Brick work

The brick repairs on the den are complete! I am pretty stoked about this. It's the first work to be completed since the check arrived. I have paid off everybody I owed money and it feels good. I called the brick mason on Wednesday. He came on Thursday to see what needed to be done and give me an estimate. He arrived Friday morning and was done Friday afternoon. I was impressed by the prompt service.

The brick mason is the contractor that we use at work. He told me that he has been laying bricks for 50 years, but hadn't laid brick like ours since he was an apprentice. He was able to use the brick that was removed along with some bricks that were in a pile in the back yard. Luckily he was able to do the job with the bricks we had. I'm not sure what we would have done if we hadn't had enough. I think I got a good price on the labor and they cleaned the mortar off of the brick and picked up after themselves. I hope to post some pictures of the progress soon. I'll create a short post when I do so that you all know to check.

A check arrived!

After much anxiety, the first check has arrived from CitiMortgage! The pleasant surprise is that it was for two thirds of the amount. When I called last wednesday hoping to ascertain a FedEx tracking number on my check, I was informed that there was a hold on the payment because they hadn't received certain documents. I became irate because in the more than half dozen calls I have had with Citi, no one ever mentioned these documents to me. After chewing out a supervisor I was told that I could fax the documents to them that day and they would issue a check within 5-7 business days. 5-7 more days!!! I yelled some more then went to mom and dad's to fax it to them. When I called to confirm the fax I spoke with a guy named Steve Jennings. He is the only person I will talk to now. He was helpful and knowledgeable.

So it had occurred to me after Steve clarified some things to me there is a problem. The way that insurance works it that they give you the Actual Cash Value (ACV) of damaged property. Once the repairs are "substantially under way," they then issue a check for the Replacement Cost. Citimortgage doesn't release the final third of the amount (ACV) until the repairs are 95% complete. It escapes my understanding that they think I can complete 95% of the repairs with only 2/3 of the ACV which is about 2/3 of the replacement cost. To give you an example, State Farm only gave me about $3500 to replace the roof. It will cost about $10,000 to replace. Citimortgage things I can get the job done with $2300?!?

Well, the fight is long from over, but I've finally won the first battle. It's refreshing to know that I have at least a chance of getting the money I need. I've got a price to put vinyl on the soffit and that contractor is ready to start. I talked to the brick mason today and he is coming tomorrow to give me an estimate and let me know what materials (how much mortar and sand) I need to purchase. He sounded like he can get to work quickly. The roofer is ready and willing to start whenever I give him the word. It's a bit frustrating to have all of these guys chomping at the bit and not being able to let them all start working. The brick should be relatively inexpensive so we'll go ahead and get that done.

Hopefully the updates will come fast and furious from here on out, but I can't say I'm confident.