Burnin' down the house

Howdy folks,

Well, after a month without internet service, we're finally up and running

Thanks so much to all of you for your prayers, support, and for those of you who donated to help replace our vehicles. We are so blessed (For those who are wondering what I'm talking about, you can read "the rest of the story" here).

We have most of the debris cleared, and will be listening to the dulcet tones of the jackhammer and crane as they remove the cement pad from our garage, the stone from one face of the kitchen wall, and the entire roof (trusses included) of the kitchen and porch. Then they'll start the rebuilding process So we'll have dust flying around for a while, but it will be someone else doing the labor this time ;) It will all hopefully be done before our "party season" starts back up in August.

Everyone is doing fine - we've talked with the kids about the fire, and related themes (various items that are now "toast") a good bit, and it seems to be in a good therapeutic mode. We're very thankful that the kids have handled it so well.

I have a "mini kitchen" set up in our dining room, and I'm slowly but surely getting replacements for many of my cooking implements. I will certainly appreciate my kitchen when I get it back We're going to have a party when that happens, and you're all invited (seriously)!

ttfn,
Sherry

Hey Sherry! It's good to have you back.

I am glad to hear that the kids are doing well with it emotionally. Fires can be a real terror to kids. I hope the adults are doing as well. I'll continue to keep you all in my prayers.

Do keep us up to date on the rebuilding process, with pictures if possible. And just keep on keeping on.


God bless,

Lee

Howdy Lee,

Thanks for the prayers - God has been most gracious!

I agree that kids can be greatly affected by fire. They have talked about it a fair bit, but it's been pretty matter-of-fact. I think in our case a few circumstances helped out, a big one being that the smoke alarms hadn't started going off yet when we discovered the fire, so there wasn't the adrenaline rush of "alarm!". It was just Mom in my "to be obeyed" voice saying to get up now, get out the front door and stay on the front porch. Also, we only sat on the front porch for about five minutes, and we couldn't see the garage directly from there (although it lit up the yard like daytime). When Roy* picked us up from the front porch, we got in his car, and then pulled back out on the road. From there, we were in a safe place watching the fire, and it wasn't a direct threat to us personally. So it wasn't nearly as "personal" as it could have been. That said, had our house been wood frame rather than stone, I have doubts as to whether or not I'd be sitting here telling you about it

I thought about putting in our "Godzilla eating the cars" picture that we sent to the insurance company, but I think I'll stick with pix of the rebuilding process. They'll be more encouraging If anyone wants to see pix of the entire process, including post-blaze, let me know.

ttfn,
Sherry

notes: *Roy is a fellow who saw the blaze from the cross-road a half mile away on his way to work, and turned down our road to see if he could help. He drove right up in the yard and picked us up from the front porch. This was about 3:30 in the morning. He then pulled up to the sheriff's car so we could give him details, and then took us right to the hotel in Bad Axe and got us checked in. We'd never met him before, and never found out his last name, but God bless him!

The "Godzilla" picture shows the vehicles post-blaze, and there is one part of a post with a bit of siding still attached, and the angle of the shot makes it look like Godzilla hovering over Bill's car. That's the one we sent to our car insurance company )

Hi, Sherry:

It's great to hear that you're starting to get back to normal (having kids myself, what exactly normal is may be difficult to determine).

As always, our Sherry comes through like a rock.

Good thoughts.

David

Howdy folks,

Well, it's been a while, but we're finally getting somewhere with reconstruction! State Farm, our insurance company, has been fantastic - they've given us the money to get started with replacing contents and to get the builder going. Climate Guard, our contractor, has had the place cleaned up and ready to go for two months now. However, I'm sorry to say that Countrywide, our lien holder, has been slower than molasses in a cold snap in January in northern Michigan about releasing the funds to the contractor so he could get going. I think we'll be looking for another lender when all this is done.

Any way, on to the pix! I'll spare you all the debris The gist of the story is, that things have to move in a particular sequence, due to the way the garage roof is saddled to the main house roof. The stone wall (which gave it's life for ours) between the garage and the kitchen needed to be replaced first (all the concrete has been removed as well). This picture shows the shape it was in post-fire:


This shot doesn't show how bad the stones were - they were pretty much reduced to bleached rubble in the garage area, and quite scorched in the area that was just outside the garage area. You can see the charred posts from the garage, and the cement (after cleaning- ha..).

The stone guys had to remove all this wall, and surprisingly the stone and mortar were quite solid nearer the corners. This was fortunate, because there was some concern early on about how much of the wall would need to come down, and how that would affect the rest of the house structure. Here's the wall... no, wait, it's gone What you can see is the stud wall for the inside. They used this as a guide to block in the new wall.



The guys got the back side of the new wall blocked in today, and they'll be back tomorrow to do the stone part (the exterior). They shifted the window and door around for me a bit, which will be a nice tweak. I won't have to bend over now to see out of the window.



You can see the belfry in the background. When they took it off the roof, I was amazed at how easily it just lifted off. The understructure had been burned out more badly than was obvious from the ground. And to think I was under that thing pulling stuff out of the kitchen! It will be rebuilt and remounted with the same bell (it's fine). While we have it down, we're going to add a mini-weather station (anemometer, etc.) to the top, so we can track our micro climate

So, we're making progress, and I'm extremely happy about that. The psychological relief is amazing

Will keep you posted as things go, and I'm quite serious about that party to celebrate when it's all done!

ttfn,
Sherry

Glad to hear things are moving right along, Sherry. With real progress occurring, I'm sure you're feeling quite relieved and looking forward to getting your lives back to normal.

I'll keep up with the prayers.

BTW, my wife, Mary Catherine, just came home last Friday from a successful hip replacement (left side). She's doing just fine. In fact, after church on Sunday, we went to a matinee performance of Alice in Wonderland at one of our local community theaters (we have three of them in Grants Pass).

Hello Cherry,

Good to hear work is now in progress. I can image that this gives a relief and vision on when things are normal again. I wish you and your family lot all strength for the time to go.

Cheer Jaap

Hi Sherry
Looking at the pictures I now realise the extent of the fire and the impact on you and your kids it must have had.Welcome back to the Forum.
I would love to come to the celebration party ( one never knows !).
All the best with the reconstructions !
Cheers
Djim

Howdy,

Thanks for the prayers Lee - and keep 'em coming I'm glad to hear that your wife's hip replacement has been successful. Bill (my husband) and I went to see a performance of Alice in Wonderland way back before kids, and it was delightful. I hope you enjoyed the performance you attended as much as we did ours I'd like to take the kids to see it sometime as well.

Thanks for the good wishes Jaap. It does indeed take a bit more fortitude than usual to deal with some of this situation

Djim, I would be pleased and honored to have you here! We can take my big bass rig out back and rattle the eaves troughs. The neighbors will just think it's a big combine harvester coming down the road ;)

Something I forgot to mention: if you look at the top picture here, you can see Mahala's bedroom window over the porch. The light from the garage burning is what woke her up (through a light-blocking shade), so you can see that for her it was fairly close. The glass on the outside of her window is all cracked up and some of the aluminum is warped. The window will be replaced (the inside panes are ok). I'm still amazed (and very thankful) about how calm she was when she woke me up. God is gracious

ttfn,
Sherry

p.s. Also, for those who may not "get" the thread/music title connection, there is a song by the group Talking Heads with the same title. Thus the musical connection ;)

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi Sherry,

Congratulations on getting all the work started! It won't be long now. As a guy who prides himself in his culinary skills, I can tell you first hand what a thrill it's going to be when you cook your first meal in that brand new kitchen with all the new appliances. I had a similar experience to your's many years ago, and ,for me, getting into my new kitchen was a fantastic experience.
BTW, I have an idea. I can glue my dentures in and rent a saxophone and sit in with you and Djim at the celebration party.
Although, in my current state, I may also have to rent a respirator!
Looking forward to seeing pics of the finished work,
Fred

Howdy Fred,

Thanks for the encouragement - I am indeed looking forward to getting back in my big honkin' kitchen I love to cook, as do the kids (wonder where they get that...), and while this has been a culinary adventure, I definitely miss my usual set up. We've treated it like a "what do people do who only have limited tools?" adventure, and the lesson is firmly engrained

When I got some potted herbs back, it was another of those "Yes!!" moments. Cooking with "good weeds" as my neice says is the best. I lost my entire herb garden, which I really can't replace til everything else is done. The entire south side of the house that was unscathed is lined with huge pots of herbs right now

---------
I can glue my dentures in and rent a saxophone and sit in with you and Djim at the celebration party.
---------

I have some Gorilla glue, will that do? ;) Just don't use too much, or folks will think you're frothing at the mouth That would be a cool trio - Fred on sax, Djim on bass, and I can play doumbek. Who else can we get in there for a quartet, quintet, .... big band? (hint, hint,...)

Today has switched from stoning in the exterior of the wall to framing in the window and doorway so that the stone mason can stone in right up to where the trim will be. I don't care, as long as it's progress

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi Sherry,

--------
I have some Gorilla glue, will that do?
--------

That'll work! If not, I'll bring my keyboard and just change the instrument sound to "saxophone".

--------
Who else can we get in there for a quartet, quintet, .... big band?
--------

I vote for MG on flute!

Cheers,
Fred

Hi Sherry,

Looks like good progress to me. I notice one of the masons is smiling, so he must think so too. I'm sure you will feel like a top chef in your new kitchen, especially if you can get someone else to wash pots and pans (which a chef once told me a chef should never do!).

I'd be glad to demonstrate my microwave artistry if you need help with the cooking, but my poor old flute only has about half it's notes and most of those are up where my poor old lip muscles can no longer take it.

Interesting. I switched to State Farm a few weeks ago. I like the idea of having an agent who actually comes on site.

all best,
mgj

Howdy folks,

Well, I'll upload some pix later, but the gist of it now is:

We have the kitchen/garage wall rebuilt, but when they took out the flooring down to the joists in the kitchen, the joists were in awful shape, so they took those out as well, ripped out the block bases (which weren't adequate), and dug footings to be poured. Now we have to wait for new floor joists for the kitchen and headers for the garage. Then the guys have to get the roof on the garage, the cement guy has to grade the area, and then he can pour the footings in the kitchen, the pad for the garage, and the approach to the garage. Then they can go great guns at the carpentry, then the electrical, plumbing, and heating, walls, flooring, cabinets, and moulding. Easy, eh?

I'm off to my big District Camp gig tonight, so prayers are appreciated, as well as good thoughts and such. I've never played in front of this many folks before, so it's an exciting opportunity. You guys who are used to this stuff are probably snickering at me right now I'm hoping they'll shine lights in my eyes so I won't see anything - I'll just listen and play ;)

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi, Sherry:

Here's a little known fact: the audience are already on your side! They went to a great deal of effort (and expense) to get to your performance, so they are ready and willing to enjoy it -- and they'll go a long way out of their way to do so.

As long as you enjoy it, they will.

Honest.

David (giving about my 4,000th performance tonight) Jacklin

Hi Sherry
Don´t worry !!Just lock in after the drummer´s intro and off you go and enjoy !David is quite right about the audience (after 4000 performances),have faith in the audience and they will let you groove !
Lots of luck an joy and don´t forget the low regions.
Djim

Many blessings be upon your performance tonight, Sherry. I just know you'll WOW them.

I'll be looking forward to more pictures of the house rebuilding.


Lee

Hi Sherry
What´s the big story of your performance ?It must have been an exciting experience,I reckon.Please do tell us about it.
Djim

Yea, Sherry, tell us about it. I'll bet it was a blast!
Cheers,
Fred

Howdy folks,

Well, last night was an interesting blast

The folks did not pay to hear us (it was at family camp for our church region), but no one threw anything, either. ;)

We arrived to find that the stage was ... a haywagon Without wheel blocks, on an incline. However, our one guitarist (who is only 17) was stoked that he could use his pickup truck as additional stage area, so that worked out ok. Oh, and we only had one 20 amp outlet to run our entire setup plus the PA system. We probably should have laid hands on it, but it was uncovered

We went through a few iterations of getting equipment set up, and boy was it hot. Temperature-wise, I mean. We've had a fairly decent drought of lovely weather this summer (unlike last summer, when it seemed we had thunderstorms every other day), but it cooled off by the time we were to play.

I really really really enjoy playing with Kent, the drummer. "Well seasoned" is a good description, and we've really hit it off (pun intended), so it was a lot of fun. When we started, there weren't a whole lot of folks gathered around, but we had a hard-core group of about 20 teens who came right up front and were grooving and singing to nearly every song we did. We were playing out toward the campground area, so a lot of folks were just sitting at their camp lots and listening, and mostly the kids were coming over to the stage (it was directed more toward their demographic anyway). We were told we could be heard clearly all over the campground (Missionary Church Regional Campground), and if so, then can claim an audience of over 1500 We probably ended up with closer to like 400 folks who were right there where we were, but I'm not sure if they came to hear the music, or if they were more interested in getting up-close seats for the fireworks following the concert.

As it started getting darker (we had no stage lights), I was really glad for all the practice I'd put in (yay, Composer!) - I could barely see my song sheet. Some fellow came along giving out glow-in-the-dark bracelets to all the kids, so by the end of our concert, there were all these glowing bracelets bobbing to the beat, which was kind of surrealistic. It was a very good experience musically, but especially the whole import of the event - some really good music (most written by Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman) and a lot of enthusiastic participation. That was a great worship experience.

We ended with the Terl Bryant/Matt Redman arrangement of "O Come Let Us Adore Him", which is fairly simple in musical structure, but has a very strong drum and bass part that is very "motivational". The bass line is just a G, but the rhythmic impact of how you play it (rhythmic figure and octaves) can really make or break the song. I know, because I tried lots of iterations when I was practicing It was a good song to end with - everyone was on their feet singing for that one.

Now, for the house

That's progressing nicely as well. Here is the stone wall reconstruction:


Since we had the stone mason on-site, I figured we might as well get the porch area re-tuck/pointed while he was around. He hemmed and hawed about giving me an estimate, and I finally figured out that he didn't want to do the nasty job of cleaning out all the old mortar (it was the original, and parts were in really bad shape.) So I got wire brushes for all the kids, and took my trusty rock hammer and went to work. They brushed after I knocked out the biggest chunks of mortar. Then I power-washed the remainder out of the seams and off the rocks. The mason was pretty happy to re-work it then Here is a before/after mortar removal picture. This is with just the mortar chipped out, before wire-brushing or power washing. The white stuff is actually a thin line of white mortar, which was applied to make it look like huge bricks if you're a bit away from the house:


So that only took nearly 4 days of fairly intense labor to get done - I'm glad it's done, and I'm also glad I don't do that for a living

As I mentioned, when they started getting the floor off in the kitchen, they discovered some interesting arrangements in the various levels, so they ripped it all out to start over again. Here it is with only the one stretcher (which has since been removed) going across:


And, the thing that looks quite beautiful right now, the poles are in for the garage:



We're currently waiting on the header materials for the garage, so they can get the roof on that. The ground will need to be graded, and then the cement guy will pour the pad, the approach, and the footers in the kitchen. Then they can put in the joists for the kitchen floor, and proceed with kitchen construction simultaneously

I'm still having to go round and round with our home lender about releasing funds (I wasn't supposed to have to do that, but they've been such a pain all the way round), but hopefully we've gotten to the point where things can move along without as much flack from them.

So, lots of good things going on. I'm generally staying out of trouble this summer ;)

ttfn,
Sherry

Howdy,

I should mention that for the kitchen/garage wall reconstruction, it's two different colors of mortar because the brown will go with the rest of the outside, but it will "fade in" over time. We decided to go with the lighter gray inside, because it won't be in the light to get faded, and it will be brighter for "inside use". So, the part of the wall that will be in the garage is light gray, the outside part is brown. The boards are the anchor board for the exterior garage wall. The repointed mortar for the porch is also the lighter gray.

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi Sherry,

You should be feeling good. About a third of those available came to the stage for the concert. That's a very good percentage. If they came only for fireworks, they would have come later. You can also assume that the audience at the stage would have been bigger if you couldn't have been heard where folks were, probably sitting in comfortable chairs or at picnic tables.

It sounds like you had a good time.

The house is looking beautiful. Bet you can't wait.

all best,
mgj

Hi, Sherry:

How old is that house? If you were in England, I'd say 17th century by the look of the stonework on the lintels. Michigan isn't that old, of course (you're in Michigan, right?) -- about the same period as my area, a few hundred miles away.

You'll have a very interesting kitchen when it's done!

David

Howdy,

Re. the concert: we did indeed have a good time We'd never done anything like that together, and none of us had played in the dark like that before I'm not sure if a captive audience is the best indicator, MG, but the ones that we could see all appeared to be having a good time, as well as all the "rhythmic glow" bracelets we saw after it was _really_ dark.

Re. the house - the original house was finished (after 3 years) in 1896. We just found out yesterday (when a lady stopped by who had lived here as a child about 70 years ago) that all the stones for the house were hauled by horse cart from the fields and quarry up near Grindstone City, about 35 miles away. They probably used some field stone from the immediately adjacent fields as the "noggin" filler.

The trim stone around the windows in the high-arches of the house (Mahala's window, and the parlor window on the opposite side of the house) are both carved limestone, and the other windows on the main part of the house are cut sandstone outlining the window frames and arches. The mason used "bluestone", which closely resembles sandstone, for the reconstructed kitchen/garage wall window and door arches. He couldn't get stone that was as big as what we have in the rest of the house for the wall proper, so you can see that the reconstructed wall looks a tad different than the rest of the house. Just part of it's history, now

The inside-the-kitchen view above shows the doorway on the north wall, which should look more like this when repaired and populated:


As you can see, we get lots of use out of that area. We had a couple of the boys' friends over for a sleepover, and we were all "helping" fix pancakes for breakfast. I really loved my kitchen before, and I have no doubts that it will be even better when all is said and done

ttfn,
Sherry

Howdy folks,

I realize it's been a while since I updated here, but it's for a good reason - we've been busy making progress!

The framing is all done, the sheeting is all done, the cement is all poured, and part of the roof is on. We had to wait for more shingles as they are a special order (we get really high winds out here, so we had extra heavy shingles on it) and the warehouse didn't have enough on hand when the order was first placed. The siding is also here (it's a faux-stucco hardi-board), so the remainder of the roofing and the siding goes on this week - yippee! The electrician was here today doing all that he could, so we should be ready for our next inspection about mid-week.

The insurance company (State Farm) has been tremendous. They have all the appliances ready to order, the remainder of the bulk part of the settlement is coming this week, and their replacement service is ordering the books and music that they could find new. The rest of it I will need to order used if I can find it, and if not, we'll have to figure out an "equitable replacement" price or other replacement.

Here are a few pix of progress.

This is the kitchen floor. We raised the cement foundation a few inches to keep the water out better, and lowered the floor level, to make it even with the transition to the dining room. Thus, we lost one step (maybe another bass body ;) ), and gained a small bit of floor space in the mud area:





I should also mention that these pix were taken before the inside framing was completed. It does show off the "noggin" stone work quite well

This is the garage after framing in, and before the cement was poured (all three truckloads). You can see that the kitchen roof is totally off. It was a really weird feeling to walk in there with no roof and no framing of any kind.



The above is only the framework. It's all sheeted (fiberboard sheeting) now, and is just awaiting the siding.

And here is what it looks like right now (only the lighting is not so screwy).



You can see that part of the roof is done on the garage, and they tarped the kitchen while waiting for the shingles so that it wouldn't inundate it (and perhaps blow into the rest of the house) if it rained.

Here is the stone on the porch. It will be enclosed, but I think that having the stone exposed (rather than the really dark fake panelling that was there before) will make it look a lot nicer. I also got some sealer (we had to seal the outside anyway) and it really brings out the richness of the stone (the picture is pre-sealer).



We did a couple of things a bit differently with the electrical switches this time, but surprisingly little change. We will end up getting more outlets, due to the fact that when the insurance company pays for a rebuild, it has to be up to code. Our previous implementation used a lot of the existing outlets and such, which weren't enough for current code. Thus, we'll get a bit of improvement from the transition.

So, that's where we are. We should get "buttoned up" before the snow flies

ttfn,
Sherry

This is all excellent news, Sherry. I am very happy to see your rebuilding moving forward rapidly. I think your house will be just lovely when all is done.


Lee

Hi Sherry,

Splendid, splendid, splendid.

all best,
mgj

Hi Sherry
Great news again ! I hope you will be fine and enjoy ýour new castle
before snow falls and maybe have your celebration party at X-mas.
Keep us updated please.
Regards
Djim

Hi Sherry
Speaking of constructions ,I happen to read an interresting tutorial about building groovy bass lines which might interest you.The author, a bass guitar guru,also started as a church bassist and has a peculiar view on how to compensate the absence of a drummer( as usual in church)
in your bass playing.Chances are,however,that you already knew this and has instinctively adopted your bass playing and composing.
I included the PDF herewith,however.
What do you think of it ?
Cheers
Djim<center><table border=1><tr><td>Groove
gsuck.pdf (162.3 k)</td></tr></table></center>