We Didn't Start the Fire

I know, now you have the song stuck in your head. Join the club. This song has been on loop in mine since June 11th at approximately 3 am. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back a couple of weeks.

May 22nd, was a pretty good day.

He designed that ring. And just wait till you see it with the wedding band.

This is one of a couple good shots T got the day of the proposal. He went full on paparazzi  after handing me the ring,

RIGHT?! He did such a good job!

T lives two hours away. We've been long distance the entire time which is a testament to that man's commitment and willingness to drive not just two hours to my place, but sometimes four hours to visit me at my parent's house. This spring we started going on walks together before one of us would drive back to our respective homes. There are numerous nature parks near his place and he took me to one that "gives Lord of the Rings vibes." He's not a reader, but bless him, he wanted to find some trees to propose by since I talked about Lotr for the first 3 months of us dating. I was doing a read through in 2020 and he sat there and listened to me cry about the ending for a good 20 minutes right after I finished. He's kind, smart, dorky, and incredibly faithful to show up for anything my family needed including moving extended family or driving me home to be with family when we got bad news. He also completely understood the importance of keeping ourselves in low Covid19 risk scenarios so that we could see my sister whenever as she battles Leukemia. 

We decided to elope with immediate family to keep my sister's risk low and allow her to be in the wedding. The plan was simple- get married by a judge to make it legal & follow up with family ceremony with cake and pictures. My brother was going to officiate, my sister's would be brides maids, and T's cousin would be his best man. If we were lucky we'd get some good wedding shots and some new family pictures. We picked June 11th for the family ceremony which left us only 3 weeks to get everything in place. Time seemed to wiz by as I finished out my last two weeks at my job, started packing, and organized wedding shenanigans. The night before the wedding I did my obligatory wedding craft and packed for the honeymoon. We had been legally married at the courthouse by a super sweet judge a week earlier.

Did we pick the reception date based on the Fibonacci Sequence? Yes. Are we still keeping that date? Also yes. 

T went to bed at midnight, and I was "close" behind at 1 am. We woke up to phone calls at a quarter to 3 from the Sheriff's office. There was a structure fire. We asked which building (the property has 3 including the house). It's the house. Were we home? Is anyone else in there? Are there any pets? Apparently they'd been trying to reach us for an hour. We sat there in shock. Told them to look for our cats. They found one of the cats in the house, but he was already gone. The other cat was no where to be found. The fire chief said he didn't need us at the house right now since it was supposed to be our wedding day. The whole crew wished us congratulations and condolences. How strange it is to not only be feeling multiple emotions at once- but to have strangers acknowledge and hold space for us in that call. Unsurprisingly we couldn't get back to sleep. In about 5 minutes we decided to cancel everything for the 11th because we just couldn't face a party that day and we so longed to see the house for ourselves. While the sheriff did send a few photos, it was too dark to tell the extent of the damage. They said that fire got into the attic so most things would have water damage if they didn't have fire damage. 

This is the back door T always used. You can see that there was lots of damage inside

The amazing fire crew worked for over an hour to be able to get in the building

From this we knew the kitchen and storage rooms were gone

T suggested that we get up and head to Perkins and then make a plan from there. Eating breakfast sounded like the best plan. We left Omaha at 5:30 am, which got us to T's place just after 7:30. I was not ready for what we found.

View when you first come up the driveway

Fire burned straight through the structure

Ceilings and electronics MELTED

The heat blew out every window in the house

That's a melted elliptical on the left. There was no fire in this room. Just heat, smoke, and water damage. 

Fire started by the back entry/kitchen. The trees on that side of the house look like fall came early.

We are so thankful that we weren't home when the fire started. It was by the main entrance that T used and spread very quickly. I am not sure we would have been able to get out of the house. After looking around and seeing everything smoldering, we talked with the fire chief. He was so kind. The sheriff already put an extra patrol by the property. Utilities had already been turned off. It is such a bizarre feeling to have all your new dreams literally go up in smoke. T had been renovating for a couple of years and we had so many plans and projects on how to make the place such a special home. But there is nothing left. A blackened shell to tangibly show that things have CHANGED. We knew nothing could be salvaged in the structure. We looked for the one cat and then just left. 

Whisky- our missing kitty

We drove to my parents to crash for a few days while insurance started working out all the details. We slept and mourned; we cracked jokes and started lists; we started learning how to live in limbo. We got so many mom hugs from Sweet Lady. Insurance takes so much time. The agent we have has been great, but we have to have adjusters come out and we need to get quotes from contractors and demolition crews. All while trying to find a rhythm while living in a hotel. My parents are wonderful, but just too far from the property while we are trying to locate a lost and frightened pet. 

Living in a hotel is a soulless endeavor. I have honed in my ways to make a place feel like home and I can't do many of them here. But I did find a cute sign that survived because it was in the shop! 

The amount of joy this brought me cannot be expressed

I also cooked a homemade meal here. It's a long stay hotel so we have a little kitchenette and you can check out cooking utensils and small appliances from the front desk. Cooking made me feel so much more like a person. Would definitely recommend being able to do something you love shortly after a catastrophic event. I am very thankful that I married a kind and witty human. He's been an absolute gem for not murdering me since I keep absentmindedly humming "We didn't start the fire" for actual weeks. I did also change the words of "this girl is on fire" to "our house is on fire." That one actually elicited a chuckle and I am certain it is proof that we are meant to be. That and the fact that he was equally excited that our hotel is next to a Texas Roadhouse which means we can pickup food by just walking across the parking lot. Praise. 

The next couple of weeks look a lot like me calling a bunch of people - insurance adjusters, contractors, demolitions crews, and maybe even some relators. We have to decide if we want to rebuild or if we just want to take the money, sell the lot, and move somewhere else. We will look at any suggestions for new living locations. Until we make our call to rebuild or not, insurance will have us at the hotel. If we choose to rebuild they'll look at moving us to a rental property that they will pay for while we try to get a contractor lined up. I also have an interview for a job. I wasn't planning on interviewing from a hotel room, but here we are. We'll also keep working on our list for insurance and revamp our wedding registry as we are now needing many more things than we did before. 

We drive out to the property at least once a week. We were going every day, but after a week we are pretty sure that our cat hasn't stopped by in a while. I have made friends with one neighbor cat that I am calling Shadow until I can find it's owners and learn it's real name. 

Today was gorgeous- high in the low 70s and a good breeze. We mowed and passed out flyers for our missing cat. And we just enjoyed the space because it really is a beautiful little acreage. 

Enjoying our space when we can

We also had a chance to catch up with a couple of neighbors today while we were working. Found out that the ones to the north had seen the fire first and had apparently stayed up until the cops could get a hold of us to make sure we were safe. They even promised to put out extra cat food to see if they can lure our cat out of hiding. All in all it was a really good day today. 

Till next time,

Honey Love (it's what T calls me)