almost a new house

You know how you know you should do the 'right thing' yet you are tempted to do exactly the 'wrong' thing? No, me neither. Yet as I talked with my insurance company, over and over again it became obvious that doing the 'wrong' thing would actually work in my benefit. Seriously, I need a new roof. I'd like a new kitchen, I could use a 2nd stall in my garage. and frankly I'd save a boatload in heating costs if my residence had to be temporarily moved to a hotel while my house was repaired. What the heck am I talking about? Let me recap with data:

$1,000.00 - my out of pocket cost to remove a split tree limb

$40,000.00 - minimum cost to rebuild shattered home structure, replace roof, kitchen, and other details destroyed from multiple heavy tree limbs falling on the house due to crack at base of branch. Cost may or may not include hotel stay due to not being able to inhabitant the house after incident and during the reconstruction.

$500.00 - my out of pocket cost for such a calamity as the above would be covered by my house insurance.

Of course being a good citizen, I removed the limb. Financially it would have been better for me to just let it fall. Why does it have to be this way?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!