.
Status of Repairs
The repairs are complete, though I wouldn’t say that the house is back in its original condition. I would always recommend using a reputable contractor in your local area, like Protegrity Restoration, that way you can be sure you are getting expert advice in evaluating water damage and executing a plan of action. We had the holes in the walls patched and they’re ready for sanding and painting, but because we’re planning to do some additional work in that space, we are waiting to paint. Additionally, we had to tear out a section of carpet, and that is still sitting bare, again, waiting for the renovations we’re planning to do. But the problem is fixed and the space is safe.
Insurance Claim
We were able to finish up the main part of the insurance claim last week. Ultimately, the plumbing work wasn’t covered, nor was the mold abatement. But I was delighted to learn that the repairs were covered, which I didn’t expect. I knew that generally speaking, normal wear and tear isn’t covered on an insurance claim, so I made the assumption that because the damage was due to an aging pipe cracking, then nothing would be covered. But that turned out to not be true at all – repairing the damage to the walls was absolutely covered (but not the mold abatement). It also covered damaged property – we lost a bookshelf and a few other things due to water damage, and that was covered.
Our homeowners policy has a $1000 deductible on it, but the work cost more than that, so the insurance company cut us a check for the amount over $1000. While the insurance payment didn’t cover a lot of the expense, every little bit absolutely helps. I’m so happy to be able to put this money back into the emergency fund. I wish I had known how the insurance coverage worked when I previously had water damage in the house. It definitely would have helped make a dent in the expenses. Lesson learned.
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Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
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