Remember the flood? I think of it every time when I sit down to watch tv on an old 19" tv with no HDTV, and I am either on the floor or sitting in a lawn chair. (On the bright side my lawn chairs are comfortable!)
My kitchen as they started sucking up the water and I could get in there. Apparently my house is lopsided and the water ran into the kitchen. It couldn't possible run into the bathroom located on the other side of the house where the hot water heater was located and a drain!
Imagine all the little paint pockets you see below, filled up with water and squirting all over your stuff. There were hundreds of them, which just made the whole thing worse, because with the squirting streams of water, it was able to destroy even more. Plus, this is one section.....the whole living room was covered and the water was about 4" deep. A mess I tell you! The water was gushing out the front and back doors, leading to a sheet of ice at both places.
I have to give housing kudos for putting us up at The Hampton Inn (whose beds and pillows I love), and for getting our house done in just under two weeks. While I loved the Hampton, even with two adjoining rooms, it was tight quarters for the 4 of us. Every day after carting children around, I would go check on progress and document it....just in case.
I was contacted by the someone related to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, to check out their new FREE iPhone app related to creating a home inventory. Something I SHOULD have done before I ever had a flood occur. Unfortunately mother nature doesn't follow my time schedule.
I did have to download this on to Gunner's phone since my software wasn't upgraded, and I just have the 3G. It's super easy to use, take pictures, and you can even email it to yourself and have it backed up on your computer. During the claim process, they wanted before pictures of the furniture and electronics, which I didn't have unless they were in use. They got a picture of Junior jamming on the wii guitar, a random picture Abs took of the tv, and a picture of me sleeping on the couch. I was not thrilled about sending any of them!
The NAIC also has instructions on how to create a home inventory.
To help you create a home inventory, the NAIC is offering a FREE Kodak Easyshare digital camera (retail value $49) for one lucky reader! (It takes amazing pictures as you can see below!) All you need to do is leave a comment telling me what is the most loved item in your home is, that you would capture first on your home inventory!
I will draw a random winner on Monday April 25th!
Sammy the dog after he was rescued, kept by a friend for a while, and finally groomed.
Disclaimer--I was provided a digital camera to use for my review, but all opinions are my own, with no outside influence from the three little kids that live here.
7 comments:
Oh my goodness. This is the daunting task my husbandand I have to do once he gets home and we get all of our things. I don't even know where to begin when it comes to home inventory! I have been making random lists of everything we own! If I only had a phone for the app, I'd be all over it. I also didn't know you needed pictures of everything... Let me get going! Oddly enough, the first thing would probably be our pottery barn lawn chairs! Awkward I know, but they were expensive and I like them more than our regular furniture, haha!
Thanks for all the information. I definitely have some research to do!
Honestly, that's a hard one. We have the warranties and such for all our major purchases, so I had that I'd know what we had without taking pictures. I think the biggest thing that I would put on my list would be the hope chest in our dining room. It was a gift to my mom when she got married and she has since given it to me. Nothing inside of it could be replaced if it were destroyed (kids school papers and projects) and I doubt I could get another one like it, but I could maybe at least get one of the same quality. That's really hard to think about though. Losing so many things.
I think the most loved item in my home is my photo albums! They hold so many memories that I never want to forget!
Thanks for the info! Im definitely looking into this!:)
As a fellow MilSpouse, and knowing how the Army works it's magical ways, I would totally take pictures of all of his TA50, and Class A's, and all the little whatnot's that don't seem like much but that add up to be Eleventy Billion dollars when you try to replace them.
Glad that you have some furniture to sit on now, and I must say... I love Sammy's smile in the last picture.
Faced with an emergency I think that the first thing that we would both agree to document would be my grandmothers wedding ring that I inherited when she passed away. She actually gave it to my (boyfriend) without telling me, then when she passed, in her will it was left to me, but nobody could tell me where it was. I thought it was gone forever. Amazingly, 4 months later when my husband proposed, he opened the ring box and there was my grandmothers ring! You wouldn't believe how much that meant to me.
My scrapbooks. So much time and money has been spent on them.
You might want to check out this blog that talks about home inventories and how you can go about having one conducted.
http://www.steadfasthomeinventory.com/home-inventory-blog/
My husband and I had one done by this service about a year ago and we were extremely happy with the results. Obviously you don't have to go through this company, but it's worth a look at their blog at least.
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