Update 12.6.12

Hello family and friends,

It’s been 18 days since our house fire. We have been so BLESSED in those 18 days. We praise God for His provision through all of you. I’ll try to get to all that needs to be said – there has been so much going on.  We can see God’s hand helping us along the way to recovery and in ways preparing us for this disaster beforehand. I would like to write up my story but not tonight….

I’ll start with the needs that are being met, instrument update, next house situation and list the needs at the end.

Our immediate need of shelter has been met through Bob Anderson, resident and friend in Orange.  We are staying at the “carriage house”  behind his house. It’s 4 rooms, 1 bath.  (Yes, the bathroom line is long but, at least there is a bathroom to line up at. J )  It’s suiting us wonderfully location wise as a home base. It’s only a couple blocks from our burnt house and our new house, 66 North Main Street. We can walk to the job site and it’s only a quick drive back and forth.  We are so grateful for a nice warm place to come back to after a long hard day in the ashes!  Thank you, Mr. Anderson. As mom says it’s like coming back to the “hotel” after being in the “war zone.”

We had meals brought every day for about two weeks. This helped us so much as we were able to concentrate on getting other things done. We have been blessed with laundry volunteers which also has been SUCH a blessing to mom.  People also brought us snacks, cookies and bottled water to the job site as the men were working. Clothing has been donated by the bag full and we are so grateful.  All but one of us ran out of the house with no shoes. We all have casual shoes now and clothes to work in! (And,  I do believe Joanna has more clothes now than she did before the fire and maybe more then all of us combined. ;) )

Our plan is to take down all of the burnt structure ourselves. . The top 2 floors in the front have been cleaned out and taken down in the front.  We stripped the main part of the house down to the bare studs. Before we gutted we had to clean out…we tossed out most of our charred, smokey and waterlogged possessions out into dumpsters. It’s yucky dirty work and depressing.  Whatever wasn’t  burnt was wet and smoke damaged. We were able to salvage some things of our everyday stuff, but a very small percentage. Some things I’m sure we’ll have to throw out later in the end because the smoke smell is so hard to get out.  We dumped the whole kitchen save for some select things to try to scrub clean.  I was DELIGHTED to find some photo albums which only had water and smoke damage!!  This was a real encouragement when these were located that we would have some of those irreplaceable pictures again!  Many still have not been found but I’m holding out some hope that under the ashes in the different parts of the house we’ll find more.

INSTRUMENTS update! It’s really hard to answer sometimes on what we need and what was lost.  I haven’t had much time to even assess some of the instruments (like the flute!) until recently.  I have no experience assessing heat/smoke/water damaged instruments. I do know some of our best instruments were burnt to a crisp, including the banjo and two mandolins worth many thousands.  But, not all our instruments were burnt. Some have heavy smoke and water damage some hardly anything.  SOME were in the bus like the irreplaceable cowbells!  We are trying to revive the heat/smoky damaged ones and clean them up the best we can.  The guitars miraculously made it out and appear sound. The cases are toasted though. The trumpet was in a case and was under the violin case in my room and that appears to have no damage (again, case was a loss!)  We still don’t know if my violin will keep a tune (the finish is bubbled on both sides.)  I don’t know if we ever found Daniel’s violin.  The harp is super stinky and needs new strings. The flute that once looked brand new aged about 100 years and doesn’t work properly.  The cellos – one totally roasted the other needs some TLC if it’s gonna work again.  what can be fixed or not.  The baritones are nasty and not playable. I haven’t seen anyone play the tuba yet but it appears to be in one piece.  My favorite ukulele lost all the strings and again quite smoky!  The digital piano for concerts was in the bus. So, it’s a mix and the final count is not in. 

Our studio equipment which recorded our last CD on was destroyed.  I’m unsure if any of the editing software made it out.  

Most of the current sound equipment we use for the concert was in the bus. That is a praise!   Our back up sound equipment, mixers, speakers,  extra mics, cord making supplies, etc appear to be a total loss.

When we leave the carriage house we are planning a move to 66 N. Main Street. My parents had bought the house foreclosed summer of 2011 as a place to use for music ministry and bus supplies. We had NO idea we’d all be planning to move in this winter.  The Lord was watching out and directing our paths even a year ago to prepare us for this fire.  The problem with moving in now is there is no heat, which is a big problem when it’s winter in New England.  Vincent lives (with little heat) in the basement now. We use his area as a second “home base” as we work on renovations on the top floors and demo at 54 (the burnt house.) We are working right now on the heating problem and are hoping/praying to be in before we leave on our winter tour (January 20^th.)  It’s a much smaller house so it should be easier to heat. J

Oh and we got a bunch of school books this week!!  Big praise!! We sifted through boxes of books made available to us at no cost and we were able to replace many of the school books lost in the fire.

Things are looking up but we still have much work ahead of us. We really, really appreciate all who have sent cards with checks and words of encouragement.  The Lord is using you all to meet our need and encourage us in a very special way. THANK YOU. 

Needs & Prayers (this is not an exhaustive list…)

We are short on concert dress for the men in the family
ties, dress shirts (specifically 15-15 ½),black suit coats, and some black (lace up) dress shoes

Prayers for a safe and speedy removal of the debris from the house site and whatever part of the house can be saved can be “winter proofed” in a timely manner.

 NIV Bibles

a set of hymnals

Mirrors – particularly full length ones

Mini blinds

Pray we are able to move and settled into the new house before the winter trip

Pray for our music program as we have little time to prepare for our winter tour

If you want to help with expenses we would still appreciate that

snacks and cookies delivered to the job site would be helpful and energizing to the workers

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I think that’s all I can do tonight. I’m about falling asleep on the computer!  Thank you to all who have helped, and are helping. We are praising God for the love we have seen through all of you! If I missed anything please leave a question in the comments!

Sorry there are no pictures, I lost my camera! Maybe I can get a few off of someone's phone? Hopefully next post!

Blessings,

Carol