The New Year

Well, we did not have a great finish to 2010. While driving home on Dec 30 from dropping off Big Sister S at her mother's house, and a great meal at Mom and Dad's, the Lovely One gets a call on the cell from our friend, H asking if we are ok. "Yeah we're fine" with confusion... "Well I think your house is on fire, there's fire trucks outside your house!" Meanwhile, we are over 2 hours away on the highway. And Dog and Cat were in the house. Driving home we were both worried as hell, and it was probably the longest two hours of my life. And one of Lovely's blogging pals contacted her. She was worried because her husband was on scene, and she heard on the scanner that the fire was at our house number! It turns out, it was our next door neighbor. Her kitchen was on fire. A fire started in the oven overhead fan, and not her fault at all. The damage to her kitchen and house was fairly major. Between $60-70,000 was the estimate. Nobody was hurt, our furries are ok, many thanks to H for getting our pets out. Because of the smoke, H had to get an inhaler from her doctor because it affected her breathing. Thank you, H!! But our house smelled awful for the smoke that came in. Needless to say, our house was inhabitable. It smelled like a big campfire that had plastic bottles tossed on top. Ugh!!
Luckily, we have contents insurance. But "smell smoke damage" is kind of an intangible. There was no VISIBLE smoke damage. But everything just reaked. Our clothes, bedding, the pets, everything. We spent the night at our friend, H's house. And our most excellent friends, K&R volunteered to take Wee Man for a sleepover. We contacted our insurance company and an adjuster was there that night. The restoration company, ServiceMaster provided these huge machines called Air Scrubbers to purify the air. Oy vey!! And they took some emergency laundry for us, but because of the holiday weekend, it wouldn't be ready til Tuesday at the earliest. AAARRRRGGHHH!!
So, off to a hotel for who knows how long. Actually, it was sort of relaxing, once we were calmed down. Lovely and I relaxed and had a quiet New Year's Eve, which we celebrated *wink*. And the hotel served an excellent breakfast every morning. Wee Man had two more sleepovers (thanks K&R!!), S&J graciously lent us their laptop because we were bored of TV. The king sized bed was SUPER comfortable with awesome pillows. But the strange surroundings messed with Wee Girl's schedule and such. So we didn't get alot of sleep. So, $600 later for the hotel bill, right after Christmas, plus still having to pay our regular rent for January, the cost of eating out for lunch and dinner for 4 days, and throwing out about $150 worth of food when we finally got home, and gas back and forth from the hotel ($50)....+ + +
We're not sure what insurance is going to cover, but everyone is ok, and I guess we are going to have to absorb the costs. Our deductable is $1000, but even with everything, our losses may not total that amount. But at least it happened in 2010. And my wonderful partner, handled everything incredible, despite her anxiety and panic issues. She is the best. I can't believe she handled it so well. And we also found out what awesome friends we have!! We are slowly getting back to normal routine and we are very happy to be home. We are both feeling good and optimistic for 2011. Lovely was pretty bummed out because she is working hard to lose weight, and she gained a few pounds back during our hotel stay. But it was because of extraordinary circumstances, and now she is back on track, and happy. I'm happy we are back, and I'm pretty excited to see what 2011 brings.