Last week on Monday August 1st, Wayne, the baby, and myself were sitting in the living room having Subway (Eden was staying the night at mamaw's) for dinner and it happened! What sounded like a train driving into our home turned out to be the neighbors tree falling onto the side of our house! Wayne and I immediately ran outside to see what had happened and there it was, a dead, HUGE tree laying down on the left side. Destroyed our air conditioner and electrical on that side. We had several limbs through the roof and minimal structure damage. Whew! No one was hurt. Wayne then called 911, just in case! :) Then, due to the fact that it was so loud, several people were running down the road t words us and stopping their cars and getting out. And, by the grace of God, a fire fighter stopped and got out just in time. The electrical box on the side of our house caught on fire. I then started to panic. What were going to do? AH, Water hose... but before I could even do this, all while holding Edison, the fire fighter grabbed a fire extinguisher from his car and put the fire out. Then, after the initial madness wore off, reality set in. Where were we going to live? Do I need to call my insurance? Is this their fault? It was their tree after all. I called my mom, like most people do in a panic situation and told her to come straight over. By this time, mosquitoes are eating us alive and the police and fire department are there. The police were just taking a report of insurance purposes and the fire department were making sure nothing was wrong from the small electrical fire. With no power and it getting dark I started to realize I probably needed to go inside and get everything out of the fridge and freezer, that would soon stink. And then pack a few things up, we were going to stay at my Moms! After cleaning and packing, because I couldn't leave my house dirty, we left and went to my moms. I quickly wrote everything down we had in our fridge freezer and got everyone ready for bed. I was mentally and physically exhausted. Here are a few pictures of the damage:
The next day all seems a blur! Insurance stuff is not my cup of Joe, but I had to do it and Wayne helped me too...All while at work! I had told them, so they understood and worked with me to go and take/make phone calls. There couldn't have been a worse person's tree to have fallen on our house. He at first told us he had insurance on the property and everything would be fine. Then, after a few calls, realizes, Hey, I don't have any insurance on that property. OMG! So after Wayne calling and nearly loosing his mind talking to him, he calls back and states that he does have liability at least! Well, ok! So for the next few days we waited and checked into a hotel in the town we live in. It is nice and had been great to have somewhere to go to at night! :)
Over the next few days we went back and forth calling insurances and trying to figure out what to do next. I finally just said lets call a contractor. We weren't going to have to, but our builder was way over on his bid and insurance didn't want to pay that. So, I called Glen Stanley, with Glens Custom Homes here in Vidor. He is the nicest guy and has really gone above and beyond during all of this. That day he sent a bid over and our insurance accepted and they started getting things going. FINALLY, some progress! Within two days the work was over halfway through and there were plans for everything else. I was and still am so very happy with Glen and his work. Really the most difficult thing during all of this was dealing with Entergy and Time Warner Cable. They are a joke when it comes to customer service, WHOLE different blog post, LOL! :)
As of today, August 14th, we are back in the house. Not everything is done. There is still cleanup, painting, and some electrical work to be done, but I was so ready to be home I came anyways. On a sad note, my stove and washer don't seem to be working. The electrician seems to think they got shorted out when the wires were pulled and it caused a small power surge. UGH! I love my stove and washer! Hopefully, insurance will pay for us new ones, or at least pay to have these fixed if they can be! So, that is a jumbled up story of how one tree can change so much! The End! :)
P.S. Pictures of repaired home to come soon!
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