Info everyone should probably have
 

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.

I agree totally. Though not as extensive as a fire, a few months ago I had water damage to my basement sewing room. Thank goodness we had replacement insurance. They paid for replacing the basement ceiling, new paint and carpet cleaning. They also paid to have not only my sewing machine checked out, but also my quilting machine. I'm a firm believer in it. I was extremely lucky because the only sewing related items I lost were a bulletin board and 2 home made pincushions. I think your idea of making a list of the things you have is a great one. I had no idea how much 'stuff' I had until I had to pack it all up and move it out while the work was being done. I now have a much better idea of how much stuff I have. You have my sympathy for everything you had to go through. I know - it's not easy.

Having worked in the insurance industry for almost 30 years I have to tell you this is great advice. Many insurance companies will work with you, but YOU may not remember all the little details of what is in your home due to the panic of the situation. We tend to remember the biggest, costliest items like a TV. Would I remember that I have 5 lamps just in my living room...probably not. Photos are great and will help jog your memory on all the smaller items.

This is very helpful to those of us who have not been so unfortunate. Thank you very much for helping and encouraging us to do this.

I actually have extra insurance for my mid arm/qbot combo-expensive-but worth it! There is usually an upper limit to the amount of computer/techie $$ in your insurance and I wanted to be sure that this was included.

I looked at the pictures..un real. But I think one was missing..the picture of you with yor hands around his neck would have been appropriate!

That is great advise. I had a house fire about 8 years ago and the whole 2nd story was lost and I had to try to remember what I had up there. That is very hard to do when you lose everything.

Love the info re: backups...no backup is wrong...but i do want you to know that the online wordprocessors available now can keep your info safely. It is not stored on your hard disk, but rather on the internet. Gmail has a 'Documents' section and when you save things on this section, the documents go off into the ethernet ... this provides 2 huge benefits... one is that your computer could crash today and you would lose nothing except the hardware. The other is that i can be at a friend's house, the library or an internet cafe and pull up Gmail, go to Documents and get into anything I need, print it, edit it, or share it (automatically with any other Gmail user). Other browsers have this facility, Firefox for sure, and probably others... look into them, they can be a great resource for your recordkeeping...

Very good advise, we had a house fire in 1990. Lost everything except family and one dog. Lost all pictures, furniture, applicances, clothes, house and a 6 ft. red tail boa (snake). I learned my lesson and keep very good records now.

First thing I noticed in the living room picture was the quilt. Hope you didn't have to repair it too! Thanks for the good advice.