Steve9347 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Matt, I'm sorry to hear about your home and your possessions. Thanks for sharing how the White Sox reacted to the letter, it's further proof that we follow the most dedicated team in professional sports. I can't imagine my house burning down (knocks on wood), but I can say at least thankfully your family is safe. Best of luck man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthsideDon48 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Hey Matt, I'm so terribly sorry to hear about your house burning down. I can imagine how bad you feel about your wife and kids losing their clothes and toys, and with how you put that above you losing your Sox collection shows how much of a wonderful husband and father you are. Hopefully you and your family are pulling through this okay, and it sounds like you have great friends if one of them cared a lot to write to the White Sox on your behalf. Friends like that should be cherished. Treat your friend to a pizza sometime or something. And it's awesome to hear how the White Sox responded to your friend's letter and reached out for you. Hopefully the things they send you will be a foundation for another great collection. Once again, I hope you and your family are doing well, buddy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 29, 2010 -> 05:43 PM) Wow, sorry about your loss, I've lost all of my possessions in a fire before and I know how devastating it can be. Would you be interested in the Buehrle perfect game poster that the Sox sent me? I too have lost everything in a fire. It sucks and I hope that your family can move on from the event over time. As much as those things are just "things," they are still important to you and are life changing to not have anymore. Its crazy to think of all the stuff you lose, original high school diploma, parents wedding albums, my baseball trophies, your favorite stuffed animal from when you were a kid, etc. I lost my parade edition White Sox World Series jacket in that fire too, totally sucked. My best wishes go out to your family, and I am continually impressed by the White Sox organization and their class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg775 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 White Sox, first class. How did your house burn down? What do you do when something like that happens? Where do you go? How do the kids go to school, etc? Do people step to the plate to help big time? How do you rebuild a wardrobe in a week? Good luck to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Controlled Chaos Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Best wishes to you and your family. Glad the Sox could put a smile on your face during such a difficult time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 30, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) White Sox, first class. How did your house burn down? What do you do when something like that happens? Where do you go? How do the kids go to school, etc? Do people step to the plate to help big time? How do you rebuild a wardrobe in a week? Good luck to you. Those are all questions you have to answer, and theyre tough, especially in my situation. We were moving back to Chicago from Ann Arbor, MI and we had my dad's company pay for a relocation company. They packed it up the day prior to moving it down (why I have no idea, maybe timing issues) so they had to keep the truck somewhere, and the driver decides that he could leave it in an open mall parking lot a few blocks from his house in Detroit. Yea, it got broken into and the burglars decided to torch it to hide evidence. In terms of people stepping up, the insurance companies were incredibly stingent and didnt want to give up anything for it initially except for the per pound insurance (the standard insurance on any move). We had to get an attorney to haggle with them and thought about threatening to sue but the attorney suggested against it (he said he would gladly take the case, but Michigan laws and judges were historically unfavorable to out situation, and its really hard to place value on something that has been used for years and their lawyers wouldve fought everything and wouldve taken years) so we finally settled for about $75,000 less than what was thought to be in the truck. This all after taking over a year to sell our house, which ended up selling for almost $200,000 less than we bought it for, not even including all the upgrades we put it. Fortunately, my dad was given a severance package that is paying for my college education and got a job soon enough after getting let go so they didnt lose much money there. I couldnt even imagine having small kids still in the household and trying to take care of them in a hotel room or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSoxMatt Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 (edited) QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 30, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) White Sox, first class. How did your house burn down? My house burned down due to a faulty outlet roughly 40 years old combined with crappy ALuminum romex behind the walls...a toxic combination...The outlet blew out and started my couch and afghans on fire, and it was spread across the room in less than 15 seconds QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 30, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) What do you do when something like that happens? 1st grab your phone and whatever living things are in the house, for me it was my two dogs, wife and kids were at church...Get out of the fire and call 911, then stand there and watch in denial...Honestly the fire was out of control so fast, all I could do was get myself and my 2 dogs out...I didnt have time for my wallet or important documents...The firefighters said I had 90 seconds to get out or I would have been trapped so Im glad I did what I did and left everything else behind QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 30, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) Where do you go? Thank GOD I have family in the area...for 6 days we stayed with my parents...your insurance co will try to find a place to live near your house and pay for the rent for you, its part of your coverage...Lucky for us, our church has an empty house attached in Lemont, so we were able to work a deal where we could stay there and the insurance pays our rent, while we still have to pay our mortgage...If you do not have family in the area, the insurance will put you up in a hotel until a rental is secured QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 30, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) How do the kids go to school, etc? One of the biggest slaps in the face you could hear...the school district now categorizes us as a homeless family with special needs, so they send a bus to our rental to pick and drop off my daughter free of charge...I guess this is why you pay taxes and such for schools, they are helping us out big time...my wife had one of our cars and the other 2 cars were on the driveway and made it with minimal damage QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 30, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) Do people step to the plate to help big time? Oh hell yes...the fire started at 9am, by the time I got to my parents at 6pm, One entire room of their house had items donated by friends and church members for myself, wife, 3 kids, and 2 dogs...They skipped 2nd service, went downstairs, and made lists of everything we would need to try to get back on our feet, including clothes, shoes, jackets (it was -3 out that day) toothbrushes, dog food, hair brushes...it was so overwhelming...without the help of everyone involved there is NO WAY we could have done this alone...the community was amazing and it really restores your faith in society and how good it could be and how great it really is QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 30, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) How do you rebuild a wardrobe in a week? Well 95% of what I have now was donated to us by friends/family and church members...within 24 hours of the fire, my insurance was out to meet with us and handed us a $5,000 check to buy clothes for everyone...that is money targeted for us to re-buy our stuff eventually so that is like an advance on it...As for how long it takes to get a full wardrobe, who knows, there are so many nmore important things to take care of other than my clothes. Edited March 30, 2010 by WSoxMatt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSoxMatt Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 Russ, our insurance company has been on board so far and have not been a problem...they just sent an advance on the house to get the construction company some money to get started...the hardest thing is to remember everything you had, and place it on a list...Then you have to set ages and prices to EVERYTHING on that list...the insurance co will go through that list item by item and keep a running total...They depreciate that total by age and cut you some money eventually...Then when you start to re-purchase items for your new house, they will re-pay you up to the initial value..EXAMPLE our couch was bought for 1,000 7 years ago...after claiming it, the insurance co may say its worth 300 now, so they give you the 300 now, and the 700 when you buy something new...if you buy something worth 2000 now, you only get it covered to 1000 so you would still only get the 700...upgrades on anything are your responsibility Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 QUOTE (WSoxMatt @ Mar 30, 2010 -> 04:12 PM) Russ, our insurance company has been on board so far and have not been a problem...they just sent an advance on the house to get the construction company some money to get started...the hardest thing is to remember everything you had, and place it on a list...Then you have to set ages and prices to EVERYTHING on that list...the insurance co will go through that list item by item and keep a running total...They depreciate that total by age and cut you some money eventually...Then when you start to re-purchase items for your new house, they will re-pay you up to the initial value..EXAMPLE our couch was bought for 1,000 7 years ago...after claiming it, the insurance co may say its worth 300 now, so they give you the 300 now, and the 700 when you buy something new...if you buy something worth 2000 now, you only get it covered to 1000 so you would still only get the 700...upgrades on anything are your responsibility Problem was, it was the insurance company covering the move, not our family insurance company, and they werent as willing to help out as much. I am very happy to hear though that they seem to be treating your family with respect, because mine wasnt shown any and it really made the situation worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSoxMatt Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 TY to all of you that have dropped me a message Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg775 Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 Thanks for explaining all that, Matt. It is very interesting and I found it very uplifting and informative. I honestly had no clue about the things I asked you. It makes me feel good to know people step to the plate like that. It's also scary at how quick one faulty outlet can explode and take down a house in a matter of seconds. Scary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I'm sorry for your loss Matt, and I'm glad the White Sox showed class and helped you rebuild something you lost. Speaking of good Sox PR, that reminded me of how when my brother was in High school, the school band was allowed to play on the field during a 7th inning stretch. Since this was in the early 2000's, some games were quite empty, and using paper they taped to seats "GO SOX" was in left field in big letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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