http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...e-t175123.html
That ^^^ thread is about LITACATS' aftermath of her fire last year and her new sewing room. That reminds me that I was meaning to post about that kind of situation.
With all of the money that all of us invest in our love/hobby, we need to be smart about keeping records. Anymore, even a basic sewing machine can be an investment, let alone our longarms, computerized machines, etc. It is definitely worth the invest of a few more dollars a month to have replacement value added to your insurance. When you have to replace huge parts of your life, you want to be able to have a working TV rather than the depreciated value of the old TV.
Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that you can never have too much paperwork on the things that you own. In 2001, I was thrown into that 'kettle of fish' because a young man decided that he wanted to drink, smoke marijuana and use some other drugs to celebrate his birthday. And then he made the awful decision to drive. Well, his trip back to his house ended up with his pickup truck parked on top of ME inside my living/dining room. Not an experience I would wish on anyone - except maybe him.
Police photos of the house -
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/37183297IxCkJr
I spent literally weeks going through all of my items, piece by piece, reconstructing what we lost. And the hardest was my stitching and sewing things. Looking back, I know that I wasn't compensated for 25% of what I had. So now I keep inventories of everything - televisions, furniture, electronics. Including my sewing equipment and rough estimates of yardages and prices of my fabrics along with 'everything else.' We all have some idea of what we have, but EVERYONE will be surprised.
I have inventories that I keep on my computer. A couple of spreadsheets and just plain lists. On New Years Day every year, DH and I take pictures of every room from every angle. These are a great backup to my inventories. They show what we have, where it was located and the photos are all dated. After the truck crash, I used a lot of pictures that we had taken just in every day life to prove what we had. The photo files are now kept on the computer too.
Every 3 or 4 months - or when we make a big purchase - I update my photos and inventories. If I change anything, I burn two copies of everything onto CDs. One copy is sent to my MIL and the other to my mom. I figure nothing is going to happen to all three houses at the same time. I just start with Carbonite the first of the month, so the burning of the CDs might end, but I haven't figured that out yet.
I pray that no one ever needs their inventories, but you will give thanks if you ever need them. Hopefully, someone can benefit from what my family and I went through and make your recovery less painful.