Design Confidently, Live Comfortably
  by Julia Mies The pain of losing our home to a fire was horribly intensified by the realization that we were grossly underinsured. In California, there are two main kinds of insurance coverage -- replacement and market value (the cost of a house of comparable size). At the time, many carriers would insure older homes at market value only. As such, our 1929 house was covered at less than a quarter of its replacement cost. We joined with others who were covered by the same carrier and, with the help of the state insurance commissioner, pressured the carrier to cover all of us at replacement value. The only way  to determine that value was to reconstruct what we had before and have a contractor bid on those plans. JSW Architects drew up the plans based on our discussions and pictures. It was important to consider the fact that old homes have plaster walls, solid-core doors, molding, even hardwood flooring under the carpet, all of which add to the expense of rebuilding. A contractor who had done a lot of remodeling for us presented the bid.Planning for our new home was delayed until we arrived at a mutually agreeable settlement. But it was well worth the effort -- and definitely to our advantage -- to be as precise and thorough as possible. It all worked out in the end, but I'd advise homeowners to read their fire insurance policies carefully to avoid ever having to face a similar situation. NEXT: Introduction BACK: What an architect can do for you |
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