MORE Homeowners Insurance Trouble

After thinking I was all set with my new United Property Casualty policy issued in early July, I just this weekend received a cancellation letter from them - citing missing railing on a stair/deck and lack of a 4 pt inspection. Now, I had the 4 point inspection completed on June 4th, as it was required for underwriting the policy. At that point, they were to give me 30-60 days to fix any issues they found with the property. My agent told me I was all set. So I am really not a happy camper. Insurance has become such a huge issue for ANYONE in Florida, let alone those of us in older homes. Just the fact I'm being cancelled will likely make it harder and much more expensive to get another policy, even though I did everything I was asked to - why they do not have my inspection, I don't know - did the agent not submit it, and they just got around to underwriting the policy? Is that my fault? I have emails and calls into the agent - and I will hopefully speak to them in the morning between meetings - hopefully this is a fixable mistake. It's been a Summer I don't want to repeat any time soon....job loss, pay cuts, insurance....bleh.

Bamboo Floors

We found a large lot of this Morningstar stranded bamboo on clearance at Lumber Liquidators for $1.49 psf, which beats most laminate prices. We really needed to do something with 3 of the bedrooms, and we looked at carpeting and different wood options. The carpet would have been the easiest, as it would have been installed. But this was such a good deal - it is SOLID - very heavy, and it does not have the bamboo "knuckles" throughout, so it looks a lot like wood. We have had a bit of trouble in the install, as the manual floor nailer we bought used from Home Depot was not working an needs a part. It is going quite slowly now as the boards are being installed manually, after pre-drilling the nail holes (this stuff is HARD).
I wish we could have saved the heart pine floors, but we have tried in other rooms, and once your throw carpet over them, as was done in 3 of our bedrooms, they seem to go downhill irrevocably. We do plan on grabbing some of the few decent boards from our bedroom to use in repairing some of the remaining floors in the hallway.

We hope to finish the small bedroom today, then do a larger bedroom next weekend, and our 2-part bedroom the following week....but I would throw another weekend or two in for good measure. :-)

Things are Looking Up

Well, the hens must be happy - 4 eggs this week, 3 from the young hens and 1 big brown one from one of the older hens. I think we are back in business.

Also on a positive note - I have been working with an Allstate agent who has given me a quote for homeowner's insurance about 15 bucks cheaper than my current premium, with the same coverage, including replacement cost. Not bad...I was fearing the worst; a $10K premium or something along those lines. I can sleep now!

United Property Casualty insurance company is not all crazy about insuring older homes. Thank goodness!

Eggs!

Two eggs this week so far.....there is hope

The Dreaded "Letter"

I knew it was bad....not time for any kind of correspondence from our homeowner's insurance company. Not thick enough for policy documents. Just enough paper in there to "notify" us. We're being dropped. After using Liberty Mutual since we moved to Florida in 2002, they are dropping us. They need to make changes in their coverage areas. The hurricanes of '04 & '05 are still affecting them. I guess they're affecting us now too. boy that stinks. It's pretty darn hard to find coverage for a 1915 wood frame house. It will be even harder to find coverage we can afford. We pay $3100 annually now...and from what I understand, that is very low for old house coverage. We get a hipped roof discount (substantial) along with the monitored security and updated systems discounts.Wish us luck!

Thermostat Location Costing Us Money?

I finally figured out why our upstairs bedroom feels so cool - cold actually, when the thermostat is set on 78 or 79...even 80. Our upstairs thermostat is located in the upstairs hallway; there are no A/C vents there, and most of the upstairs doors are normally kept closed, keeping the cool air mostly out of the hallway. The thermostat is reading the warmer temperature in the hallway, so the A/C stays on, and when I go into our bedroom, it is FREEZING (in my opinion, anyway). The downstairs is all open, so this issue does not exist there. What to do? Relocate the thermostat to our bedroom? I wonder if anyone else has this problem? It's hard laying in bed listening to the A/C unit churn on and on all night while I lay there freezing.....especially when I am anticipating electric bills in the $500 and $600  range.

Senator Mike Fasano wants Governor Rick Scott to veto a property insurance bill

Senator Mike Fasano wants Governor Rick Scott to veto a property insurance bill

Chickens and No Eggs!

We expanded our chicken coop/run a few weeks ago, in an effort to get the ladies back into egg-laying mode....only two eggs from the older hens since then. What gives? We switched back to Feed Depot's egg layer crumble (Shells did not have the grit and calcium FD's does), and gave them a nice sized area to peck around in....sounds like we need a chicken whisperer...

Hot Again!!

I won't go into how long it has been since I have posted....I have been quite preoccupied with work, failing banks, regulators, dog rescues, chickens, smart-mouthed teenagers, job searching and driving to my new job - not necessarily in that order.
We haven't done much around to house due to time and money resources. We did have the air handler in the attic (bad idea) overflow it's pan from condensation, with no shut off switch, for MONTHS before the ceiling in our bedroom finally came down on us  at 4am one fine morning...so THAT is fixed. Finally painted that ceiling!

We have our deck maybe 80-90% taken down; I never thought it fit well with our 1915 house; I would prefer some patio area off the two back doors, and some "floating decks" around the yard, where we will reuse the Trex boards from the deck. Our backyard is a huge mess....lots of die off from the two previous winter's hard freezes, lots of building materials scattered around, lots of attention needed there. The one thing which is new and complete back there is the CHICKEN COOP. We have 2 2nd season hens (a white leghorn and a NH Red) and 2 pullets(a barred rock and a buff orphington). When they are totally happy, we will get as many as one egg each, every day. They are not always happy. We are learning.

The siding and windows continue to deteriorate; we replace what is in most need. that will never be done, it is forever ongoing. We will need to do some windows VERY SOON. I honestly don't know what is keeping some of them attached to the house. The front porch will need to be rebuilt too. The floors need refinishing. Regardless, this house is our home, not a museum, or a showroom. I hope someday that the "finished project" fairy will visit us in our sleep, and we will wake up to gleaming floors, painted trim, rebuilt windows and new, smooth siding.