By Jennifer Hemmingsen – The rough estimates came in last week to clean up and repair Susan and William Jones’ house – just shy of $300,000.
That number will likely change – up or down — as construction begins at the house, at 930 Park Rd., Iowa City. Still, the Joneses said, it was difficult to hear:
“You had to kind of swallow hard,” William said. “Take a deep breath,” Susan said.
“It is a large amount,” William said.
“It’s like buying a new house,” Susan said.
Flood insurance will cover part of the damage. They’ll have to ask the bank for the rest.
“Or buy a lottery ticket,” Susan said.
Things are progressing slowly but surely, and the house is almost to the point where it looks more like construction than demolition. Contractors have taken out most of the nails from the subfloor and swept the debris from all but the corners. The air inside smells clean.
And it’s finally dry enough to walk around the backyard, where a waterline towers 12 feet from the threshold of the basement door. The contractors think they’ll be able to salvage the house’s wood siding — one less thing to worry about.
But a beaver chewed off the one small shoreline tree that had survived the deluge. Flood waters had shoved the small willow to a 45-degree angle, but it was still alive until the beaver gnawed through the trunk and took off with the branches this last week.
Insurance won’t cover the damage to the Joneses yard, terraces and patio, but the Joneses aren’t worried about that yet. It will be at least a year until they get to that project anyway, they said.
