A couple things to think about... First, the minimum auto insurance coverage in PA for property damage is something like $10K. I would be surprised if this guy has more than that. So his insurance is only going to pay that $10K to your insurance...your insurance is on the hook for over that. And if they end up stiffed, your premiums might go up. Yes it's unfair. But I'd ask up front about that, before you get too far down the road. Second, I'd be surprised if they pay to put the porch back exactly like it was. Unless you have a super spankin' top of the line insurance policy (generally offered for historic homes where the millwork is custom and hard to replace), they're going to fight tooth and nail to just build it to "standard workmanship" - meaning a concrete block foundation, standard off-the-shelf columns and balusters, etc. You can try to get what you want, but I wouldn't be surprised if you get big pushback. We used to live on Swede Rd in a 200 year old former-mill that was about 6 ft off the road. While we lived there, a car hit the stone wall in front of the house and demolished part of it - his auto insurance paid to fix and we had a friend of ours who was a mason do the work. But after we sold it, a landscaping truck skidded out and took out aqbout 100 ft of wall and the corner of the porch. They fought with the insurance for about 3 years before they got the wall rebuilt - the insurance company pushed back hard against paying for the stone wall to be rebuilt using the original stones. And I think they ended up using new columns and new porch floor that wasn't an exact replica of the original. You can go in demanding what you want from the insurance company, but realistically, I doubt you'll get it, and the process of fighting them could take years. And yes, I know that sucks because it totally wasn't your fault that any of this happened (but having been on the victim end in more than a few auto accidents, I've learned that insurance companies pretty much don't care.) Since you're planning to sell the house anyway, maybe this is the time where you pick your battles (definitely hold out for the paint job, but maybe give up on the custom millwork and just do everything new with standard components). Good luck!

I've used many different brands of paint over the years; from the cheapest junk to the crazy expensive "best of the best" and everything in between. In my experience, even the worst paint will look decent if you know what you're doing and can adapt to the paint you're using to make it look its best. Of course, that doesn't mean that I like using paint that's difficult to work with and only looks decent when I can use a paint that goes on flawlessly and looks spectacular. So what's my favorite paint? Clark & Kensington. Seriously. There's no competition as far as I'm concerned. This stuff is the best and I just don't understand the negative reviews. What are people doing to get such poor results? I could understand if they were talking about Behr. I most recently used Behr while helping a neighbor paint their doors and trim and while the end result looks great, it took WAY too much effort and care to get it to look that way. Behr is hard to work with. Clark & Kensington is a breeze! All of my walls and trim are painted with Clark & Kensington. I even recently discovered that touch ups can be made ten years after painting and they will blend in flawlessly with the old paint. I was shocked because the room I tried this in is bathed in bright sunlight and the color is dark. I thought that surely the color would have changed a tiny bit after ten years. Nope. No color change and no difference in sheen between the old paint and the new. The bottom line here is this; if you're a good painter and you love using a quality paint, give Clark & Kensington a try. Oh, and never take the paint and primer in one claim literally. That's just a marketing claim for gullible people. Always use a separate primer on walls that need it.

I think a previous poster hit the nail on the head. If the entry grade cabs will give you a 20 yr life, the next buyer doesn't care if you spent 10k vs. 60k on them. It's going to be demo'd anyway. It will sting your pocketbook more to rip them out if you remodel. Styles change. So long as they will not fall apart I see no reason to get a super high-end cabinet. Do know what drives up the price: full extension, drawers, soft close, cheapest is partial overlay, then full overlay, then inset. Paint vs stain. Do you want a glaze? That's extra. Inserts for cutlery, trays, knife blocks, pull outs, spice racks, trash bins. I'm getting a nice mid-range semi-custom job for a fair price. The drawers but not dovetailed. I'm doing dowel glued though, not stapled or nailed. The cabs I spec'd are alder. Not fancy, but the stain doesn't look 3x the price nicer for walnut. Plus I'm painting most cabs so why upgrade the wood species? What cost extra was how much cabinetry we chose. I added several built-ins and did a more functional configuration in the master bath. I'd really encourage you to pick stuff out. My plumbing fixtures were well out of spec from the builder selections. That added up. If you do an allowance consider something like $10 sqft tile materials only. That way if you choose $20 tile you know where you stand. Find out if what you want can be found for $10/sqft.

I had to do a reset this morning on my vacuum. Yesterday, she started acting like a trapped animal, like she was having a panic attack. Forward, backward and circling in quick bursts, not seeing any objects, crashing into them. I cleaned all her wheels and brushes yesterday, docked her and hoped for the best this morning. No, she was still acting like a maniac so I held the "clean" button for 10 seconds til the letters "rst" showed up. Let go of the button, she made a new chime sound and she is all good again. This behavior could have been activated when I shut her in my bedroom Saturday and let her go til the battery light went amber. She felt trapped and she acted out : ). Happy New Year to all!