New Normal?

Since the housefire, we've had to get more creative in how we spend our time. No longer having internet or gaming systems, our spare time is spent in more imaginative, creative ways. 

I admit, we do have a tv in our temporary living space, so we aren't completely without modern entertainment options. 

Roof Rebuild Has Begun!

Our wonderful Amish neighbors began rebuilding our roof last week. I was most nervous about that upper roof, since it was so high up there, and the pitch was 12:12. But they managed just fine and had it tore down and rebuilt in just 2 days. 

The upper roof is now dried in, awaiting beautiful new shingles. Hopefully it won't take too long to do the other two roofs and then we can really start getting busy on the inside! 

Never-ending Destruction

As we clear out bags and bags of debris, and fill dump truck after dump truck, it seems never-ending. Where is the light at the end of this tunnel? 

At least some progress has been made. We cleared out the attic storage room, finding a few salvageable treasures in the rubble. 

Bare-naked Kitchen

We completed clearing out the kitchen and it looks pretty good- all things considered. 

The hardwood floors are in decent shape with only a couple of bad spots and a whole lot of nails to pull out from the plywood that had covered it. 

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Goodbye Kitchen

I was so happy with our spruced-up old kitchen. Here's the post about that transformation : 

New Old Kitchen

But now we have another transformation ahead of us. Normally I would be thrilled to peak into the past lives of our house like this, but under these circumstances it's just not the same. 

We began removing all the contents of our kitchen. Everything was soaking wet, even the space between the cabinets and walls, and all layers of old paneling and wallpaper were wet. It all had to come out. 

I am saving the drawers. They will be the only thing left from the old kitchen and I will find a way to reuse them. 


You can see how even the old layers of wallpaper, which was beneath paneling, is wet. 


This was a surprise. A nearly complete door with jamb found in the wall that is shared by the second bathroom. We believe that originally the bathroom and office room were the back porch, so this door would have opened onto the back porch. 


Some very pretty old wallpaper, as well as some very colorful, "modern" wallpaper was found beneath the kitchen paneling. 


You can see where the original placement of the sink/cabinet was located, directly under a large picture window, and what was likely open shelving on either side. I can almost picture how it may have looked, with cute lace curtains and mason jars on the shelves. 

But even with all the interesting things we've found, it still hurts to see it torn apart. And what's even harder, is knowing that it may be years before we can piece it all back together into the warm and comforting kitchen that my family has known and loved. 

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Makeshift Home

I'm sure I've mentioned our neighbor-farmer who bales our hay for us... well, he has very kindly allowed us to stay in his son's house while his son is out of the country. It is definitely temporary, but we are so thankful to have a warm place to lay our weary heads. 

Above, our mattresses are laid out every night for bedtime. 


We are basically living out of boxes and laundry baskets. 


Little I drew a picture of our house that "burned up". 


10 year old son, J, has been reading up on how to build roofs. 

Cleanup Begins

Cleanup began the very next day after the fire, but not before we opened our Christmas presents in the front yard! It was, after all, Christmas Day now. 

Once our makeshift celebration was complete, it was time to get down to the nitty gritty. 

In the following days we began work to sort through the rubble of our belongings ... salvaging what we could, discarding whatever was ruined by fire or water. 

We also began tearing out the water soaked Sheetrock and insulation from various rooms. We quickly filled up the largest dumpster that we could rent, and we will likely need to rent another one at some point, as our trash piles grow ever larger. While the debris removal takes places, it becomes increasingly obvious just how much work will remain ahead of us for a very long time. It is daunting, certainly, but we are not ready to give up on our home. 

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