3 Months

The long and short of it: Three months somehow feels both very long and very short at the same time, but here we are.

As we move forward with our lives and look ahead to a new house, new stuff, and rebuilding what we had, there’s still a drumbeat reminder in the background of everything that has happened.

It’s been long enough that I now forget if I bought something in the “before times” or post-fire. I don’t remember if I ever re-bought that swim diaper for Theo….or that pair of tan boots for myself…or that coloring book for Avery. I might have ordered it in January, and it’s somewhere here. Or it might have been in December and it’s just ash. Guess I have to go look for it….🤷‍♀️

And, meanwhile, I still have at least once a day where I think “Oh we have a [box of old clothes to donate, gift card to that restaurant, bottle of balsamic vinegar]…..nope. no we don’t. nevermind”

It’s been long enough to start to forget the details of December/January, but it’s still been a short enough time for the loss to still be a little raw.

New House: Part of the feeling of a long time is that we put an offer on our new house on February 7th, but we can’t move still for another 6+ weeks. It feels like we’re stuck in this odd limbo state, and it sometimes feels like May might never come.

We’re starting to buy some key things, but trying not to overfill our tiny rental house too much. We’re trying to order some of the furniture we want, but have it delivered after we move in. It’s like a puzzle, and I just know that May/June is going to be pretty wild once we’re able to actually get into this new house.

Old Lot: Not much has changed here, but the lawsuit from the weirdo friend of George W. Bush has been dropped and public clean-up is set to begin soon. We will find out tomorrow in what order the neighborhoods will be cleaned. The local news did a piece on clean up yesterday, and the man in the story (Tim) lives down the street from us.

We’re lucky that our primary residence plan is already sorted, but we’re still in limbo with what we’ll do with the lot and when. We are meeting with a local home builder this week to try to get an accurate estimate of what rebuilding would actually cost. We’ve heard everything from $250/sq ft to $450/sq ft. And obviously that’s a huge range. Hopefully getting this information from a real builder for our specific lot (and the cleanup hopefully being underway soon) will help us wrap things up with insurance, make some final decisions, and move forward with those plans (build a house? not build a house? payoff mortgage? get construction loan? sell empty lot? hold empty lot?)

What’s Next: We hope to move into our new house in May, begin to get settled in, make decisions about our Muirfield lot, take a summer lake vacation, and move forward with clean-up and whatever is next. We’re excited that many of our neighbor friends have already found new homes to buy (we are ~4th of the 9 or so families we know well who have bought a new place already), but still sad that we won’t all be together on our cute little street anymore.

Avery got a special treat last weekend when our old neighbor, Mia, babysat for the first time since the fire. It went surprisingly GREAT, and we’re super excited to have Mia (and her brother!) continue to babysit for us even though we won’t be just across the street anymore.

Hopefully, the next update I write will involve moving into a new house and buying all new stuff. YAY!!!! Until then, stay safe and thanks for keeping us in your thoughts. ❤️