insurance Archives - Jessica Ferguson

We’re into our sixth day of the A to Z Challenge. I hope you’ll check out the other bloggers and leave comments on their sites. As much fun as this is, it also takes work and commitment, but comments make it worthwhile to us. We love to know what our readers are thinking!

My A to Z Challenge theme is Renovation. Hubby and I went through “renovation hell” and I’m sharing it with you. Today is F day and it stands for Flooring and Flooding. You can imagine where this is going, can’t you?

Yep, we got our new floors down all through the house, and then a pipe burst and flooded them. Water gushed in our bedroom and down the hall. What a disaster. Our floors were beautiful. We had to turn the water off because, of course, this all happened right before bedtime. The plumbers came out the next morning and it took awhile to find the source of the break. The floor was pulled up and four large squares were cut in my beautifully painted walls, searching. Finally, they determined it was in the slab. I don’t know the correct lingo, but they had to do some rerouting to be able to give us water again. What a mess! It didn’t just affect the bedroom and hallways. It affected the kitchen because it’s on the other side of the bedroom. Soooo, this is what my new kitchen looked like for more than a week with loud fans blowing, to dry the water. Yep, had to cut holes there too. In Louisiana, wetness can cause black mold to grow. We took every precaution.

If you ever have a pipe burst in your house, don’t waste time, turn off water, take pictures of clean up and call a plumber, of course. And then, it’s in your best interest to hire a remediation company to help you identify wet spots and deal with your insurance company. Your homeowners policy does not insure you against mold damage, and mold begins growing within 36 hours. Remember, you as the homeowner are responsible for limiting the damage to the property. That’s why YOU start the clean up immediately and take pics to prove it! Your agent will not be concerned with mold in your house since he doesn’t provide coverage. Regardless of how your agent resists, get him out there to VIEW the damage as soon as you can–not a day later, not two days later, as soon as possible. This renovation project has been one year long head-ache but we’ve learned a lot. The main thing is … you’ve got to look out for yourself. Many (most?) people out there had rather lie to you than tell you the truth. Some people are just lazy workers. Others just don’t know what they’re doing and bluffing their way through life. Do I sound pessimistic about the human race? More every day! That’s why my E word was Educate yourself!

I can’t wait to tell you what the plumber found, but that’s on down the A to Z road. Hey, got any questions for me?

A quick post today since hubby and I are taking our monthly 10-hour drive to Louisiana. We’ll leave at 6 a.m., stop off for a couple of hours to see my mom, and on our return trip spend the night for a longer visit with her. So forgive me if this post isn’t quite up to par. U stumped me.

But, two incidences came to mind so I thought I’d write about them.

What do you think of when you hear the word unsolicited? If you’re a writer, you probably think of unsolicited manuscripts and how many agents and editors don’t allow them. Or you might think of unsolicited advice. I’m sure we all receive some now and then. I remember some unsolicited advice that made me proud.

Years ago, my dad had an old red truck. I have no idea what make or model, I just remember it was old and on its last spark plug, so to speak. Dad put an ad in the classifieds; he wanted to sell it. My hometown is the home of LeTourneau College, now known as LeTourneau University. LETU is a private, interdenominational Christian university with flagship programs in engineering, aeronautical science, education and business. If anyone is interested, check it out.

Anyway, LeTourneau boys usually didn’t have vehicles. They didn’t have much money either and they always craved home-cooked meals. They came from all over the country, even outside the country to get their degrees, and they came in droves to our churches. The girls went wild over them. I remember looking at the back of our church and cute LeTourneau boys took up two or three pews. (I was too young for a college boy.)

One day, one of them came to our house to look at my dad’s old truck. They did the usual thing—drove it, kicked the tires, looked under the hood, then stood around and talked awhile. Then my dad asked, “Why do you want this old thing?” The young man answered that he wanted to drive it home—to Ohio.

“Son, this old truck won’t get you to Ohio. You probably won’t make it out of Texas.” My dad refused to sell him the truck. (Back then you could get away with those things; probably not today. You’d get sued.)

A similar thing happened a few years ago when my husband and I were selling a Dodge Caravan. A man came to the door with cash for the vehicle and hubby explained about transferring the title and advised the man about getting insurance. Our potential buyer said, “I’m not getting insurance.” Guess what—hubby refused to sell him the vehicle.

I was proud of my dad because he looked out for another family’s son. Dad was a good man and he followed The Golden Rule. I was proud of my husband for refusing to sell to an uninsured driver. Hubby’s a good man too. Sometimes those giving unsolicited advice really are looking out for our best interest.

Can you remember a time when someone gave you unsolicited advice but you didn’t take it and regretted it? Boy, I can!

F is for Flooring and Flooding

U is for Unsolicited