In the home of David MacNeill, the flames of his stove are roaring, warming his living room.
It is one of the few features on the ground floor of his flooded Ballater home which serves as a reminder it was once a place of comfort.
All around it, there are scattered panels, work ladders and tools, with rooms in varying stages of repair.
Some 307 homes and 60 businesses in Ballater alone were devastated by the worst flooding since the Muckle Spate on December 30, as Storm Frank battered the north-east.
Mr MacNeill, a 70-year-old former electrical fitter and hotel-owner, has made great progress rebuilding his Deebank Road home – which he has done with his own hands, allied to the assistance of friends since his insurance claim was terminated.
As soon as he found out his policy was on hold, he knuckled down to the work himself.
But he was one of a number of Ballater residents insured by Integra whose policy was voided due to the property being within 1,312ft (400m) of the River Dee – a condition others have said was in the “fine print” of the documentation.
“This was a disaster, it wasn’t a flood,” said Mr MacNeill – who works part time as a delivery driver for HM Sheridans butcher, and has had trouble sleeping since his insurance woes started.
“The stress is just horrific. I am having to work seven days a week, and eight or nine hours a day, to start getting the house back to a situation where it is habitable. I am the one that has got to do it because I don’t have insurance.
“It is hard. Very, very hard. I wouldn’t like it to happen to anybody. Ach, I don’t know, I think I am still suffering from it to be honest. But I’ll get by.”
Mr MacNeill, along with other Ballater residents who took out insurance with Integra, claims the voiding of his policy was flawed due to the river breaking its banks at the golf course and not next to their homes.
But now, after months in a dark place, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.
Integra have publicly committed to goodwill payments on an ex-gratia basis to those of their policy holders who were denied insurance, though how much it will hand out is not known.
As relieved as Mr MacNeill is by the news, he claims that it could never “repay the hurt” caused by the company’s original response.
He added: “All I can say is the quicker that happens, the better. The added stress, it is just ridiculous to put anyone through that.
“The situation arose from not reading the paperwork when it came in and I put my hands up to that in the beginning.
“However, the river never burst its banks over here, the river burst its banks 2km (1.2miles) away from here.”
Just down the road on Richmond Place, Karen Murray has been locked in a similar wrangle with Integra.
Her property, now stripped and dried, was saturated by roughly 4ft of water on December 30 – with her firefighter husband, David, running to the aid of his neighbour whilst it flooded.
The 44-year-old mother-of-three said their loss adjuster told them to throw out every possession which was affected by the floods, even those that were salvageable, after the deluge.
Weeks later, she was informed her claim was void as she lived too close to the Dee.
Now – although she is “delighted” at the announcement of a financial agreement – she is questioning why the firm did not tell her the policy was flawed when it was originally agreed.
She said: “I don’t understand why an insurance company, when they get your postcode, don’t do a search of your postcode. They would have seen how close we were to the river.
“They could have phoned me up and said ‘We are really sorry, but we can’t insure you’, end of story, and this would never have happened.”
For Mrs Murray too, the emotional toll has been heavy and she still struggles to sleep at nights.
She added: “I think, until I get back into my own house, that I’ll suffer with not sleeping and worrying. It is just that, every single day, you are going to sleep thinking: ‘What is tomorrow going to bring?’
“At the moment, we are absolutely delighted with the statement they [Integra] have released saying they are coming out with goodwill payments, but that is not the end of the matter, we are not relaxed yet.”
However, Integra would not offer a response when contacted.
