Catching Everyone Up on the Details

We wanted to go ahead and put all the facts of what has happened up to this time on the blog for people to know.

*On Saturday, March 26th, 2011 around 11:45ish, one of our neighbors called us at Chick-fil-A to let us know that smoke was coming out of our back window and that our smoke alarms were going off at our house.
*We immediately went home to find the main floor of the house on fire.  Our neighbor, a fire fighter who lives in our neighborhood, and Mark went inside to get the dogs.
*Upper St. Clair has a volunteer fire department that got to our house around 12:10 or so to put out the fire.  They did a great job and worked quickly.
*They decided that the fire started in the office (or useless 8x8 room) in our house.  They originally thought it was wiring or something within the plug.
*The fire fighters and police officers did an amazing job of comforting us and giving us direction that day.
*We got to go back into the house that afternoon with the fire chief.  Flames reached two rooms- the office and our bedroom.  Rebecca used the closet in our bedroom and Mark used the closet in our office.  Therefore, all of the stuff in those two rooms are gone because of flames, smoke, and water.  The rest of the main floor and two upstairs rooms are mostly damaged by smoke and there are holes in all the walls and ceilings upstairs because the fire fighters were trying to make sure that the fire did not spread.  The basement was pretty much saved.  The side of the basement under our office/bedroom had significant water damage that came through the floor/ceiling, but the fire fighters did a good job of tarping.  The other side of the basement is completely dry and seems normal.
*Our insurance, Allstate, came out that afternoon to board up the windows and take a look at the damage.  Immediately, they told us to expect to be out of our house 6-8 months for repairs.
*Since it was on a Saturday, we did not hear anything else from insurance until about 9:00 am on Monday morning.  And then our phones starting ringing off the hook!

I've included some pictures of the damage as we saw it the first two days.  Some pictures were taken immediately afterwards and some were taken on Sunday when Mark and Daniel went back to the house.

So those are the facts.... soon I will write about the insurance process and some of the amazing blessings we have received over the past 3 weeks.  However, please know that things are going and moving forward!  We are focusing on the fact that all the people (and furry friends) are safe.  We know our house is bad, but we also realize that it could have been a lot worse.  We know that God is in control and has great plans for what we consider to be an inconvenience.

"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever." Psalms 107:1

The back of the house where the fire started.

The fire fighter kicked everything from the office out the back window to make sure that nothing rekindled.

The first pictures after the fire... this one is taken from our front door looking into the living room and kitchen.

This one is taken from our bedroom window looking into our bedroom. Through the door, you can see the bathroom.
This was the 2nd room where the flames made it.

This is the picture from the actual office, where the fire started. Nothing in this room is even recognizable.