It's true: A raccoon really did eat a hole in our roof.

Tomorrow, on my first day off for my Christmas vacation, I've got to get up on the roof and shovel snow off to avoid icicles and ice dams and other problems. Then, I've got to salt the sidewalk, and shovel the driveway again, and do all those other chores that come with home ownership.

I do those things because ... well, in my case, I do them because Sweetie makes me; I'd rather be sitting around reading. But Sweetie makes me do them because it's necessary to protect our house. She's good that way, always keeping her eye on the big picture -- like when she makes sure she has good homeowner's insurance coverage for us.

Homeowner's insurance is an absolute necessity. If you've got a mortgage, the bank is going to require you to have it (or they'll get it for you and it'll be super-expensive.) But even without a mortgage, you'll need homeowner's insurance, because at some point someone's going to slip and fall on your sidewalk, or the bathtub's going to leak and wreck the flooring, or lightning will strike and knock down your chimney, or, if you're me, a raccoon will eat a hole in your roof.

And when those things happen, if you've got homeowner's insurance, you'll be fine: You'll make a call to your insurer and they'll take care of the problem.

You don't want to go with just any insurer, though: It's expensive and you want good coverage at the lowest cost; getting a bad policy or paying too much is throwing money away. That's why you want to find your home insurance through a place like 01insurance.com. That site, which specializes in finding new york home insurance, will help you quickly and easily sort through the multitude of companies, options and quotes to find the policy that's best for you -- and it's free.

They'll even help you get coverage if you're a renter -- and that's every bit as necessary because you don't want to have your stuff destroyed in a fire and not be able to replace it, do you?

01insurance.com can be visited online or by phone at 1.800.255.2489; call them and they'll do your comparison shopping for you by getting you up to four quotes from major insurers. You'll save time, and money, and your home.