"pat, just a note to let you know that we're almost back in our home, our 'new' home that is. i'll send you pics once the move in is complete. it's good to see my wife smiling again. i never thought i'd see light at the end of the tunnel, but thanks to our two sons, we've gone from homeless due to the fire to in a new home in just a little over 2 months. that's quick imo. very quick. if it hadn't been for our oldest son who is in the housing construction business, my wife and i would still be floundering trying to find out who is honest and who will the do the job in a timely manner, etc.. anyway our son took the bull by the horns and assumed gc overseeing duties, and in just days after the fire he had 'his' workers out doing the old structure demolition and reframing. it was a finely tuned opera to stand back and watch. both my wife and i were going 'wow'. our youngest son worked with our oldest to ensure that the house would be on the cutting techno savy edge. we even have a water heater with a 'brain' no less. the house is totally wire with cat5 high speed data/phone lines, all energy effecient and such. we've gone totally electric with high effenciecy heat pump and such. my wife is smiling. just the other day she hugged our oldest son around his neck and he thought she was going to snap it she was so overjoyed and happy. i'm firmly convinced that if it had been in the middle of the night, it would have killed both the wife and i. somebody upstairs was/is watching over us.
pics soon to follow. hope everything has been going good with you and yours.
have a good evening."
Excellent news, thanks for posting this.
Posted by: markfromireland | 19 April 2011 at 09:05 AM
J your karma is showing. Congrats on raising such good sons.
Posted by: Charles I | 19 April 2011 at 10:55 AM
Terrific news and yes J you are lucky. Now for the 500K homeless in Japan and the 1M homeless in Haiti.
We do live in a rich country comparatively at least.
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 19 April 2011 at 12:45 PM
Wonderful news.
Posted by: walrus | 19 April 2011 at 01:40 PM
J, Glad to hear the good news about the house. You also added to the uptick in the housing market. But most of all I congratulate you and your wife on raising such fine sons.
Posted by: optimax | 19 April 2011 at 01:52 PM
Great news, great news!
Posted by: BillWade | 19 April 2011 at 04:55 PM
The one good thing about a recession, all the subs are crouched and ready to pounce!
Great news.
Posted by: Mark Logan | 19 April 2011 at 05:00 PM
If you are living in a periodic wildfire area, are there ways to make the house fire-resistant or fire-tolerant, and to create a fire-retardant yard and grounds landscape if the yard is big enough?
Permaculture founder Bill Mollison wrote an article about fire-retardant landscaping for Australia where brushfires get very hot.
http://nmag.soton.ac.uk/mollison/html/07-fire.html
I read somewhere that fast-moving very hot fires can start housefires by virtue of the infra-red heatray blast from the fire-front heat-blast exploding the glass from the windows . . and then the infra-red heatray blast flash-ignites the house interior surfaces. That article suggested putting a shiny metal-coated window sized panel up outside each window (if time permits) so
the infra-red heatray blast will be reflected back at the fire and kept out of the house for the minute or so that the flame-front is advancing and passing.
Posted by: different clue | 24 April 2011 at 08:57 PM
We're finally moved in as the house is completely finished. My wife once again has a (really big) smile on her face in the mornings.
Thank you to one and all for your kind words and well wishes.
Posted by: J | 02 May 2011 at 12:31 PM