UPDATE: Home Repairing vs. Starting Over

Who knew that REPAIRING a home after a TORNADO would feel more challenging than just STARTING OVER?  This is obviously based upon my own personal experience compared to what I have learned over time about the experiences of my friends and local acquaintances that shared their stories of being forced to start over from scratch with a blank slate.  I must admit that I am partly to blame for making my job of repairing our home a little bit more difficult due to my personal style preferences that have changed drastically throughout the years. When I was younger I had NO idea what my style exactly was but now I am relieved to know exactly what I like.

I had TWO choices... 1. fix the house exactly the way it was before (unhappy easy choice) OR 2. fix the house the way I always thought it had the potential to be (very happy challenging choice).  If you know me at all, you can guess I chose option #2. I saw this as an opportunity to mold an average builders grade traditional cookie cutter home into something that would scream my DIY Modern style. Ironically I always had a "DREAM a.k.a. PLAN" to make this house my home eventually... but I guess mother nature decided that the transformation would be sooner than later.

Because the majority of the tornado damage was on our home's exterior, I guess that would just have to be the starting off point. The biggest challenge I faced was figuring out how to deal with staying within the guidelines of insurance replacement so that there would be minimal cost overages. Although I couldn't afford to change the home's structure, I was allowed to change color scheme, textures, styles, decorative details, characteristics, etc. The exterior of my DREAM home is "MODERN" Craftsman. My first thought was... "what the hell am I thinking? A Traditional Ranch home can't easily be transformed into a Modern Craftsman home!" At that point I decided to prove myself wrong and go on an inspiration hunt for an image to show my contractors exactly what was in my head because to be honest most people prefer to have some kind of visual. Ding! Ding! I found my inspirational home photo in a garage door booklet of all places! It had mostly gray vinyl siding with a small amount of gray vinyl shaker style siding, bright white trim and window frames, garage door with windows, chunky craftsman style columns, craftsman inspired lantern lighting and a walnut wood craftsman style front door. Then it was time to seek and research the best construction companies for roof, siding, windows, doors and repairs. At first that part of the process did not start out very well because the company I originally chose were too busy, unorganized, misinformed and rude. But then I patiently waited to discover a better option which to me was a no brainer because this company was not only qualified to do one of my construction needs but all of them in a timely manner. Score!


Doerr Windows and Siding were chosen due to their qualifications, reasonable quotes, availability, customer appreciation and good reviews which I had received from my neighbors. After the initial consultation with Steve Doerr, an itemized list of tasks were agreed upon by us and my insurance company. Then urgent repairs began immediately and sample catalogs were sent my way. The amount of options that are available for everything were at first overwhelming but then I turned into a decisive robot and narrowed down my options. Let the CONSTRUCTION begin! I can honestly say I have no regrets about any of the design choices I have made so far, which I think is a really good sign. Definitely still not an expert (yet) but I have learned a great deal.

Below are photos taken by me, throughout various stages of my tornado home repair process.

Next I will be sharing more updates to the front yard LANDSCAPING. Then eventually a REVEAL of the entire front EXTERIOR!!! Later this summer you will hopefully get to see the BIG backyard makeover that has been keeping us very very impatiently busy for the last two years.


Hope you all ENJOY your SUMMER!!!