First of all -- Happy 2010 (a couple days late...haha)! I have a lot of updating to do... Let's start with the aftermath of my husband's office fire.
We still don't know what officially caused the fire. We speculate that it was something electrical (and definitely not arson). As far as rebuilding goes...we're waiting on the insurance company to give us an estimate. Just to give you an idea of how much damage was caused - to repair the roof alone would cost at least $100,000.
Here's a picture of the roof. And, no, this isn't a new skylight. :) It's a huge hole that the firefighters had to make in the roof in order to fight the fire. The office (which my MIL owns) is about 7000 square feet w/ roughly 3500 square feet in complete disrepair. We don't know how much it will cost to repair, but estimates range any where from $100 - $150 per square foot. You do the math...! The good thing is that no one was injured. I'm also happy that none of the sentimental things that belonged to my husband and his family were not damaged. Well, there was one "casualty" -- My SIL's poor Baby Sue (is that its name, Katie?):
Did you clean her up, K? :)
I don't know if any of you out there have been inside a smoke and water damaged building before, but it's kind of shocking (not to mention smelly) to see. When I went down to the office on the night of the fire, I was greeted with a hallway full of wet ash, soggy carpet, and extensive smoke damage. Let me tell you, the smoky smell lingers on one's skin and clothes for a long time.
The entryway to the office
My husband's office -- doesn't look damaged, does it?
The outside of the office.
Another view.
And, what now? Well, for the past several weeks my husband and MIL have had to work from their homes. Matt basically has to run all over town to get things done, but at least we can access many work related things remotely through a work computer. My living room is half living space, half financial office, but at least Matt can get work accomplished. We have found a temporary location, which, funny enough used to be a wine store. (Sarah, Dan visited this wine store when you were here for my wedding.) I asked Matt if the owners would let us use their wine racks w/ a fine selection of wine as wall dividers. I'd totally work for him if my cubicle walls were made up of wine and wine racks. hehe But, alas, that isn't an option.
Despite some temporary setbacks, we're moving forward, and I couldn't be more thankful for that.