My House Was Bombed By Teenagers – Insurance Was A Nightmare

Note: Harold was a beloved contributor to SCP who was targeted by some youths who threw a fire bomb at his home, which burned, and he and his wife barely escaped with their lives. This wasn’t the first incident in that town, but hopefully it will be the last. Harold is sharing with us an update and some of what he has learned about the insurance business through this whole ordeal.

Well I persevered and wore both the insurance company and the contractor down and we moved into Bright Acres on Saturday. What a relief without the herd of elephants thundering overhead in that apartment.

Our beautiful curving concrete driveway that we drive up and into the garage to unload the groceries etc., with just an 1-1/2″ step up into the house into the access area next to the kitchen, is pure delight as it has been raining here pretty often the past couple of weeks. So much, in fact, that the property can not be finished until late spring for everything due to the settling of the basement fill and the natural weathering of the treated wood on front and back porches. Still very much liveable though.

Everyone who comes up at night, either front or back, are floodlit by the motion sensing flood lights on front and back when they get close enough to the house that their intentions are evident, they are here to either visit or otherwise access the house, are amazed and readily understand the “Bright Acres” name.

Have not gotten the security cameras in as of yet and will likely not get them mounted until it cools off again in the fall of the year. Likewise will not have a lawn until next year after some more fill is added.

While the insurance paid for the house they really took us to the cleaners on our personal property. Turned the loss list over to a third party who ignored the brand names and picked out the cheapest alternative like replacing an antique four drawer knee hole maple office desk of mine with a tubing and particle board contraption labeled as a computer desk and then depreciating it by seventy percent and virtually everything on the list was done the same way.

I will be very busy building and acquiring replacements for a lot of the items and some will never be replaced. Have to finish off the garage and restock my emergency supplies too over the next year to get back to where I was.

Since the salvage that went on in our house by in-laws and neighbors, with us too sick just out of the hospital to even contend with it, the knowledge that I was prepared to withstand about a year’s worth of upset and turmoil is no longer a secret – much to my chagrin as in the three days we have been home I have already had a visit from the welfarite no goods on the street looking to mooch something off me.

I am going to security fence the entire property as soon as the grant comes through and the security cameras which I had to order will be motion sensing pan and tilt with IR which automatically programs on the TVs when activated. If no TV is on when the driveway sensor alerts, it chimes and turns on a bedroom monitor.

As the intruder nears the house and the floods come on the camera switches from IR to normal light. Sure surprised a grandson last night with the lights.

I will be awhile getting settled in, but intend to go back to writing next week as soon as some semblance of order is achieved in my man cave which is presently being invaded by a grand niece while her mother visits Arizona. Then it will become my den again.

Harold