Day 5: The PROCESS has begun…

So now we know the house is a “total loss” according to all the insurance people. Totally uninhabitable for lack of a better term. And all personal effects are considered that as well – a total loss.  But this is the day Husband and I walked through the rubble just one more time grabbing what few items we felt like we could clean enough and put in a box as a keepsake.  We gathered a few broken picture frames with melted photos to keep in case we couldn’t find someone that had a copy or digital one. We found a few of the clay figurines the kids had made in their kindergarten classes and wiped the ash away.  There were 2 frames hanging crookedly on the wall downstairs in my bedroom.  I wiped the black soot off and took them with me… pictures of R as a baby.  So as I did that I realized – the baby books.  I walked to the bottom shelf where I had all three lined up next to my pregnancy journal.  Their drenched pages sat under the 8 inches of water in that room.  I held my tears on the edge of my eyelids as the restoration representative asked if I wanted to try to restore them. Yes. I do.

It was Friday and we had checked out of the first hotel because they did not have available rooms for the weekend – some volleyball tournament in the area had precedence.  We picked up the kids from school and went to the new hotel to settle in.  It was so nice to have a little more space.  There was a tiny burner stove area and a refrigerator, as well as a small living space with a couch between the two rooms.  I remember falling asleep on the chair in that room after making another list.  This time – groceries and shoes.

SIDENOTE

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Day 4: Everyone Visits

This was Thursday. The day ALL the insurance adjusters, structural engineers, restoration companies, and even real estate agents showed up to the house.  All three kids were in school, so we made all the appointments during those hours.  I didn't want them there.  It was hard enough for Husband and I to walk around in the debris – physically and emotionally.  This is a clip of what we experienced that day…

Day 3: Phone Calls

Waking up an hour earlier than usual was not fun, but necessary since we were at a hotel on the other side of town away from the kids’ schools. I had emailed the schools the night before to make everyone aware the kids were returning –especially the counselors. R was worried. About her missed schoolwork. About her AP classes. About notes and a project that were burned up. About the dress code at her high school because all she had to wear was her girlfriend’s soccer practice clothes. Her list was ever growing.  F and S were excited and nervous to get back into the swing of things. F was playing football, so his concerns revolved around what he missed at practice over the last two days. S was excited to go back, but uneasy about everyone asking her about the fire. She kept saying she “didn’t know what to say.”
 
R drove herself to school. Husband and I dropped the other 2 off – I walked them in to make sure all was good. Lots of tears when I reached the elementary school. I knew that would happen as that is the school I taught in and spent most of my days over the last 7 yrs. As we left the parking lot I began the phone call list.

• Insurance adjuster for structure of home – make appointment for their visit to the house
• Insurance adjuster for personal belongings – make appointment for separate visit to the house
• Insurance adjuster for the 3 cars – I later found out that there were THREE different people that will be handling that (sigh – of course)
• Hotels with more accommodations –closer to schools (and more bathrooms).
• Call to stop services:
• Water
• Gas
• Electric
• Alarm system
• Pest control
• Landscaper

This was probably not my entire list.  10+ phone calls eats up quite a bit of the day – not to mention I had to pay attention closely on each call because there was account numbers and claim numbers and end of service numbers to write down and remember for future use.  Exhausting.  I can recall saying to myself, “Kim, you have to write a list of Things to do when your house burns down in case someone else needs this.”  I did search the Internet in those weeks following the fire and I did find a few resources. But, by no means was there a lot of support out there (info-wise) for people like us.