Frantic Fridays
Tumbling Down
From the mixed up desk of the
Queen of Tarts
Tartlandia, Far Far Away
My fiance and I bought a house last summer with the intention of fixing it up to be our home when I finally decided to move. We’ve poured our heart and energy and ummm money (!) into this mid-century home.
The insurance company QBE (whom none of the contractors have heard of!) is denying the clean up claim because the water damaged ceiling that fell has asbestos and requires a specialist to mitigate. They say they will cover the water damage repairs, ie. replace the living room ceiling, repair or replace our wood floor and the water damaged property.
BUT our home owners policy excludes pollutants and they claim asbestos falls under that category (even though it’s not mentioned by name in the policy.) We didn’t even realize our home had asbestos. We’ve since learned that most homes built before 1970 are likely to have some asbestos and it’s not a health risk unless it’s disturbed. The ceiling falling in disturbed it. *hair pulling*
The initial company that came in to repair the water damage called in the asbestos testers because of the size of the hole. Everyone freaked us out calling it a major spill and saying the entire house could be contaminated because of the collapse. We thought the asbestos was airborne and had touched EVERYTHING in our house! We worried about having to dispose of all soft surface items like clothing, mattresses, linens etc. and how would we recover. I was even thinking we might lose our home…
I spent a lot of last week crying and wondering how we were going to pay for the asbestos mitigation ourselves with me about to be between jobs.
Finally some good news! Thank God. We needed some.
Our second asbestos test came back July 10th and ruled out the rest of the house. phew! We only need asbestos abatement on the living room. The asbestos was in the popcorn ceiling and because it was wet when it fell it didn’t become airborne. I am feeling very blessed. The abatement company we went with is amazing and cut us a deal because of our situation with the insurance company and because my beau is in the military. We signed a contract today for the removal of the problems in the living room for WAY less than I had feared. Still a lot but… not over my credit card limit. 😛 We’ll figure it out. We’re going to try to get a personal loan for the damage and after everything is repaired we’ll look into refinancing and paying off some of the debt that way.
As soon as the cleanup is done the insurance company SHOULD step back in and take care of the rest of the damage…. *shudders* I HOPE! It’s killing me that our gorgeous living room is a wreck still after 10 days and it’s unlikely to be put back together until after I move in… Disasters like this are why you get homeowners insurance and well… we were clueless first time home buyers and didn’t realize what we were getting into.
I can finally breath and focus on packing up my 5000+ print books and getting ready to start the next chapter of my life… with my Bookstore Beau in our REPAIRED retro home. I am looking forward to showing you all the After-after pics… and my wedding planning ideas. 😉
Ummm. I am still stressed to the max and posting will be light the next few weeks. I’m considering emailing authors who’ve visiting
The Book Tart before and begging for content. (if you’re reading this and you can help with an excerpt or guest post or sumpin’ I’d be grateful!) I love blogging and plan to continue sharing my love of all things fiction and fabulous… I just may need a little help for a bit.
Thank you to all the friends who continue to visit and support The Book Tart even when I’m a bit absent. Connecting with ya’ll means the world to me
Hang in there Kat! Think of the positives…you have a great guy, a house and a wedding coming up! Best of luck!
Thanks sweetie *smishes* I’m trying really hard to look on the bright side!
Maybe you could offer social media services as partial payment to the contractors? Babysitting? SOmetimes people are willing to barter like that. For example you doing social media services(ie keeping the site up to date, handling email, etc.) if they don’t have someone doing it would save them money, make them money in marketing, and keep head count down. Just maybe. We traded a chipper shredder vac for plumbing once.
Keep me apprised.
And, you should see what the appeal process is for you insurance co. And contact the state’s insurance comptroller/officer/ombudsman. And if you have a lawyer handy getting them to write the insurance company a letter might work. After all the insurance co insured the home as it was, also knowing that houses prior to 1970 were full of it and lead paint too!
It could be said they knew so cannot exclude.
Thank to Steph! We are trying to hire a lawyer and we’ve filed a complaint with the state insurance regulatory board. *head/desk* like you said, the house was likely to have some asbestos so how they can exclude it I don’t understand 🙁
(((Hugs)))
Hey girl!
I will put the word out on my blog and if you need a guest reviewer, I’d be happy to kick over some of my reviews to help out with the posts!
Let me know if I can help!
ehaney578 at aol dot com
I’m so sorry to hear of all the upheaval. It sounds as if the situation is on the upswing and you have so many wonderful things to look forward to. I’ll keep you in my thoughts!
Margaret
I would love to do a guest post to help out. If you’re interested, just shoot me a topic, and I’ll get you a post. And good luck with the repairs. I’ve lived through water damage a few times, and it can be frustrating beyond belief. We drink water every day, and then all of a sudden there’s too much of it and it becomes a disaster. I am so glad the asbestos wasn’t worse and you found a kind person to help with the clean up. Keep your chin up! ~Megan
Whoa crap, that ceiling picture is HEARTBREAKING! And it looked amazing with the orange/(is it gray?) walls. Being a homeowner is so hard!
If you’re still needing posts, I can try to think up something to help 🙂