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THROUGH THE FIRE PART FOUR

7/27/2014

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After my garage fire, the one thing the insurance company did right, was find me a descent place to stay. A Residence Inn in Arcadia, close to my now disabled  home.

I checked in the day after the fire, after a long
day of absolutely no sleep.  My boyfriend Don, thinking safety was key, said I should take a second floor suite.  It was the size of a studio
apartment, with a little living room area with a king bed and a bathroom on one end.  It did have a full kitchen.  That place lasted one  day. Safety is great, but hauling band equipment and groceries up a flight of stairs is not. The second day I settled into what would be my “home”, the exact same suite, only on the ground floor.

The weeks wore into months. Christmas was a bit of a bummer.  I always host Christmas Eve at my house, with the tree and house decorated, with anywhere from 10 to 20 people.  That year, Don and I spent a quiet evening having dinner with a single wreath and two battery operated Christmas candles.


My only real hobby and stress reliever is doing projects around the house and there was none of that. 
The bed was not my bed and although having the cats with me helped, the place never really felt like home. Whenever the stress of everything going on got to me, I would pull out paint samples.  Yes, paint
samples! I would stare at various shades and try to decide what the new colors of the house would be.  A little psycho, I know, but for some reason, it helped me to believe I would one day be finished with this mess, even though many days, I totally doubted it.  Some nights, after a particularly hard day of dealing with contractors and insurance companies, I would lay in bed and have a good cry.  The next morning,  I would usually wake up next to a cat toy, put on the bed by my cat Elsa, in an attempt to cheer me up.  It always worked.


Besides, there were positives to the arrangement.  The place was cleaned every day.  I had air conditioning, something I did not have at my home at the time.  There was complimentary breakfast every  morning and a once a week wine and beer reception from 500pm to 700pm.  There was also a good size pool and a hot tub.  Although I didn’t make any lasting friendships, I did get an opportunity to talk to a lot of people who were in the same situation.

 The best part was the service.  When I first checked in, I was still a soap opera addict. (The
cancellation of “As The World Turns” ended my addiction, although I do occasionally fall off the wagon on a day off with an episode of “The Young and The Restless” or “Days Of Our Lives.”) I brought my VCR from the house (pre-DVR days and watching episodes online), but had no idea how to connect it.  The night clerk, who couldn’t leave the front desk, drew me a great diagram and I got it put together in under five minutes.   One of my weekly rituals was a Sunday night soak in the hot tub with a plastic glass of wine.  One Sunday the hot tub was being serviced and when the on duty staff found out my weekly ritual was in danger of being cancelled, they called in a favor from the hotel next door.  Walking across the parking lot in my flip flops and bathing suit, with my plastic wine glass in hand, my ritual was saved, via the hot tub at the Embassy Suites where their night manager provided me with a key and told me to “soak as long as I wanted.”

 Any issue, any question, over the 11 months, someone was always there to help. The staff were the best part of a long and sometimes painful experience.  When I finally told them I was leaving, no one believed it because I had been close so many times! I wrote a three page letter to management, naming all the names and all the wonderful experiences I had after I got home. When I went back a year later for a visit, most of the people I had gotten to know had been promoted, either there or at other Residence Inn properties. It was nice to see a business that rewarded employees for great service.

Unfortunately, the great service did not extend to all the other people involved in this tale. Next up, if only a show like "Catch a Contractor" had been on in 2003!



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JUST LIVE

7/20/2014

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An old friend invited Don and I to dinner this weekend before my gig with L.A. Lyon at Tumbleweed’s.  There were plenty of reasons to say “no.”  Working what pretty much amounts to
about 50 to 60 hours a week between my corporate job and my “rock star” job means the weekends are filled with laundry, errands and house cleaning.  After all, it is important that the
house always be clean and everything be in order.  Plus, I feel like I have to get to gigs early so I don’t have to rush setup, so dinner on gig nights is usually a sandwich from Subway, eaten on my lap while I am driving.  Writing this down and reading it back, makes me realize how crazy I can sometimes be!  There is a part of me that feels if I have some fun, if I am not the first one in and the last one out, if I don’t keep my eye on all the balls in the air, I will somehow be punished.  So this weekend, I said to hell with the house and the early arrival time! Take a chance and just live!  In return, I got an evening of great food and insightful
conversation, along with quite a few laughs!

 Is the house as clean as it could be? Nope. But guess what?  It is still a nice sunny day and so far, I have not contracted any deadly disease brought on by dust on my dresser.  What about the gig?  Went great, and only had one minor squealing sound that came briefly out of the sound system. The dance
floor was so full nobody noticed.

Now don’t get me wrong. No life should be all fun. Working hard can be both financially and emotionally rewarding.  But every once in a while it feels great to just live!


 


 

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THROUGH THE FIRE PART THREE

7/13/2014

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I have to admit it. Before the fire, I had never read my insurance policy. 

I had no real idea what was covered and what wasn’t covered.  I needed to have the home insured to satisfy my mortgage and so, I figured what was good enough
for my mortgage holder was good enough for
me.

 In hindsight, I was very lucky to have co-workers who had experience with insurance claims. One person was in the middle of settling with an insurance company after a major fire and another had been through a major earthquake claim.  The job I had at the time pretty much sucked, but I have always felt that the real reason I ended up there was to get the guidance I needed to get me through something no one else in my life had ever been through.

A couple of highlights you might want to look for when you check your insurance policy.


What kind of living expenses get covered if you are unable to live in your home?

 I had one year of housing costs coverage and I used eleven months of it.  Yes, eleven months
fully paid for at the Residence Inn living in a room that resembled a studio apartment with a full kitchen. There were times I actually liked being there,  but mostly I wanted to go home. Yet I was lucky.  I talked to people staying at the same place who had lost their entire house and everything in it and only had six months of living expenses covered. One couple I remember were going to have to move in with family and friends because their house was nowhere near completion and their insurance coverage was done.  By the way, even when your house is in shambles, you still have to continue to make your mortgage payment.  A fire doesn’t stop that, so if you can’t afford to pay a mortgage AND rent an apartment, make sure you have living expenses covered in your policy.

 What is the difference between replacement and full replacement?

 This one gets REALLY tricky. Replacement means they will replace everything you had in your possession and put the structure back the way it was.  Full replacement means they will replace everything you have, no depreciation costs and put the structure back up by current day standards.

 To give you an example of where this got a little funky.  The garage, like my home, was built in 1948.  At that time, it was fine to build everything with 2 X 4s.  Today’s building codes say “No Bueno.”  It must now be 4 X 8s.  The Evil Empire, as I called my insurance company, said I had to pay the difference for the cost of the larger lumber.  The figure $2,000 coming out of my pocket comes to mind, since every time there was some kind of problem, some contractor would ask to speak to me outside and say, “Sorry, but this is going to run about $2,000. “  By the end of this ordeal, I would just say, “Don’t tell me.  Let me guess. This is going to cost $2,000.” And the contractor would look at me wide eyed and
say, “How did you know?”

 I probably would have eaten the $2,000, but my public adjuster stepped in and made a great point. 
By law, they had to put the garage back up. By law, it had to be to code. So guess what?  They would
have to do it the right way regardless of what it had been the past.

 Lesson learned.  This was the same Evil Empire, who early on, said they did not have to replace the whole roof of the house, just the half that was burned.  The fact that none of it would match was of no concern to them. We won that one too.  But remember, you are in good hands!

 Another little bit of information I had no idea of, but EVERY item you expect money for has to be listed and inventoried.  Every screwdriver.  Every wrench. EVERYTHING!  Then once they agreed to it, all the items had to be purchased by me and then reimbursed by them.  If it didn’t get bought, there was no money coming for it.

 The only exception was moving my items out of the house and storing them.  They offered to take care of it all and gave me a very expensive quote for it.  We told them great, give us the check and WE will take care of it.

 I found cheaper movers and a lot cheaper storage and put the extra money aside for all the things that went wrong during the process that they didn’t want to cover. 

One more tip.  If you are going to move and store your items, get a self-storage locker that you have the key to.  There are dozens of horror stories of moving companies loosing or just destroying entire
households.  The other nice part was I could get stuff out I needed without having to go through anyone else.

 Next up, what is it really like to spend 11 months in a hotel?



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Summerfest?  Yes, the greatest music festival in the country!

7/6/2014

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This past week I got the opportunity to visit Milwaukee, Wisconsin for what
is the greatest music festival in the country, Summerfest.  Yes, I said
Wisconsin and greatest music festival, all in the same sentence!  I know  So
Cal has Coachella and Austin has South By Southwest, but seriously, the only place in the country to see a ton of veteran, current popular AND up and coming acts on real stages with real sound systems is Summerfest.

Eleven stages, eleven days on the lakefront, with acts ranging from One Republic, Luke Bryan and Usher, to Ingrid Michaelson and the Arctic Monkeys.  Stages range in size from seating about 100 people for local and new acts, to 25,000 seats in the Marcus Amphitheatre, a place Lady Gaga, on night two of the festival, commented on.  “This place is fancy!” she said. “I remember going to festivals and they weren’t like this!”

 General admission to Summerfest runs about $18.00, although there are multiple day discounts and other daily specials and free admission opportunities. The Marcus does require a ticket, which can be pricey, but the additional cost provides a reserved seat and free admission to the rest of the festival.
 I was fortunate enough to score tickets to Bruno Mars opening night at the Marcus and Lady Gaga night two.  Both shows was phenomenal, including sound that was off the charts!
 
Before the shows, my boyfriend and I shopped, did some paddle boating around the lakefront and enjoyed  tasty drinks at JoJo’s Martini bar, a great place to stop before heading in to your evening show.

I spent another night wandering around the smaller stages with the original bass player from L.A. Lyon (back in the Milwaukee days!), catching a couple of great local bands and enjoying food from every corner of the earth!

Never been to Wisconsin? Make the trip for this great festival, held every year from the end of June to the beginning of July. Check out
www.summerfest.com for more details.
  

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