Good Afternoon All,
I am glad to be back to my favorite place on the internet. Thanks to Larry aka 5th TA for letting you guys know of my misfortune.
Also a HUGE THANK YOU for all of the kind words and personal responses.
April 30 started like a normal day. I got a couple of phone calls at work re: pending jobs I had provided estimates for, that the work was ours! That was the good news. About 4 pm my wife called and told me get home, our house was on fire!
Not trying to worry myself I figured something minor. We were 1 mile away from the job when that towns fire truck went blasting through the intersection. This is about 8 miles from home. I was a bit concerned at that point. About 5 miles from home we could see a huge black plume in the sky. At this point I knew it was serious. We arrived home to find our home fully engulfed fire trucks and fire fighters every where. I think Larry posted the photos I sent him.
My grandson was safe as well as our 5 little dogs. Thankfully no one was hurt fighting the fire.
We were able to get my sons GTO and my 77 trans am out of the garage. My antique motorcycles were left in place but survived unscathed. The detached barn and shop were also spared, so my TATA project was fine and all of our work tools were fine.
We pretty much lost everything else. The house has been deemed a total loss. What was not destroyed by fire has now succumbed to water and mold damage.
We were in the local Holiday for 2 weeks. That was ok, the people at the hotel were very good with us. My wife found a rental house about 2 miles away from our house. We were very fortunate for this part of the deal a we are very rural and rental properties are hard to come by. The house we are in for at least the next 6 months was recently remodeled by a 'flipper' so everything is new or refurbished. The ins. co. furnished it completely with everything needed. So, I now have a home base and was able to set up a temp table in the living room for my new 'office'. The rental is very small with 1 bathroom for pretty much 4 adults, so it will be a challenge but we will be fine.
House has a small one car garage that I am letting my son keep his GTO in. I have a good friend about 10 miles away that has a 4 post lift and a dedicated 2 bay 'classic car' garage. He is graciously storing my 77 on the lift directly above his pristine 1975 Trans Am. Its in a really good place, but I dont want to wear out my welcome and I am currently trying to find somewhere to store it for the long run.
I had to pack up all of the loose parts for the TATA project that were scattered about the shop. I put everything in the car and pushed it back into the corner to make room for what good stuff we were able to salvage. So the restoration is on a hold for most likely the next 6-12 months. One of the mirror t tops was above the house garage. That area was destroyed by fire, however I was able to dig my top out and it looks pretty good. My new legendary door panels have been in my bedroom for the last 5 years and were damaged by water. I am hoping they will be replaced.
Fire started on the third floor at the end of the house. The only idea at this point is that perhaps a squirrel or rodent chewed through electric? The area is completely gone so as per the investigators there is not much to look at.
