The Home Ownership Thread

[double00]

in my late 30s i got a difficult diagnosis and ended up liquidating my personal possessions . I had a HUGE wardrobe , a tight collection of instruments , some other stuff and I got rid of everything .

~7 years later , the wardrobe has never really recovered . it took me 2 or 3 years to start reacquiring instruments . trauma and triage and rebuilding is a life-changing process in my experience and my relationships changed seemingly as a matter of course , some deepened and others vanished like the wind .

so I would say if you think your circumstances are material to those relationships I would feel free to explain them . but , ime people carry unspoken terms and those can be challenged by change . in hindsight I would not have done anything differently . gotta trust yourself to get through it .

 

[Hombre Secreto]

Hey all. Didn't want to pollute another thread.
Wondering if anyone has an opinion on this.
I basically have no clothing and probably will go capsule for a while. But still need to have some clothing.
My wife thinks I should reach out to vendors I've bought from and ask for som onetime discounts. I feel bad doing this, as lots of these vendors are small operations etc.

Do you guys this is reasonable? My pride gets in the way, and it's not like I'm gonna replace my bespoke wardrobe in short order anyway.

Just hit Out of the Closet, and Goodwill. When I used to go there, I would find Brooks Brothers, Zegna, and Brioni shirts, and ties. Wouldn't buy used pants though. Personally, I wouldn't ask for help if I was capable of getting things myself. Sorry for your losses though. I am furious that this is happening to people.

 

[ValidusLA]

The current most disturbing thing is that a lot of the ash debris is little pieces of pages of destroyed books.

 

[ellsbebc]

Hey all. Didn't want to pollute another thread.
Wondering if anyone has an opinion on this.
I basically have no clothing and probably will go capsule for a while. But still need to have some clothing.
My wife thinks I should reach out to vendors I've bought from and ask for som onetime discounts. I feel bad doing this, as lots of these vendors are small operations etc.

Do you guys this is reasonable? My pride gets in the way, and it's not like I'm gonna replace my bespoke wardrobe in short order anyway.

Willing to share what garments you are specifically looking for? Along with the respective size?

Speaking for myself, if I had gently worn (or NWOT) items in my closet that overlap with your needs (and size), I would gladly ship your way. My only ask would be pass on the goodwill to others if you find better replacement and/or sizing does not work out.

 

[ValidusLA]

Willing to share what garments you are specifically looking for? Along with the respective size?

Speaking for myself, if I had gently worn (or NWOT) items in my closet that overlap with your needs (and size), I would gladly ship your way. My only ask would be pass on the goodwill to others if you find better replacement and/or sizing does not work out.

Thanks. That's an incredibly kind offer.

I just picked up 7 shirts from laundry thankfully.

Pants are specific. I'm just gonna order a few. My only OTR jackets were Armoury size 56, so whatever that is ... probably 46R US.
Im like a drop 9-10 so kinda hard to get stuff for me likely.

 

[imatlas]

Happy to send you some primo ties, unless you wear weird sizes in those too.

 

[ValidusLA]

Ha, so ironic. You are super nice.
Ties and pocket squares are the only thing I crazily have.
Many of them were gifts from my wife, so I nostalgically grabbed them.
I laughed at myself as I stuffed them in a trash bag but now am glad I did.

We didn't really think we'd burn, I was just freaking out to get my daughter out. There are houses north of us and we had a hydrant outside. Normally a fireline never would have gotten to us, but it was all spot fires from 100mph wind.

So we only grabbed small things easy to shave in bags.

In retrospect we made weird choices.

 

[otc]

My personal effects limit is.... so far below what we had.

This is obviously not a today thing, but you should read this old post about post-fire insurance claims: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/43iyip/comment/cziljy3/

It really makes a significant difference how you approach filing a claim.

Maybe it won’t matter if you are bumping up against policy limits (which is unfortunately very common, especially if you have lived in a place for a long time and not revisited insurance), but you never know.

Can be worth documenting it in case the claims end up getting paid by some third party (government decided to step in, litigation against a party deemed responsible, etc.). There’s a non-zero chance that insurers end up with someone to subrogate their losses against and to pay out for policy shortfalls.

 

[ValidusLA]

This is obviously not a today thing, but you should read this old post about post-fire insurance claims: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/43iyip/comment/cziljy3/

It really makes a significant difference how you approach filing a claim.

Maybe it won’t matter if you are bumping up against policy limits (which is unfortunately very common, especially if you have lived in a place for a long time and not revisited insurance), but you never know.

Can be worth documenting it in case the claims end up getting paid by some third party (government decided to step in, litigation against a party deemed responsible, etc.). There’s a non-zero chance that insurers end up with someone to subrogate their losses against and to pay out for policy shortfalls.

Good tips.
Ca insurance market is fucked. My private insurer pulled out last year and I'm on Fair Plan with state.
My cost went from 1.7k per year to over 9k.
So I had my limits on personal effects lower than I should have (200k).

This is good advice to make sure I at least get up to that limit.

 

[ellsbebc]

Thanks. That's an incredibly kind offer.

I just picked up 7 shirts from laundry thankfully.

Pants are specific. I'm just gonna order a few. My only OTR jackets were Armoury size 56, so whatever that is ... probably 46R US.
Im like a drop 9-10 so kinda hard to get stuff for me likely.

No dice on sizing, sorry.

 

[hpreston]

Total loss. Burned down to the studs.
All I have left is a bespoke shirt, some jeans, Islays, and a barbour jacket.
Not a bad one outfit wardrobe I guess.

Very very sorry to hear this, glad you and family are ok.

My personal effects limit is.... so far below what we had.
Luckily we got out the most valuable stuff.
The stuff thst hurts are my garden, my books, my wife's mementos, and my grandparents heirlooms.

This is heartbreaking

Hey all. Didn't want to pollute another thread.
Wondering if anyone has an opinion on this.
I basically have no clothing and probably will go capsule for a while. But still need to have some clothing.
My wife thinks I should reach out to vendors I've bought from and ask for som onetime discounts. I feel bad doing this, as lots of these vendors are small operations etc.

Do you guys this is reasonable? My pride gets in the way, and it's not like I'm gonna replace my bespoke wardrobe in short order anyway.

Depends on the vendors- if they’re good friends/you’ve worked with them, you can absolutely ask- worst thing they can say is no. As long as you aren’t taking advantage of them (which you aren’t), it’s a fair ask- you’ve literally lost your house and possessions.

I’m with @venividivicibj it can’t hurt to ask given the circumstances

 

[ValidusLA]

Got some good news. Before today I had only seen photos from my street from neighbors who had snuck through the cordon.
I went back to sift this afternoon. Nothing inside, but my garden fared far better than it could have.
Irony of ironies that the back hill closest to the forest land didn't burn because we caught embers flying over instead of a fireline. Everything I planted up thete was like....very fire resistant trees and shrubs.

So my question to anyone with any clue on this....how do I keep these plants alive while I rebuild my house?

I have no power and all my sprinkler valves are destroyed as is my main water service.

I'm sure I can get a batter powered controller or something. Any ideas on this greatly appreciated. Insanely excited to see if I could save my garden.