This is Olive. She's in her "princess" pose on one of the couches at the rental. We almost lost her to smoke in the fire, but the EMTs had the canine oxygen mask, plus mouth to nose resuscitation by me and my husband, and she pulled through. The few times we've taken her back to the house it's as if she never left - checking out all the construction and people (and their dogs).

A lot of progress has been made! This is the front room, framed and now sheathed in plywood. The wall behind the chair originally had shelves where Tim had pictures of his family. Now, it's part of the closet in the hallway.

Even with all of this detail work - these metal plates are on both sides of the notches in these joists - I'm guessing that the work is almost 50% complete. In addition to these plates the structural engineer required daughter boards be screwed into place at the ends of most of these joists - that's at least eight screws per side! Now they're trying to make sure that the bottom of the joists are even so the plywood and then the sheetrock will be smooth. Yep, plywood is going up next on the ceiling just like the walls.

And this is the demolition of the upstairs hearth. We're going to replace this with an electric fireplace that will be flat on the wall with a nice mantle. We were originally going to put a small electric stove in the corner, but opted for this location instead. We don't heat the upstairs, but the lightshow of the fire will be nice to have.

More Progress is Made

I took this mainly to show how far the soot/smoke from the fire travelled. This is the wall on the other side of the bathroom. The moulding has been removed which has made the smoke damage that much more obvious. Fortunately the floors are going to be refinished and the walls sealed and painted.

Soon this view of my work room won't be available - at least as soon as the wall goes up. The entire downstairs sub-floor is now level. it used to be a step down into this space and a step up between the dining room and living room. Not anymore! Unfortunately muscle memory is still expecting the various levels so I'm constantly scuffing my shoes when I'm walking from one room to the next. But the floor contractor will be happy so it's all good.

The drain hole for the claw foot tub has been drilled and you can see it's quite a ways from the original drain (the black thing closer to the wall). We decided to move it over almost a foot to make it easier to get around the tub. We toyed with the idea of raising the tub a foot, but decided against it.

Speaking of raising things - Tim finally found out about his "throne". Apparently he marched back downstairs and shook our builder's hand for finally giving him a raised toilet - apparently it's a guy thing.

As the blue tape says this is the linoleum we're going to use in the downstairs bathroom, mudroom and my work area. I think it'll look great with the blue/green/gray paint I'm going to use. A gray color won't impact the colors of my fiber and is also very easy on the eyes and I'm going to be spending a lot of time in this room so the more comfortable it is the better.

The fun and hi-jinks continue!

As of last night this is what our front yard looks like - six bales worth of hay spread everywhere there might be foot traffic - heavy or otherwise. At this point in the work I didn't really care about the dirt being tracked in, but it was pointed out that sooner, rather than later, I will. So getting the hay down now will minimize the dirt tracked into the house AND the damage to the front yard. So yesterday I brought in six bales of hay that my sons gleefully spread around the ground and each other! The color really comes out because we actually have sunshine and warmer temps today!

My work room is really taking shape. The crew removed all the extra bits of plywood and scraps and uncovered this beautiful floor. I would love to keep it as it is, but since my felting work tends to include water, and lots of it, I think I'm going to go with some sort of vinyl floor covering. Sigh ... But that doesn't change the fact that I'm excited about having my own space for my alpaca fiber and work. I just hope there's room for the shelves of fiber, tables for project layout, my carding machine, picker and felting machine. And the sink - phew! So much stuff and potentially so little space.

The original claw foot tub from the usptairs bath. You can make out the soot stain from the fire. The plan is to refinish this in white and ditch the chrome fittings. We've decided to use brushed nickle fittings and tile with an underfloor heating system. My only compaint about tile is how cold it can be, but with the heating system underneath - that sounds wonderful!

This frame is the beginning of the toilet "throne" or platform that my husband has asked anyone who has ever done remodelling work on our house to build. It isn't impressive right now, but with the area tiled, the toilet in place - I think Tim will finally be happy. I know the crew was excited when they figured out how to do it and we're all trying to keep it a surprise - I'm betting that he doesn't read this blog, hence the post.

On to more mundane matters - the hearth and pellet stove are coming out this week! The wood floor that's salvaged from the bathroom will be used to fill in the hole left by the hearth. The stove was originally downstairs and fairly useless. Since moving upstairs I think we've moved it twice since '98. We decided it made more noise than heat and never bothered with it.

The screen marks the corner of the bedroom/sitting room where the electric heater will be going. Since we don't heat the bedroom it didn't make sense to run propane up for a propane stove/fireplace. So we'll be looking for something this weekend for that corner.

The goal is to have the upstairs ready for move-in by mid-February in case we lose the rental. and at the rate the crew is moving that should be a relatively easy target to meet - mainly because they're working six to seven days a week on this job!

So much has changed with the house since I last posted. This is the start of the new shower upstairs. The triangular burned spot is where the old shower was originally. There's a small window just above this burned area that is severly smoke damaged - you can see it in the next picture.

This is what the same area looks like today - a new shower pan that is nice and roomy for my husband. That's why he never used the old bathroom - the shower stall was too small. There will be a short wall around the rigth hand side of the shower and the side facing the camera will be a 5' door. The floor itself is going to be tile. We'll extend that to replace all the burned wood floor as well as going to the other side of the bathroom where the claw foot tub will be. We're going to put a heating pad under the tile to keep it warm - yay!

We wanted to have the entire upstairs floor heated from underneath - since the downstairs ceiling was off it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Alas it was not to be; we were at the Seattle Remodel Expo today and the one contractor that did this type of work said that it wasn't possible under a wood floor. Oh well, on to other things for us!

This is where our new kitchen started. It was originally an area we had book shelves along with the PDU you see in this picture. The kitchen, before the fire, was actually located to the left of this picture, just out of camera range. Being in the center of the house it was always the darkest area of the house. We tried everything to brighten it with very little improvement. Now we have it on the outside edge of the house right next to the two story bay window! The old space will be used as a dining room.

As of today this is what that same area looks like. The frame with the red level on it is the partial wall where the sink and stove will be. The stove will be in the corner which will allow us to have a retractible exhaust vent. The sink and dishwasher will be in the middle of the wall facing out to the rest of the house. Where the PDU is will be the location for the new frig and the frame to the left of the picture is the wall that will support the stacked oven/microwave oven.

Finally - my new work room! The frame in front of you is for the pocket door. The room itself extends a few feet to the right from this picture. I should have plenty of room for all my processing equipment, fiber etc. As well as running water for my felting.

Kitchen Cabinets and counters

That's Tony waving and Kaiser staring at him. Two of the gentlemen working to get us back in our house as quickly as possible. Tony is standing in what used to be an unused storage room and will become our new kitchen pantry. Kaiser is standing where the dishwasher will be and the frig will be to the left of the pantry opening.

To say we're excited is an understatement!

To add to the good news of the day - we found the cabinets we want. We went up to Canyon Creek after Tim got back from his business trip and were quickly overwhelmed with all the choices. As we walked through the showroom we saw bits and pieces, but nothing that really jumped out at us - until we got to Display #13. this is Rustic Hickory with a toffee glaze - I think. It might also have been a matte glaze and chocolate stain. Fortunately I have my notes and these pictures. When Kaiser gets us the measurements we'll hotfoot it back up to Canyon Creek and get an estimate on cost and shipping.

We also found these two counters, granite, that I really liked. I'm not thrilled with granite because it isn't overly scratch resistant, but I'm hoping we can at least recover the colors with whatever counter material we go with - if we don't go with granite. The one in back has alot of black in it and reminds me of zebra or tiger stripes. The one in front is lighter with a lot more brown and gold in it. Both will look great with the new floor and the cabinets.

Finally we come to an example of the potential window seat. We have a two story bay window in the front of the house. We had to remove the cedar in front of the window due to damage and rot (and we didn't want 2010 to start with a tree coming down on the house and finishing the job the fire started). This has left the front yard wide open and the bay window completely open to the light. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of a window seat, mainly because there's no back to them except the window, but even with the house the way it is I can definitely visualize the window seat now. This is the same wood in the kitchen picture, but I didn't use a flash - hence the yellow tinge.

Our contractor has asked me if I'm happy, excited, relieved that the work has started and in the beginning I was being very cautious due to the false starts we've had in the last two-plus months. Now, however, with so much work having been done in the last few days I'm excited beyond belief. I think I'm finally seeing a day in the very near future when we'll finally be back in our home.

My work crew - my sons and my neighbor's son and daughter. They worked very hard pulling the sheet rock nails left over from the gutting of our downstairs months ago. My son, the one in the red jersey, is very focused because he knows he gets a buck per pound of pulled nails. After working over two hours he earned $2.86. All four of them also earned dinner at the local Mexican restaurant.

What the well dressed construction worker is wearing nowadays.

House rebuild after the fire

The heavily charred post on the left in this pictures is where the fire broke out. This happened back on 9/23/09. Earlier in '09 we had to do a lot of rework on the exterior and due to the fire some of that will have to be redone. But no one looked in their crystal ball to tell us that three months after we finished this would happen - besides, the fire was contained fairly quickly so we probably still would have had to rebuild the exterior.

This is a picture from the burned bedroom looking up through the temporary framing at the upstairs bathroom. The shower was completely destroyed. The wooden armoire was covered in soot, but otherwise undamaged. As was the claw foot tub that was right next to the shower.

It was amazing that the town fire department was able to stop the fire as quickly as they did, but we also have to thank your neighbor for happening by at the right time to see the smoke and make the first 911 call.

She also saved one of our dogs, Rorik, the one lying in the foreground of this picture from calmer times. The little black dog, Olive, was in a kennel as was Rodion, the brown dog sleeping on the couch. Rodion's kennel was nearer the door and the smoke and we lost him before we could get him out. We almost lost Olive, but the EMTs had the canine oxygen masks and she revived.

The little gray lump on the top of the couch, Flaire, was loose in the house and it was miraculous that the firemen found her. They also carried out the parrot, Jim, and his cage with him squawking all the way.

Our hero neighbor took our parrot to the emergency bird clinic while my husband, Tim, took the surviving dogs to a different vet hospital. The first thing the bird vet said when he called witha status on Jim was he wished he had neighbors like ours.

The excitement wasn't over that evening. When the animals were squared away our other neighbors stepped in with offers of places to stay for our boys and us. Ultimately our next door neighbor put us up, put up with us, for two weeks before we were able to get settled in the rental.

The day after the fire Tim remembered that the house behind our farm was for sale. He called the owner and she agreed to let us rent her house 'til ours was rebuilt. We were limited as to where we might stay because we had to stay near the farm to care for the alpacas and horses. So once the dogs and bird were out of their respective hospitals we were set to move into the rental.

Now the bad news starts. We decidd to use the same contractor we had used to rebuild the exterior of the house earlier in 2009. That turned out ot be a huge mistake. He wasted two months dithering over details that had nothing to do with the fire rebuild. The permits were available in late October, but the work only start yesterday, 1/9/10! After our contractor walked out on the contract. As of today, 1/10/10, he still hasn't officially notified us that he handed the job to another contractor. We're now working with the team we wanted to work with in the first place and are very relieved.

Our insurance company, Country Financial, has been amazingly patient throughout. The appraiser was there the day after the fire with a check to help take care of any out of pocket expenses. He's been very patient regarding the delay our contractor caused and I'm sure that with the final check for the rebuild and rent that they should be writing next week will be a relief to everyone.

This is the same corner that the picture with the dogs was taken. The first contractor gutted the entire downstairs down to framing and subfloor. So today, Sunday, the boys and I are heading up there to remove nails and screws from the floors and walls. This has to be done prior to any other work and it doesn't require any special training of tools - so we're going to try and get as much of it done as possible.