I've had two but not at the same time. The first was from Germany and worked out good. She was a real part of the family and we continue to keep in touch with her. She was here in 2001 at the same time as the terror attacks. I know that was a very scary time for her family in Germany. The other was from Brazil and was here in 2005. She was a nightmare and ended up going to live in another state. This was her goal all along. I found that most are from fairly wealthy homes which is why they can afford to come here in the first place. With the German girl, she told me that it cost her parents $18,000 alone for the program costs. She said that this covered her program in Germany (the one she pays to come here) and the program costs for the U.S. It also covered her airfare and her week long introduction course in New York. It did not cover her spending money. Her parents gave her $400 per month. We did not receive any money, but we knew we wouldn't. Also, we read thru many bios and picked the ones we thought would be a fit for our family. The info provided to us had written recommendations from their teachers, parents etc. We did have to do a little bio about our family but I will say that the one from Germany told me that if she would not have accepted us as her American family, then she would not have received another chance, in all likelihood. I wouldn't tell you not to do this because there are great experiences out there. I will say though that if something doesn't seem right, do not hesitate to get the kids out of your home. Also, when it didn't work out with the Brazilian girl, I demanded that they move her out of our school district. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

We moved from a VERY small community of about 100 in December. We weren't looking either, but a realtor friend that knew our tastes called with "the perfect house" - we looked, we bought. We planned to break the news to everyone when we put the house on the market figuring it would take a few months to sell & we'd still be in & out while we worked on the new house. However, we sold it to the first person we told (not neighbors) & they wanted to close on December 15 - we had 2 weeks to prep the new, fix the old, move, etc. & we were keeping such odd hours that we never ran into anyone to tell them. All of them were nice, great neighbors, but we didn't "hang out" with any of them. They are probably mad at us or feel offended that we "up & left" but it was unavoidable. We never dreamed it would happen so fast!

Hi Trebruchet - Trust me - as crazy and often over confident in myself as I am, I know we can't raise the house ourselves. I feel really nervous about finding the right company to do it, and if there aren't many companies doing it then it may cost more than I was thinking it would. I guess researching and finding a reputable company is the first step to take after getting the elevation certificate so we know what height we'll need to be at. We don't need pilings because we're not in a velocity zone so we cant stay with cinder block piers. I think we get the house raised (with jacks and I-beams) then have temporary cribbing placed under the house in various locations to support it, then probably have the existing piers dismantled (I think they're probably not up to snuff), then have new piers built to support the house and then the temporary cribbing removed. The things that I don't know are: are the mover/raisers also take on the work of putting in the temporary cribbing and/or the permanent piers or do I find masons myself to do that work. Or even if the raisers are willing to find/sub the pier work, should I find my own masons. And I even right that it is masons who do that work Since we want to add on, I think the piers for the new additions should be done at the same time. So that means having plans complete, building permits issued, etc. We'll come up with the design ourselves - it's very straight forward) but we'll need an architect or draftsman to do the drawings. The drawings will have to show that wind-sheer building codes are met and I'm not confident we could get that right. But the main reason I don't think we can do that ourselves is that we know nothing about pier supported houses. Do architects design the pier support? Or is that done by a structural engineer? And once the piers are in place and presumably inspected (I'm not sure what all has to be permitted/inspected where the house is, but I assume most things do) we'll need framers to begin so we'll need them lined up. And all the framing materials will have to be on hand. I assume we order all the materials, and I also assume that the architect's plans document all the building materials needed, or does the lumber yard take the plans and calculate that, or do we do that and then make the order? We've done virtually every part of the work that is required to do additions, but never on a large scale where we need to hire people to help (though we've had family members help). And we're not as young, nor as fit, as we were when we did a lot of the different projects.

A person who owns a home can file a claim to the insurance company that they pay a premium to-THEY pay the premium and in most cases it is up to them as to whether they use that money for repairs or otherwise. If they have a mortgage, usually the check is made out to the homeowner and the mortgage company-and because the mortgage company is part owner, they want the damages fixed and will normally inspect the project to assure that something they are vested in is repaired. It's the same with owning a car-if you own your car and get a dent, insurance will pay you but if you don't have it financed, you can choose to fix it or not with the check. The down side to that is-if you do not have it fixed or the home repaired with the money, the insurance company can refuse to renew your insurance when the time rolls around.