Andrew's Bad Luck Relief Fund
Donation protected
I'm Andrew (you may know me online as "Tabernak"), and if you've been following my Twitter or know Jill and I well you're aware of the disheartening and stressful string of events I've been through over the past few weeks. I'm asking for some help.
I'm a little over a year out of bankruptcy discharge and I've been trying to build my life back, being responsible with saving and keeping travel and spending to a minimum. In my spare time I've been refurbishing a vintage camper trailer, and upon it's completion a month ago someone broke in and stole some integral operational parts that are challenging to replace. Less than one week later, after spending money to replace the locks and repair the damage, it was broken into and damaged again, forcing me to relocate it to another storage location at my own cost.
The day before I was ready to relocate the trailer, I went to start our Cherokee to find it running rough and unable to start at first. The vehicle (which I purchased last summer after squaring the bankruptcy away) turned out to have blown it's head gasket. After getting a quote for the repair (an estimate around $1200 with a "high" of $1560), we decided to have it repaired over Memorial Day weekend and into this week while we rented an economy car.
Since we had an economic rental reserved, we decided to use it for an overnight trip to see friends and check out the Portland area. We ended up with a Smart ForTwo, and this made for a neat adventure up until the accident. As we were headed northbound on I-5, just about to cross into Washington State, traffic stopped in the righthand lane due to an exit backup. Without warning, our Smart was struck from behind by a driver who was looking behind him to perform a lane change, pushing our car violently into the car in front of us and completely crushing both the front and back ends of our car. Luckily nobody was seriously injured, and although the rental is most likely totalled (it barely ran enough to make it to the airport rental return and made for a dangerous drive to the return point) we were all able to drive away.
That's where the luck ran out, however. After hours of delays attempting to find out what to do, how to handle my insurance claim (I used personal insurance instead of theirs), and how we were getting home we ended up at the rental counter in the Portland airport. Here I had to pay a deposit of $500 upfront to swap cars and get us back home. This is due to my deductible, and it's to eventually be paid back at a later date by the at-fault person's insurance. But I have no idea when this may be and this amount is difficult for us to float at this time on top of the money needed to repair our Jeep.
Jill and I arrived home safely and we've been dealing with insurance calls and paperwork ever since. Today, being the first business day after the holiday weekend, I went to check on the Jeep's progress. The shop determined that not only was the gasket bad, but the motor needs a new head. This almost doubles the repairs I budgeted for, over $2200 on the quote today. This also leaves me without a car for at least another 7-10 days unless I keep paying $24 per day for the current vehicle I'm using, and at this time I have to return that before I'm off work tomorrow.
This entire situation has been extremely stressful and I'm asking for help to lift this trend of really bad luck, every little bit can help! It has been incredibly trying on both our work and home lives and we really look forward to moving ahead. Thank you so much.
I'm a little over a year out of bankruptcy discharge and I've been trying to build my life back, being responsible with saving and keeping travel and spending to a minimum. In my spare time I've been refurbishing a vintage camper trailer, and upon it's completion a month ago someone broke in and stole some integral operational parts that are challenging to replace. Less than one week later, after spending money to replace the locks and repair the damage, it was broken into and damaged again, forcing me to relocate it to another storage location at my own cost.
The day before I was ready to relocate the trailer, I went to start our Cherokee to find it running rough and unable to start at first. The vehicle (which I purchased last summer after squaring the bankruptcy away) turned out to have blown it's head gasket. After getting a quote for the repair (an estimate around $1200 with a "high" of $1560), we decided to have it repaired over Memorial Day weekend and into this week while we rented an economy car.
Since we had an economic rental reserved, we decided to use it for an overnight trip to see friends and check out the Portland area. We ended up with a Smart ForTwo, and this made for a neat adventure up until the accident. As we were headed northbound on I-5, just about to cross into Washington State, traffic stopped in the righthand lane due to an exit backup. Without warning, our Smart was struck from behind by a driver who was looking behind him to perform a lane change, pushing our car violently into the car in front of us and completely crushing both the front and back ends of our car. Luckily nobody was seriously injured, and although the rental is most likely totalled (it barely ran enough to make it to the airport rental return and made for a dangerous drive to the return point) we were all able to drive away.
That's where the luck ran out, however. After hours of delays attempting to find out what to do, how to handle my insurance claim (I used personal insurance instead of theirs), and how we were getting home we ended up at the rental counter in the Portland airport. Here I had to pay a deposit of $500 upfront to swap cars and get us back home. This is due to my deductible, and it's to eventually be paid back at a later date by the at-fault person's insurance. But I have no idea when this may be and this amount is difficult for us to float at this time on top of the money needed to repair our Jeep.
Jill and I arrived home safely and we've been dealing with insurance calls and paperwork ever since. Today, being the first business day after the holiday weekend, I went to check on the Jeep's progress. The shop determined that not only was the gasket bad, but the motor needs a new head. This almost doubles the repairs I budgeted for, over $2200 on the quote today. This also leaves me without a car for at least another 7-10 days unless I keep paying $24 per day for the current vehicle I'm using, and at this time I have to return that before I'm off work tomorrow.
This entire situation has been extremely stressful and I'm asking for help to lift this trend of really bad luck, every little bit can help! It has been incredibly trying on both our work and home lives and we really look forward to moving ahead. Thank you so much.
Organizer
Andrew S
Organizer
Lynnwood, WA