RSS Feed

Posts Tagged ‘Home’

  1. Uninsurable Ball Of Fluff?

    August 24, 2015 by admin

    This TR Family had been with Progressive Insurance for about a decade.  When we recently purchased our new home, it was a no-brainer to stick with Progressive for our homeowner’s insurance.  We had never had an issue with their service.  In fact, when we had an unfortunate car collision about a year ago, Progressive’s handling of our accident was stellar.

    We paid the annual fee for our homeowner’s insurance and were quite content for two months, when we got an odd email from Progressive indicating that our policy would be canceled.  Thinking this was some sort of miscommunication, we immediately phoned Progressive.

    We were told that we hadn’t provided any proof of our dog’s breed and our policy was going to be canceled.  Since we received NO request for dog information from Progressive – other than when we applied for our policy, we had NO idea they needed further information from us.  We immediately supplied what was requested: a picture of our dog and a statement from our Vet as to the breed.

    Here is the picture we provided:IMG_1039

    Along with our Vet’s disclosure.

    We are very proud owners of our rescued pup, Molly.  The organization that we used to adopt Molly referred to her as a “Spanador” as they thought she was half lab and half spaniel.  Since she is a rescue, no one could say with 100% accuracy her definite lineage or breed.  But she is a slightly overweight ball of love that has never had anger issues and has never bitten anyone.

    According to Progressive Insurance’s management, not being able to pinpoint Molly’s breed beyond a shadow of a doubt meant that we were no longer insurable.  Our policy was canceled effective immediately and there was no recourse.

    Here are the undisputable facts:

    • Progressive Insurance does not care how long you’ve been a loyal customer
    • Progressive Insurance discriminates against certain dog breeds
    • Progressive Insurance has an impossible set of criteria for any adoptive dog/rescued dog family to fulfill
    • Progressive Insurance will cancel your insurance on the spot regardless of your loyal history and regardless of initially accepting your payment and contract. Remember- their agent that opened our homeowner’s policy did NOT ask for any further information about our pup!

    We are very glad that we found out we were giving our business to a company that isn’t dog friendly.  We would not want to patronize Progressive Insurance had we known these facts.  And we are thrilled to now have our insurance relationship with State Farm.

    Rescue families and friends of rescues and strays be warned!  Do your research and ask pointed questions about dog ownership when searching for home insurance.  And have a back-up plan just in case you find yourself suddenly invited out of your Insurance company.

    We urger you to spread the word!  If you love stray and rescued animals and support those who take them in- make sure all your friends know that Progressive Insurance will cancel policies based on the unknown parentage of those pets.  We’ve had great luck with State Farm taking care of us and our harmless dog.  What other companies can you help us identify as pro-rescue pet?  Help spread the word and support companies that support rescued pets!

    Category Advice & Reviews, Home Ownership | Tags: ,, | 1 Comment

  2. Shop Local

    July 27, 2015 by admin

    IMG_1508We recently had the unfortunate experience of discovering that our dryer wasn’t heating up at all during any selected cycle.  Our clothes were wet and cold when the finish bell sounded.  And since we aren’t interested in purchasing a new dryer at this point, we needed to figure out if it could be fixed.

    *Our home came with a 1 year home warranty which covers all the major appliances.  We will discuss this home warranty soon, but for now we’ll just let you know this repair route hit a dead end.

    Our internet research indicated that our dryer’s symptoms were pretty common and could be repaired. TRDad doesn’t have a lot of experience just yet on fixing appliances.  He and Bluey did some exploratory poking around the machine but came up short.  We were going to have to locate a repairman.

    We knew that the big chains, like Sears, had repair services.  But we were a little wary of price and convenience.  Our trials on getting the dryer repair set up through our home warranty had left us stranded on Saturday and our clothes were piling up.  We turned to Google and crossed our fingers.

    Luck smiled upon us and we located Gary’s Appliance Repair.  We had little to go on as this business had no homepage and only a few simple online reviews.  But one phone call had Gary heading to our home.  He arrived within 30 minutes of our initial contact!

    Gary rolled into our driveway in a very old mini van.  He looked to be on the tail end of sixty, had suspenders attached to his work pants, and was very friendly.  Gary didn’t mind our pets or our inquisitive and talkative Bluey.  He hummed a little tune as he got right to work on our dryer, quickly identifying the issue.IMG_1511

    No more than 30 minutes from Gary’s arrival, our dryer was repaired.  Since Gary was so friendly, TRDad now has a much better understanding of how to go about fixing the dryer in the future.  And Gary’s invoice was incredibly reasonable- no emergency weekend fee involved!

    We highly recommend Gary’s Appliance Repair if you live in our area.

    Do you typically reach out to locally owned and operated services or do you go right to the national chains?

    Category Advice & Reviews, Home Ownership | Tags: ,,,, | Comments Off on Shop Local

  3. Home Sweet Home

    June 14, 2015 by admin

    modrnbunglow_22190_mdWe own a home!

    It’s true.  This TR family has completed our home purchase and will soon be completely moved into a house of our very own.

    At first glance you may not consider this to be the most frugal decision.  Buying a home is a huge expense, but home ownership is actually a significant part of our journey towards controlling our expenses.

    It is easy to miss the mark on this goal and end up overextending your budget.  But if you are careful and do your research, you can indeed save money every month by buying a house.  There are many online calculators that will help you begin to determine how much house you can afford.  Be careful!  The principal and interest mortgage payment is just the start of the true monthly cost.  You should also factor in taxes and insurance (Get online estimates or help from a mortgage professional to estimate these costs in your area).  Now you will have a better idea of your base per month cost of owning a home.

    Of course, utilities and repairs also factor into the bottom line.  In most areas, you can get a history of a properties average heating and electric costs from the power utility.  You can also get estimates for costs of water, sewer or sanitation costs from your local municipal offices.  Make sure you are using all of these figures to calculate a realistic budget for yourself.

    Now that you’ve identified what you can afford, begin to seek out any assistance your city or state might offer.  We are lucky to live in an area that has many resources for home owner assistance in the form of grants or forgivable loans.  These resources are available at local state and federal levels, depending on your income, family-size, veteran status, etc.  You may also have opportunities to work with Community Development organizations that will allow you to purchase on land contract or at well below market values.  Do your research!

    Work closely with a trusted mortgage originator to talk you through the pros and cons of different mortgage loans: FHA vs Veterans vs Standard, etc.  You may or may not qualify for numerous types of mortgages that could have different impacts of what you can afford, or are allowed, to purchase.

    We are very fortunate to be saving over $300 dollars every month by purchasing our own home and we couldn’t be more excited to dive into the numerous (and never ending) home repairs/remodels/maintenance.

    Tip: Put a portion of your savings into a “home” account for future expenses so that you aren’t hit hard by an unexpected repair.

    If you think home ownership is out of your reach, we encourage you to take a second look..

    Category Home Ownership | Tags: ,,,, | Comments Off on Home Sweet Home

  4. Downpayment Assistance

    March 18, 2015 by admin

    HouseBuying a house is a huge investment with a significant out of pocket initial expense.  If you are like us, you may be renting mostly because coming up with the several thousand dollars for a down payment is a difficult, if not impossible task.  There are always pressing reasons popping up to bite into your attempted nest egg.

    But if home ownership is a goal of yours, you may be able to get assistance at raising the funds to buy a house.  Here are a few we have located so far:

    Follow these links to find programs that are specific to a city, county or state:

    The Homebuyersroundtable will direct you to several different options for home buying assistance.  Check each link to see if you qualify for the specific programs.

    The US Department of Housing and Urban Development‘s website can direct you to assistance in your area offered at a national level.

    The First Time Homebuyers website will point you to even more programs- especially programs designed to aid members of specific professions, like teachers or firefighters.

    Keep in mind:  Many of these offerings have income caps, or other financial requirements. And there may be additional steps that include out of pocket expenses- like a home ownership education class- that you may or may not be able to recover later.

    Your mortgage lender should have knowledge of your areas available programs. But don’t be afraid to press them for the information you desire.

    Category Home Ownership | Tags: ,, | Comments Off on Downpayment Assistance

  5. The Rule of Threes

    April 18, 2014 by admin

    Our house gets a little disorganized. Sometimes we go hard all day and the place gets trashed. Or it’s just little things that pile up over time.   And finally, the place needs to be neatened up.

    Cleaning and organizing is easy enough to do when the kids are well occupied.  Frequently they are- Bluey’s busy inventing something, or making a superhero outfit. Plum’s reading or drawing. Or they are playing together happily, and we TRParents are able to swing into action and take care of a few home tasks.

    IMG_5530Occasionally we can even ask that the kiddoes play together for a minute, while we run a vacuum or sweep a room. It’s great when that happens.

    But more often than not, our kids want our attention more than they want us to clean. Or what they need is to snuddle on the couch with us and read. Or sit on the floor and build a Lego something-or-other together.

    How are you supposed to get your place really clean?

    In this situation we try to follow our “Rule of Three.”  Each time we get up to do something quick- get a fresh cup of coffee, take a potty break, fetch a snack- we take a few seconds to put 3 things away. We take some dishes to the kitchen. Or bring a handful of laundry to the hamper. Or we quickly shift some junk mail to the recyclable bin.

    These are little things, each one isn’t much of an accomplishment.  But over the course of the day they make a huge difference in the clutter levels in our home. All done without any little one noticing that we’ve been cleaning. The kiddoes think we’ve been with them the whole time.

    And really, we have been.

    It doesn’t make up for the deep clean that every house needs at some point.  Hopefully on that blissful day when the kiddoes are playing happily for hours. But the “Rule of Three” helps us feel like we are on top of the mess, three things at a time.

    Category Rambler Ramblings | Tags: ,,,, | Comments Off on The Rule of Threes