March 7 – “Insurance: Repairs Required”

We received a somewhat disturbing message from our homeowner’s insurance company yesterday.  It seems they are going to cancel our policy on April 2^nd.  Well, unless we can get some repairs made to our house and get them photos of the repair work before then.  Let me back up a bit first.  This company is actually a new one that our agent switched us to in January.  A lot cheaper for the same coverage than what we had.  But it meant they had to send a guy out to take pictures and do an evaluation of the property.  So about his evaluation.

Most of the property and even our fence received high marks.  Part of that fence, by the way, is falling apart.  The metal horizontal support bar is rusted all the way through in several places.  Guess he missed that.  But what he didn’t miss was the dry rot that has affected two or three of the eave trim boards.  Also, the biggest offender was the house siding on the back and sides of the part of the house that was an add-on.  That siding has never matched the rest of the house.  In fact, it was installed in a really odd way.  The top part looks fine.  Four by eight sheets of some kind of wood.  No problems there.  But the bottom two feet all the way around the house forms a sort of weird skirt.  It all had to be replaced after Hurricane Ike, but it never did match the top wood for whatever reason.  That entire skirt is now rotting and peeling, and has to be replaced. 

So here’s the thing.  We already knew about all those issues.  In fact we already have a bid from our contractor, and we have been trying to save up enough to get them taken care of.  We just didn’t expect to suddenly have a timeline of three or four weeks to be done.  So much for saving up.  I contacted our contractor to see if he could fit us in.  He assured us he could get it done, but he couldn’t start for at least a week or so.  Fine. 

Meanwhile, Nathan came by on his way to an Honor Guard event and found out what we were having to do.  And when he found out how much it was going to cost, he kind of bristled.  Not that the cost was exorbitant.  He just figured he and some buddies could probably do it for much less – hundreds rather than thousands.  And we were going to have to do the painting ourselves anyway.  He told me to do some measurements for materials and he would see about when he could get the deed done.  Well, OK.

I emailed our contractor back and told him to put a hold on carrying out the plans until I could see what Nathan had in mind.  And then I started measuring.  I haven’t translated all the figures I have into a coherent materials list yet, but I should be ready sometime this afternoon (I have been asked to attend as fire department chaplain the funeral of a Galveston police officer this morning).  Nathan said he might be able to do the job on Saturday, but he had to check with April.  Just so we finish in time to get those photos in. 

2 Thessalonians 3:13 says, “And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.”

Father, please give us some good weather so we can get these repairs done.  And give Nathan and his friends whatever extra energy they need to help us out.  Amen.