On The Road To Recovery
as posted at cbs8.com
May 5, 2008
Everywhere I go people always ask me the same questions - how's that rebuild coming? Are you back in your house yet? Well, not a great deal has happened since the fire, because I've learned the road to recovery is filled with more twists and turns than a backcountry highway.
It's hard to believe that just over six months ago, I was having an out-of-body experience, reporting on all of my family's worldly possessions reduced to rubble in a matter of minutes. It became the video seen 'round the world.
Like all the other fire victims my family and I spent the next few days in shock, wondering where we would go, what we would do next.
What followed was an amazing outpouring of support from friends, neighbors and total strangers, here and all around the country. Gifts, prayers and best wishes came from everywhere. There were offers for food and shelter, and even words of encouragement from Dr. Phil. Each and every act of kindness gave us the strength to carry on. We wanted to continue being part of this caring community.
The first hurdle was dealing with insurance. Although you'll hear some horror stories when it comes to dealing with some companies, I am happy with my settlement. But the word to the wise here is to update your policy. You are probably underinsured.
We decided to rebuild, basically in the footprint of our old house. We selected a contractor, drew up some blueprints and that's when our real odyssey began.
Apparently while we lived here cozily for the past 20-plus years the fire code had changed a couple of times, which meant we'd have to make a few "minor" upgrades to the property at our own expense before the fire marshal would sign off on the rebuild.
First, we needed make water more available. We were told we could do this by laying a pipe from a hydrant.to our property, or we could bring up a 30,000-gallon tank. We decided on a more feasible solution to build a pump system with a generator from our pool with a bib for fire hoses. Reasonable.
Next we were told we would have to make the property more accessible to emergency vehicles by widening the road from 13 feet to 20 feet and paving approximately 100 feet of road at our expense. We also had to widen our driveway from 13 feet to 16 feet and build a hammerhead so that fire trucks could turn around in the driveway. Because we had to dig into the slope of our property, we were told we'd have to build a retaining wall from one end of the driveway to the other. Expensive.
Splashes of green and yellow have returned to our hillside. And although they are weeds, themustard plants bring with it a sense of rebirth and renewal out of the charred landscape. The fire marshal informed us we would have to pay to have all of these plants removed within 100 feet of our house and to abate the soil so they won't grow back. More expense.
Next, the county got involved and order tests of our concrete (at our expense) to determine its integrity. This after we already paid a structural engineer to deem them structurally sound. Those tests cost us a few more thousand dollars. And the county confirmed what our original tests had determined. Plans have been resubmitted to the county with no immediate approval in sight. Frustrating.
The road to recovery may be winding, but sometimes it feels like it's just running in circles....
