SouthernN'Proud
Southern Discomfort
Seeing as so many of you guys have been so generous toward us and have given us so much support since the house fire of January 17, I thought I should maybe give y'all a status report thus far. Hence, if you don't really care, you can stop reading right here and move on to the BUNS - Nice and Hot thread. 
I. Health
No one was hurt in the fire, so we're all OK. My own myriad of physical maladies have maintained...not much better, but not really any worse either.
II. Housing
We have investigated a number of possibilities on the housing front. We looked at selling the land we have and buying another house in the same area. No.
We looked at modular homes. No. To get what we want is more expensive than we want to commit to.
We submitted a floor plan to a builder we know, who cut us every break he could to try and make it happen. It was doable, but it again tied up more resources than we were comfortable with. There's a difference in being able to afford something and being able to have a life while you afford it.
Thus, we have all but settled on our replacement housing. We found a double wide (yes, we'll officially be Tennessee trailer trash...how enthralling) on permanent foundation. It's bigger than the house we had, and naturally it won't need all the repair the house needed. We love the floor plan and plan to have a deck building party within a year to add a front porch and back deck. I think we'll be better off in it than we were in the house. By the time we finished remodeling, we would have sunk over $30K in the house. Now we get to save that money. By all estimates, we should be in it by mid-summer or before. Sweet.
III. Stuff
We have been shopping for furniture, and found some pretty darn good deals so far. Fortunately, AllEars' and I have very similar tastes as far as decorating goes, so that makes it much easier. Between the things we have had donated to us, a couple of smaller items we went ahead and bought, and a lay-away or two we have some furniture already taken care of. Toss in the things we found that we will lay-away soon, and maybe 80% of the furniture is represented. Not bad.
Clothing...man alive have we been through some piles of clothes. All we really have left to replace is some summer clothes, some work clothes (real work, not office work...overalls and such), a few specialty items like my Tampa Bay Bucs jersey, Texas Rangers jersey, and ball caps, and AllEars' needs some more threads. We'll get there gradually...no huge worries there. I just hate to shop for clothes...
The Oft Imitated Never Duplicated Music Collection From Hell is gonna be a slower process. A couple of folks here have generously contributed to that noble cause, for which I am eternally grateful. 700+ CDs won't be replaced overnight though, and the 2100+ LPs will likely never be replaced. I might not even buy another turntable...not sure yet. We haunt a couple of used CD stores and snatch up the bargain section there, and we check ebay and half dot com regularly, but it's like trying to eat an elephant - where do you start? I ain't gonna worry too much about it until we get relocated anyway...that much less to have to pack and unpack. Ditto the books. The ones that mattered to us will be replaced, but not until we move in. Boxes of books are heavy!
Other stuff like cookware and linens and small appliances, we have a decent head start on and will wait until closer to moving day for specific items that need to match a decor. We're OK on temporary stuff, so it's no biggie just yet either. The major appliances will be included in the new place except for washer/dryer (need to find them) and a freezer (donated already) and anything I forgot.
IV. Summary
We're doing OK all things considered. We'll never replace some of our losses and that hurts like hell. But through the incredible generosity of our families, friends, and community (including OTC) we are going to be fine.
And maybe...J U S T maybe...if everything can keep from blowing all to hell on us for a change...the 2007 OTC BBQ might have a volunteer host. If anyone's still interested that is.
I. Health
No one was hurt in the fire, so we're all OK. My own myriad of physical maladies have maintained...not much better, but not really any worse either.
II. Housing
We have investigated a number of possibilities on the housing front. We looked at selling the land we have and buying another house in the same area. No.
We looked at modular homes. No. To get what we want is more expensive than we want to commit to.
We submitted a floor plan to a builder we know, who cut us every break he could to try and make it happen. It was doable, but it again tied up more resources than we were comfortable with. There's a difference in being able to afford something and being able to have a life while you afford it.
Thus, we have all but settled on our replacement housing. We found a double wide (yes, we'll officially be Tennessee trailer trash...how enthralling) on permanent foundation. It's bigger than the house we had, and naturally it won't need all the repair the house needed. We love the floor plan and plan to have a deck building party within a year to add a front porch and back deck. I think we'll be better off in it than we were in the house. By the time we finished remodeling, we would have sunk over $30K in the house. Now we get to save that money. By all estimates, we should be in it by mid-summer or before. Sweet.
III. Stuff
We have been shopping for furniture, and found some pretty darn good deals so far. Fortunately, AllEars' and I have very similar tastes as far as decorating goes, so that makes it much easier. Between the things we have had donated to us, a couple of smaller items we went ahead and bought, and a lay-away or two we have some furniture already taken care of. Toss in the things we found that we will lay-away soon, and maybe 80% of the furniture is represented. Not bad.
Clothing...man alive have we been through some piles of clothes. All we really have left to replace is some summer clothes, some work clothes (real work, not office work...overalls and such), a few specialty items like my Tampa Bay Bucs jersey, Texas Rangers jersey, and ball caps, and AllEars' needs some more threads. We'll get there gradually...no huge worries there. I just hate to shop for clothes...
The Oft Imitated Never Duplicated Music Collection From Hell is gonna be a slower process. A couple of folks here have generously contributed to that noble cause, for which I am eternally grateful. 700+ CDs won't be replaced overnight though, and the 2100+ LPs will likely never be replaced. I might not even buy another turntable...not sure yet. We haunt a couple of used CD stores and snatch up the bargain section there, and we check ebay and half dot com regularly, but it's like trying to eat an elephant - where do you start? I ain't gonna worry too much about it until we get relocated anyway...that much less to have to pack and unpack. Ditto the books. The ones that mattered to us will be replaced, but not until we move in. Boxes of books are heavy!
Other stuff like cookware and linens and small appliances, we have a decent head start on and will wait until closer to moving day for specific items that need to match a decor. We're OK on temporary stuff, so it's no biggie just yet either. The major appliances will be included in the new place except for washer/dryer (need to find them) and a freezer (donated already) and anything I forgot.
IV. Summary
We're doing OK all things considered. We'll never replace some of our losses and that hurts like hell. But through the incredible generosity of our families, friends, and community (including OTC) we are going to be fine.
And maybe...J U S T maybe...if everything can keep from blowing all to hell on us for a change...the 2007 OTC BBQ might have a volunteer host. If anyone's still interested that is.
