As time goes by... the FINAL post

Well in the fall of 2013 we had a sweet baby boy and I thought I would be able to catch up on the blog during the time at home... but then the 6 weeks I was home flew by, then I went back to work and time flew EVEN faster...and then ... Well you will see later in this post the next bit of an adventure we had.

Well enough with the excuses about being lazy :) and now on to finish this blog.

Here are the before and after pictures of each of the rooms in our beautiful home

Front Living Room (east side)

Front Living Room (west side)

Kitchen

Frog Room

Office

Downstairs Bathroom

Staircase

Upstairs Bathroom

Upstairs "Master" room

Upstairs "Baby" room

Backyard

Exterior House View

And after all of that work, we were working on the exterior of the house to re-paint and sadly that is the finished picture that will never be... During the paint removal a screw was heated slightly and caught some old paper in the attic and it caught like tinder (I suppose 100 year old paper is EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE).  That paper smoldered in the attic (from what the Fire Chief could tell) for about 24 hours and then when our attic fans kicked on the flames took over.    There were so many tender mercies from the Lord through this event...

Here's a recap of the events

My baby had just woken up from his nap, I went up to get him but had to go to the bathroom first (which was where I saw slight smoke under the lights)  I didn't think that my house was on fire, it seemed more like some smoke had blown in the windows we had open but I decided to grab my little boy (but left my phone, honestly thinking I would be going back in) and head out to ask my hubby about it... we never went back into the house.

When I was outside with my husband he said all was well, but then someone stopped their car and asked if we were ok, we were confused and hollered to tell them all was well... then suddenly other cars were stopping and we were told all was NOT fine... we ran out to the corner of the lot only to see giant pillars of smoke coming off the top of our house.

I called 911 and stood across the street clinging to my baby..Todd ran back in, grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran upstairs to put it out... once he realized it wasn't something he would be taking care of he ran back and forth trying to think of what to grab, he grabbed nothing.   He ran downstairs grabbed keys and moved our cars, strangers went into our house and grabbed out the entertainment center/TV, jogging stroller, basket of toys, and Todd grabbed our computer.  I stood still, clinging to Finn and not believing what I was seeing.

Firemen came within minutes and checked with me to make sure everyone was out, they asked if any valuables needed to be grabbed (I couldn't think of a thing, at that moment everything precious to me was in my arms and busily moving our cars).  I couldn't tell you any of the names of the firemen, or even describe them, but I can tell you I have never been more grateful for the amazing and selfless work that they do.  The firemen went inside and then when that became too dangerous they grabbed our animals (some snakes and frogs) and then started shooting water in from the top.  Since construction was done so different 100 years ago, it made it extremely difficult for them to put the fire out it kept catching in different areas in the attic and the layers and wood construction of the roof made it nearly impossible to get a good shot at the fire.   During the 3 1/2 hours the fire was burning, I was watching, helpless, and still in shock.  There were SO many strangers, friends and loved ones that came to be there for us; they brought blankets, clothes, snacks, money, hugs, and support.  That was the last night we lived in Logan, that night we drove down to Layton to stay with Todd's brother and his family.  After that it was weeks of back and forth to Logan, trying to get out what was salvageable, and working with the insurance adjuster.  We were then put in a rental in Farmington and life started feeling a little more normal, but we missed our house and our yard.  Since Todd had a job in North Salt Lake and we were planning to move down this way anyways we chose to replace rather than rebuild our house.  We found a house and we have now been here for about 6 months, we don't have a lot of stuff but we have what matters, my family and a safe place to live :)   I am so grateful that I kept this blog - or at least tried to :) so we at least have pictures of our first home, now if you drive by you might not even know there was a house on the corner but sometimes I like to imagine it's still there :)