Save Our Home
Donation protected
On Tuesday, 1/24, around 9pm, my husband went outside to check the electrical box and noticed it had fallen off the cement wall. He then looked at the ground and noticed what appeared to be a sink hole running along the back of the house. He came in and said, "To the basement, NOW!" We went downstairs and noticed the basement wall was no longer straight up and down, but, according to the fire department, it was at a 30° angle. We had to evacuate ourselves and the 2 kids as they proceeded to support the ceiling in the basement so it wouldn't fall down completely. The electricity and water were turned off. We've been staying with a friend of ours in a 2 bedroom apartment. The next day, an engineer and a contractor were at the house assessing the damage and what needed to be done. They assessed the cause of the damage was hydrostatic pressure, which means water had been building up under ground for years and it must have been the 2 days of heavy rain that caused the wall to collapse.
In order to fix that wall and to make sure the other walls are safe, they dug out around the entire house to expose all of the walls. Because of this, we also lost our front porch and back porch, along with all of the landscaping. I have attached some additional photos of the inside of the house so you can see where the cinder block collapsed as well as the back and front of the house so you can see the porches missing and the hole around the house.
The work has been going on for almost 2 weeks non stop so that we can get back in to our home. There is still about 2 weeks left of work to be done.
The estimated cost from the contractor to fix the collapsed wall and to secure the other walls is around $75,000. Yes, we tried home owner's insurance but they denied our claim because they don't cover collapsed walls, regardless of the reason.
People keep asking what they can do to help and the only thing we could come up with is to possibly donate to help fix our home. We're requesting $50,000 because we're able to cover some of the cost but any help we can get is very much appreciated.
I wish I could say this was a choice for us to upgrade our home, but it's not. We just want to get back to a safe place.
Thank you for taking the time to read our story.
In order to fix that wall and to make sure the other walls are safe, they dug out around the entire house to expose all of the walls. Because of this, we also lost our front porch and back porch, along with all of the landscaping. I have attached some additional photos of the inside of the house so you can see where the cinder block collapsed as well as the back and front of the house so you can see the porches missing and the hole around the house.
The work has been going on for almost 2 weeks non stop so that we can get back in to our home. There is still about 2 weeks left of work to be done.
The estimated cost from the contractor to fix the collapsed wall and to secure the other walls is around $75,000. Yes, we tried home owner's insurance but they denied our claim because they don't cover collapsed walls, regardless of the reason.
People keep asking what they can do to help and the only thing we could come up with is to possibly donate to help fix our home. We're requesting $50,000 because we're able to cover some of the cost but any help we can get is very much appreciated.
I wish I could say this was a choice for us to upgrade our home, but it's not. We just want to get back to a safe place.
Thank you for taking the time to read our story.
Organizer
Matthew Cline-Taskey
Organizer
Verona, VA