These days when I mention our house fire people ask, somewhat startled, why our house isn't finished. It is a long story and one that gets tedious repeating (partially because it is so frustrating-having lived through it). I also want to be better at documenting this so here is a summarized explanation.
One must understand that smoke seriously damages everything. While the actual fire was confined to one section of our house, the smoke did serious damage, ruining about 95% of our belongings. The entire interior of the home had to be gutted.
The entire process is rather involved and had to be taken in steps.
1) The personal property adjuster and his assistant went through the entire house with my husband and oldest son cataloging every single item in our home, making lists with value. Because we had replacement insurance, it meant they had to estimate the depreciated value of the items as well as estimate what it would cost to replace those items at current market value. However, that was a moot point as we maxed out our personal property claim. (Yay! We didn't have to save receipts. We could just buy what we wanted and needed, within reason of course.)
2) After all the property had been accounted for, a contractor was engaged who then did the demo on the house.
3) The fire started in the garage as a result of a rechargeable battery. Because the insurance company wanted to recover their loss, they decided to pursue litigation. A fire inspector was employed and the garage was left intact so he could access the damage and make the determination. Once the fire inspector made his recommendation to the insurance company lawyers, they (the lawyers) contacted the liable company. That company then had to send out their own fire inspectors to assess the damage and do their own investigation. Cue investigator and lawyer dickering. We weren't actually privy to any of those interactions because the investigation and lawsuit have nothing to do with us.
4) Once the investigations were concluded by all invested parties, the contractor did the garage demo and then cleaned the house.
5) Because we didn't know any contractors, the insurance company assigned us a contractor to get started on the work. This is where the situation got bogged down. This company took several months to draw up plans and an estimate without consulting us. We planned to make changes to the floor layout and wanted to provide input. The contractor didn't listen to us, despite us reaching out several times. Finally, just before Christmas, they set up a meeting, with full architectural drawings and a complete estimate for the house. It was an unhappy meeting as the contractor balked at the suggested changes and told us we were out of money to do anything else. After a couple weeks of discussion and consulting with a friend who builds high-end homes, we discovered the estimate had about $75,000 worth of additional profit sneakily written into the quote. We decided not to accept the contractor's bid.
6) Then we had to find a contractor. Using friend recommendations, we solicited a few bids and did our homework. Finally, we chose a contractor we thought we could work with who would listen to us.
7) We purchased our home as a four-bedroom house. We pay taxes on our house as a four-bedroom home. The room in the basement was so large that we wanted to divide it into 2 rooms. When we started investigating our septic system to see if that would be possible, we discovered that the septic system on the town records was only zoned for a 2 bedroom house. My husband spent a lot of time at the town and county offices trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually, we hired a septic engineer to investigate the size of the tank. The truth is our septic system isn't quite up to code and while we were doing research, we realized that we might have to completely redo the septic system and dig a new well, something that would significantly eat into our building budget. Fortunately, we were given permission to do a workaround. We will have to install a new tank and some other things, but it won't be a totally new system, at a much lower cost.
8) Once that was resolved, we could move forward with hiring an architect to draw up the plans for the town. Fortunately, we met with a fabulous designer, Peter Fillerup, who owns Anson Fillerup Design, who made a gorgeous and practical design for our home. Armed with those plans, we worked with the architect to make sure everything was up to code. This took a while though as the architect was quite busy and didn't complete the plans as quickly as he should have.
9) We submitted the architectural plans to the town to receive the necessary building permits a month ago. We are still waiting for the permits but are told they should be ready this week. (Cue the angry face emoji). In the meantime, the contractor was given permission to get started. He started ripping out the ceiling and floor joists that were damaged by the fire.
So there you have it, the entire saga of why our house isn't rebuilt yet. This process has been more frustrating and traumatizing than the actual fire itself. It is really hard to be in a place of feeling like being in permanent transition never quite moving forward.
One must understand that smoke seriously damages everything. While the actual fire was confined to one section of our house, the smoke did serious damage, ruining about 95% of our belongings. The entire interior of the home had to be gutted.
The entire process is rather involved and had to be taken in steps.
1) The personal property adjuster and his assistant went through the entire house with my husband and oldest son cataloging every single item in our home, making lists with value. Because we had replacement insurance, it meant they had to estimate the depreciated value of the items as well as estimate what it would cost to replace those items at current market value. However, that was a moot point as we maxed out our personal property claim. (Yay! We didn't have to save receipts. We could just buy what we wanted and needed, within reason of course.)
2) After all the property had been accounted for, a contractor was engaged who then did the demo on the house.
3) The fire started in the garage as a result of a rechargeable battery. Because the insurance company wanted to recover their loss, they decided to pursue litigation. A fire inspector was employed and the garage was left intact so he could access the damage and make the determination. Once the fire inspector made his recommendation to the insurance company lawyers, they (the lawyers) contacted the liable company. That company then had to send out their own fire inspectors to assess the damage and do their own investigation. Cue investigator and lawyer dickering. We weren't actually privy to any of those interactions because the investigation and lawsuit have nothing to do with us.
4) Once the investigations were concluded by all invested parties, the contractor did the garage demo and then cleaned the house.
5) Because we didn't know any contractors, the insurance company assigned us a contractor to get started on the work. This is where the situation got bogged down. This company took several months to draw up plans and an estimate without consulting us. We planned to make changes to the floor layout and wanted to provide input. The contractor didn't listen to us, despite us reaching out several times. Finally, just before Christmas, they set up a meeting, with full architectural drawings and a complete estimate for the house. It was an unhappy meeting as the contractor balked at the suggested changes and told us we were out of money to do anything else. After a couple weeks of discussion and consulting with a friend who builds high-end homes, we discovered the estimate had about $75,000 worth of additional profit sneakily written into the quote. We decided not to accept the contractor's bid.
6) Then we had to find a contractor. Using friend recommendations, we solicited a few bids and did our homework. Finally, we chose a contractor we thought we could work with who would listen to us.
7) We purchased our home as a four-bedroom house. We pay taxes on our house as a four-bedroom home. The room in the basement was so large that we wanted to divide it into 2 rooms. When we started investigating our septic system to see if that would be possible, we discovered that the septic system on the town records was only zoned for a 2 bedroom house. My husband spent a lot of time at the town and county offices trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually, we hired a septic engineer to investigate the size of the tank. The truth is our septic system isn't quite up to code and while we were doing research, we realized that we might have to completely redo the septic system and dig a new well, something that would significantly eat into our building budget. Fortunately, we were given permission to do a workaround. We will have to install a new tank and some other things, but it won't be a totally new system, at a much lower cost.
8) Once that was resolved, we could move forward with hiring an architect to draw up the plans for the town. Fortunately, we met with a fabulous designer, Peter Fillerup, who owns Anson Fillerup Design, who made a gorgeous and practical design for our home. Armed with those plans, we worked with the architect to make sure everything was up to code. This took a while though as the architect was quite busy and didn't complete the plans as quickly as he should have.
9) We submitted the architectural plans to the town to receive the necessary building permits a month ago. We are still waiting for the permits but are told they should be ready this week. (Cue the angry face emoji). In the meantime, the contractor was given permission to get started. He started ripping out the ceiling and floor joists that were damaged by the fire.
So there you have it, the entire saga of why our house isn't rebuilt yet. This process has been more frustrating and traumatizing than the actual fire itself. It is really hard to be in a place of feeling like being in permanent transition never quite moving forward.
