The latest chapter

I'm not going to try to give a pictoral blow by blow of our life since we moved to New York. I will say that it was a little crazy. We bought a "short sale" house that didn't close until the end of August so we lived in a motel then borrowed Dedie's dad's camper trailer and camped at a state park on the Hudson through the summer. Meanwhile I had an office to set up and a secretary to hire and teachers and priesthood leaders to become acquainted with because mine was a new assignment that incorporated parts of a couple of previous assignments. Then when we finally closed on the house we had a lot of work to do in the yard and on the house. The first week we were there we replaced the ceptic tank and the list is long of all the things we ended up doing in the house. We bought the two bedroom house with the idea that we would save some money back from the down payment and add on a room or two. That was a learning experience in itself. We talked to various contractors, architects and designers and finally ended up with a great designer and the plan is to add a second story with a couple of bedrooms, a family room, and a bathroom. And downstairs we are extending the house a little and moving the kitchen and opening up a wall so the kitchen is connected with a great room. It will be nice when we are done. We had to make some changes to accomodate building codes so we wouldn't have to get a bigger ceptic tank and a new larger drain field and to accomodate the zoning board. But we finally had all that settled and were going to get our building permit on Friday when on Wednesday, February 23 (Dedie's birthday) we had a fire.







Here's what I wrote in an email I sent to family and friends:

We had a fire at our house this past week. It was Dedie’s birthday. Barb Larsen’s daughter Kayleen wondered if we put too many candles on the cake. Here’s what happened:

Wednesday morning I cleaned out the fireplace and put the ash bucket where I’ve kept it all winter, outside the back door where I can reach it easily not realizing there were live coals in the ashes. Then I started a fire for Dedie in the fireplace to take the chill out of the living room (we keep our thermostat set kind of low) and went to work. About 9:30 a man was driving by and saw flames up the side of the house and stopped and banged on the front door. It scared Dedie who was in the bathroom getting ready for a birthday lunch date with a friend. She went to the front door and asked who was there. The man said, “Lady, your house is on fire!” So she got her coat and Sadie and got out of the house. The man called 911 and some fire trucks that were down the road a couple of miles just leaving a house, were there in minutes. Consequently the damage was not near what it could have been if the man had not stopped to warn her and if the trucks would not have been so close.

Dedie called me and I ran out of the office and told Alex Pineda, the LDS Facilities Manager, whose office is next to mine that I was going home because I thought Dedie said our house was on fire. He followed me home and helped me board up a door and window and cover half the roof where they took off the roof caps when the firemen let us go up to the house after they had the fire completely out. Other ward members also came over to help us. The Relief Society President and the friend who was going to go to lunch with Dedie took her to lunch and she came back with a smile on her face.

We’re very grateful for the complete stranger who stopped to bang on our front door and that the fire trucks were so close. They were there in minutes. Consequently the damage was fairly localized in an area that we were going to tear out and change with a remodel we are planning to do. Half the attic trusses are charred. Another few minutes and the whole roof would have been on fire and then the rest of the house. And we also felt blessed by the help from neighbors, professional people and ward members. These are tender mercies from the Lord.

So we’ll be in a motel, then temporary housing for awhile. We’ve been having an adventure since we moved to New York and our house has been part of that adventure. The adventure continues. Life is good.