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lavender_lass

GW pictures are pretty and come in handy for insurance purposes

lavender_lass
12 years ago

I posted this picture on Gardenweb on Saturday. I was so proud of my little rose (Bleu Magenta) and how good it looked with the arch.
{{gwi:324261}}From Truck hitting my house

That night, someone hit our house with his truck. On the way to our house, he hit our Blazer, pushed it into the GMC Jimmy, threw the Blazer out into the yard...and then ran into our home. It was a series of unbelievably loud noises and then a crash, with glass breaking.

One of our bay windows was broken, the wall was pushed in about four inches and the porch was moved over about a foot in the back and six inches in the front. Nobody was hurt, but the truck must have been going extemely fast (probably 70 mph was the guess) to do this much damage.

Of course, the driver had no insurance, but we have great insurance (including uninsured motorist) so hopefully everything will be fine. We'll be talking to insurance people all day tomorrow.
{{gwi:2066856}}From Truck hitting my house
{{gwi:764047}}From Truck hitting my house
{{gwi:764050}}From Truck hitting my house

Thanks to my GW picture, you can see that the railing definitely moved, from the other side of this bay window...
{{gwi:324261}}From Truck hitting my house

...to its current location, past the green trim and right up against the glass.
{{gwi:324262}}From Truck hitting my house

What a crazy weekend, but my picture will really help...and with any luck, we'll have a new porch. And, believe it or not, my Bleu Magenta rose is just fine...the porch missed it by about two inches. I'm so glad I left room between the porch and plants, so I could paint the railings. The arch is fine, too...just a little bent at the bottom of two legs, but I can fix it, for the most part. With any luck, the arch will be covered with little 1" pink/red/purple blossoms, when it's blooming next spring :)

Comments (13)

  • User
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Good heaven, LL, you had quite an experience!
    Glad that in all that you came out smelling like a Bleu Magenta ROSE.

    A similar accident happened up here in MA a couple of months ago. Knocked this ancient house clean off its foundation, and it was condemned. But the owners pleaded and got the foundation restored and the house MOVED BACK ON IT somehow. And now it is ready for another couple hundred years!!!

    So now you have a few more home remodeling projects you had not planned on....right here when the weather is ready to turn bad.

    We must be ships passing in the night. When I put up a post this side you had not done this thread but when I clicked on submit, well, there you are......

    And now I'm off to bed for SURE this time.

  • schoolhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh my gosh! Glad you and yours are ok, Lass. Sheesh, what a scare.

  • TxMarti
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh my gosh LL! I'm glad you and your dh are ok. How scary, and how irritating that the driver didn't have insurance. Too bad victims aren't allowed to immediately take possession of the offender's car when that happens. Dh drives a lot with work and has been hit a two or three times in the last few years. None of the drivers had insurance.

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you all so much for the kind words :)

    It was very scary, just because of all the noise and then the big crash, into the house. The damage doesn't seem terribly extensive, but it's going to take some work to fix it. The adjustor is out here right now and he didn't see any damage underneath the house. We have a manufactured home, so that's actually a good thing...they're built to travel down the road at 60 miles an hour, to get to the home site. If it had been a stick built home, the damage would have been much worse.

    The other adjustor is coming out later today to take a look at my wonderful Blazer, which now is a pretzel :( and our other vehicle. Hope that one might still be drivable.

    It will be nice to get our front porch rebuilt...so we can actually use the front door, again. The barn kitties all 'hang out' by the back door, so they make up their own little obstacle course (LOL) but they're sweet kitties :)

  • User
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Mercy!!!
    You had a three on the slot machine of life there....three insurance policies....2 vehicles and your homeowners too.

    Demolition derby night at your house!!!

    I notice there is a dusting of snow in the picture of your Blazer. That guy plowing into it turned it into what looks like an old VW Rabbit!!!

    Hope you can get the necessary repairs done before really bad weather sets in at your place. Your climate does not allow much of a grace period.

  • angie_diy
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dear Lavender,

    You poor dear! I hope you get things back in order and back to normal with a minimum of stress. Best thoughts to you.

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Angie- Thank you...it's been a challenging few days, but we should know more by tomorrow. The insurance adjustors were both very nice and we should have some idea what's going to be covered, by tomorrow.

    In the meantime, still planning gardens for next spring and maybe making a few changes. Since we have to put a new porch on...we might move the steps over a few feet and finally have some room in front of the house for another garden bed. Tomatoes are so difficult to grow in our area (zone 4) that having them up against the house (south side) would be wonderful :)

  • Shades_of_idaho
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    So sorry LL. Looks awful. So glad your rose and arbor will be fine. Sounds like you are using this as a good thing to make changes that might be better than what you had. e grew tomatoes against the house in Clayton. Zone three and it really worked well. The heat from the foundation and reflection helps hold the heat.

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Shades- It's a mess, but we hope to start cleaning things up this weekend. We're supposed to get the okay to start rebuilding today or Monday...once the insurance adjustor is finished. So good to see that tomatoes do well against the house...even in zone 3. You must have plenty of tomatoes, now that you're in what...zone 6?

    After talking so much about my Bleu Magenta rose...I thought I should show you how pretty it is. This is a picture from Rogue Valley Roses, because mine was too small to bloom much this spring. It's a rambler and only blooms on old wood, so all the blooms were at the bottom...and the blooms are only 1" across.

    It was just a baby last year, so I was SO surprised that the buds this spring had the darker pink/purple colors. RVR says it can take three years to see anything, but light pink. It's a tough little rose and I'm so glad it survived the crash...and I'll be guarding it, as they remove the porch, too! :) {{gwi:324249}}From Lavender's Garden

  • Shades_of_idaho
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    LL how is it coming along? Are you getting rebuilt? did this knock your house off the foundation?

    We are in zone 4/5 here.Zone 6 would be heaven. We used to be in zone 3.It amazes me anything grows in zone 3. LOL

    Hope you are doing ok.

    Chris

  • User
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Shades, I was just thinking about LL myself, wondering the same thing.

    Zone 4/5 is too cold for me. When you lived in zone 3, were you still in the US? My gracious, I did not know any part of the US got that cold or far north. It amazes me that anyone can stay in zone 3 for any length of time, except long enough to pack and head south. hehehehe.

    The lovely hosta plants can take that cold. They need to have at least six weeks of cold weather, then they will do their stuff. In that latitude, I think they can take more sun. The Hosta Forum folks say that hosta love sun, they are "shade tolerant" , but I think that is not true for MY latitude, which is about 30 degrees south of the Canadian border.

    Well, let me get going. I am verifying the date of the last frost here in south Alabama. DH is ordering seed to sprout.
    For veggies.

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi, everyone!

    The car insurance people have been great. No problems, already got checks for the vehicles, even though the motorist was uninsured. Thank goodness, my husband had added uninsured motorist, on our policy :)

    The home insurance...not so great. We're still working with them and they are supposed to cover all the costs, but they're taking a long time to get anything done and having moments of "I cannot recollect that conversation" so every single detail will have to be put in writing (as it always should) before we can move forward.

    Sadly, I still jump a little, when a big truck goes by, especially at night. Since we cannot afford to put boulders in the yard (and I don't really want to) my husband is just parking many farm trucks/vehicles in the driveway, until we figure out a permanent solution.

    People keep saying...you've lived here for years and never had a problem...it's just a fluke. I answer them by saying, that's true, but that #$@&% driver has only been here a few months. Until he moves elsewhere, I want something a little heavier, between my house and his next vehicle! :)

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I just found out I'm getting two roses for my birthday! My husband said he felt bad, we couldn't drive into town to do anything and asked if I'd like anything, online? Well, of course I chose roses! LOL

    So, I'm getting a Cottage Rose (David Austin) and Ebb Tide, from Northland Rosarium. We don't pick them up, until spring, but I'm so excited to be getting roses, in December :)

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