Rian, the first time I filed a claim my car insurance doubled and stayed at that level for three years. The claim totaled $180 but I paid $450 in higher premiums. It taught me to pay for the majority of repairs out of pocket. I set my deductible as high as the insurance allows.
Scott, Rian is one of the reasons I spend so much time here on the GJ.Good call, Rian. We like having you around here.
Yeah but misery loves company!
Quite the lofty ridge you live up on there Bob! Dont think ridge is a word I have ever heard to describe the terrain in Florida.I've learned that a lot of people who have lost everything in Helene and Milton don't have wind or flood insurance. I've been told I'm going to be forced to get flood insurance even though our house is on a ridge 28 feet above sea level. By the time flood waters reach our house there won't be any money left in the program.
I really hate insurance but I know the day I drop coverage (no mortgage so it's up to me to have it) a tornado will form across the street and lift our house up and carry it away. In 2005 I didn't file a claim for either storm because I chose a $13,000 deductible. I was going to file a claim for the pool enclosure but our next door neighbor had done that the year before. The screened enclosure company couldn't repair the broken section because the Florida building code changed after Andrew in 1992 and our house was built in 1988. They would have to tear the whole enclosure down and build a new screened enclosure to code. I balked at the $30,000 because the first $13,000 would come out of my pocket.
A local enclosure supply store was willing to sell me all the pieces (including the door) for me to make the repair myself. It would have been a piece of cake had I not needed a 24-foot square extrusion. Some very creative ratchet straps, twine and red rags picked up at HF on the way home helped immeasurably. Took me three days to transform that section from this...
...to this:
Full Disclosure: I installed the screening on the side walls and doors. A pack of Rhesus Monkeys installed the screening on the top. OK, they didn't look like monkeys but it's the only explanation for their ability to walk on the beams while pushing vinyl splines into said beams to secure the screening.
Milton didn't damage the screen enclosure but the sun has made the fiberglass screening quite delicate. Hopefully it will last until the screen monkeys are finished gouging the customers needing repairs from Milton.
@Xti04, most of South Florida is really flat, 5 meters or less above sea level. Coral Ridge is an actual neighborhood in Ft. Lauderdale that is 7 meters, two meters higher than the nearby Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. The ground at our house is 10 meters so it's unusually high.
in a 
I am sure all have see the Progressive commercials and how friendly Flo et al are there to help,
Bob
Rian, I have wasted time and money looking for better rates. Best I can tell, insurance companies have really attractive prices to trick me into switching and a year later leapfrog the price my previous company charged.You see Bob, these insurance sharks screw you with your eyes wide open.
Intimidation and point blank thievery makes us save them money, and when you claim, they will have all that cash back out of you in 36 months.
I have been burgled three times in one year and fortunately the insurance assessor paid out fully.
But car insurance……….
Mike, I noticed that quite a few homes in Charleston had what appeared to be a sacrificial first floor, with entry staircases that led to the entrance eight or ten feet off the ground. I seem to recall Hugo making a mess back in 1989.
@555, I've been to every state and all of them have plusses and minuses. Breathtaking scenery isn't one of Florida plusses.
@gman007, I don't understand how the characters in insurance commercials are supposed to give us confidence in the companies they are plugging. Flo dresses too much like Nurse Ratched and the emu seems to be the smarter than his (her?) partner.
Matias, thanks so much for stopping by. It looks like your life is turning into a multinational adventure. I suspect you, like me, loves every new home and the memories they create. Please keep us posted on your current adventures.
!
Remember, Shorty- the potato goes in the FRONT of the Speedo.Breathe taking scenery isn’t a Florida plus? Bob you need to visit the beaches more often especially when I’m there in my speedo and Florida Safety Shoes.
Thanks to Kay (@kaymccampbell) today was semi-productive. Her post reminded me how annoying that wand extension is. I now have PVC storage tubes on my pressure washers. Couldn't find glue-on caps but I did find long #8 threaded screws and nuts.I use a couple pieces of PVC pipe to hold mine.
Dan, I do dislike being wrong but it does look better. My actual disagreement was the staghorn fern removal process. Cutting the palm off at the ground didn't make sense. Rather than argue, I just peeled the fern off the palm.I myself like the look of the corner without the staghorn fern; less cluttered.
Alan, when our daughter moved to Ohio, she gave us a couple of staghorns she had hanging in her Florida yard. They were hanging from a tree in the side yard that died so I moved them to the Mahogany out front. Now we have staghorn ferns all over the yard.
@gman007, the bonus is Liane is happy. Happy toes are another bonus.Great job, it does indeed look a lot neater and less cluttered! And keeping the toes intact, well that is a bonus
Shorty, I used to go to the beach for lunch every working day of the week when it wasn't raining. We have three large beaches with lots of parking. That was when it was $20 a year per car for a resident. It's $85 now and a single weekday pass is $25 ($50 on weekends). Even parking at the Palmetto Park Road Pavillion that used to be free is now $2 an hour. I have to settle for the surf cameras now. My speedo or thong attracts near zero attention in my office.Breathe taking scenery isn’t a Florida plus? Bob you need to visit the beaches more often especially when I’m there in my speedo and Florida Safety Shoes.
Scott, I feel so bad that Shorty has room for a potato.
Wife really wants a staghorn, but prices in our neck of the woods are outrageous. Plus I've no idea where one would fit, though I'm sure she'd find someplace to shoehorn in the staghorn.
@gman007, I like to surprise her every once in a while. Back in '98 (boy does that sound like geezertalk) we took a Scandinavia/Russia cruise and bought her some wildflowers for the cabin. You'd have thought it was a diamond necklace. Last trip to Costco she saw a pair of earrings she liked so I added them to the shopping list.
@zanyad, they like an environment between 50-75°F and moderate to high humidity. That pretty much excludes outdoor location for Ohio. On the other hand, I nurtured a gardenia bush in our upstate New York kitchen. They like the same conditions as staghorn ferns . I used to coax gardenia buds to open by nicking them with my thumbnail early in a fall party. Handing out gardenia blooms to the wives when they left at the end of the party was always a big hit.
@gman007, staghorns thrive in zones 9-12. Coastal South Florida is zone 11 and Tallahassee is zone 8 so staghorns are pretty much limited to Florida and southern Texas and Louisiana. You can mount a stagnorn on a bark-covered board and only put it outside for the summer up north. I did that with the kitchen gardenia (moved the barrel planter to the south-facing and very dark deck) but a surprise early frost killed it.
Thank you Cody. I was going to hang the staghorn on a backyard tree today but it appears much of my day will involve a Wallyworld shopping trip.
Cody, i was a fictional theme park that appeared in the 1983 movie National Lampoon's Vacation.
Yep, I knew about the movie, but I guess folks just took the name of the park and just started calling Walmart that. Oddly I was thinking that Walton had something else that was called Wally world, but I just didn't know.Cody, i was a fictional theme park that appeared in the 1983 movie National Lampoon's Vacation.
Not year-round, like Bob says.
There's a greenhouse here that feeds the Cleveland parks (Rockefeller Park Greenhouse). They have staghorns there, that's where I first encountered them. I figure the master bath (where most of the other more tropical plants are) may be a good spot.
Cody, I always suspected the destination was a Disney park but using that name would have been a guaranteed lawsuit. Back in the '80s I think the Waltons were happy with any publicity that didn't include driving small businesses out of existence. Innocent times!
Matias, the fern's fronds look a lot like a stag's antlers. I think they look like Caribou or Reindeer antlers more than deer or elk.Hah, I was reading staghorn and thinking about horns of a deer or something. Then the discussion went to temperature and it cleared up by reading more
Nice idea of those pvc tubes. I knew they were handy for other stuff but that´s a good use for them I will probably use when I next time get a garage.
BTW, did the fondue pot get any use?
Thank you Nick! I have learned over the years to count my blessings. I don't envy the cold and snow as I age but living in a warm climate means landscape work is year round. Your landscaping chores will be done when you finish raking the leaves in the fall. When you are out blowing, plowing or shoveling snow, I'll be pressure washing walkways, trimming and trashing palm fronds and watching Marcos and his family mow and trim the yard.
Mike, I love the trip stories and photos. I especially enjoyed the photo of the meal in your motor home. When we towed that little trailer across North America back in the mid-'50s, we ate off a set of Melmac dinnerware because paper plates were uncommon and very flimsy.
Kay, thanks for that! I don't recall that commercial playing in our TV market so it's a fresh treat for me.
@zanyad, a master bath would be the perfect environment for staghorns.
Fred, that's so perfect. We never did the chocolate fondue thing but I know that would be a big hit with our grand- and great-grand kids. Probably with Liane as well.
We still do the fondue meal deal at our house. The kids loves it and they enjoy prepping for it. We usually start with a cheese dip for bread, veggies. Then a broth with steak, chicken, veggies, and mushrooms. then it's a chocolate dip with fruit, marshmallows, and sweet crackers.
