Significant Savings for the insurance company? At what cost?

Last week we walked down Lark Lane to the old Garden Festival site where the Cast Iron shore was, a place that I used to play when I was a little girl. The weather was glorious. We walked alongside the River Mersey all the way to town. When we reached the site near the Herculaneum Dock a little boy, maybe aged 5 or 6 ran past us. He looked so happy. His brother aged maybe 8 or 9, was shouting to him to stop. He was hysterical, shouting in a different language. His mother and sister were distraught. The little boy was 4 metres from them. He was perfectly fine, in no danger. 

The older boy shouted emotionally in English 'Everyone down, lie on the floor' he was anxious, his face distressed. They ran up to the younger boy and hugged him in relief. 

This emotional scene made me realise how lucky we are in life, we do not live in a war torn country, we have not seen horrific sites or been in danger like the family who walked away clinging to each other obviously have. 

Thanks to the NHS we have another chance in life and we are going to live it. Just a few weeks before Mr Campbell broke his neck he received a letter from the hospital informing him that he does not need any more blood tests for cancer now he has passed the five year mark. 

From now on I am not going to wait for the insurance company to make decisions about our future. We are going to be part of those decisions. No decision about us without us.

Yesterday we came to the conclusion that we will still be in this house at Christmas. We are not prepared to accept the insurance company's proposal: 

"... recommended the installation of 23 steel driven piles, with reinforced needle beams and an internal concrete raft within the front and rear rooms adjacent to the left gable wall. The piled raft would be designed to support the front, rear and left external walls of the property along with the three internal partitions walls between i) Hall/Front Lounge ii) Dining room/Kitchen and iii) Lounge/Dining Room. The internal piled raft could be achieved without the need for taking down any external walls and hence discount the need to demolish almost the entire property, providing significant savings"

We have been living with the fact that the gable wall would be demolished for three years, then we were advised the house needs to be demolished. Every day we live with this fact. The internal doors do not close due to the movement of the house. 

Now, we find the insurance company are trying to rip us off providing them with significant savings yet our house will lose significant value. At what cost and to what lengths will they go to save money while our business and health has and is being affected by the delay. We have been officially told we are being treated badly. 

Enough is enough, I am in for the long-haul. I have decided to decorate and buy new furniture and wait it out until we get a result that we are happy with. It's time the ball was in our court. We do not want to sit and look at cracks in walls, so I will fill them in once again.

The insurance company will have to get a third engineer and arbitration as they suggested in the meantime we need to live with peace of mind and not wonder if we are moving out next week or next month or the month after.

Last month I washed the curtains only to find holes had appeared in them when they dried. I managed to hang them with a kind of  trompe l'oeil effect to hide the holes. It made me feel miserable to do this (although secretly proud that I did such a wonderful job and my years of fine art training were not a waste, far from it) it was not worth buying new curtains as we are living with the knowledge we are moving out. Every moment in this house is about moving out of this house, from morning to night.

Now, time to chose a colour to paint the living room...buy new curtains and enjoy this crooked old house as a home again.