Back on the night of July 28, a ferocious thunderstorm rolled across Colorado Springs and produced ping-pong to tennis-ball sized hail around the northern and eastern sections of town. Our neighborhood was hit pretty hard, and most of the houses sustained roof, window, and other structural damage. We were very fortunate in that we only lost one window. We also extraordinarily blessed considering the flooding that has happened in the past few weeks both in Colorado and around the country.
The past month has been spent coordinating insurance claims and inspections, appraisals and bids, and the whole process of repairing the damage. For perspective, the estimated total damage from this storm is expected to be around $65 million. We have scheduled and ordered our new roof and window and also wound up with two new cars. Previously, Mac and I parked on our driveway, mainly because our garage has been full of crap we’ve been meaning to donate for months. Our cars were outside during the storm, and both were totaled by insurance (mine was mainly because my car was 14 years old and had over 250,000 miles. Mac’s sustained a lot of body damage). For any USAA members, USAA car insurance has a policy add-on where you receive 20% over the totaled value of your car (basically, USAA pays you 120% of the car value). It does cost more, but it was such a God-send. I originally signed up for it because we both drove older cars with well over 100,000 miles, so I figured this would help. It really did. This was also a nice motivating push to donate two carloads of stuff to Goodwill.
After 14 years (my dad bought my car new way back in 2002), I had to say good-bye to my first Jeep. It was definitely bittersweet because I really wasn’t interested in getting a new car. The hail damage knocked down the value of my car, and it didn’t make sense financially to keep it. So I replaced my 2002 red Jeep Grand Cherokee with a 2017 red Jeep Grand Cherokee. Mac switched from Hondas and joined my family in the Jeep Life with a Jeep Cherokee. While the new cars are wonderful, we’re (mainly I’m) adjusting to life with two car payments (excuse me while I cry). This past month has been quite the adventure in homeownership.
Have y’all ever dealt with storm damage?
Ugh the dreaded car payment is the worst but it’s always nice to have a new and updated vehicle.