Update on our TreeHouse

Saturday night when I got home from Birmingham, I called AllState to let them know about the tree crashing into the house. The lady said take pictures, take whatever precautions necessary to keep ourselves safe. She said that an adjuster would call us by Wednesday or Thursday morning. She gave us his name, telephone number, extension, as well as a personal claim number. It seems I am nothing more to AllState than a claim number.

We waited and it kept raining. All day Sunday, it kept raining. Most of the day Monday, it just kept on raining. Eddie said that since Saturday we have received 10 and 1/2 inches of rain. I think it all ended up in our ceiling, running down the walls and behind the fireplace and onto the dining room floor mixed with blown ceiling texture, which when wet, turns into white, gooey, glue mud-paste globules and when it hits the floor it splats everywhere. We finally quit worrying with the pots on the floor to catch the water (and furthermore, I don't really have that many pots). HA!

Anyway, since I had the adjusters telephone # and extension, I decided to call him. Yesterday afternoon I called and his voice mail message said he is out in the field. I said what the heck, it's pouring down rain what is he out standing in a field for, he'll get himself soaking wet (very old, not so funny, very corny, joke, I know, I know).

So in less than 10 minutes I get a call from his office informing me that because there are so many claims pouring in (like the rain in my roof) that another adjuster had been assigned and that he would call me within 72 hours. The lady said to do whatever we needed to do, like put a tarp on the roof, or have the tree cut off and just keep the receipts and that they will reimburse reasonable costs. What she doesn't understand is, we are in a very rural area and it will take forever to get a bonded tree guy to get out here to cut the tree off the roof. I certainly am not going to use some fly-by-night bumpkin that would probably do more damage than good. Plus I don't have the money to pay up front to have a reputable tree surgeon (big bucks) do the work and then AllState decide they won't pay that much, because what is reasonable to them is probably less than what I would get charged.

So the rain kept pouring in and Eddie was getting more upset by the minute, because if you know Eddie, he is a fixer and a do-er, but since he has been down in his back he can't fix and do like he used to and when something like this happens he thinks he should be fixing and doing and he gets frustrated. If push comes to shove (not literally, mind you), I will threaten him with divorce, if he even starts thinking about bringing out the chain saw.

I just wish the adjuster would come on and call. Oh yeah, the adjuster's home base is out of Illinois. I hope he is in the area and doesn't have to come from that far away. This clean-up operation may take forever. At least the sun is trying to peak out from behind the clouds today. Hurricane Gustaf, please stay away.