200 miles under the keel in one day ... or, how a house fire ruined our cruise

Liberty44140

One question - is this a good excuse to live on the boat for the rest of the summer? or too far from work?

LaRea

Thanks DI.  

The insurance company is looking for a house to rent for us.  I love staying on the boat, but even a 370 starts getting small after a couple weeks.  

Today they are bringing a huge dumpster and starting demolition in the basement, including tearing out some really nice custom trim work that I did on the windows.  I'm glad I will not be there to watch.  

It'll hurt even worse when they demo my garage/workshop.  I spent about two years working on that room.  It was finished out like a kitchen.  Cabinets, crown molding, walnut butcher-block workbench, flooring, hand-made custom closet doors.  I personally loaded each piece of material from the store shelf onto the cart, hauled it to the house, installed it, finished it.  Plus a hundred little custom tool hangers and storage solutions.  Most of it will be going into the dumpster.

212rowboat

don't think like that, @LaRea- even though it represents love of effort for your home, it's just stuff.  the valuables were on the Rinker that day- and the Rinker came through!!!! If it makes any difference, we took some significant damage as a result of last Septembers storm (Florence)- not as much as so many others did, but enough... it (the house, property) is even better now than it was.  every 'mistake' i made (though nobody else likely noticed it) is replaced now with 'not a mistake', but i made several more along the way... my mistakes are like 'finding waldo' or something- and he just moved again.  as it is, and as much as it sucks, it's yet another story in your adventure of life- and life goes on.  thankfully. 

Stodge

Just catching up on the goings on here.  What a sad way to end a boating trip.  Glad everyone is well.  Hope the repairs go smoothly.

rkinross

@LaRea I am so sorry to hear about the fire in your house.  I know by your postings how much time and effort go into your projects and I am sure your house is no different than your boat.  I hope you have a good insurance company that will fix the house they way you want it put back together.  Good luck with all of the repairs.  You were fortunate there were no injuries.

LaRea

Hey fam, just a quick update.  After a month, most of our personal possessions have been removed and inventoried, and the initial demo is done.  Today we hired a general contractor ... a big company that has a solid track record of fire restoration projects with my insurance company.  I didn't want to go with a small company ... these guys have an entire squad of project managers that only work on large-loss claims like ours.  

On Thursday, we'll finally move out of the hotel into a rental house.  The insurance adjuster and the contractors we've had so far are a bunch of rock stars.

Best case, our move-in date will be around Feb 1.  Yup, that's 179 days from now.  

AND - we've managed to squeeze in two boat Saturdays that were just spectacular.  Gotta continue to live our lives, eh?  

rasbury

Absolutely- life hands you lemons...

Ian

It will be here before you know it @LaRea - plus the “why don’t we just do this.....” with the obligatory check book will keep you occupied in winter.

Dream_Inn

I'm glad things are moving along and we all know how time flies by.  Glad to hear you are getting boating in as well.  I remember in my teenage years we had smoke damage (we had a coal furnace, chimney pipe came off, so all smoke went in house for the day).  I can remember opening my dresser drawer & well, if you removed something from the drawer, you could see exactly where it was.  Just that took months to get professionally cleaned.  I'm sure not anywhere near what you have.  

As far as what icoultha says "why don't we just do this...", well, let me say I was over at LaRea's house for the most absolute wonderful dinner!  There wasn't really anything I could say "add this or that to make better".  But, knowing LaRea, I'm sure he'll figure it out!

Stodge

LaRea said:

Hey fam, just a quick update.  After a month, most of our personal possessions have been removed and inventoried, and the initial demo is done.  Today we hired a general contractor ... a big company that has a solid track record of fire restoration projects with my insurance company.  I didn't want to go with a small company ... these guys have an entire squad of project managers that only work on large-loss claims like ours.  

On Thursday, we'll finally move out of the hotel into a rental house.  The insurance adjuster and the contractors we've had so far are a bunch of rock stars.

Best case, our move-in date will be around Feb 1.  Yup, that's 179 days from now.  

AND - we've managed to squeeze in two boat Saturdays that were just spectacular.  Gotta continue to live our lives, eh?  

Just curious, but why not live on the boat for a while?  I've had friends around here do that during reno or having a house built.

Handymans342

LaRea said:

Hey fam, just a quick update.  After a month, most of our personal possessions have been removed and inventoried, and the initial demo is done.  Today we hired a general contractor ... a big company that has a solid track record of fire restoration projects with my insurance company.  I didn't want to go with a small company ... these guys have an entire squad of project managers that only work on large-loss claims like ours.  

On Thursday, we'll finally move out of the hotel into a rental house.  The insurance adjuster and the contractors we've had so far are a bunch of rock stars.

Best case, our move-in date will be around Feb 1.  Yup, that's 179 days from now.  

AND - we've managed to squeeze in two boat Saturdays that were just spectacular.  Gotta continue to live our lives, eh?  

6 months is Redicules. You could build a house in that time frame. Why so long??

Dude_Himself

I'd buy an RV and figure out how to bill the insurance.

LaRea

Hey, even a 370 starts getting small after a couple weeks!   

Believe me ... if you could walk the house and see the extent of the damage, you'd understand the schedule.  It'll take a month from now just to get permits.  Then the roof comes off and the real party starts.  

Anybody reading this -- look at your homeowners insurance.  See that line for personal possessions?  Ours says $375k, as recommended by our agent.  I used to think that was absurdly high.  But you have to consider the labor.  A team has to remove, inventory and clean or dispose of it all.  Dry-clean every article of clothing and linens.  We'll end up using most of that limit.

Also -- pay the extra to buy replacement cost insurance on everything.  

As far as buying an RV ... well, the insurance will pay to rent and furnish a house comparable to ours.  The one we found is most definitely better than living in a boat or an RV.  

Handymans342

Plus there is no RV parks anywhere around DC

LaRea

I've finally found some time to start visiting here again.  Let me tell you, recovering from a house fire is a time-consuming job. 

The first loss inventory we submitted to the insurance company contained almost 500 items.  Every item needs a photo, purchase date and estimated replacement cost.  I feel fortunate that most of the lost items were still recognizable after the fire.  

Discuss with your dockmates:  When was the last time you walked through your home recording video of everything you own?  Do it.  Save the video someplace that you could retrieve it after a catastrophe (e.g., cloud storage or someplace outside your home).  Have the Admiral open every cabinet, drawer and closet, with narration.  Include any special or expensive items such as heirloom jewelry.  It doesn't have to be movie-quality, but it has to be comprehensive.  

Then set a reminder to do it again in a year or two.  

We've been in the rental for a couple weeks, and it's starting to feel like home.  Later this week, I'm getting my audio systems back ... time to get some real music in this house!

Handymans342

Better yet, downsize and live in an RV or a boat. 

Dream_Inn

@LaRea , you are correct.  Definitely need to video everything in the house.  I could not imagine going thru what you are having to do.

I'm really thinking Handy has a good point though too (wow, I did say that! ).  I'm actually looking forward to downsizing a bit in a few years (well, may be more like 6-9 years).  I know I could really do without a lot of stuff, not that we have a ton in our house, but it adds up.  Simple can be good.  Still have nice things, just don't need a bunch of it.

LaRea

[]  

MarkB

Glad to hear it didn't burn the house down and no one was hurt!

rasbury

I'm mowing my grass thinking about impending hurricanes thinking the same thing...

raybo3

@LaRea not too much worse than trying to recover from a fire. Keep in mind how amazing things are going to look when its all said and done. 

rkinross

@LaRea It sounds like you are satisfied with your insurance company and how they are handling your claim.  Do you care to share the name of your insurer since they are doing a good job for you?

LaRea

It's State Farm.  Ask me again in 6-7 months, but so far they have been great.  

Michael T

@LaRea .....my best wishes to you and your wife. Traumatic to be sure. Great advice to all. I used to have State Farm. They had one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in  North America, we always had great service from them.

Cableguy Greg

@LaRea while the walls are open, pull as much cat 5 or cat 6 wire as possible. Pull it to places that you wouldn’t even consider. Behind the fridge, behind the washer and dryer, behind tv’s and audio equipment. The more you have hard wired, the less strain on your wireless network. Heck, pull it to the attic! If you have a chase, run a conduit from the basement to the attic. That way you could add extra wireless routers if needed. When I built my house, I pulled 1500’ of coax and 4500’ of Cat 5 in the walls and it still wasn’t enough. Before they insulate and close the walls, photograph every wall so you have references in case you need to do any wall fishing in the future. I have used my photos a few times already in my house which is only 7 years old. Good luck with the restoration. I hope it goes smoothly. 

Michael T

@Cableguy Greg great advice. When we built houses we ran 1.5 in plastic pipe from the basement to locations in every room in the house with numbered fish lines - you won't believe how many thanks we received for that - and we started doing that in the 80s of course back then it was primarily for intercom, speaker and cable wire - now those races can be used for fiber optics etc. BTW did that at our condo when we renovated a few years back - a couple of weeks ago Bell came in to run fiber optics they were stoked to find those open raceways with cover plates on them.....also ran 110v receptacles beside them for future router/wifi use.

LaRea

Thanks @Michael T.  We all have our trials in life, don't we?  Mine are pretty meek compared to the excitement in your life over these past few years.  

@Cableguy Greg - my thoughts exactly.  It's not a huge building, and wireless-ac is pretty darned good these days for normal networking.  But I'm putting in a separate network for whole-house audio, and I need to do my homework on what else to lay in.  All of which will be done by me in my ample spare time.

Stodge

Michael T said:

@Cableguy Greg great advice. When we built houses we ran 1.5 in plastic pipe from the basement to locations in every room in the house with numbered fish lines - you won't believe how many thanks we received for that - and we started doing that in the 80s of course back then it was primarily for intercom, speaker and cable wire - now those races can be used for fiber optics etc. BTW did that at our condo when we renovated a few years back - a couple of weeks ago Bell came in to run fiber optics they were stoked to find those open raceways with cover plates on them.....also ran 110v receptacles beside them for future router/wifi use.

My new center console had a piece of skinny polypropylene line back in the transom area.  Didn't know what it was for till I found the other end behind the console.  Used it to pull the wire for the sounder and managed to tape the fish line to the wire so I could replace it.  Fish lines are not just for houses. 

LaRea

I'm happy to announce that I got my building permits today.  Why did it take 9 weeks?  Let's not discuss it.  

Also I'm almost done with the low-voltage wiring.  I removed almost all of the old coax and POTS wiring, and ran new stuff using modern structured wiring standards ... coax, CAT6, surround speakers, security cameras, everything I could think of.  

I've found that I have a real FOMO ... fear of missing out.  Didn't want to close the walls and then realize I should have run wires for xyz.  So I just ran everything I could think of.  The Admiral says it's stressing me out, and I should step away from it for the weekend.  I always take her advice.  

randy56

The wife is wise, go to your boat.