On July 6, 2014 at 10:30pm my house in Kentwood MI got hit hard.
Here is what happened.
9:45pm some thunder and lightening in the distance.
10:15pm still some thunder and lightening in the distance. Watching Wzzm13, our local news station, only to see a Flash Flood watch was on the screen.
10:28pm down pour of rain. Then a couple of branches hit the roof. We have a lot of trees in my neighborhood and do on the occasion have branches fall on our house. The next second a down pour of rain. The rain was hitting the house really hard. Then "boom" "boom" "boom" and many more "booms". My house was shaking. Then we heard aloud "bang" hit the back of my house by our bathroom.
My mom and I was in our living room together when it hit. While everything was falling on our house we couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. We live near an airport. So did a airplane crash? Was it an earthquake? We kept looking at the TV and still no severe thunderstorm watch.
By the time we decided we should go the basement it was over. My dad, who was in the family room, looked out our slider door and saw all the trees flying in the air and coming towards our house. He screamed at us to "get in the basement", but my mom and I couldn't hear each other in the same room alone hear my dad at the other end of our home.
We quickly went into the bathroom where loudest "bang" hit. The lights went out but only for a couple of seconds. When the lights came back on we saw a hole in our bathroom wall. You couldn't see outside, but you could see behind the drywall. There was also a crack on the ceiling.
We got our flashlights and went outside. Saw tree branches on our cars and panicked thinking our cars were damaged. Luckily they were only small size branches. But then we turn around to find two of our huge 500+ year old oak trees on our house. As we were looking around our house to see the damage a neighbor from across the street yells "are you alright?" and I replied to him, "We've been hit."
My dad headed to the backyard to see the damage, but to his surprised all the neighbors trees and debris was crammed pack in our backyard. He went to the other side of the house to get into the backyard, but that side was also crammed packed with trees.
When you look out the windows facing the backyard it looks like we are underground with tree roots eating us alive.
This is what we see out our windows that are looking out towards the backyard.
Our next door neighbor also had a tree hit their garage. Because it was so dark we couldn't really see how much damage everyone in our neighborhood had. So many trees are down. About 30minutes later we heard many fire trucks and chain saws starting up.
I was terrified about staying in our house because I scared our house wasn't structurally safe. My mom and dad believed we were fine, but lets just say I didn't sleep very good.
July 7, 2014- 8:00am- Seeing the Destruction
Went outside and was shocked. There was more then two trees on our house. If it wasn't for our chimney one of the trees would have sliced out house in half. The only way to get into the backyard was to climb up a latter onto the roof and then had to climb down a trees on our house, but because it was so crammed with trees in our backyard all you could do was climb. You couldn't find the ground. So many things were jammed in our siding.
Later that Night 6:00pm July 7, 2014
The news said that Kentwood and Wyoming was hit by an F1 & F2 tornado. We had to get 3 estimates for tree removal for our home insurance. We got our tree quotes. We ended up going with Tree West Tree Service. Instead of just starting the next day in the morning they started that afternoon. They wanted to get all of the parts of the trees that were on our roof off. They said it is important to get them off the roof as quickly as possible to prevent more damage to the roof. They worked pretty late.
July 8, 2014- Tree Removal Day.
Tree West Tree Service came out and kicked butt getting all the trees and branches cut down. They told us we had a total of 8 trees and 6 of them were on our house. They were amazed we still had a house. They told us God was really with us because those trees should have make our house collapse.
July 9, 2014- Tree Removal Second Day
Tree West Tree Service was able to finish today. We were very happy with them and would recommend them. If you live in West Michigan I would highly recommend them. Their contact information:
Owner: Kevin Mahlum. 269-206-6333. Email: treewesttreeservice@yahoo.com.
Thank God for Our Chimney to Stop the tree from slicing our house in half.
Our trash container was on the edge of the street and now it was thrown in our backyard
Our Neighbors House Got Hit Too
CLEAN-UP TIME
Cutting down the trees on our roof and backyard.
BEFORE
AFTER:
They still have a lot to get done. As you can see they have the other half of the yard to do.
THE TREES ARE GONE
Trees are gone but now are grass is a mud path.
July 10, 2014- Our State Farm inspector came out to determine the damage. She kept telling us if it comes out to more then she is quoting to let them know.
TIME TO FIX ROOF
BEFORE:
We were very lucky that I had a friend who knew someone that works for a home repair company because all of the contractors and home repair business couldn't get out to fix our house till October. Some contractors/business weren't even accepting any new clients.
Captain Remodeling was able to move us up due the extent of the damage.
About a week later, Captain Remodeling came out to do the Roof first. They had to pull off two layers of shingles and replace the boards. It took them 3 1/2 days.
They first did the roof. Then a few days later they had their siding workers come out. Then about two weeks they had a husband and wife team that came out to fix our bathroom.
REPAIRING ROOF
Finished Roof
Captain Remodeling roofing crew was very nice. They were sloppy on things. They created a little damage to fascia this was because of miscommunication. They thought we were going to our whole house with new siding. They were not able to find the same siding so the insurance company should pay for it, but we didn't want to count on it. We told them at this time no. Well, there was miscommunication and the roofers thought we were going to do the whole house so they weren't really careful with the fascia. Would I hire them again for roofing? The next time we would do the roof isn't because of storm damage, so we would have time to really check out other roofing companies. We went with Captain Remodeling because my friend suggested them and because we had to get this done and couldn't find other roofing companies that could do it sooner.
PUTTING UP THE SIDING
Captain Remodeling did our siding. Now we were really happy with our siding. They did a very nice job! Would we have them do our siding again? Yes.
Siding Is Finished:
Time to Repair Our Chimney
Our insurance company only quoted on reparing the top of the chimney which is really stupid because you can't match that brink. We ended up getting three estimates. The first one was Hancock Chimney. They seem to be very expensive. To do only the top part of the chimney they were charging about $8000. We had another company come out, but I can't remember their name and they also was charging $7800 just for the top part. Then our neighbor from behind us told us about Joesph Spica owner of D&W Masonry which is located in Wyoming MI. He has done this now for 40 years. It is just him who builds and repairs chimney. He doesn't have any employees. He did an amazing job. It was very nice. Would I hire him again? Hell Yes!
His contact information: D & W Masonry located in Wyoming MI, Cell: 616-498-9496. Owner: Joesph Spica.
This is What I See Looking at Our Fireplace From In the House:
Chimney Tear Down
Chimney Is Finished:
Doesn't his work look amazing!
MORE CLEAN-UP
My dad painted the tree in hopes it will keep out the bugs.
My dad picking up all the dead branches.
Neighbor rented a log cutter because he has to cut up all of...
THESE LOGS
The metal fence looks pretty cool the way it got bent.
This is our view out our bay window in the kitchen. 
