Folks:
As an appraiser, I am called upon from time-to-time to hypothetically value a subject. That most often occurs following some traumatic event when that subject has been seriously harmed, fully destroyed or that plus removed such that no hulk remains. When facing such a task, owner documentation of what the subject was, how it was created, built, restored, re-created or modified and how it was conformed as a finished project. Lacking such information, I am - all tool often - required to make "Extraordinary Assumptions" so as to provide some basic perspective upon which to found a value opinion.
I write this having just completed such a project. Much of the necessary information outlined above was missing. The claimant suffered thereby.
PLEASE ... as you go forward with any restoration, re-creation or custom project ... OBSESSIVELY DOCUMENT both process and results (digital color photographs, no cell photos, please). And keep receipts and/or photocopies thereof. Otherwise, should "life" happen to what you value, being made whole for that loss is a vacant dream.
PLEASE.