Making Plans

Replacing Teen’s Band Room in Basement

The first thing involved in a post fire rebuild through an insurance company, is the detailing of existing plans. The second, is the drafting up of architectural blue prints for rebuilding stages and any proposed alterations. City Permits must be approved, because after all, you have to rebuild your home according to current building codes.

For the most part, your insurance company is only obligated to return your home to the state it was in, pre fire.  Of course, there are considerations regarding minor alterations and additions. Wish lists are subject to the amount of coverage you have and whether you use up all of your lost contents compensation. (do you have enough insurance)

An estimator from (SPECS)  Specialized Property Evaluation Control Services, came in and did an evaluation for our insurance adjustor. It’s a very tedious job where each building attribute is mentally deconstructed and assessed for a re assembly checklist, that list is based on the quality of your home. I am rather grateful that our home was originally built well, was well maintained and was renovated in the 90’s, by a family that took care of huge issues like asbestos abatement and rotted wood throughout the sections, that they lovingly restored. 

Our home must have been a difficult job to scrutinize because our originally assigned contractor hadn’t arranged to dispose of contents for quite a few months.  One wonders if the cyclone of post itemization (supplied by e-justers) biased the SPEC evaluator’s opinion of the home. Let’s face it, the place was a mess!  Everything was strewn about – post apocalyptic.  A home never looks it’s best postmortem.

Looking back I can see how the first steps taken after the fire are important to the eventual outcome.  The final decision was to gut the house to the studs and rebuild from scratch. A total task agenda was compiled by SPECS and then three insurance provided contractors came in and put value bids on that agenda.

Third Floor now a Master Suite

One mentionable hiccup that occurred in the beginning, was the followup of an organization that came in and measured the lot and each individual room. I don’t recall the representative giving me a business card, but let’s face it… I was still in shock at the time. Recently I found out – when our builder submitted plans for building permits – that  this company had done so on our behalf and I am unsure of who arranged this. Our policy actually paid for floor plan drafting twice, because when we eventually hired Dan from DTM, (our contractor) he also arranged to have this service done.

Having new plans is exciting.  We had already lived in the house for a decade and knew it’s strengths and weaknesses. We chose to open up a non load bearing wall, add a bathroom and powder room and go from seven choppy bedrooms to four – well appointed ones.

Claudio Santon, our architect has a solid reputation and his plans are flawless and structurally pleasing.  I am really looking forward to seeing his design come to life.