At Home with the Hastys - The House Fire

Okay, this blog is normally reserved for all things books, including reviews and highlights, author Q&As, book jacket designer features, and audiobook narrator interviews. But there’s been a growing interest in my home rebuild process on Instagram and there’s just SO much to say on the subject that I thought I’d start a series of posts on this blog. This is the first installment to answer the question, why am I rebuilding our home?

Let me start from the beginning. In November of 2019, my husband and I bought a condo in Chicago, the first home we owned. Do you remember how excited you were when you bought your first home? How, after closing (despite it being completely empty and not yet thoroughly cleaned) you wanted to just set up a blow-up mattress in the living room and just revel in the fact that you owned this place?

Despite those desires, we waited two weeks as the place was freshly painted and cleaned. On November 22, we moved our things in, spent two days unpacking all of our belongings because we were so eager to get settled in and make this place feel like home. On the morning of Sunday, November 24 we left our home for the first time to go grocery shopping to fill our new refrigerator. A refrigerator we owned, we marveled. I was hesitant to leave because I’m a Dog Lover (note the capital D and capital L) and I’d read all about how dogs need time to adjust to their new home and you shouldn’t leave them for long periods of time during this adjustment period. But it’d been two days and our dog, Huxley, looked very content curled up on the sofa.

We were gone for about an hour when my husband received a phone call from the fire department informing us that our home was on fire and that they’d rescued our dog. My body went cold, and my mind raced through everything I’d done prior to leaving the condo. Did I blow out the candle? Yes, I distinctly remember blowing it out and even waiting for the smoke to subside. Can Christmas lights cause a fire? I think I remember reading somewhere that Christmas lights can malfunction and start fires, but surely I turned them off before leaving? During this time, despite having driven to the grocery store, we ran back to the condo to find our street swarming with firefighters.

I found Huxley and held him close as it dawned on me that this was not the type of fire that you put out with a fire extinguisher. This was big. This was bad. We later found out that the neighbor below us ran a self-cleaning cycle on her oven...then. left. the. house. PSA #1: Never leave an operating oven unattended. PSA #2: Never run a self-cleaning cycle. Period. Every firefighter and every oven repair person and every oven salesperson I’ve spoken to since then tells me it is incredibly dangerous and a common cause of house fires.

I remember a neighbor telling me to call our insurance right away and I panicked. Had we gotten insurance yet? My husband assured me that you cannot buy a house without insurance…but whether our insurance was any good, that was yet to be determined. Because who really reads the fine print on insurance contracts? I mean, you’ll probably never need it, right? PSA #3: Check your insurance policy. Make sure you’re adequately covered. Pay extra attention to your “Loss of Use” clause which determines where you’ll be living while your home is being rebuilt. It can be as little as a few months or as much as several years. It can even be a dollar limit. I’d recommend you have two years of coverage for your loss of use (you know, just in case you happen to be rebuilding during a global pandemic when things like city permits take FOREVER.)

There is nothing quite like not knowing where you are going to sleep that night and only having the clothes on your back. Word traveled quickly and I began to receive texts from family and friends. What do you need? Many of those texts went unanswered because the truth was, I needed everything. I needed something to wear tomorrow, I needed toiletries, I needed someplace to sleep that night, I needed food and water and a leash for my dog. I mean the list was endless and just thinking about it all made me nauseous. Instead, I just sat on the sidewalk and watched.

When we were finally let back inside (a couple of hours after we’d returned), the damage was extensive. EVERYTHING was damaged by fire, smoke, water, or all three. We took what valuables we could find, jewelry and original works of art, because the home would be exposed until the windows could be boarded up. A friend of ours invited us to their place until we could figure out what to do next. They gave us food and water and played with Huxley while Eric and I got in touch with our insurance to figure out where we would sleep that night.

We also had to go shopping because we didn’t have any of the essentials. I owe several sales associates an apology for bursting into tears when they cheerfully asked what they could help me find. Can you imagine this conversation?

Salesgirl: Welcome! What can I help you find today?
Me: Bursts into tears.
Salesgirl, turning to my husband: Is she okay?
Husband: She’ll be fine. She needs something to wear tomorrow.
Salesgirl, hesitantly: What’s the occasion?
Husband: No occasion, she just needs something to wear. We had a house fire and won’t know for several weeks what clothing, if any, was salvagable.
Salesgirl: Leave her with me, I’ve got this.

And she did. She thought of everything including the fact that I’d need something to wear for Thanksgiving and Christmas and that I’d need tennis shoes for when we went back to clean up the house. That girl was a rockstar, I hope I thanked her. I should probably go back but how can you possibly thank someone for being so kind and understanding on the worst day of your life?

2020 has been tough for everyone but on top of adjusting to a global pandemic and all the sacrifices people are making because of it, we have weekly meetings with the other owners, the general contractors, and the various vendors that will make our condo a home again. It has been a roller coaster with more lows than highs. We are ready for more highs!

Anyway, I’m not going to take you through all the gritty details of the fire aftermath. Fast forward to nearly a year later, and we are finally FINALLY starting the rebuild process! The fun part, or the silver lining, as everyone says. That is what the AT HOME WITH THE HASTYS series is all about: putting our home back together. You can expect a post about my search for a new home fragrance (since I now associate our old candle and reed diffuser scents with the fire). Of course, there will be a post on the other fire survivors: the house plants (and a memorial for those we lost.) Plus all the details on our kitchen and bathroom redesign, what floors we’re choosing, and all that other “fun stuff” I saw on HGTV and swore I would never take part in. haha! Joke’s on me. That’s what I get for saying I never wanted a fixer-upper.

Hi.

Sep 22 The House Fire