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?

jasdip - it is getting that I am afraid to leave Ontario. (I live in Toronto.) We have an annual multi-trip out of country/provincial medical/trip cancellation policy that is not cheap - and renews every Sept. I am well aware that each province pays differently - and we are under 65 - not by a lot though - just off. A change in medication - even if you are run over by a bus, can result in the company not paying. It makes absolutely no sense. We also have extra life insurance through the company noted in the Marketplace expose - funny, I never watch Marketplace and neither do many of the people we know, but I guess everyone was flipping chanels and everyone saw it. It is very true - I have seen their medical form since they send it every year trying to sell us more insurance - my doctor wouldn't be able to fill it out. And if you call, as the program pointed out, you do not speak with a licensed insurance rep - you get someone who has absolutely no idea what would happen if you died of something totally unrelated to something they think you "lied" about. One section asks if you have experienced - even once - basic things - a migraine, a UTI etc. So what, you were run over because you might have had a headache? Hard to lie when you didn't even know about something. Same with the travel plan - what do you do, call them and report if you have to take Sinus meds for 6 days? Or you are given painkillers due to a root canal? I know someone who was told when she purchased private insurance that birth control pills were a pre-existing condition so would not be covered. Then there is me - I have been called - AGAIN - as a potential juror for a FIRST DEGREE (wonderful) murder trial. The insurance company tried to tell me last time that jury duty was a pre-existing condition - that one I won. But I am appalled that I might be called for a 6 - 8 week trial - my dog would have to be boarded - and I wouldn't receive any $$$ for the first 10 days of sitting plus the 5 days while they pick the jury. Even taking public transportation alone would cost about $105.00 - before the cost of boarding our older dog - or sending him to daycare. There is something wrong with our system. And I almost bought a cheap ticket to NY on the day the jury notice arrived - 10 minutes before - but the AC website crashed. Just as well, because the insurer allows 14 days from date of the summons to cover the cost of a ticket - it took 18 days for it to get here. The person did believe me - but he told me that claims would have given me a very hard time. Last time I was given only 5 days' notice and they wouldn't let me out of it and I had a plane ticket. My husband is also on the rotation - yet so many people have never been called - and others have been excused for the most frivolous of reasons - while others with very legitimate reasons have to serve. At least pay me my costs. Once the $40 a day kicks in in week 3, that would have to be taken into income. Can't win! I would hate to be an honest banker on trial - or someone with money. Last time I wore a suit and was accused of being a lawyer - unfortunately I am not so had to stay as well as a "sneak in a suit". Many people were there in Joe Boxer PJs and slippers. When my husband served the person responsible for filling Ontario juries wrote an article for the paper reading that jury panels do not have a proper demographic because too many people get out of it leaving only those with a similar mind set. On the news there was an interview with the public defender for a murder trial - jury selection started this week. He said that the best jurors are construction or trade workers because they are much more independent thinkers? What was he smoking? Some provinces pay everyone the equivalent of UIC from day one -that we need. This will cost us our vacation.

These Noro outbreaks have been happening for years, just usually not as bad as the 1 on this ship! 1 Reason why I try and avoid the buffet as mush as possible on the cruise as some passengers don't adhere to proper manners. And another reason why we keep to ourselves,lol So I guess were not ur normal cruiser, lol But if you have never been on a cruise, you should try it, probably a lot better than what you think! Lots of room--and that comes from me--very introverted. But I do suggest you check out cruisecritic.com as it has a pile of info!! Right down to whats the best room, and learn how to save $$$ etc etc

Very timely. Maire. I just bought my insurance for my Greece trip yesterday. I have learned that the sooner you buy the insurance the better. Ideally, I should have bought it as soon as I made my first payment for the trip. I'm also planning a trip to Spain and Portugal next year and I should have bought the insurance for that trip right away but did not. I bought a policy from CSA -- their Basic plan for my trip to Greece. I used Insuremytrip.com to make the purchase and also checked out Squaremouth.com. Both are reliable sites and very helpful. I recently spent four days in Canada and even bought health insurance for that trip. It only cost $18. I know Medicare would not cover me. On the flight there, a man in the seat behind us became violently ill. It was horrifying! He kept saying "I think I am dying". Then he said his daughter had had a 24 hour flu and his symptoms suggested he may have caught it. He was white as a sheet and burning with fever as well as having intestinal problems. Of course we freaked when we realized it could be contagious. So, I was VERY glad to be covered although we did not catch it. Great article. I really like Rick Steves. I will pass it along to my traveling companions. Thanks.