Okay, so I dont' really know if there was any fire. We never actually saw flames, but we did have the fire department at our house over the holidays.
On Dec 28th we were remodeling our home. We had the kids go to Grandmas so that when we knocked the plaster down in the back room. the kids wouldn't be breathing in the dust. We were using our wood burning stove (we had used it the day before too). As my brother and brother in law left after helping us with remodeling, they both joked "hey, your house is on fire". We saw a small amount of smoke coming from above the light fixture on the porch. We all actually thought it was just a reaction. The front room was probably 70-80 degrees with the fireplace going. So we thought because it was so cold outside, that maybe the warm and cold was making it smoke, steam, sweat, something like that.
Well, my husband gets back home from the store and I show him the smoke. It was getting worse and he looked outside. The chimney area was starting to turn brownish. We stood in the front room and then heard a crumbling in the wall. So my husband grabbed the cordless phone, I grabbed some documents from the next room, my coat and my camera. All were grabbable on the way out the door.
We called the fire department and first the police came. They had just come from another fire call, but it was a false alarm. No real problem. They looked at our house and said "yes, there is a problem". The firemen came and cut a hole in our roof, cut a hole in our front room ceiling and bedroom ceiling. Then they started axing into the outside wall. That is when I saw a TON of smoke coming out. That wall between the fireplace and the outside was burnt. Some of the wood was completely gone. We never saw actual flames, but it may have gotten so hot that is smolder burnt the wood.
One of our friends grew up in that house and said he had gotten that wood burning stove MUCH hotter than we had it. So it wasn't an issue of the heat, but something just went wrong. We wonder if maybe the birds that have moved into the roof area dropped some nest pieces down the chimney or if the Box Elder bugs went down. Who knows?
Anyway, we have been staying at my parents home. My youngest has no idea what's really happening. Just that we are at Grandma and Grandpas and she is having a blast. My 3 1/2 year old wants to go home. We showed him the house and he kept asking his Dad to fix it.
Things will be okay. It's just stuff. It will be a pain in the butt to figure all this out. But at least I have my family. (WRITTEN JAN 2nd)
UPDATE:
We are in process of cleaning the house. We decided to do the work ourselves even though it will be a lot of work. Today we had: My husband and I, my father-in-law, brother-in-law, his friend, our home teacher, relief society president, her husband helping out. We actually got quite a bit of stuff packed. We are going to go ahead with our remodeling jobs that we had planned, since stuff is in disarray anyway.
We are tired, but actually quite optimistic. This gives us an oppertunity (spelling??) to go through all our stuff. I've thrown out some stuff and it's really giving me an idea of what I want to keep and what I don't want to keep. I am going to take pictures of the place during the different stages, so maybe someday I will post the goings on.
I haven't been able to really catch up on the blog reading. We are staying with my parents, and they have dial-up. !!!!! :( Anyway, Just wanted to let anyone who might read my blog see what's up.
By the way Tristi, I keep trying to check one of your books out from the library, but it is always checked out when I go. That's a good sign for you I guess.
