riley605: Sorry, long again. I am very familiar with your feelings as I have seen this many times. When homeowners fight long and hard to build their home, the new or nothing approach is common in these situations. Usually its an emotional flinch reaction and if you understand the entire process, that will go away. Living in temporary housing no matter how nice will have its challenges. Your family will probably have some squabbles over this. There will probably be sleepless nights and a ton of hand wringing while this is going on. There will be times with a ton of stress as this whole process will be a major disruption in your lives and a major pain in the @$$. Heck the material selections for roofing, flooring, paint colors, tile, fixtures, etc. etc. etc. is alone very time consuming for a big home. The material selections are the easy part of the restoration process also. If it was me, my priority would be to find the "RIGHT" contractor to be my advocate so I get my house "PROPERLY" repaired ASAP. Once the house is repaired, I can get my family back in and our lives back on track. After months or even a year of this, it can wear on people so doing it right and being expeditious should be approach. Without seeing the home (you can send some pictures if you like) its hard to tell if a full tear down is necessary but it doesnt sound like it. A complete demolish and start over will add so much time to the rebuild. Not sure about Oklahoma, but here, if its a total rebuild, I will need site plans, a full blown set of architectural plans with all mechanicals just to get my building permit. If you are just repairing the home, the permit process is much easier. Also if you demolish the home, youll probably need to redo you septic or sewer connections, electrical connections and water connections. The disturbance to the yard is going to be much greater and you could need to redo sidewalks and driveways. All these things can take a ton of time and I dont recommend if its not necessary. Also, if its not necessary, State Farm will have a legitimate reason to delay and fight the costs. State Farm is terrible when it comes to claims IMO. Like a good neighbor my @$$. State Farm is the 600 pound gorilla in the industry and their adjusters are usually not the best. They will try to get by on the cheap if they can. Understand those words "IF THEY CAN". All but a handful of insurance companies will try to settle cheap "IF THEY CAN". Its up to the policy holder to make sure the insurance company gives a fair and proper settlement. How do you do that? First option is to hire a "good" public adjuster because a bad PA will only make matters worse. The public adjuster works on your behalf for usually a 10% fee. Sometime the PAs are useful but when they are involved, it takes forever to settle. If you hire a PA, dont count on moving back into your home soon. You may not even start the restoration process for a full year if you hire a PA. PAs can be useful on very large losses or commercial losses where business interruption and complicated policies and legal issues exist but for simple sticks and bricks issues, I feel they are more trouble than they are worth. Second option is to hire a "good" restoration contractor because a bad one can again make matters worse. A "good" restoration contractor is not going to be the cheapest as State Farm would prefer but the insurance company is obligated to pay fair and reasonable pricing, not the cheapest. The contractor will be doing the negotiations with the adjuster for the repairs. Final option is to hire the contractor that State Farm recommends if that do recommend one. During these large storms, they may not recommend someone. If you are in a very rural area, State Farm might be using the best company around because there are no other companies available. Normally I only recommend someone use the insurance companys contractor if the contractor is the only good player in the area or if its a minor claim. The contractor doing the repairs should already be involved. Usually when we do a rebuild, we are on the scene scoping the loss within a day or two. I know there was much damage in the area, but this is even a bigger reason to find your contractor now. If there is a good amount of rebuild work due to the storm, you want to be on the front of line so youre not waiting for the contractor to finish other work first. If you need help finding a good restoration contractor, I can possibly help. I know companies in the industry all around the country and if I don't know a good one in your area, others that I know will. If there is a good one operating in your area, they won't be too hard to find. Who is currently scoping the loss to write the estimate? Is it the adjuster or did the adjuster send in a contractor to write the estimate? In order to properly write a scope of repairs can take a week or two on the site, measuring, photographing and documenting. Then the estimator will have another week or two in front of the computer entering the data. Its not uncommon for a month or two to go by before these scopes (estimates) are properly prepared. Your contractor should be doing this NOW!!!! What the 2-story home roof specialist suggested???? Never heard of that title before but if you are missing parts of the roof in different areas of the house, why would you need to rebuild the second floor if the wall framing is in good shape. If the roof is trussed or even stick built, you can remove the entire roof, reframe it and leave the second floor framing intact if its in not damaged. This project is going to need someone to be the tough guy, pit bull, champion or whatever you want to call it. If your husband is not that person and you are, then you should be handling this. I have had many clients in the past where the Mrs. wears the pants on these projects and I rarely see the husband. There is nothing wrong with this because if the Mr. is not the one who will push and you will, you should be the one in charge of this process. It sounds like you were anyway when the house was built. If the house doesnt need to be demolished, rest assured, a good contractor will rebuild it to your standards and possibly even better then it was prior to the storm. Let me know how I can assist, BTW, was anyone hurt when your home was struck?

There was an earlier thread on Professional vs Professional Style, which concluded that a true professional range had issues in a residential environment -- including the construction requirements, and even some possible code issues preventing their use in a residence. So why "professional style"? I don't like the word "style" in that phrase because it implies that it's about the look. I prefer the word "professional capability." And for me it's not just about the high BTUs on a burner -- it's just as much about control, i.e. with a flame that goes smoothly from a low simmer to a high sear. That's what sold me on the "professional style" burners like the BlueStar. I can even see the actual difference in the design of the burner that lead to improved performance. And in a "pro style" rangetop, cleanup is easier then putting that burner on a drop-in cooktop. And there's more room for big pots on the "pro style" rangetop. Honestly, the style isn't thrilling to me -- but the capabilities are. That's also why I'm personally having a harder time justifying spending lots of money on an oven. I am finding it hard to believe that $2000 ovens don't cook properly. I don't know what is so hard about making a box that holds a temperature and doesn't break down. Again, the styling isn't the issue -- I just want it to work right. (And, FWIW, I also use a variety of cooking modes, including a couple of outdoor options like a Weber Grill and a smoker. I really get annoyed at poorly designed tools, which is why I ended up with the Weber gas grill over other, lower cost options. I'm also rebuilding my smoker with modifications to help it hold temperature, more evenly distribute the smoke, and provide proper airflow to the firebox... things which would make my ~$150 smoker cost $155.50 if the manufacturer had done them in the first place. Sigh...)

Lotus, radon is prevalent in my area. I sell real estate full time. Rarely, does anyone not get a radon test. When I our purchased my own home, there was a radon system. I tested anyway. Turned out the previous owner did not install the system on the lowest possible level so the lowest level which is where radon comes in was a 10 with a system! Of course we had it corrected. A radon system is not an expensive fix. The most expensive system I have ever seen in all my years of real estate was $1500 and this was for a humongous basement. You are talking a difference of $50 between doing it yourself or having someone do it. IMHO it isn't worth all this stress. Buying a house is an expensive endeavor. $50 is a small price to just get it done

I like that name "Oregon Trail Millennial" — my age is of that in between era of firmly Millennial or Gen-X. I think my experience with homes and remodeling has straddled the generations equally. I used to watch home improvement shows on PBS, before there were cable channels dedicated to the topic, and I was a regular on the original GardenWeb site, before Houzz was even around. I've seen so many building and design trends and ideas come and go, but I've certainly embraced the trends that would likely be considered new school by older generations. Ideas such as green building/sustainability, quality over quantity, a love of throwback/time-proven designs (Mid-century, Craftsman, Scandinavian, etc.), reuse/recycling, DIY — all seem to be pretty important to Millennials. It's all new spins on old-school traditions and, at their core, ideas that can be practiced both frugally and safely (e.g. You may tire of a chair, but it's been in style for 100 years so it's unlikely to become dated). My experience diverges though in that I'm on my third home, and the second one that I will have remodeled. I learned my lessons from the first remodel, after using all that easy money the banks were throwing at us to make improvements. Sure it was a nice house when it was done, and I severely miss my kitchen — but I couldn't pay for it on my own, even with a roommate, so it had to be sold at an overall loss when my ex and I divorced. My current project, where barring any major life changes I intend to own until I'm old and gray, is a 1929 Craftsman that had most of the upgrades I was shopping for (new electric cause I didn't want to deal with that again!) but still needs a lot of TLC. In perhaps true Millennial style, I purchased this property for well, well under what the banks said I was approved to spend. I made a choice to forgo all the bells and whistles and spend no more than what could be covered by slinging coffee at a Starbucks. And, unless I add on square footage (or build an apartment for my mother that lives with me) I plan to continue paying cash for my upgrades. The DIY progress is slower, but damn if it isn't financially prudent. And yeah, not being house rich and cash poor means I get to do things like travel or pursue other hobbies that make me as equally happy as having a really nice house. To get to the actual question, projects in the mix include finishing up adding insulation to the walls, cause you know they couldn't be bothered to add that in 1929, hand oiling the wood floors, rehabbing windows and planning for bigger jobs — like the exterior painting and roofing that I'll not foolishly DIY. Hiring pros to do work, as someone with enough knowledge to be dangerous, means bringing in vendors that have a client-centric process, good communication skills, and because it's happened, aren't sexist/ageist/generally crummy people. At the end of the day, I have to like the people that are working on my house, because we're going to likely be seeing a lot of each other if it's a bigger project.