No room at the Carlton Inn!
News ·Tuesday December 19, 2006 @ 22:22 EST (link)
I've just been shuffling some papers from our "disaster folder": scraps with notes about calls made and responses, all the way back from getting the tree out to getting a contractor; a copy of our insurance policy; a printout of a Word file I made up at work with similar notes last week; a contract from the contractor that's been doing the cleanup (and we think we'll use him for the rebuilding too, provided he and the adjuster can converge on an estimate); a MetLife claim folder; an envelope with copies of receipts thus far; a note from the gas company; a printout of an Excel spreadsheet with our interior claims; and a partridge, resting comfortably in a pear tree.
December 18: Still at the Carlton Inn; drove to Microsoft in the morning, to check my mail and phone messages, and make some calls, since we still don't have power in Duvall. Had a message from MetLife; our claim has been farmed out to a Texas company called Tailored Adjustment Services, and would be handled by a James Davant. We managed to get through to him around noon, gave him some phone numbers to reach us, and he said he'd try to get there this week. We also had a message from the tree-owning neighbors' insurance, who were trying to clear themselves (and they managed to; given the tree was dead and the windstorm was extraordinary).
We got stiffed at the hotel; when we came returned that evening, laden with bags and KFC. We'd extended our reservation that morning, but when we got in we found a sign on our door saying that they'd given away our room; when we checked with the front desk, we found that the guy who'd been on the front desk hadn't put our extension into the computer, and he'd done the same to several other people too. On talking to the other clerk we learned he was related to the owners, which was probably the only reason he still worked there.
We stalked out and ate our KFC in the car, but then came in to get our bill, and the manager offered to put us up in a room with no heater (it was having new a new climate control unit installed), and gave us the room for the night free. It wasn't too cold, really, and it beat sleeping in a car (or a house with a tree through it and no power).
December 19: We went over to Microsoft; we had several recommendations for contractors (from the MS home owners' list and from a lady Honey used to work with). Made some calls, including to the adjuster, who said he wouldn't be able to get out to us before Christmas, and to some of the contractors, mainly leaving messages.
At the house I put my 8x10 tarp over the hole in the wall (the roof was covered with our large tarp but the gap in the wall would still let driving rain through), and I gathered several more garbage bags of insulation from the bedroom (about eight now), sifting carefully to recover what we could. We thought we'd lost the phone handset that was on the dresser (but we found the base unit), but then thought to look in the near-empty garbage and found it safe. We left at about 1600 as it began to get dark, and went back to Microsoft to check message and print out the Word document I'd made with various contact numbers, phone cards, and a short log of people we'd contacted thus far. Back at the hotel we watched Charlie Brown, played some Sequence and Boggle, ate leftover KFC, and worried about our house.
I've just been shuffling some papers from our "disaster folder": scraps with notes about calls made and responses, all the way back from getting the tree out to getting a contractor; a copy of our insurance policy; a printout of a Word file I made up at work with similar notes last week; a contract from the contractor that's been doing the cleanup (and we think we'll use him for the rebuilding too, provided he and the adjuster can converge on an estimate); a MetLife claim folder; an envelope with copies of receipts thus far; a note from the gas company; a printout of an Excel spreadsheet with our interior claims; and a partridge, resting comfortably in a pear tree.