2 am block party...

This has been THE most hectic/stressful week we've had in a long time...and let me preface the whole thing by saying that there will be no pictures (because I'm not at my own computer, can't even find my camera and didn't get any picts of anything) and you're getting the short version of the story, because I'm not sure that I have the energy for the long version.

So, from Saturday to Monday I cleaned the whole house, from bottom to top, including baseboards, walls, and all the nitty-gritty stuff that never gets cleaned. I even dusted my vacuum. Ryan power-washed the house, porches, sidewalk, etc and by Monday evening we were feeling exhausted, but really proud of ourselves. Fast-forward to 2am, when we hear loud banging at our door and see firetrucks and ambulances the whole way up our street (3 different fire companies represented) Ryan goes downstairs and I hear, "Sir, you need to get dressed and get everyone out of the house immediately." So, he grabbed Owen, I grabbed Aves and as soon as we rushed out, 5 firemen in full gear, each with a different sized axe, barged in our house and up the stairs. They tell us the townhouse connected to ours is on fire and they may have to go through our wall to get to the blaze. If they can't get to it within a couple minutes, the whole house WILL be burned down. I'm totally thinking about the hours of scrapbooking and all the precious picts I have, Ry is worried about his dumb deer and duck mounts, Owen is completely excited about the tons of lights, firefighters and activity going on and Aves is sleeping through it all. So, they got the fire out and after 2 hours the fume levels are low enough that it's safe to go back in. Owen is too wired to sleep and Ryan and I were surveying the damage...at this point, it didn't seem like much, other than the horrible smell.
Tuesday morning Ry went to work and by 8am, the detective was knocking at my door for an interview and a written statement about the things that went on prior to the fire. I can't get into these details, but call me if you want them, cause it's amazing. It ends up that the fire was arson (maybe I can share the rest of this story after the drama dies down) and our house had a lot more damage than we thought. We have been sleeping there, but that is the most we're allowed in. We had to have our ceiling and insulation in the basement ripped out and replaced, the whole house cleaned from top to bottom (again!) we'll need new paint everywhere, carpets cleaned (maybe replaced) and the newest kicker is that they may need to rip down all our walls in the basement and tear out the insulation because they cannot get rid of the smell down there. It was the worst damage down there, even thought the fire was started on the second floor. I guess the humidity makes the smoke go down. It still burns your eyes to go down there.
We're just very thankful that we're all safe and the worst things we had to go through were headaches, Owen throwing up a couple times, and a little inconveinence. When we talked to the police, they kept stressing how close we came to losing the whole house. So, we may have to be out of the house next week again for painting...maybe over night a few nights for more ozone scrubbing in the basement, but if our walls in the basement can stay intact, we'll be back to normal shortly. So, if the posts are even more few and far between it's because life is busy these days. Just wanted to update! Hopefully, I can give the details later...until next time!