Well its been three days since our lives changed and we all of a sudden have no home. We went by the house today and they are packing up EVERY single thing that is in the house. The couches are totaled and trash and the mattresses and random other things but the little things they put in boxes. Everything will go to this warehouse and try to be cleaned. If they cant clean and salvage it then they will give us money for what it is worth to replace it. These ladies are amazing. They are with Paul Davis Restoration and they will pretty much be doing all of the cleaning and fixing the house. They told Brandon today that just to fix the structural part of the house will be at least $80,000. That’s a lot of money. The ladies from Paul Davis Restoration told us when we are cleared to move back in they will drop off probably 200 boxes at our house and we will just have to unpack everything and put it back. Awesome.

We are trying to keep positive about everything though. We get new counter tops which were awful and I can’t believe someone thought they were a good idea, they will take down all the wallpaper that was put up for some reason, and they will repaint every wall in the house. Since they totaled the couch downstairs in the family room, we get a new one. We wanted a new one down there anyways and we get a new oven! Our oven was awful and old.  The clothing restoration company “Arrow” has also been really great. We got some clothes back from them last night which was really nice because we were each down to one pair of underwear. Everything was treated and sealed in plastic bags and returned to us. Its nice to have a choice to what to wear in the morning though!

It was really tough for me today going to the house. I kind of lost it when we left. It just smells real bad, everything is a disaster and its just hard to realize that this is really happening and we are really out of a house for at least 3 months. Ruby is with Brandon’s parents which is great but its kind of sad not having her with us. I’m secretly afraid that she will forget us and not ever want to come back home with us.

Anyways, tomorrow is Brandon’s birthday so we are trying to make it happy and fun and just take our minds off everything. We are headed to Manhattan to celebrate with Brody and just get out of here. What a birthday week, huh?! The next two weeks we are going to be finding a place to stay long term. We can really only stay in this hotel for 30 days max according to insurance and then they want us to rent a house or apartment or something.

The pictures are from today and just the progress. All the carpet is gone and all of the furniture and everything is being packed up and moved out. As soon as everything is out they will start construction. I believe their estimate was 10 days after the fire they will start construction. I think. So much information! Its really hard to keep it all straight.

Until next time