Handling a House Fire
Hi again! So... something I never would have expected happened to us this weekend... a house fire! We have been in our house almost 2 months on the dot so obviously we never thought this would happen, especially so soon. Luckily, I work for a great insurance company that provide great coverage. Even with knowing our home is in good hands, it is still not the 'ideal' situation. I am currently moved back in with my parents for the time-being... and back to sleeping in a twin bed. It feels like we have taken 5 steps forward and 10 steps back.
Here is a short timeline of events for the incident: Sunday morning, I went to the local art fair with my mom and her friend thinking it would be just like any ordinary Sunday. About 30 minutes in to our stroll around the art fair I received a call from Matthew, and the phone call went something along the lines of this-
"You need to order an Uber home right now."
"Okay... why? I just got here!"
"There is an emergency."
"Okay... well what is the emergency??"
"There is a fire in the house."
And that was that. I suggested that next time he maybe lead with the fact that there is a fire in the house rather than beating around the bush [HAHA!].
Any-who, long story short, the oven caught fire when Matthew was making a pizza. Needless to say, the pizza turned out "well-done" *bah-dum chh.* We not only tragically lost a pizza in this incident, but we also lost our oven and most likely a lot of our personal belongings to fire and smoke damage. Even with all of this going on I have actually stayed relatively calm throughout the process (so far... it's only been a couple days). I surprised myself with how little I cared about all my belongings, and all I cared about in the moment is that Matthew and our pets were safe. Even with that being said, obviously I am still bummed out that we have had a house fire... when we haven't even been in the home for a full two months yet.
However, there is always a silver lining! We were planning on remodeling the kitchen in a few months anyways as soon as we were finished with all the "cosmetic" painting and cleaning. Since this fire happened it has kind of kicked us into gear for planning a kitchen remodel.
Something that has really stood out to me for a long time is soapstone countertops (see my inspiration above from Traditional Home). Soapstone has been used in kitchens since the 1800's so you never run the risk of it going out of style (timelessness is what I always strive for, especially in a kitchen as that is ALWAYS the most expensive room in a home... You don't want to have to replace your entire kitchen every 5 years with styles that are too "trendy"). Soapstone counters have been around for over 200 yet are still widely used, and look AMAZING and timeless. Another timeless look is a shaker style cabinet (which is what we will be installing in our kitchen). You can always change the color and hardware, but the straight and clean lines of a shaker cabinet is always in-style.
Below is what I have found in our local Home Depot. The countertops will be the soapstone, and we will be adding a long and skinny center island in the marble (or walnut, I have not decided yet.. either way we will be building the center island ourselves). The hardware will be brass (I have already purchased the handles from Amazon a few months ago before we even closed on the home) because we were planning on redoing the kitchen eventually anyways. I am going to Rub 'n Buff the handles so they look more like the brassy/warm tones I am going for. I already have copper pots that I purchased from an estate sale that I am planning on displaying in the kitchen. The dark paint color in the center of the left photo below is going to be the cabinet color, and the Ultra Pure White from Behr is going to be on the walls. The Soapstone looks very dark in the photo on the left, but the photo on the right is more accurate to what it looks like and what I am wanting the end result to be.
Here is a short timeline of events for the incident: Sunday morning, I went to the local art fair with my mom and her friend thinking it would be just like any ordinary Sunday. About 30 minutes in to our stroll around the art fair I received a call from Matthew, and the phone call went something along the lines of this-
"You need to order an Uber home right now."
"Okay... why? I just got here!"
"There is an emergency."
"Okay... well what is the emergency??"
"There is a fire in the house."
And that was that. I suggested that next time he maybe lead with the fact that there is a fire in the house rather than beating around the bush [HAHA!].
Any-who, long story short, the oven caught fire when Matthew was making a pizza. Needless to say, the pizza turned out "well-done" *bah-dum chh.* We not only tragically lost a pizza in this incident, but we also lost our oven and most likely a lot of our personal belongings to fire and smoke damage. Even with all of this going on I have actually stayed relatively calm throughout the process (so far... it's only been a couple days). I surprised myself with how little I cared about all my belongings, and all I cared about in the moment is that Matthew and our pets were safe. Even with that being said, obviously I am still bummed out that we have had a house fire... when we haven't even been in the home for a full two months yet.
However, there is always a silver lining! We were planning on remodeling the kitchen in a few months anyways as soon as we were finished with all the "cosmetic" painting and cleaning. Since this fire happened it has kind of kicked us into gear for planning a kitchen remodel.
Something that has really stood out to me for a long time is soapstone countertops (see my inspiration above from Traditional Home). Soapstone has been used in kitchens since the 1800's so you never run the risk of it going out of style (timelessness is what I always strive for, especially in a kitchen as that is ALWAYS the most expensive room in a home... You don't want to have to replace your entire kitchen every 5 years with styles that are too "trendy"). Soapstone counters have been around for over 200 yet are still widely used, and look AMAZING and timeless. Another timeless look is a shaker style cabinet (which is what we will be installing in our kitchen). You can always change the color and hardware, but the straight and clean lines of a shaker cabinet is always in-style.
Below is what I have found in our local Home Depot. The countertops will be the soapstone, and we will be adding a long and skinny center island in the marble (or walnut, I have not decided yet.. either way we will be building the center island ourselves). The hardware will be brass (I have already purchased the handles from Amazon a few months ago before we even closed on the home) because we were planning on redoing the kitchen eventually anyways. I am going to Rub 'n Buff the handles so they look more like the brassy/warm tones I am going for. I already have copper pots that I purchased from an estate sale that I am planning on displaying in the kitchen. The dark paint color in the center of the left photo below is going to be the cabinet color, and the Ultra Pure White from Behr is going to be on the walls. The Soapstone looks very dark in the photo on the left, but the photo on the right is more accurate to what it looks like and what I am wanting the end result to be.
Below are some photos of the damage. Matthew said the flames were shooting out from the oven through the stovetop, and when he opened the oven door flames shot out and melted the knobs. When the oven pan melts that's when you know it was hot. But like I said, there are always silver linings. The trick I use for unforeseen events: remember things are only things, and if your loved ones are safe that is all that matters.
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