It was on July 1st that we had the fire here after our house was hit by lightning. That forced us to find temporary housing while repairs were made and insurance was wrestled with (though neither is complete, yet), and we were very fortunate to find a rental that had just been listed and which, it turned out, was a house belonging to a family who were Stacia's former clients for two of their homebirths. And a couple weeks ago, appropriately enough, it was nine months later, at the end of March, that we moved back into our house.

A lot has been done in that time to get the house back together. We still have many things yet to do before we get back to a completely livable house (and close out the construction permits). Electrical work included replacing all the old knob-and-tube wiring in the front of the house. But the newer Romex in the back still needs to be tested, and if any of it turns out to be damaged, that will need to be torn out and replaced.

We also moved a lot of stuff to the rental and now have to unpack that and get re-accustomed to where things should go, or in some cases, try putting things in a different place. Stuff that didn’t get pulled out of the house when we decamped to the rental had to at least be moved into other parts of the house just to be out of the way for the work; and that was only semi-organized at the time, since it was done with haste. So all of the getting settled is going to take some time.

But, getting back into our own house again is good, even if things are still somewhat chaotic here. The rental was ideal as a place to land, and there were some things about that place and that neighborhood that were nice features to have access to. But, for getting things done, it is easier to not have to go back and forth between two places, and simply be here to do all the things.

I got a couple of craftsman-style fixtures for the porch lights flanking the front door. There are many like this but with three panes along the top. But since our house has a 4-gang of front windows in the living room, and those have the top sash divided into four panes each, I wanted to find a lantern with four panes at the top. The fact that it also looks like the TARDIS from Doctor Who is completely unrelated, and I have not (yet) put a blue light bulb inside.

In addition to things that still need to be finished as a result of the fire - replacing the porch ceiling bead-board and the siding on the front gable most notable among these - there are also all the other things we want to do as part of general maintenance and repair. One corner of the steps to the front porch was apparently gnawed on by chipmunks while we were away, so there are a couple boards to be replaced. And there's gardening to do, and other things we were wanting to do before we got displaced.

One thing that had been a pending project was making the breakfast nook off the kitchen into a more usable space. When we moved in, the kitchen, and the nook, were carpeted. That was the first thing we tackled the day after we took possession of the house, getting that torn out and the underlayment removed down to a stable layer, so we could have linoleum flooring put in. The original intent was to extend that into the nook, as well, but when we were taking up the old flooring, we discovered that it had the same narrow strip oak flooring as most of the rest of the house, but it was in rough shape after being under the other flooring. Refinishing it never seemed possible while we were in the house, with people living in the space and particularly trying to keep the dogs out while work was going on. So I took advantage of the empty house and a couple weekends before we moved back in I went through and sanded the floor down to get the grubbiness and roughness cleaned up and then finished it. So I have again now done floor finishing on at least some of the hardwood flooring in every house I've owned. The built-in benches are in decent enough shape, but the old table top was not great, so we had pulled that out to take out the carpet, and never put it back. But, as I was working on the floor, I came up with an option for the table.

My grandfather’s drafting table is one of my beloved pieces of furniture; for me, it’s a family heirloom. I also have an inclined drawing board that I inherited from him, as well, but I never had a good use for it. In fact, I was thinking about getting rid of it, and had it out in the front hall next to the front door at the time of the fire. So it had ceiling and insulation and water fall onto it when the ceilings collapsed from the firefighting. But, despite those insults, I salvaged it, and it was mostly okay despite everything it had been through. I hadn't yet gotten rid of it when it occurred to me it might be about the right size to use as a temporary tabletop for the nook. It turns out it was exactly the same width as the old top, though it's not quite as long. But the real genius in this is that, when I took the two angled boards (which gave it its inclined pitch) off, they were the exact length to make a leg the same height as the wall cleat that supports the tabletop at the wall. (And their angle is a good match for the angle of the backs of the built-in benches.) So an almost discarded thing turned out to have a perfect upcycled life instead. This is probably terrible for my hoarding tendencies, but it also makes me very happy to have found a good use for it. It’s been nice to finally use this space, too.

Another coincidence of timing is that the fire was right after the last day for one of my two CAD drafters at work, who retired at the end of June. And now, this coming week is the last week for the other drafter who was on staff when I started at Roush. And now, a week from Monday, we are having testing done on the remaining wiring that has not been replaced as part of the reconstruction work, to be sure it was not damaged by the lightning. Once that is done, assuming no problems are found, our electricians should be able to get the rest of the house back on-line in fairly short order, hopefully.

So we are all getting into our new normals as we get back into the house. Neil is out in Phoenix AZ now, so he hasn't been involved in the process since the early days of cleanup. Theo is going to move from being a cook at Bobcat Bonnie’s, where he's worked for the last couple years, to working for the Ann Arbor golf courses. Stacia is glad to be back in the house where she has a 50-foot commute to her job on days when her classes are at the church that our back yard backs up to. My commute to work is somewhat shorter in distance, but about the same time. After this week, for the architectural group, I’m going to be the senior guy who knows all the stuff about our department and the company (Dear Reader, please note, this is utterly untrue).

The house has been much of the focus for the better part of the last year. Now that we are back, we are hoping to get it in shape to be able to have friends over here at last. It was only a few months after we had moved in that the outbreak of the pandemic struck, and then, as getting together with people was starting to seem possible again, we had the fire. Hopefully, this time, within a couple months, we will be able to welcome guests again, and you can see how this baby looks now.