I would ask your insurance agent about the letters' format.But it sounds like the same letter the auto body guy sends to the insurance when you're in an accident. The insurance co asks if it was repaired and for a copy of the bill detailing the repairs that were made. Shouldn't make any difference if the guy doing the work is, "registered" Ron

GreenPath is a Credit and Debt Counseling Organization and operates under the same terms I described above. There is a big difference between debt consolidation with a Credit Counselor and a Debt Consolidation Loan. Anyone who is looking to consolidate their payments as a means to reduce their debt is kidding themselves. It MAY reduce your payments (for now) but it will not in any way reduce your debt. In fact, it will make your debt even larger and take much longer to pay off. The bottom line here is... YOU CAN'T BORROW YOUR WAY OUT OF DEBT! If you find yourself in this position then a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy (Reorganization) may be your best bet. It will include ALL your debts, secured and unsecured, into just one (usually) much smaller monthly payment for 36 to 60 months. Again, bankruptcy is easier to recover from than a credit counselor. What you should really be looking at is how you spend your money. Don't use a Budget, they're like Diets, they don't work. What you need is a good Spending Plan. A Spending Plan is not offered by any Credit Counselors I know of. Of course they will tell you different. If that is so then why do 75% of their clients fail? My Grandmother practiced the old Envelope Theory of Bill Paying and Money Management. What I did was digitized it for my own use. I'm not talking using MS-Money or Quicken. Those are Budgeting programs or After The Fact accounting systems. I created digital envelopes on a spreadsheet that even my kids can use. I divided it up into Alphanumonic Categories or Envelopes... A is for Auto / Transportation B is for Babysitting / Child Care C is for Contributions / Charity D is for Dining Out / Fast Food E is for Education F is for Food and Household Items G is also for Grooming H is for Housing I is for Insurance I is also for Income J is for Just for Fun K is for Kids L is for Leisure M is for Medical / Dental N is for Not Planned For O is for Other / Misc P is for Payments (all debts) Q is for Gifts / Holidays / B-Days etc. R is for Record Keeping / Postage S is for Savings / Investments T is for Taxes U is for Utilities V is for Vices W is for Wardrobe X is for Business Expenses Y is a Question I ask myself. The answer is Because it works. Z is for the sleep I get when Im on track and living comfortably within my means. Each "Category" has several sub-categories and each one has a monthly amount to spend. If I don't spend it all the remainder goes to my savings. Only a few categories will have money that forwards to the next months Spending Plan. I call this, Saving My Savings. What I found is that after just 90 to 120 days I had 10% to 20% of my Income left over at the end of the month, after ALL the bills were paid, to do anything I wanted with. I even found that by applying a Domino or Roll-up system to my P for Payments envelope, I could retire ALL my debt in approximately one-third the normal time period without ever having to change my payments, add more money to my payments or having to borrow to consolidate. My $185,000 in debts that would have taken me 26 more years to pay off will be completely gone in less than 7 years for not a dime more than I'm paying right now. Emergencies aren't a problem either because one of my envelopes is Savings. Within just a few months I had over $2500 in my Emergency Fund at the Credit Union. Everything over that goes to my Self Directed Roth IRA to grow Tax Free. When I started this my wife and I only made a combined income of less than $40,000 per year and we have 6 kids to boot. Anyone can do it, it just takes discipline. Oh. Yes, I have been asked many times if I would right a book about my system. The answer is yes, and Ive been working on it for about 15 years now. At this pace it should be done in about 10 more years. LOL You see Im really good about Spending my time doing other things like reading all your posts on Garden Web. Good Luck, Scotty

This thread has been very, very interesting to read and although I like to think of myself as a pretty understanding person, hopefully it will remind me that often, circumstances impact how other people behave in ways that won't necessarily be obvious to us. We moved to a new home about a month ago, and noticed that our across-the-road neighbors had quite a bit of random yard furniture and building supplies stuffed into their front porch. It does look rather messy, although it doesn't bother me much (our neighborhood tends to be pretty casual). It was only about a week later that I realized these neighbors were having a new garage built, and had torn down their old garage. Now, I'm sure that's where the front porch items came from and I bet they'll make their way back to the new garage once it is complete. Had I judged my neighbors harshly based on first impressions, I would have not only been unfair to those neighbors but also would have denied myself a potentially good neighborhood relationship. One thing that I do think is interesting is that some people in this thread have mentioned not wanting to form closer relationships with neighbors specifically because they don't want to be held to higher standards of behavior or maintenance (as opposed to simply wanting more privacy, etc.). I'm sure that there are plenty of examples where this is the case, and neighbors will bully their "friends" into conforming with how THEY believe the neighborhood should look and behave. But, I think that more often than not, it's the other way around, and people will be more understanding of individual circumstances when they better know the people involved. My office actually had a workshop-type meeting at work this week led by a professional workplace consultant (not sure of her official title), with the intent to "improve office civility" that touched on this very point. The consultant brought up the example of what happens when someone cuts us off in traffic. Our first reaction, usually, is "What a jerk! That moron doesn't know how to drive." But if we then notice that it's actually a friend of ours, or something that we know and think well of, then we might decide that "There must be something wrong; perhaps he or she is late to something really important, or there's some emergency, or he or she simply made a mistake" or something along those lines. In other words, if we don't know a person, we are more likely to attribute poor behavior to the person him or herself. But if we do know a person, we're more likely to attribute poor behavior to an accident, emergency, or mistake. Of course, that's not the case in many situations, but perhaps it's worth thinking about. If I were in OP's position, I probably would put some effort into rebuilding relationships with my neighbors on a one house at a time basis (although I certainly wouldn't kill myself trying to make nice). But that's just because I enjoy my home more, and feel more comfortable in it (and especially spending time in the yard and garden), when I feel like I have a good relationship with the surrounding families. OP is certainly under no obligation to do so, however--this type of thing is so individual.

I thought I'd chime in with an update: Here in Colorado we have had a LOT of BIG hail. Roofing claims are off the charts! *-My insurance deductible AND depreciation were deducted from the total damage estimate. *-They cut me a check....for about a third of what the total damages came to. I think their estimate was low. *-I then scheduled a NEW roof. *- Will take photos of the roof just before they're done, with the roofing estimate paperwork...send that in to the Insurance company and they will reimburse me the depreciation. If I don't repair the huge double redwood deck(needs sanded & stained), cedar fence/dents or gutters/dents, I will have enough to pay for the roof. So in essence....YES....I'm getting a new roof free and clear from the insurance company....but I'm using the money alotted for the deck, fence & gutters repair to do that. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Everything went as the OP said....except....there were other damages that were paid out, but only had enough to pay for the roof.