Day 2 PM – Jan 1 2022

We didn’t realize we’d have so many updates per day, but we want to record this for ourselves and share with everyone who’s been so great to us over the last 48 hours.

We’ve had a very productive day in figuring out some of our short-term (next few weeks) and medium-term (next 6-18 months) plans. And we’ve continued to benefit from everyone’s generosity, kindness, and love in all the forms. So thank you again.

Short-term (next 7 days) – Our amazing friend Sam has offered her home to us next week. It’s about 30 minutes north, in Longmont. But it’s an amazing house, with backyard, local parks/trails, and the works. We are so grateful for her incredible generosity and care, and are excited to hang in her house and eat her food while she’s out CRUSHING the Disney Marathon Challenge in her fundraiser for ACS. Did we mention she beat cancer during COVID? Oh, well, she did. A fucking badass goddess.

We’ve also been in touch with the owners of the kids’ daycare. They are so incredibly supportive, even though they are currently dealing with no heat, no internet, and potential sprinkler issues at the school. They are hoping to be open next week — maybe not Monday, but maybe by mid-week (as long as the sprinklers don’t blow, which would be catastrophic). We’re hoping they can open soon, since we’ would love for the kids to be with their familiar teachers and friends during this crazy time.

But, if they are not open, the owners have already secured spots for both kids (at no additional cost) at their partner location in Longmont (near Sam’s house, where we’ll be next week). Sam’s house is also three minutes from our amazing househelper/savior, Claire, who is already jumping into action to help us out in several ways. Like helping us find housing we can be in for a while ↓

Medium-term Housing (6-18months) – Thanks to lots of folks helping with leads and links, we have already looked at several options for medium-term housing via AirBnb, VRBO, friends, property management, etc. Our insurance company also has a relocation company working on finding properties for us to rent (most of that will kick off on Monday/Tuesday). They will cover the cost of something similar to what we had, up to a total amount. We’ve heard this total amount is potentially negotiable in situations like this where we will be in an incredibly competitive rental market because of the mass destruction and sudden flood of demand in a small area. But we’ll worry about those details another time.

Our top option right now is that our landlord from August-September 2020 (when we first moved to CO) has a property available in February very close to the where we stayed back then. We’re planning to go see it on Thursday. So far, the listing looks good and we already know that we love that neighborhood and it’s super convenient to everything we want to be near. Our priorities are being near Avery and Theo’s daycare, and being near Nick’s parents house. Hopefully this will work out (or maybe the relocation company finds us something even better) in the next week or so, and we’ll have a plan.

We’re pretty concerned about the supply/demand of rentals in the area, given the 991 homes that were destroyed.

Only thing not insured – We cancelled the comprehensive policy on the 2011 Volkswagen long ago when the value decreased enough that it didn’t make sense. So we’ve been saying over the past couple days how bummed we are that we didn’t bring it with us when we left.

So Nick went online to cancel the policy today (since it’s literally toasted) and…he saw we DO have comprehensive coverage! We switched providers 6 months ago, and the new provider had a better price than we had before. Plus, we had attached a hitch bike rack and realized that if we wanted our bikes insured in a crash, we’d need that coverage. We had just TOTALLY forgotten about this change until today. So — another big win for the day.

Incredible generosity – This afternoon, we spent most of our time calling neighbors and friends and trying to get a sense of how everyone is doing. Lauren came by and dropped off an incredible amount of stuff for us. We are totally set with clothes for now. Not to mention: toys, games, books, and basically enough stuff to get us through several weeks. We are so so so grateful for friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, and everyone everywhere who has made us feel so loved and cared for. There were a fair amount of tears shed again today, but about 90% of them were because we are just so so thankful and touched by everyone reaching out and sending love and support. Ever heard of a roller coaster of emotions? We are riding a roller coaster we could have never even imagined before Thursday.

The house visit – After Lauren headed home and we got the kids situated with Granny and Gramps, we left to go see the house. The evacuation orders for much of Louisville were lifted today at 2pm, and people were heading back to their homes that weren’t damaged or destroyed. It goes without saying that this was a very scary and stressful trip to make. There were a lot of deep breaths, sighs, and a few tears in the car on our way there. Oh, and the streets were covered in icy snow.

As soon as we could see the neighborhood from past the high school, we were presented with a totally different view of a place we’ve driven hundreds of times. With the help of some lovely policemen, we were directed to park right in front of the barricade blocking our street.

“That’s our house”

They still aren’t allowing anyone near the houses, because they’re all still smoking/steaming under the snow. It looked almost like a hot spring must be bubbling under 6 inches of snow. And the smell was awful. Debbie’s jacket that she lent Kate may never be the same.

We stood under the traffic light that used to bleed red into our upper window at night. And we looked towards the steaming lots.

To our utter surprise, we didn’t burst into tears or break down upon seeing the house/lot. We’d seen it hundreds of times on every news broadcast the day before. We’d seen the truly terrifying videos of raging flames for hours the night before, wondering if our house was there, if everyone was safe, and continually feeling like it can’t be true.

But, we knew it was true when we got there today. We knew what to expect. And, of course, we’re surely having a trauma response, so realize this minimally-emotional reaction may just be part of that too. Time (and therapy) will help us unpack that later.

So, we started trying to see what we could see from this distance. Wishing we had binoculars, we spotted 4 identifiable things:

• Yellow Arrow: The wall mounted weight rack in the garage.
• Red Arrow: The aforementioned Volkswagen Golf in the garage
• Blue Arrow: A column of the stonework around the garage door
• Green Arrow: The metal framing of the box our outdoor sofa cushions lived in.

You can also see a bit of the foundation of the living room peeking out on the right. But other than that, it’s just snow on top of ash and smoldered metal.

If you never saw our house before (and so few have, you know, pandemic and all), here’s a “pre” look at what you’re seeing above. The blue box is around the same column the blue arrow points to above:

We hung around for a while, and met (again) some neighbors who live on the corner lot right where we were standing.

As we were getting ready to head out (um, it was 4’F outside…) we realized the 5pm news broadcast was about to start right in front of us. The reporter was getting ready, the camera man adjusting buttons…..and the “clean up” crew vehicles were put into place for the shot.

At 4:56pm they placed a few pickup trucks, some men in hard hats, etc. right behind the cameraman’s shot and made it look like there was a bunch of action happening.

To be clear, at 4:42pm, when the first photo above was taken, there was NOTHING happening. All of these crews were placed for the news just minutes before broadcast. As gross as that is, it’s the least of our worries right now, so we’ll move on.

Here is the clip from the broadcast:

And here is our view of the broadcast from where we were standing:

After his clip was done, we headed back. Our fingers and toes totally numb, but in some ways our hearts given one small bit of peace. We don’t have to stress anymore about what it will feel like when we first see it in person.

We assume over the next days and weeks, we’ll slowly be able to get closer and see more. Maybe even walk in the backyard once everything is safe. We’ll see what happens.

But, in (not at all) short, we’ve seen the house. Well, we’ve seen the lot where the house was.

And we’re moving forward.