Overwhelmed

To put it simply, I am overwhelmed in many ways, good and bad.

The Bad:  There are A LOT of decisions to make at all one time and it is very difficult to prioritize what needs the most attention.  The obvious come first--Family, normalcy, our business.  After that, it gets a little hazy.  One of the most frustrating things happened last week.  Two weeks ago we were told that the biggest contingency regarding our roof tear down and replacement was weather.  They still had demo to do, but last week the house was pretty well done and we thought the roof was going to happen.  Unfortunately, other mysterious things became hold ups like quotes not be submitting on time, windows not being ordered--You know, the obvious things that I would think need to happen when working with insurance and the reassembling of the roof.  To add insult to injury, there was not a single drop of rain for five beautiful days straight.  I am not going to lie- everyday last week when this was not happening, I was praying for a down pour to make myself feel better...to no avail.  So, now we are targeting the roof project starting tomorrow morning.  For me this is a light at the end of the tunnel.  As soon as we can get this project turned over to our AMAZING General Contractor, J Scott Builders, we will start to feel the momentum shift and for this lady who is as Type A as it gets, that will be a great feeling!

The Good: We had a fantastic weekend full of decision making (I love making decisions and getting things checked off the list!!!).  On Saturday we went and checked out bathtubs and sinks.  The sales person offered to let us try to get in and out of the freestanding pedestal tub, but to save myself the embarrassment, I passed.  Next on the list- appliances!  We have selected all of our appliances and I am very excited about them.  The best part is our old appliances went up in price, so the replacement cost is going to help us as we finalize this piece.  We also purchased about 75% of our lights--the UPS person is going to get use to this temporary address.  We picked out about 90% of our paint colors and got a few samples from Lowes.  Chris and I spent time at the house today mapping out the addition we intend to put on the house and feel like we have a really good idea of how it will all play out.  Tomorrow all of our old cabinets, lights, doors (pretty much everything) are getting taken away for the Habitat for Humanity resale store.  After that we are going to select new cabinets, then do granite and then lights.  Wednesday is tile.  Again, making decisions makes me feel accomplished :)

In addition to all this fun shopping and decision making, we had a wonderful, rather normally feeling, weekend on top of it.  We had a Saturday night dinner date with one of our favorite couples.  They have a little girl who is a little younger than M and whenever we go out dinner as families it gets crazy...we warn the waiter the minute they greet us at the table!

Today, we woke up and M helped me make waffles, as we always do on Sunday morning.  I do not have very many kitchen utensils at our temporary home, so that was interesting, but we made it work.  We went for a lovely bike ride and I actually made a real home cooked meal tonight.  I had to break down and buy a whisk and a slotted spoon at the grocery store this afternoon in order for it to come together.  All in all, we are overwhelmed right now, but it is because we are in the thick of it.  I am hopeful that a couple of months down the road all the wheels will be turning and we will be seeing our home come back together.    

PSA

So let me start by saying this post is going to make me sound like a doomsday prepper, but I think it is important to share because honestly, who plans for this crap?!?  I thought I would share a few lessons learned thus far that might be helpful and a good reminder to myself when we move back into the house and I am too busy running around trying to get unpacked.

1. I can only speak for North Carolina, but did you know that smoke detectors are only required in conditioned living spaces?  Go take a look around your attic in NC and good luck finding a smoke alarm.  This will be changed during the rebuild!  I am so thankful everyday that if this was going to happen to us that it happened in the early evening.  Had it been in the middle of the night, I don't even want to think about the level of devastation that could have happened.  Once I get around to posting pictures of the interior of home as it is today, you will realize that the fire itself was very contained, mainly just to one side of our attic.  The damage is water and this is why our house is now down to studs :)  I don't even want to think about being woken up in the middle of the night, frantic, disoriented and in pajamas trying to escape a smoke filled house...sorry, not my idea of a good time!

2. This is going to sound crazy, but inventory your house.  If this ever happens you will be SHOCKED to learn that literally EVERYTHING has value.  Today we inventoried our toiletries.  The very nice gentleman from the company that does this literally stood in the garage with a tape recorder reading aloud each bottle of shampoo, lotion and every other little thing we had in there---the make, the function and the number of ounces.  Everything single thing you purchase has a replacement value.  It can make one feel very high maintenance when you are being asked, "what exactly is cuticle remover?"  I have since learned that they make an app for this.  Apparently, you catalogue everything you own by taking pictures of it and then once you have invested the insane amount of time doing that, ever time you bring something new into the home, you add it to the inventory.  I don't think Q-tips necessarily make the list, but you know what I mean.  Again, we are so lucky because most of our things are recognizable.  I can't imagine going through this process if it were all piles of ashes.  Note to self, take the time to do the inventory...if this ever happens again (which I will be so pissed if it does!) this would be the biggest life saver.

3. Do some proactive research.  In the moment of panic when the Fire Marshall is telling you to secure the property by boarding up the windows at 11:00 pm on a Sunday night, you will say yes to the first company who answers the phone.  When that company arrives, thinking they are knights in shining armor, they start to give you the full court press about the road that lies ahead.  If you have never been through this before, and you are like me, you will tell them to get started first thing in the morning and have the whole rebuild planned out by 8:00 am.  It does not work that way.  The number of different companies involved in this are insane!  There is a company to take your clothes and your linens.  There is a company that takes your salvageable goods.  There is a company that evaluates your non-salvageable goods.  There is a company that starts to demo your house...and the list goes on.  The number of business cards we received in the first 24 hours was nuts.  If you ever have to go through this situation, wouldn't be nice to have a vetted referral to call?

4.  Lastly, know that stuff is just stuff and really dedicate yourself to making memories instead of collecting things.  Memories you have of people do not live in the stuff you have.  We lost some things in the attic that meant nothing to us and other things that meant a lot.  For instance, all of Chris' Mom's blankets she knitted over the years, Madeline's crib, baby clothes and my Grandmother's beautiful  dresser.  Yes, some things you can never replace, but as sad as it was to watch those items be thrown into a dumpster in our front yard, it has not changed a single memory.  I would give up that dresser any day of the week to have just one more conversation with my Grandmother.

Progress

We went over to the house today (like we do everyday, who am I kidding!) and the amount of progress they have made is UNREAL.  Almost every wall on every floor is gone, all of our kitchen cabinets are sitting in the middle of our kitchen and our garage is a graveyard of granite counter tops.  The next big step, which we should get more clarity on tomorrow, is ripping out the hardwoods and starting to remove the roof.  As some of you know, last winter we had hardwood floors installed on our second floor and the first floor sanded and refinished to a dark stain throughout the house.  I LOVED our floors, but I know they will be just as nice when we move back in.

Back to the roof--So basically in a nut shell once this is done you will stand on our second floor and see nothing but sky.  Personally, I can't wait for this day.  Once this day arrives that means we are starting the journey forward versus the tear down road we are currently on.  I am so excited for the process of rebuilding this house that my Pinterest boards are on fire (no pun intended!).

Here are some photos to some ideas I have...would love and welcome opinions :)

I am sort of in love with this refrigerator, but if I saw correctly it is a 14K price tag...that might be pushing it :)

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Pedestal Soaking Tub...I think I might throw caution to the wind on this one!

We are sticking with the white cabinets we had before, but are enlarging the kitchen, which will require a larger island.  I think I am digging the different color island idea

I like this light and I am thinking two of these over the kitchen island.  We previously had two glass lights Urn style pendants from Pottery Barn---great lights, but to clean them required two people and the patience of saints!

I am sort of in love with herringbone floors...I am thinking Laundry Room and then Chris says, "Megan, it is a Laundry Room!"  Can someone remind him that we did have a crystal chandelier and two poster sized photos of Madeline in the laundry room?!?

I love this wallpaper and they make it in a color called Alabaster which is really subtle.  I intended to do this before all of this happened, so I think now might be the time :)

I am sure there will be MANY more ideas floating around over the next couple of months.

Let the fun begin!

Rebuilding Phase 1

I am not going to lie, when I walked in and looked up from the bottom stair case to the second floor to see only framing, I was shocked.  The picture above is from our Master Bathroom and behind it was Madeline's playroom.  The amount of damage to our home is unreal and something I would not wish upon anyone.  I wish I could really find the words to put around it, but I am hopeful that as this process sorts itself out, I will find the exact descriptions for the feelings--the fear of hearing your house is on fire and scrambling to run out, the stress of trying to piece your life together in 48 hours to create normalcy and routine, the relief that things are not worse, and the excitement as you think of rebuilding and making it great again.

This whole process has made me realize how much I LOVE our house.  Chris says that I am always looking for what is next, but this situation has made me look at our house in a whole new way.  This is our home and this is where Madeline will grow up and where all of her memories will be based from when she looks back on her childhood.

I am oddly excited about the rebuilding process.  I almost think I have to be.  If I look at this as a hassle, the next 6 months will be even more difficult.  I truly believe that when things happen that are so out of your control like this, you have to embrace it, shake the dust off and move forward.  Why even look back and wonder, "Why did this happen to me?"  It is not worth the mental energy because trust me, you will need the mental energy for so many other things.

That being said, there is totally a business idea here hidden in all of this.  There are SO many moving parts in this process--securing the home, damage removal, dry cleaning, inventory of goods, pack out, insurance investigations, attorneys, etc.  That does not even include the rebuilding.  And, layer on top of that, the insurance company reminds you that YOU are the Project Manager and are responsible for every contractor that you choose to engage on the job, they just cut the check.  There really should be a consulting service who manages this for you...the sheer number of phone calls in a given day is incredible!

I have started to make my list of changes we will be making to the home:

1. We use to have an off white trim---I think we are going to go back to white trim (not 100% sure yet), but the off white was a little limiting with paint color choices 
2. Lighting fixtures- I am super excited about this for some reason and can't wait to make choices!
3. Our walls (other than the ones we painted) were all builder beige...I see a light grey in our future
4. 3 words--Freestanding Soaking Tub

I know the list will grow, as it always does.