Renos, A Move, and One Fire

I hadn't posted much about the house for a couple of reasons.  (Carl,  you'll appreciate all my number lists in this post).

1) We were busy

2) There were other more exciting things going on

3) I was being mindful of not sharing too much information and I'll explain....

So we got possession of our house in mid-April but didn't move until the end of June.  Carl was staying at the house one or two nights a week and then we as a family would stay one night on the weekend.  Because of insurance, we had to stay there a few nights, but I didn't post that so that some roaming creep could find out from the internet that our house was vacant on a regular basis!  We wanted to stay put in our community so our kids could finish school, but we also had work to do in the house.

The main project was the bathroom on the second floor because it was poorly configured and wouldn't work for a family of 6. My mom's cousin has a reno business and his partner Dave took on our project.  Dave is stellar and though construction took longer than we expected (and is still happening while we live here) it is AWESOME.   With an older home Carl and I decided that a large project is better left to the professionals, especially to deal with surprises. Nonetheless, Carl and I are pretty handy so some of the jobs we did/are doing are:
1) installing a dining room fan (5 minutes on the box, 4 days in reality....)
2) installing the plumbing and vents for the washer and dryer
3) putting in the vent for the range hood
4) finishing the deck and staining it
5) painting the bathroom and kitchen
6) installing blinds on the main level
7) touch ups in all the bedrooms

We also had some basement work done and will probably have more to decrease heat loss in the winter.  The attic guy is coming next week to insulate and so there continues to be an endless list of jobs to do.  Then came the moving day.....

That was met with a very short night the night before because of a "quick" trip to the hospital with Kezia.  She's fine now, but an infection got quickly out of hand and she needed antibiotics immediately.  After 4 hours of sleep, up an at 'em to help our friends and family load all our stuff on trucks and trailers.  We managed to get everything in one trip and get everything cleaned by lunch time.  Off we drove.


Once we got to the house, many things were already unloaded and clogging up rooms and passage ways.  It's a bit intimidating thinking that though everything is in, the next big job is sorting through and unpacking.  But that could only be partially done because: (this is for you Carl)

1) the kitchen cupboards were taken down as part of the chimney removal in the bathroom, so kitchen unpacking was only partial
2) because Dave was still using our bedroom as his tool room, we had no bedroom to move into
3) we don't have bedroom furniture anyways, so.....
4) because there is still work to be done in the basement, Elena's room was packed to the ceiling with bins and so her playpen was cramped onto one side with the crib still in pieces

The girls' room was set up, plus our bed and Elena's dressers.  Joel's room is probably the only one in the house that has exactly what it should and not much of anything extra.

Okay, so we were looking at all the construction and the bins and feeling quite tired and blissfully happy to be in our own space but feeling weird because in Asha's words, "It feels like we're living in someone else's house and they are going to come back soon,".

And then on the 4th night in our new home, a large blazing inconvenience.

Elena woke me up with fussing and as I put her back to sleep, I thought I smelled smoke.  As I walked to look out to the backyard, I was horrified to see that there was smoke billowing from our garage.  I hollered to Carl and we called 911 to report the fire.  It was probably only 10 minutes before the fire trucks came but in that time the flames were shooting up in the trees and the hydro wires had been melted.  We got the kids up in a hurry and rushed them out to the front lawn to wait inside the fire trucks.  They were tired and confused and slightly amused to be in a fire truck.  But the mosquitoes were getting bad and they gave us the clear to head back into the house.

It didn't take long for the fire to be put out and for the fire marshal to walk around and take pictures, for the police to ask questions and for the cable guys to come and get the cable hooked up.  I had to laugh that of all the services, the cable guys were on the scene so fast.  We had to wait a few hours for our power to be reconnected again because of other needs in the city.  And the phone guys had hundreds of wires to re-wire that were melted.  It took them 2 full days and oh, I felt bad for them working in that heat threading and threading and threading.

In the morning, we surveyed the damage in the garage and around on the trees and were thankful that the fire didn't spread to the house.  Seriously, that would have been devastating.  So we thank God for protecting us and the neighbours and realize the stuff is just stuff.  Yeah, we packed it up and hauled it from one town to another and now we have a bit less of it because of the fire.  But nothing of sentimental value was in there and we can see how God is working it all out.  Insurance will replace bikes.  Neighbours are coming over to see how we are doing.  People bring over poppy seed cake and loan us their mower.  And one guy down the street is looking for work and guess what he does?  Builds fences and garages.  Despite some crazy fire bug and the inconvenience of it all, God still can use the situation for good.

But in all, I'm hoping for the dullest most uneventful rest of the summer.