e 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 s
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment