Cleaning up

Since Saturday, both Brad and I have pretty much avoided Ground Zero. Being near it is creepy and disturbing, kinda like looking at a car that's been smashed up in a bad accident. If we look away, we can almost forget that Home BBQ 2008 ever happened. And as long as we don't go into the acrid, stinky basement of our house, things almost seem normal. (At least during the day...I've been having a LOT of trouble falling asleep at night. It's hard to relax when you assume every weird house noise is fire-related. But I think that will pass in a few weeks.)

But we're going to New Hampshire this weekend for a wedding, and didn't want to leave Ground Zero like it was. It invites gawkers, and it's just ugly. We've already had our insurance inspection and our repair estimate -- so it was high time to clean up.

Last night, my brave husband spent many hours stripping siding, shoveling ash and boarding up windows. Now, it pretty much looks like a home improvement project gone wrong -- which I realize is not good, but it's better than the remains of a blaze that almost destroyed our home. Here's Brad with one of his many "manly" tools (seriously, as artsy and sensitive as the guy is, he can't pass up the opportunity to use a power saw). It made me nervous to watch him go up to the top of the ladder to get the siding on top, but I kept telling myself, "families don't have two disasters in one week..."



We need to get some stuff sorted out with Allstate (for the most part, they've been awesome) and our contractor, but it looks like they'll be able to get everything fixed up within the next two weeks, and we'll be as good as (or better than?) new. I have a feeling that even after it's fixed, it will take awhile to walk into the backyard without feeling nauseated. The whole thing is still so weird.