Normal again. . .almost!

We are finally beginning to feel a bit more normal. Our house is clean, with the exception of the cook top area. Almost all of our clothes have been returned. And we are back in our own sweet beds. 

But some things aren't the same. We can't use our stove or oven. So meals have been a bit entertaining and creative. I'm slowly putting things back since all of the items were returned in boxes all mixed up together. We have piles of "discard" bags sitting around that we can't do anything about until we get another visit from an insurance person.

And our sweet kitty hasn't returned home. The fireman scared the stuffings out of him and he ran outside. He always comes back and we spent that first night in our sooty house. I truly expected to hear him at the door that night. So I wasn't too worried. But as each day went by with no kitty we all became concerned. It is now almost 3 weeks later and no one has seen or heard him. I've asked all of the neighbors, posted notices on lsn and facebook, taken pictures to the humane society, and called the current and previous vets. We even, very briefly, considered getting another kitty. But we still miss Tolkie too much and it just didn't feel right. The kids cried on the way home because they saw all of those cats in cages and felt sorry for them and yet they missed their cat too much to get another one. In the words of Dominic "Someday I might want to rescue another kitty. But right now I can't. I miss Tolkie and I don't want to hurt his feelings when he gets home. Because I'm really praying he comes back home soon."

 

So if you get a chance, please send up a prayer that our kitty comes home. We miss him a lot.

We are moving on with the kitchen as best as we can. We've gotten estimates from all of the local cabinet places and have decided on a company. Ironically enough, Lowes is the most expensive. We have picked out tile, colors, etc. Our appliances arrived and are sitting here waiting. So now we just wait for a phone call letting us know that we can proceed with the demolition. 

I've been posting all of the fire updates here on the kids blog. It happened to all of us and affected all of us. But once the real renovations start, I'll move over to the other blog since all of my renovation pictures are there.

One week later. . .

I wrote this Friday evening. But as is becoming typical of our life - the internet at the hotel was down and I couldn't post it. So it is now Monday. I am sitting on a sooty couch with about 10 people in my home while I grab some wifi and try to get some work accomplished.

Our life has been a little different this past week. We'd initially thought the fire to be annoying, but no big deal. It became more of a deal as time went on.

The clean up guy arrived on Sunday morning. He gave us a black trash bag and told us to fill it with "emergency" clothes that we would get right back ASAP.  He waded through our house and recommended the entire house be de-smoked from top to bottom. Monday morning the cleaning crew arrived. And by Monday afternoon we were without bedding, curtains and clothing. Not a big deal until we realized we were left with the clothes on our back. The emergency bag wasn't back yet.

We found a hotel suite and settled in for what we thought was a couple of days.

Tuesday found me traveling all over town trying to figure out prices and replacement costs so I could have the damage list for the adjuster. 

Our home was taken over. People in and out all day, a massive Hepa filter roaring in my living room, all of my belongings being handled by a stranger, and some seriously frustrated kids who couldn't get in their bedrooms.

Friday a forensic fire investigator came and confirmed that the stove had turned itself on due to a faulty something and was not our fault. We were told it would be at least Tuesday of next week before we could go home. The adjuster called to inform me that she had a preliminary total of $20k and she didn't have all of her figures in yet.

She also informed us that the insurance company had decided to sue. So it could be approximately a month before we could begin the demo on our kitchen. 

So we wait. We are on another adventure and thank God every day that we are safe and together. Life will return to our normal soon. But in the mean time we are enjoying the blessings. One of them will be when I return to a immaculately cleaned house.

I will try to get my computer and camera in the same building soon so I can begin posting a few pictures. Some of them I can't post until the investigation is over.

What a day!!!!

Yesterday was one of those days!!! It was a doozy. It started when I had to get up incredibly early to get to Chattanooga so I could start the eviction process for a tenant that we inherited when we purchased the townhouses. It isn't a fun process no matter how you work it. But since I've never evicted someone, it was rather nerve wracking.

Everything took longer than I'd planned so I was extremely late picking up Dominic and his friend from camp. I arrive to find out that due to a slight mix-up and change in plans I was not on the list to pick up the friend. After a rather panicked moment I found the other mom who WAS on the list. So she signed him out and I took him home.

We leave for home and are in Spencer when I get pulled over. He said he'd seen my car swerve and I was going a little over the speed limit. I knew I wasn't going very much, if any, over. So I truly thought I was going to get a warning. But when he'd first came to the window he'd seemed extremely interested in the boys. He asked their names, ages, where they'd been, etc. Turns out he was fishing for info. I only had one booster seat in the car. So I'd given it to the friend since he was shorter. But Tennessee has changed the law recently and children need to be 8 yrs old before they can ride in the car without a booster seat. It's endangering your child. So I was given a massively huge ticket for Dominic and he tacked on the speeding as well. I felt he'd fudged the speed and was really upset.

I drop off the friend and arrive home to find the house empty. Everyone was at my in-laws house. They moved in next door the day before (more on that later). I drop off  the work binder, books I'd purchased from McKays, and my purse and head over myself. About 15-20 minutes later I hear Caitlin tell Dominic "I'm going home to get it". A few seconds later we hear her screaming. It's her terrified scream. We run over to hear her say "It's burning inside". Jon looks toward the door to see smoke billowing out of the door. He grabs the fire extinguisher that he keeps in the carport by the steps and within a very scary minute has the fire out. But Kim (my sister-in-law) and Gramps had been throwing still burning items out into the carport. One of the books slid right under the car. I happen to have the keys still in my pocket so while still on the phone with 911 I backed the car out of the carport. Everything I'd placed beside the stove was ruined. My purse, gps, chargers, books, work stuff - all a blackened mess. We stood there in complete shock. No one had used the stove that day. I had checked the stove when I laid my items down beside it. But when Jon ran into the house one of the burners was bright red. When he tried to turn it off, he found the switch in the off position. He had to pull the breaker to get the stove off.

Long story short - our entire house is filled with black sooty smoke and we have a largely unusable kitchen. We sent the kids to the grandparents and changed the sheets on our bed. It was still a bit sooty, but we survived the night. Tomorrow morning we have professionals trumping through the house cleaning up and checking wiring. Because according to the firemen, sometimes stoves just turn themselves on. And because my bag of books was close, we had a fire!

Lesson learned. Never, ever put things anywhere near a stove - Even if it's off!

We've seen blessings in all of this.
Our family moved in just in time.
No one was hurt!
I didn't have to cook super last night. =)

*Please ignore all typos. I'm trying to type this on my iPad since my computer is unusable until the clean up crew gets here. I'm just hoping it can be saved. Joys of having an open concept house!