The Big Meeting

October 28th

This is the first full meeting up at the house site.  Everyone is there: myself and Orianne; two architects; Pat the cleanup contractor and Rolland the digger-man.  Rolland is our local excavator and road grader known for his ability to move mountains - whether you want them moved or not!

Steve, our architect, likes to proceed at a slow and orderly pace.  Rolland likes to rip the guts out of the earth.  Rolland's suggestions: We should terrace the land for a hundred yards, dig the foundations today and, while we are at it, reroute our main road across BLM land.  Steve is bristling, barely holding his temper.  The meeting is degenerating. 

Luckily, Pat is an island of sanity and the chaos is contained.  Pat will finish the cleanup and then guide Rolland in his reshaping of the land and digging the foundation.  That decided, Orianne and I are subjected to new suggestions and ideas for the house from the architects.  There are too many decisions to be made.  I leave confused and stimulated.  

Cleanup

October 15th

We decide to work with Steve, an architect friend who helped design our original home.  We love some of his very creative house designs.  Hopefully, we are in good hands.

A distant neighbor, Pat, who is a building contractor, lost his house in the fire.  He is coordinating cleanup in our area and it makes sense to go with someone local.  We attend various big meetings with officials from Boulder County who are trying (in a semi-bureaucratic way) to be as helpful as they can.

We learn that the State of Colorado has decided that the debris from our burnt houses is to be considered hazardous because of the risk of asbestos.  This is a blanket decision that requires special precautions and expensive transportation to distant dumps.  First all the metal from the house (roofing, furnace, appliances, etc.) is removed, washed down and sent to recycling.  Then the general ash and debris is cleaned up.  Finally the concrete foundation has to be disposed of.

There is some confusion about the concrete.  A difficult and contentious neighbor has agreed to take the concrete, for a price, to use around his mine site.  After a few loads, he starts to raise his price and make additional demands.  The agreement falls through.  We work with Pat to find an appropriate place on our own land to bury the concrete.  It will form the foundation for a new workshop.

Things are starting to move slowly forward.

Creating a New Home

September 14th - October 15th
We move into the rental house on 14th September.  It comes with all the furnishings and stuff that a family needs - down to toilet cleaning brushes.  At first it is a total relief that everything is taken care of.  Then it quickly becomes another hassle to deal with.

The insurance company rent the furnishings from a rental company for around $1300 a month.  That amount is then deducted from the total living expenses we have been allocated.  The longer we use the furnishings, the shorter total time we will have in the new home while we rebuild.

On the flip side, Boulder's response to the fire is incredible.  Within a few days there are stores filled with free clothes and furnishings donated by the community.  The quality is very high and in no time I have a full wardrobe. With the added generosity of friends, we start to gather the furnishing we need to get rid of the rented stuff.

At the same time we are dealing daily with the insurance claim, filling endless forms to apply for a SBA disaster loan, finding an architect and working out the logistics to clean up the burnt house and land.  It takes all our time and energy - we are exhausted at the end of every day and not sleeping well.

The House is Gone

Monday September 13th

Orianne and I get our special fire passes that allow us to visit the house.  There are roadblocks set up by police to check our credentials; they are very friendly.

We get there and the house is totally gone - just a pile of ashes and twisted metal roofing.  The fire must have been extraordinarily hot: the aluminum engine casing from the two cars have run out and formed strange fluid sculptures; the concrete foundations are cracked and fallen.  We find a couple of ceramic bowls that are relatively unscathed.

It is strange and a little sad but not so devastating as I expected.  I explore my garden and the greenhouse are almost totally intact!  I harvest about 12 pounds of tomatoes.  The greenhouse I was working on the day before the fire looks almost perfect - the raised bed ready to be planted.

 

Best of all, the forest itself is not badly burned and our stunning view is almost the same as ever.

It looks like home and it feels like home.  I know we will rebuild.

Four Mile Canyon Fire 4

September 10th - 12th

The next few days are a blur of activity.  We are deluged with offers of assistance from friends and strangers: people deliver food to the hotel; restaurants do not charge; there are mountains of free clothing and supplies on hand if we need them.  It is all a bit overwhelming and very heartening.

We meet our insurance adjuster from Safeco.  Ken seems very nice, well organized and straightforward - obviously a pro.  In one conversation he describes how hard it was in Mississippi and New Orleans after Katrina.  We get warnings from others not to trust insurance companies and to hire a Public Adjuster to oversee our claim.  I go with my gut and stick with Ken.

The insurance offers us a nice house in a quiet area.  We visit and decide to take it - there are 3 families looking at it and the Boulder rental market is suddenly glutted.  It will be furnished and available next Tuesday.

The fire in our area is still hot and we have to wait to get access to the house - maybe tomorrow.

Four Mile Canyon Fire 3

Thursday September 9th
Orianne called.  The house is burnt; we have lost everything.  She needs me home and I get on the next flight from San Francisco to Denver.

I feel relatively calm and centered on the flight.  I catch the earliest bus but as I get closer to Boulder, Orianne tells me there is an "evacuation readiness" order for the West side of Boulder.  That is where we have our office and the last of our possessions.

We arrive at the office to a wild flurry of activity - a bunch of friends are there to bundle all our last valuables into cars and get them to a house in East Boulder.  Mark and Annette, neighbors who lost their house, are right on it - I see they are sad and stressed but still focused on getting our stuff to safety.  I am amazed that so many people are willing to drop everything to be there.  It is uplifting.

Finally, Orianne and I get back to the hotel to hugs from my daughter and a good night's rest.  We are together and nothing else matters.

Four Mile Canyon Fire 2

September 7th - 8th
It is a waiting game - not knowing if the fire will swing round to our house or not.  At first it looks hopeful.  We are just on the boundary of the fire area.  Then it starts to look bleak.  Orianne continues to be amazing and strong.

I keep a close track on my thoughts and feelings and realize that if the house goes, it is not the end of the world - just a lot more work than I need!  Some part of me fells good at the thought of being unburdened from all the stuff we own.  The house is full of beautiful and cherished objects - many of them irreplaceable antiques.  But they are still simply material objects - not of essential importance.

All this time we continue to meet and get a lot of important Bountea planning work done.  The other members of our "Bounteam", Moria and Seth are wonderful, very supportive and compassionate.  We interview and hire a new member of the team, Aaron.  He immediately becomes our Warehouse and Production Manager.  It feels great - except that I have this slow burning anxiety about the house.