House Fire

It is amazing how much can change in a day. We are just thankful that no one was home and everyone is safe.   The house is pretty damaged in the garage, attic and roof, but still standing.   We will be living elsewhere for 3-4 months while they repair/rebuild.   While the inside does not have much fire damage, we are quickly learning that smoke damage is just as bad.  And we have a lot of smoke damage.   Pretty much anything plastic in the upstairs is 'non-cleanable'.   Think about how much stuff you have that has plastic on it--- toys, kitchen items, bathroom supplies, etc.   I love to shop, but not that much.   They do not have a cause for the fire, so we will never know what really happened.  They are thinking electrical.  We are quickly learning a lot about fire, fire damage, repair and insurance.   We are really lucky to have Farm Bureau insurance; the adjuster has held our hand through this whole process and our insurance agent had us set up with amazing coverage so we are not stressed out about that.   While it is not an easy, it could be far worse and we are counting our blessings.

Here are a few articles from the day:

KCCI Coverage

WHO Coverage

What Really Matters

I may get sad thinking about this

 

 then I remember that this is what matters most

it stresses me out thinking about all the time, effort and money that will go into repairing this

but then this little girl smiles at me and I know I can get through anything

we worked so hard to be able to have a nice place for our children to live and now it looks like this

 but having friends that sing and dance to "Ring Around the Rosie" with our daughter is what she will remember when she grows up

 society places a lot of emphasis on material possessions

 when family and friends are what truly matters

Thanks to everyone for the offers to help, the thoughts and prayers, and being there for us during this rough time.   We lost material possessions, those can be replaced.  The people in our lives cannot.

Find Me!

Nick was out on a bike ride the other day and I was working in the kitchen. Ellie went into our bedroom and I didn't hear anything from her for a few minutes. All of the sudden I heard "find me!" with lots and lots of little giggles. I went in to look for her and this is what I found...



Sure enough, she had climbed into our bed (which she had not been able to do before the new bedroom furniture) and hidden under the covers. In the past, we have put her under the covers while playing "run-run" (aka Hide-n-Seek), so she knew what she was doing there. I guess she doesn't need our help anymore. She was so proud of herself and repeated the action over and over again. Too bad she has not figured out how to get out of our bed on her own.

Table

We are loving our new kitchen table. And really loving the fact it came in 3 weeks early! It is so much bigger than the old one and can extend to fit at least 10 people. We got counter stools to match. Ellie is a huge fan of sitting at the counter so she can watch Mommy or Daddy cook. It all fits our life-style perfectly!

New Furniture

I called Homemakers on Saturday to check on the status of our furniture order. The first group of items were supposed to be in this week sometime. The second group were not due until April. The wonderful customer service rep I talked to said everything from the first delivery was in except for a couple of nightstands (which will fit in our car if they are not in before delivery on Friday). And when I went to set up delivery, they asked if we wanted the second group of items delivered as well, or if we wanted to wait for the last counter stool to come in. I asked the lady to repeat herself, since I was not expecting the items to be in for another 3+ months. Sure enough--- everything but one counter stool has arrive (and the counter stool will fit in the car very easily!) So... our furniture is set to arrive sometime on Friday!!! All but those three small pieces. I feel like a kid the week before Christmas.

This also means that Ellie will have her first night in her big girl bed on Friday, and we will have all weekend to work on keeping her in bed before we have to go back to work/day-care. I am nervous- but given how wonderful she has been with all the other changes it will probably be easy (and if not, we are about due for a difficult venture). AND she will get to use the new bedding I picked out for her! I have been eying the bedding since we first found out we were having a girl almost 2 1/2 years ago! When they were discontinuing it this past fall I finally broke down and purchased it. I hope Ellie likes it as much as I do. I know, she probably won't care, but I can pretend. When the day-care lady asked her what color her new room was (when we first moved into the new house) she said purple... it is currently green. Now she will get the purple room she wanted! Pictures to come once we get everything set-up.

*And once we have Ellie's furniture we can set-up the baby's room and I can start unpacking the bins of tiny little girl clothes that are in the basement! Lots of fun to keep me busy for the next 10-12 weeks.

Occupancy

I was getting our bills ready for the builder yesterday and noticed that a few days ago the hotel stopped charging us the "occupancy sales tax" and "state occupancy tax." I thought that was odd and wanted to make sure the bill was correct, so I called the hotel to verify. Sure enough, after living in a hotel for so many consecutive days you establish residency there. We are official residents of the hotel. Never thought that would happen.

As my co-worker put it: I can cross that off my bucket list. Too bad it was never on there in the first place, and is something I hope to never experience again.

We are still scheduled to close on the new house tomorrow and will be waiting around for the certificate of occupancy to arrive (crossing our fingers that occurs tomorrow as well). Wish us luck!

New House

I am finally feeling better, and getting more and more excited about the new house. Although closing keeps getting pushed back, they are making progress. I realized I haven't posted much for pictures of the new house--- so here are a few. Nick is more of the picture taker, so I only have a few of them available to me right now.

The lockers:
Having lockers was one of Nick's requests. I agree with him that they will be great for getting the kids ready to head out during the winter months. It has since been stained a dark brown color to match the kitchen. Now I just have to find some cute baskets to put in the cubbies to hold shoes and winter gear!

The outside of the house with the siding on it:
It is hard to pick out siding because you never know how the colors will look together and on the actual house. We drove around and around looking for color combinations that we liked (originally we wanted something OTHER than tan). In the end, we put three colors together we thought would look good and went with it. I wish the shakes (the brown color) were a little darker. Nick wishes they were a little lighter. Once the outside lighting was added it really brought the colors together (sorry-- no pictures with the lights at this time). According to the sample photo, the official front door should be dark brown wood. You cannot really tell in the picture, but the front door is taller than a normal front door, we call it the Brad Door after one of our taller friends, Brad. It is different--- so of course Nick loves it because he loves anything that is different than the norm (I like it as well).

The walkway to the front door:
We left the quarter circle as dirt and will put some plants and rocks in there next spring. It is actually a lot bigger area then I was thinking it was going to be. We are happy with the stone on the front of the house. Also one of the choices that you don't know how it will look until it is up. We have two pillars that will be put in on the front porch. It will make the porch look smaller, but I think it will add to the design of the house.

We went out to the house today to get the mail and see how progress was coming. This is what we found:
Cabinets! So much space to fill with fun kitchen tools. Now all those bins of kitchen supplies that were in the basement at the last house will finally have a home. And anything without a home will be donated to Goodwill (my agreement with Nick). The picture is a little dark--- it was taken with my camera phone. I love the under cabinet lighting, our Realtor recommended we do that and I think it was a good choice. The island will have the sink and the dishwasher, along with a eating place for a few chairs. Makes me want the next week to go by really, really fast as I cannot wait to get into a REAL kitchen again!

We hope to be moving in a week from tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that we do not get pushed back again, as the hotel is getting old for all of us and another weekend is not desired.

5 on Friday

1. Our first week of potty training has gone great! Yes, we had accidents. But overall Ellie is a champ and catching on very quickly. Yesterday she made it the whole day at day-care without any accidents! She had one #2 accident with Daddy at home that night. Going #2 in the potty is going to be our challenge.

2. Last night I joined my aunt at an A Muse Studio Open House (card-making supplies). Oh what great ideas! I think I am motivated to start my arts and crafts again (it has been 9 months!). Unfortunately....

3. ... the card-making will have to wait a little while longer. We have a house to pack-up since we have to be out of it in 2 weeks. I think we may start packing this weekend--- we just have to find boxes.

4. Once we get the house packed up we will be moving... to a hotel... we found out yesterday that our house will not be ready for our September 30th closing. Our builder has offered to put us up someplace until the house is done (2 weeks to a month). Instead of unpacking in an apartment for 2 weeks I think we are going to move into an extended stay suite hotel. Not ideal, but we will make do. I told Nick, "When we go to move into our new house Ellie is going to be used to sleeping in the same room as us, having a indoor pool to swim in each night, and a hot breakfast each morning. Do you think she will be disappointed?"

5. Ellie and I survived our 4 days alone (and it sounds like Nick had fun on his bike get-away). Thanks to Megan and Liam (and Mike and Baxter) for letting us hang out with them on Saturday. On the way home I asked Ellie who she played with that day. She responded, "Ba-ter." I guess the puppy is all that matters to her.