Everything Is Gonna Be All White

Another room I am really excited about decorating is our new living room.  We’ve known for a long time now that we wanted a change from the style we had before.
This was our old living room area…missing two of the chairs and the ottoman so that we could make room for the insane amount of giant plastic baby toys.  While I still do like it, it just wasn’t US.


I still love the old Danish teak style hutch we inherited from Geoff’s grandmother and our imitation Barcelona chairs.  But the wall colour has got to go!  This is actually something we were planning on doing before the house fell but never had the time.  Sure glad we didn’t now!
And these are the rooms that are inspiring me now.


Love the vaulted ceilings and the rafters.  Might possibly be doing this in the new place.  I just noticed that both these rooms have hanging chairs in them too.  We actually already own the chair from the bottom picture….bought it years ago when it was on clearance and never got around to finding a spot for it outside.  It’s this one from Ikea.

Love, love, love the white Eames Lounger.  Hoping to find a knockoff somewhere at a price that isn’t equivalent to a small car.

I’ve always loved this yellow sideboard from Ikea too.
I’m picturing a big white room with grey and yellow accents.  Light flooring…painted wood perhaps?  Can’t wait to start shopping!

Insurance Soap Opera

It really does feel like I should be on a soap.  The level of drama involved is just ridiculous.

I had a horrible phone conversation with our adjuster this morning so put together an email and sent it off to his boss.

Here’s the email I sent…I need your feedback.  Do I come across as a drama queen?  Too whiny?

Hi Boss,
My name is Sabrina Lawrence and my family and I have a claim with “Your Horrible Insurance Company” for our house that we lost in the tornado of June 6th 2010.  That claim # is *****.
I had an unsettling phone conversation with “Your Horrible Adjuster” this morning.  We received an advance payment of $**** towards the content that we lost.  I called him to let him know that we had spent that money and I had dropped the receipts off this morning at the “Local Broker’s” office since he does not have a location that I can drop them off directly for him or access to email.  I asked that he review the receipts when he had a chance and that if everything was in order we were requesting another advance cheque.  He actually got upset that I dared to ask this of him.

He told me that Your Horrible Insurance Company was not our personal bank and was not here to fund our shopping.  I told him that I didn’t understand and asked how we were to replace our items then.  He went on to say that we had to take an Actual Cash Value settlement and then submit receipts to him for approval and we would be paid the difference after that.  This is in direct contradiction to a letter that we received from him dated September 30th that says we have only two options regarding our content claim submission as follows:

Option 1 – you can elect to replace each item and submit to my attention the replacement cost invoices for reimbursement accordingly.  We will pay up to the amounts submitted plus applicable taxes as per your Schedule of Loss submission.

Option 2 – you can elect a cash value settlement.  This settlement is a lump sum settlement.  Depreciation is applied to each item in accordance to the age and material construction of each item.

I received this letter on October 15th and called Your Horrible Adjuster that day and said that we would be going with Option 1 and that we would need some money to get started on buying items.  He said this was no problem and requested that day that a cheque be sent to us.  He and the letter he sent never once indicated that we would have to take an ACV settlement.  During our conversation today he questioned why I was in such a hurry to replace things.  I said to him that we have lived for 5 months with 2 small children without appliances, beds for our children, toys and winter clothing.  His response was that we’ve lived for 5 months without them so they shouldn’t be a priority now.  I asked why I wasn’t told about the ACV when I first requested a cheque and his response was “Fine Sabrina, I take full responsibility.  The situation you’re in and everything that has happened to you is all my fault.”

He is behaving like a spoiled child and I am extremely upset with his unprofessional behaviour.  Your Horrible Adjuster said today that it would be close to a month before we saw that ACV settlement and that by that time our 180 days to submit items against our claim would have run out but that he MIGHT be able to get us an extension.  We have also run out of living expenses money to pay our rent in our current house but I am afraid to ask Your Horrible Adjuster for another cheque.  Every time I dare to ask him a question he immediately gets on the defensive and does not provide any real answers.

I called you a couple months ago when we were having some other problems with Your Horrible Adjuster and you were very helpful.  When Your Horrible Adjuster found out about this he told me I should watch what I say and who I talk to because he could make this a difficult process for us.

So I have no idea what to do now.  Please advise me if you can help.  All we are looking for is the replacement of the items on our content list in a timely manner.

Regards,
Sabrina

Home Day

The buses were cancelled here this morning because of fog.  Since Geoff has to leave for work at 7:20 and Sage can’t get to school before 8:40 that means she got to stay home today!  Which she was not happy about.

I actually love the days when she’s home during the week now.  Jasper is thrilled to have someone to play with besides me!
He is down for his morning nap now and she is watching The Secret Garden for the first time.  Was one of my favourite books as a kid.  So now it’s coffee and blog time for Mommy!

Embrace the Camera Thursday

Grey blah morning here for Jasper and me.  But the wind has died down and we’re not expecting a tornado to hit at any moment so we’re feeling much calmer!

The Jazzy man and I in the temporary playroom.  Can’t wait til we can bring some colour into our lives (and walls) again!

Today

Jasper is 14 months.  Here’s a review of what month 13 was like for us!

Playing peek-a-boo.  He hides behind a chair and pops his head out and I have to say peekaboo…over and over and over.  Or he hides behind me when I’m sitting on the floor and I have to pretend I can’t find him.
The Fisher Price Peek-a-Blocks and Incrediblock that were Sage’s.
The radio on the FP Laugh and Learn home.  Pushes the button for the music to play again as soon as it stops.
Sage’s tiny lego’s.  He stands at the barricade keeping him away and tries desperately to get out.

Head bumps! Leans in for a forehead bonk all the time.
Taking better naps now.  Up to almost 2 hours in the morning.  Still sleeping from 6pm to 7am at night.
Puffs out his chest when we tell him to stretch.
Had his first cold.  The runny nose may never stop!

Puts one foot on the carpet and the other foot on the laminate and tries to do the splits.
Walks!  Almost manages to run when he sees me coming with a kleenex to wipe his nose.
Favourite game is to put a small toy in his toy cup and shake it til the toy flies out.  Bursts out laughing everytime.

DIY Day

I came across this light fixture a few days ago and I knew instantly that I had to have it too.

I’m pretty sure she got her inspiration from a light that I just saw on an episode of 9 by Design. 
The DIY version couldn’t be simpler to make (though incredibly time consuming).  It’s made up of a round paper lantern like the ones Ikea sells by the thousands and then paper coffee filters are hot glued onto it.
Can’t wait for our next trip to Ikea so that I can pick up one of these for myself and get started!

Decorating Dreams

If our insurance company ever gets their butts in gear we will one day very soon have a new house to decorate.  The spaces I am most excited about being able to start from scratch are the kid spaces…I can indulge my love of colour and quirky to my heart’s content!
I’m going to have a 6 year old girl’s room to do…she has already informed me that she wants a Paris Princess room.  Oy.  A 1 year old boy’s room and possibly a shared scrapbooking room / playroom.

I love everything about this room.  We had a wall in our old house that we covered in maps just like this one.  And I have recently developed an obsession with collecting globes.  What a great way to display them!  I could so picture this setup on one side of the room with my scrapbooking area on the other.

There is no way we could ever make this happen but I can dream.  How cool would it be to say your house had a fireman’s pole from one floor to another?

Same goes for this pic.  Our rooms aren’t going to have the height to make this happen but I just love it.  What an amazing play space this would be.

I am absolutely going to incorporate this into Sage’s room.  A simple nightstand wearing a tutu!  Super easy project to do.

This is probably more along the lines of what Sage actually wants me to do.  Lots of pink and sparkle!  I am loving the dressmaker’s form with the nightgown on it.  I picked one of these up at a flea market just a few weeks ago.  And the Jackson Pollock style art behind the bed.  Love that.

I also have a current obsession with pom poms.  Along with everyone else in blog land!  I’m thinking that these will be incorporated into my scrapbook room decor though.
Not really any boy themed rooms were there?  I’m having a horrible time finding rooms that I love that aren’t too themey.  I’ve loved these decals for a couple years now though…would love them in Jasper’s room.

Now I would just love to get started on all these projects already!

Glasses Love

Yesterday's post resulted in the best ego boost I have had in years.  Thanks ladies!  Since my glasses proved to be so popular I thought I'd share a link.

They are the Dolce & Gabbana 3056-B style and can be found here.  They are the green spotted style but I'm not sure why because the frames are brown and the sides are much more gold with some leopard and zebra thrown in than green.

Moving On

I realized today that I haven't taken a single picture in 2 weeks.  I've been spending so much time lately just being frustrated by the lack of progress with our insurance company that I haven't been doing much of anything else.  So today that changes!

I'm going to start the challenge that Emily runs over at The Anderson Crew.  Otherwise poor Jasper is going to grow up thinking he was raised by an invisible parent!

So here we are.  No makeup, hair not done and in ratty, I don't care if he wipes his snotty nose all over me clothes.  Lovely!

2 Months Late

Well I'm 2 months late on this but here is my update on Jasper at age 1!

Loves:

Potato Heads
Duplo Lego
Anything Sage has
Being cuddled
Mommy
Vanilla soy milk
Food - any and all.  Bring it on
Paul Frank pillow in his crib
Car rides
Being outside...but not touching the grass!
Putting things in his mouth
Peek-a-boo
Off to London, off to Lynn, off to Salem and we all fall in
Escaping from the playroom
Looking out the window
Sage!
Dancing

Hates:

Being left alone.  Unless it's in bed...put him in there and he's happy as can be

I love the way that he pulls himself up to my chair and leans his soft little cheek on my leg.  Which he always follows up my licking my knee and laughing cause he thinks he's hilarious.

I love how he licks his finger and then rubs in on Daddy.  It's like he's marking his territory.

Insurance Woes

4 Months after the storm.  The house is still standing and our contents have been removed but not processed yet.

We had thought all along that the quote was too low from the contractor that our adjuster had decided was going to build our new house.  I mentioned this to our adjuster who said that it was accurate and if i didn't like it than we should take out a bigger mortgage, give the money to the contractor and get him to build us a bigger house.  I responded by telling the adjuster that I wanted to see the detailed quotes from all 4 contractors that he had submit quotes.

So i finally get receive those on Monday.  Our adjuster says that he does not have a computer, a printer, email or internet access.  If this is true and our insurance company never provided him with those I am in complete shock.  This is 2010…not the dark ages!

As I was reviewing them I realized that all of them had forgotten to include the square footage of our upstairs!

So I called the adjuster to tell him this but his voicemail says he's on vacation...not such a big deal until you consider that this is the 4th time this month he's been on vacation!

I had the phone number for his boss and called him to say how disappointed we are in the level of service provided by his company.  I also want to get some resolution on how on earth and entire floor could have been missed by 4 contractors!

His boss is so rude to me on the phone before I've even explained why I'm calling that i burst into tears and sobbed the whole way through our conversation.  He gets nicer after I start crying.  I should have thought of this months ago!

It eventually comes down to him telling me to put all my concerns in writing and go over it with the contractor.  I did this and sent him an email yesterday.  I personally think that the email is very polite and even says that we don't blame him for this oversight but instead the contracting company that did the original scope of work but we would like the quote revised. 

He never replies but instead calls me at 7:30am today saying that he wants to meet me at our house at 10am.  Knows full well that I don't have a car and can't do this.  So I get Geoff to call him back and arrange to get him the key.  When the contractor shows up at Geoff's shop to pick it up he won't even speak to him...sticks out his hand for the key and leaves.  Does the same thing when he returns it.  Hands it to the guy in the passenger seat of his truck who throws it in Geoff’s hand and speeds off.  And I still have to suck up to him because he is in possession of all of our contents and we want them all to be written off because they sat for 3.5 months in a house that was full of black mold.

I still haven't started drinking before dinner time which I think shows an amazing amount of restraint.
In other news I’ve spent the last 3 days re-building Sage’s Lego city.  Pics coming soon!

3.5 Months Later

Well the quote is in from our insurance company to rebuild our house.  And it's bad.  Really bad.  We have the best type of policy that there is to have - Guaranteed Replacement Cost.  Means that they at least have to build for us exactly what we had before.  But with what the quote came in at, which we then have to subtract 13% taxes off of and the 20% overhead fee from their preferred contractor we are left with not enough money to even get us back to what we had before.  So today we are confused and anxious and exhausted because we both laid awake most of the night.

We're going to meet with the restoration company tonight to see what he can come up with but I don't have high hopes.  They don't have a good reputation in the industry around here and we are adament that we don't end up with a cheaply built knocked together builder quality house.

So I guess my dreams of a house that looks like this are probably out the window.  :(

Back to School

I never did share Sage's back to school photos here.  It's a big change in our routine this year.  Adding a baby brother to the morning mix, going everyday instead of every other day and living a lot further out of town in this rental house of ours.  Poor girl is on the bus for almost an hour each way :(

Doesn't make her any less excited about going back though!  I have no idea how Geoff and I ended up with a kid that loves school as much as she does....she's upset when vacation time rolls around!

Here she is in her head to toe H&M outfit..she insisted on the hat!

Some Friday Etsy Love

Isn't this Amy Butler clutch just gorgeous?



And these headbands?

And this clutch with hidden diaper wipes pocket?

I am seriously lusting after all of them.  Check them out at the wonderful Foster Kade Designs.  All proceeds from her sales go towards bringing their adopted baby girl home from China.  Look pretty and feel great about doing it!  Also check out Ashley Ann today who is sponsoring a giveaway for Foster Kade's etsy shop.

Why I Love Him

When most men run into town to pick a few things up from the grocery store and drug store what do they come home with that wasn't on the list?

A GQ magazine perhaps?  Maybe some junk food?  Probably.  This is what my husband brought home last night.

A zebra print pie lifter in the shape of a shoe.  I married exactly the right man.

A Comedy of Errors

That really is the only way that I can describe what this whole process has been like.  Without getting all worked up and put in danger of losing my mind that is.  We FINALLY get the list of our damaged contents from the restoration company and I start to notice something odd as I'm reviewing it.  I look it over again.  Nope, not just me.  All of our appliances, all of the furniture from upstairs and all of the kid's toys weren't on the list.  How on earth did they manage to forget those??  Yet one more hassle to get straightened out.  Nevermind the fact that the house was supposed to be torn down last week and when I called the insurance adjuster to find out what was going on his voicemail said he was off on vacation all week!  Needless to say we will be switching companies the second this mess is done with.  A shame really because my husband has used them for all of his needs for almost 20 years now.

And totally unrelated but too cute not to share.  She was so excited to wear skinny jeans for the first time.  She kept asking me what they were called cause they're more like a legging than a jean so I told her all the big girl's were calling them jeggings now.  Didn't believe me.

Dreaming

Since there has been no progress on getting our house torn down or getting our remaining contents assessed, Geoff and I have been spending our free time dreaming of the kind of home we would like to build.  We live in a neighbourhood a few streets up from the water full of 100+ year old cottages.  Our neighbourhood seems to be split 50/50 with people who take excellent care of their homes and ones that do nothing at all.

We dream of starkly modern homes, flat roofs, floor to ceiling windows, single pitch roofs, stone and stucco exteriors.  Do we know that these designs will stick out in our area?  Yes.  Do we care?  Not really.  We have no plans to move.  This will be the home we are in for the long haul.  Plus, there is a certain amount of creative freedom we feel able to take seeing as how this is not our hard earned money that will be put into the house.  We’re not going to be stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for a home that may not sell.  Our current mortgage will not change at all and we’re going to end up with a bigger house out of the deal.  Even if our circumstances change and we end up having to move, the new home will most definitely sell for more than our previous one so we can’t lose!  Or so we hope.

So…here’s the plan we’re 90% decided on.  There are a few changes to be made…the upstairs will have a large portion of the deck turned into a 3rd bedroom leaving the downstairs bedroom to be turned into an office.  A basement will be added, more built-in closets and moving some bathrooms around.  Also adding more of a proper interior entrance way.  But we love it.  It’s modern but can be warmed up.  The exterior will be left very similar to the picture.  Grey stucco or stone panels (handy having a husband that works with stone!), the red will be a warm barn red out of board and batten.  Tall grasses planted in the front planter for privacy.  We are so excited.

One Month

One month today since we lost our home.  Hard to believe we are now in our 5th week of being homeless.  Yesterday we actually had somebody from the construction company that contracts for our insurance company show up at the house for the very first time!!!  If it takes them a month just to show up to give us a quote on building us a new home I shudder to think at how long it will take them to actually do the work.
Still living with the MIL and her husband.  She’s been great…him not so much.  Doesn’t take too well to our kids.  Have been calling every rental property we find but absolutely none will rent to us short-term.  Getting desperate as the husband has told us he doesn’t want us to stay here anymore.
Kids are doing better.  Sage is re-adjusting and not acting out as much as she was the first couple weeks.  Big trauma for such a little girl.  Jasper is back to his old self as well.  Not screaming nearly so much.  But is crawling now and there is lots and lots of clutter in this house which is a baby disaster!  He keeps me on my toes!

Tornado June 6, 2010

It's been the craziest week of my life around here.  Last Sunday at 3am we lost our home to a tornado.  I know.  Who does that happen to in real life??  And in Southwestern Ontario of all places???

Here's how it happened.  Geoff woke up just before 3am (and it doing so woke me up as well!) as the wind and rain had gotten quite strong and we had left the windows in the front of the house open.  We weren't concerned at all because strong winds are very common around here.  Geoff got up and went to close them and headed back to the bedroom.  I was lying in bed thinking about what a pain it was going to be tomorrow to clean up all the toys that had been left in the yard and that I was positive by now were at least several houses down.  HA!  Least of my worries.  Just as I'm thinking this...CRASH.  100+ foot tree from our neighbour's yard lands directly across our house.

I yell for Geoff as I instantly realized what happened.  He's not back in the bedroom yet but does not answer me.  I start screaming for him as I think the tree has landed on him.  Not a good place to go in your mind at 3am in the pitch black.  So Geoff finally answers me and we desperately try to find flashlights and cell phones.  Even though we knew exactly where they should be, it's a different story to actually find them when you can't see at all.

Geoff gets his flashlight and runs upstairs to get the kids.  He gets to the top of the stairs and starts yelling.  The tree had come right through the roof and what was our loft was now crushed.  At first glance, it seemed as if the tree had also come down on the kid's bedroom.  He slips in the rain water that has poured in and loses the flashlight and it does out.  He somehow manages to crawl underneath the tree and breaks down their bedroom door.

He grabs Jasper from his crib and has Sage follow behind him.  Geoff has to let go of Sage's hand for a second to crawl underneath the tree with Jasper in his arms and when he reaches back to grab her he has a few very long seconds of extreme panic when he thinks he can't find her.  In a flash of lightning he sees her standing directly underneath the hole in our house staring up at the sky.

They all make it downstairs safely and we do the quickest carseat buckle up for Jasper ever and run out of the house through the back door.  The wind has practically stopped by now but it is still raining quite hard.  We come around to the front of the house and even though our car was parked just a few feet away from the now fallen tree it is safe.  We pile in and call Geoff's mom to let her know we are on our way to their place.

Giveaway!

Go check out The Anderson Crew for a great Shey B camera strap giveaway.  I have been coveting one of these for sooooo long!