*New* House

Our neighbor's house caught fire July 8th and spread to ours.  It's now October 17th and we are still living in a hotel. Our neighbors weren't insured, but I no longer feel bad for them.  One sure-fire way to go from home owner to homeless in 90 seconds is a house fire.  They still haven't sold their house or repaired it.    We had to pay to have their roof patched and plan on suing them to be reimbursed, or else repairs could not have continued on ours.  Turns out they don't own their house, the owner is deceased and they never went to probate court.  We'll never see that money again.  But on the bright side, our house is nearly finished.  Our contractor just needs to refinish the floors and install the windows in the front.  We've been successful in getting the house on the other side of the fire declared blighted, so hopefully that we be sold and renovated.
It's been quite a journey. 
During renovations, our contractor has completely redone our electrical.  We had an old house, so he has added new outlets to every room.  Our office only had 1 outlet, so if you wanted to print, you had to unplug the lamp and plug in the printer.  He added light switches, so I can now turn on the upstairs hall light from downstairs- so I don't have to walk upstairs in the dark.  He put an outlet and light outside in the back.  He also had to completely renovate the addition that had been put onto the house in the 1950s.  We had hardwood floors throughout the house and he did an excellent job matching the floors that were replaced to the existing floors.  Same with the trim.  His guys did a better job patching the plaster and painting than I did. 
My husband's father is a pipe fitter and came down to switch our boiler out.  Good thing, too, because he discovered our chimney wasn't lined.  That turned out to be another huge expense.  With the new insulation, windows and boiler, our house will be much more efficient. 
I think we'll be back in the house in a few weeks.
All of our savings are gone, the insurance didn't cover much of the problems discovered while repairing the house.  We have had to fight them on every front.  They only wanted to pay to paint some of the rooms and parts of the others, they only wanted to replace 1 room's floor.  Our insurance adjuster is an idiot.    Our tenant has the same insurance company and hasn't received this poor customer service. Our adjuster is so terrible, that we only communicate with him via email to have documentation and forward and cc everything to his superiors.  No one should ever have to go through this ordeal.  I'll be happy when we move back into our house, but our adoption fund has been depleted and we have spent countless hours fighting insurance with what we are due.
Here are some updated pictures of the house:

Office

Second Bedroom

renovated addition

how they left my kitchen

third bedroom

Postponing

Our fire was July 8th, or the neighbor's fire that spread to our house.  While nothing has happened at theirs, just slow progress back to nature or rat infested crack house (that's back to nature in our city), big renovations have begun at our place.  Our contractor started on Monday.  Of course, as renovation began, more damage was uncovered.  We are about $20k over the payment from insurance.  Some of that is because we had budgeted for the state credit on our new windows, which we have missed out on because the windows were not installed "in time."  We had also planned on replacing our boiler, that's a $2,800- $3,500 project we had planned on doing and purchased the supplies for before the fire. 
 I'll be heading to home depot tomorrow for new paint and lighting.  There are perks to the renovations, we aren't there to live through it- thanks to insurance we are at a hotel, and all of the rooms will be repainted and there will be updated and more electrical.
Our savings, which I had planned for the adoption are gone.  I was really hoping to be a parent by the time I was 35, but now that isn't a reality.  I'm really bummed.  Its frustrating that you can work really hard, plan carefully and that someone else's disaster ruins everything.  The most depressing part, is that we have no other options.  We can't have a child.  Our state contracts out all foster to adoption programs (and foster care), so that's not a cost effective option.  Private adoptions are expensive and there is no timeline.  We are all out of options.  We are either postponing.  In reality: giving up. 
I'll add pictures of the renovations later.  I guess this isn't an adoption blog anymore. 

House renovation

I am happy to say we finally recieved our estimate from insurance.  This is our first fire (or major damage) and we didn't know what the timeline should be.  Our adjuster kept telling us "any day now," and 5 weeks seemed like a long time to be living in a hotel- especially when for 3 of those weeks there was literally nothing happening at our house.  Our tenant's adjuster, at the same company, started telling her to find a new place to live because "nothing's happening at the house."  That's when we understood that 5 weeks is not only unacceptable, but violates our rights as policy holders.  A few calls to his supervisor, and a few hours later at 1:41 AM we had our estimate. 
We met with our contractor Tuesday morning at our house.  We went through and looked at everything that needed to be done.  It took the estimate and will get back to us with by the end of the week to let us know if its fair.  In addition, we're going to make some updates while the house is all torn apart.  We already bought new windows, which will be installed.  My husband and his father, who is a retired pipe fitter, will be updating our boiler and we are getting quotes for central air conditioning.  These updataes are, of course, not covered by insurance, but we figure its better to do it now while all the walls and ceilings are opened up. 
We should be back in our house by Thanksgiving, maybe in Halloween.  Once the contractor has the go ahead, it doesn't take his crew long to update the electrical, sheetrock and paint- what the insurance is covering. 
Everything seemed to be going well Tuesday.  My husband was working from home and I was resting after meeting with the contractor, then we had an unusual earthquake on the East coast.  My husband is a West Coaster, but his first instinct was run out of the building.  Not what you are supposed to do.  You should get in a doorway or under a sturdy piece of furniture.  But the noise and the rumbling made him think explosion- we just don't have earthquakes here.  We are staying in a high rise hotel downtown since the fire.  Buildings, bridges, transit systems, etc here are not designed for earthquakes.  Everything seems to be ok here, but 2 of my sisters live in Northern Virginia and have experienced damage. 

Fire Updates

The fire at our house was July 8th.  I am trying to be patient and grateful for the outcome so far, but 6 weeks in a hotel and no progress on the house is driving me nuts!  I am grateful that no one was hurt, most of our belongings are salvageable and that insurance is putting us up in a hotel.  I hate to complain about living in a hotel because I know it could be much worse- we have cable, air conditioning, Internet, fitness center and breakfast every morning.  But I am tired of the food choices and not being able to cook.  Going to the laundromat, instead of being able to run laundry whenever I need to in my own house, having to wait for my car to be brought out of the garage instead of just pulling it out of the driveway.  We're staying at a hotel downtown, so traffic is a real problem.  My commute is much longer though I am technically closer in distance to work.  We can't have our pets here at the hotel, luckily my parents were able to keep both of them at their house because we would never be able to board them for 3 months.  The worst part, though, is that we are in the middle of our home study.  We can get most of it done, but the social worker needs to see our house and its in no state to be evaluated.
I suppose I would be more comfortable with the situation if I felt progress was being made.  But it isn't.  When I met with the insurance adjuster a few days after the fire, he assured me he would have the estimate ready in a week.  That was 5 weeks ago.  We have a contractor who is ready to get started, but he can't without that estimate.  Insurance needs to tell us what they are paying for and how much they are paying for it.  The contractor needs to go over the estimate and determine if it is fair and complete before he agrees to the job.  I trust the contractor.  He's hardworking and honest, he's worked on our house before and done major renovations on other old homes in our neighborhood.  I am losing faith in this adjuster.  He can't get his work done in a timely manner and he doesn't keep us up to date on progress, if there is any, on our house.  My husband is afraid if we press him, we'll be considered a nuisance and he'll low-ball our estimate.  I just want to get back in my house.   I don't hate it here at the hotel, but it's not home. 

Insurance

Here's some quick pictures of the evolution of the dining room- now severely damaged by fire.
One year ago before we renovated:

During renovations:

Renovation complete:

Now, after the fire- all the damage is from water, the actual fire was upstairs in the neighbor's house.

Please make sure your home owner's or renter's insurance is up-to-date.  I was looking over our home owner's policy, bundled with our car insurance we get a discount and its only about $55 a month (less than most cell phone plans), renter's is much less because they are only insuring your belongings, not the structure.  I don't even want to speculate the cost of damage.  Our insurance is covering the water abatement, renovations, cleaning, repairing or replacing our belongings and relocating use for the time being.  We feel blessed to be safe and to know that everything is going to be ok. :-)