This Is What Two Feet of Snow in 24 Hours Will Do To You

Back in February I posted about the storm damage to our house from Snowmageddon. We finally got a chance to get an insurance adjuster out to the house to look at our damage and tell us how much they'd pay to fix it. Keep in mind that we, like almost every other homeowner, have a $1000 deductible on our policy.

I showed the nice hunky inspector the damage to the flooring in the front hall. He took pictures. He took measurements so that he could estimate replacing the ENTIRE floor - powder room, entrance, and hallway - even though we only have about 2 square feet of real damage.

I then showed him the two water damaged ceiling tiles in the game room from the water seeping in along the floor joist. Again, he took measurements so that the entire drop ceiling could be replaced. By this point I'm thinking that we've left that $1000 deductible in the dust.

Then I took him outside to show him the damage to the mortar on the brick holding up the front porch. Story time! Remember the Icicles of Doom? Well, because they spent so much time dripping on the porch - on top of the mountains of snow already there - we ended up with about 6 inches of solid ice on the porch. That ice made the front stairs and porch a serious hazard and nearly impassable. We had to dump about 150 pounds of salt on the damn porch and stairs to melt it down and make it safe. Did I mention that once we melted off the ice, we had a lot less problem with the damage to the floor in the front hall? So, that ice was a double pain in the butt.

Unfortunately the salt did a number on the mortar. It's crumbling away to sand.

I showed the inspector thinking that we'd be able to get something for this little issue since it was a direct result of the storm problem. Yeah, that was wishful thinking. He was apologetic about it but apparently homeowners insurance doesn't cover mortar, foundation, cracking, spalling, etc, etc. Or, at least ours doesn't cover it. I have no idea what it will cost to fix this little gem of an issue but I have to get it dealt with.

And then next winter, I am avoiding the cheap ass rock salt like it's one of the 10 plagues of Egypt. Calcium Chloride all the way!

Hunky Inspector Dude then grabbed a ladder and hopped up on the roof to make sure we didn't have damage up there (we don't, thank goodness) and then went to write up his estimate. In the end, after they subtracted that $1000 deductible, we got a little over half of what they estimated the total cost would be. Damn sight better than a sharp stick in the eye.

So, the next task is to find someone to deal with the mortar problems as they're more pressing than anything else. We can deal with the other stuff later.

I hated being a renter but when it comes to stuff like this, it would be so nice if it didn't always have to come out of my pocket. This is the part of owning a home that sucks. Just wait until I regale you with tales of The Great Retaining Wall Project of 2010.