6 Months – June

What started as a pause of posting here because we didn’t really have any updates has quickly become a case of “Omg, there’s too much going on, there’s no time to post an update“

But, we’re back! I’ll try to summarize what we’re up to and what we expect next. It will be long — but there’s been a lot going on, so…get a snack halfway through. 😉

March and April were pretty uneventful for us. We were in our rental in Broomfield, taking the kids to school, back at work, and generally having “normal” life while waiting to get into our new house.

We had a small disagreement with our Boulder landlord, but that’s about it. She lied to our insurance company saying we stole random stuff from her house like kitchen tongs and a food processor (thinking she’d just get money from insurance and we’d never find out, but we did). When I called her on it she apologized and promised to return the money.

But then, of course, she didn’t return all the money. And insisted that she sacrificed *so much* for us to stay in her house. She had to pay $4000 to stay somewhere else during that time and didn’t make any money on renting us her house, so we owed her (to be clear, we paid her $7000 for 1 month’s rent). When I tried to explain how subtraction works (7000-4000 means she made 3000), she just didn’t get it. Math is hard.

In the end, we let her keep the money she lied for, her non-working oven, and her moldy washer (plus the dirty underwear she left for us in her utility sink). I wish her the best in whatever life gives her next.

May – Anyway-things started to get a little spicy in May. I’ll go timeline style to try to fit it all in:

• May 6 – Officially took possession of our new house! The former owners, Mike and Heather were AMAZING and so accommodating to some early deliveries, fridge repairs, painter estimates, etc. This was purely a financial transaction, but in total contrast to the landlord mentioned above, they had nothing to gain and just wanted to help. We are forever grateful that they picked us for the house and were so kind throughout the whole process, offering furniture, supplies, etc.
• May 7 – Our new car arrived!! Our VW Golf was in our garage at the old house, so we’d been down to 1 car for the first few months of this year. This was generally fine, but it’s really nice to be back to two cars! We got a Subaru Ascent, so have extra space for hauling boxes to the recycling center (there are soooooo many boxes!) and eventually for family road trips.
• May 9-13 – Painting the new house! We painted most of the interior of the house with some new colors to make it feel like ours. We also had dozens of deliveries of furniture, etc. The FedEx guy is basically in our family now.

• May 14 – COVID hits! The day after painting was complete, Nick tested positive for Covid on a rapid test. The rest of us were all negative, so I took the kids to get PCRs, since it seemed weird to just be Nick. Avery had gotten like 3 exposure warnings at school the week before, so we were all but certain that if we got it, it would come from the kids. And…to no surprise, the kids both came back positive…but somehow mine was negative.
• May 15 – 22 – COVID was clearly not what we needed the week of moving, full house carpet cleaning, 8 in-home furniture/appliance deliveries, 2 Task Rabbit days, Gramps’s 70th birthday, etc. Keeping the kids home from daycare all week, avoiding all human contact, having no help from friends/family was not how we were hoping this would go. But apparently, when we do something, we DO IT BIG. I eventually also had COVID a few days later, of course.
• May 23-26 – With Theo still home for a few more days (Avery was cleared to go back to school after 5 days, since she can wear a mask at school — but Theo needed the full 10 days), I got back to work for the week and Nick took care of Theo. We prepared for Amy and Chris to visit the next week, and to host our first dinner at the house with Tom & Debbie and Tom’s sister and husband who were visiting. We got to finally celebrate Tom’s birthday a bit with his sister in town, and start to settle in a bit.
• May 27 – But of course, we also had bad news. We had to say good-bye to our kitty Steven that same week that things were settling into normal-ish. We had learned in September 2021 that Steven had a large tumor on his liver. We had expected he had a few weeks to live then….but he kind of made a turn around and seemed healthier through the holidays and through our first couple house transitions of 2022 (there were 5). But over the last few weeks, he’d gotten increasingly skinny and didn’t seem to be doing great. When Eddie passed away in January, we knew Steven wouldn’t have much longer. They were best buds, and cuddled up with each other 90% of the time. It’s hard to find a picture of Steven without Eddie in it, because he was much more shy without his buddy by his side.
• So, after a vet visit where we confirmed the worst, euthanasia scheduled for the next day, and then a night and morning full of sad goodbyes, we let Steven go. He was so ready, and went peacefully. We miss him everyday, but hope that he and Eddie are somewhere in the beyond cuddled up and warm.
• May 28 – And then good news again!! Amy and Chris arrived for a week-long visit. Avery had an absolute blast playing with Amy and Chris while they were here. She still asks every few days when they can come back again. Hopefully soon!!!
• May 29 – Housewarming party! We were showered in love and support by all our friends and neighbors who came to celebrate our new place. It wasn’t the weather we’d hoped for, but we had a great time seeing everyone. And we’re excited to host more gatherings and friends as we settle in. Thank you everyone who came!!!! Thinking about that day still brings me a lot of joy, and it really made me realize what a great community of people we have around us here — even though we moved here during a pandemic and haven’t had all the traditional opportunities to build community.

June – Phew! After an epic May, June has continued to keep a good pace. But mostly of more normal things. We have furniture now (mostly), we aren’t moving again (God willing), and the house tasks and vendors are getting more infrequent. It’s not dozens per week, it’s 1-2.

We’ve still been hit by sicknesses and hiccups, but they’re mostly the normal kind again. A little pink-eye here, and little sinus infection there, some bronchitis there….but also some trips to the neighborhood pool, riding the cargo bike to school, and going to the occasional restaurant (what a treat!!).

The major updates of note about the fire/lot are:

• Tree project – When our burned lots were marked for cleanup, they determined which trees would stay/go. And…about 95% are slated to go. We had one large tree, and it was marked for removal. So, we jumped into action with a tree company to see if we could take the tree ourselves instead of just tossing it out. We have plans to do a small fireplace wall project, and it would be pretty cool to use some of the wood from our old tree for our new fireplace mantel. So, on June 3rd, we had the tree removed and transported the trunk to a milling company in Denver, who is going to mill it, dry it, and kiln it so it’s ready to become a new mantel. It will take a few months for it to all happen, but we’ll update here with progress!

• Insurance – In the first few weeks after the fire, our insurance company (Homesite) paid 75% of our content coverage, 100% of our base house coverage, and they’ve been paying our rent for temp housing. We’ve now paid off the mortgage on the house (with the insurance money), and are expecting some additional funds in the coming weeks as they settle that our rebuild would cost MUCH more than our initial coverage, so we are entitled to our extended coverage policy. They’ve confirmed that buying our new home does qualify here, so now it’s just about proving the cost of potential rebuilding. By our calculations, we would probably have to spend $150-$250K out of pocket to rebuild at today’s construction costs. We are asking for less than that AND saving the insurance company from additional coverage like green building, driveway/landscaping, etc. This feels like a win-win, but we still need to cross a few more hurdles until we get the details sorted. Keep your fingers crossed we can be DONE with insurance soon!
• Lot Cleanup – Once we heard that clean up was coming to our neighborhood, we finally took the kids over so they could see the house remains. Theo is too young to really understand it all, but Avery definitely got some of it. We showed her the remnants of her old bed mattress, and she recounted her memories of doing bounces on that bed before bath, and that she loved that bed. After crying intensely for a few minutes, we all took a few photos so that the kids will have some artifacts of all this for their future selves.

• Cleanup started in late-May and finished in mid-June. There are still more steps involved, like soil testing, inspections, etc. But the main work seems to be complete.

• Listing – And now that cleanup is done, we wait. We listed the lot for sale, but we’ve heard from neighbors whose sales are pending that there are outstanding questions about when the electric company will be repairing the infrastructure to our neighborhood (which would allow the construction company to work without generators). So until those timelines are resolved, we don’t really expect any offers on the lot. Obviously, the macro landscape around interest rates also isn’t in our favor, since it adds to uncertainty in the housing market in the coming years. At this point, we’ll just wait and see what happens. There’s nothing more we can do. If you know anyone who wants nearly 7000 sq ft of dirt in beautiful Louisville CO…..let us know!

And now, after 3 months of updates in 1 post – thanks for reading! We’re finally settled and ready to host visitors in our new house. If you’re coming to Colorado, want to visit, etc. we’re here! We have visits coming up from Grandmom in July, and the whole Kleinschmidt crew in September for cousin Valerie’s birthday!

We’ll update again as things progress with our tree project, insurance, the lot, and visits. Until then — thanks for the continued love and support.

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In Loving Memory of Steven – Oct 31, 2007 – May 27, 2022