We have extended the house twice since we bought it. Turning a dilapidated 2 bedroom fibro cottage with its black ceilings, poo brown walls and frugly green carpet into a 6 bedroom masterpiece.
Just as the second extension was nearly finished, which we built ourselves over the course of 3 years, young Ritch who was 3 at the time burned most of it down. Only the very old part of the house remained. 20 minutes was all that it took to destroy years of hard work and the love that went into it.
My dad was baby sitting Ritch for half an hour. Fire alarms had been installed but Dad who suffered industrial deafness didn't hear a sound while he was sawing the last kitchen cabinet door in the open garage, when Ritch walked in and told him there was a funny noise and smell. The smoke billowed in behind him. Dad threw Ritch out onto the front lawn and raced inside to try and put the fire out that had started in Drue's bedroom. Within minutes most of that part of the house was alight, neighbours came to help followed soon after by the entire Hawkesbury fire brigade.
I was at the hardware, slowly picking out handles for my new kitchen, sipping on a hot chocolate in the isle, enjoying a few minutes away from Ritch who could talk the ears of a statue.
As I turned the corner back into our quiet street, I was greeted by 6 fire trucks, a local reporter, a plethora of onlookers and my dad, son and neighbour on the road completely covered in black soot.
Furniture strewn over the front lawn in a shambles made an odd site as the front facade of the house was perfectly intact. The pretty quaintness of the front was a stark contrast to when I opened the front door to whole different picture of destruction and blackness. The only parts of the house left standing was the front 2 rooms and a laundry.
I, a few days later was very thankful for my usual laziness. Our insurance premiums had increased sharply, I was going to look into much cheaper insurance companies, for a better deal. It was one of those tasks that get held off for another day. This time I was grateful I hadn't gotten around to it. A representative of our insurance company was at the scene within 2 hours much quicker than my ex husband, who finally arrived 8 hours after my distressed phone call.
Funny how you hear of insurance horror stories in situations like these, finding out about the callousness of a few budget insurance companies, the ones I was thinking of transferring to, just to save a couple of dollars. So glad I didn't. The one time I needed my expensive insurance company, they delivered top care immediately, helping us through situations before they arose. Thank you to Westpac Insurance Services for organising accommodation, clothing, food, counselling and rebuilding our entire house within a flash. We didn't have to do a thing.
Though we were left with only the clothes we wore that day, most of the material things were replaced quickly, but it's the things that couldn't be replaced as we started to realise in the the aftermath that stung our hearts. In a collected sane moment we could go through our minds and inventorize what we would take first. Sometimes there are things that cant be picked up in the hurry to safety. For us it wasn't till much later, on an unmovable item, we were thankful that it wasn't lost in the fire. A wall.
Not just any wall, but a wall of importance to us as a family. This wall in our laundry marked the growth of our children and foster kids over the years, from the time they could stand.
Had I planned the wall correctly, like knowing how many children would live in our home over the years, there would be 9 neat columns. It looks more like a rampant vine clawing it's way to the ceiling, the names, dates and ages acting as leaves growing over the vine. Chris, a foster son, is the highest leaf, at a staggering 6ft 3in, I had to stand on a bar stool to reach high enough to mark his height.
When the rebuilding had been done, the painters came in to paint the house, they intuitively hadn't painted over that wall, leaving us a sweet note and the left over paint cans on the floor. "Didn't have the heart to paint over this wall, left paint if you want to".
So we have one wall in the house, not only is it a different colour to rest of the house, a smudgy shade of darkened soft pink, it will never be painted over, ever!
No comments:
Post a Comment