First of all, I will say I failed the 6 week challenge of completing a room from start to finish for Linda of Calling it Home's One Room Challenge. We were almost complete but our tile was delayed and didn't arrive in time.
Then when we were days away from having a tile installer come to finish it off, this happened....
We live up in the Seattle area and on November 17th we had a severe wind storm. Wind gusts were around 55-60 mph.
Ironically, if you follow me on Instagram you would see I posted a sweet picture of a hummingbird on our feeder that day. Wind gusts were strong but not that bad. Later in the day we got torrential rain that flooded streets, street traffic lights had gone out and the weather just picked up greatly. I picked up my 2 girls from school, arrived safely back home and the wind got worse and worse. We live in a wooded neighborhood with 100' feet trees surrounding us. It has always been a concern living here for the last 14 years but you just never think it will really happen.
Around 4:30 in the afternoon, as we were standing a few steps back to the left of this picture below when a tree fell through the house. It was truly horrific. We actually saw it fall through! First thought was to call my husband, and I can tell you I had so much adrenaline that I could not even figure out how to work the phone.
Tree fell from neighbor's back yard and fell in our family room and across the house to the front of our house into our driveway. Needless to say but it was a VERY large tree.
It is quite amazing how much damage the tree did and what it didn't do. As you can see above all the damage to the ceiling and with all the debris that fell but nothing on our bar area was touched.
The house shook like an earthquake and we now have windows in other areas of the house misaligned. Our french doors in our dining room and master bedroom that were dead bolted locked were blown right open, but nothing on the bar moved. So crazy!
This is our laundry room. Surprisingly, no big damage other than the ceiling. It looks like it's a broken 2x4 busted through. Sadly looks like the ceiling in this room will possibly be removed as well. I just hope it doesn't ruin the walls that we just completed.
A photo from the night of of storm. You see this is the top of the tree that fell over the house blocking our entry and in our driveway.
This is our neighbor's house as they are removing a tree that fell onto their house right after ours. A third one fell as well and fell between our two properties.
I'm not upset with the damage of our home. I am too grateful that my neighbors are all safe,that my daughters, our dog and I are all safe and no one was hurt. It could be SO much worse.
All of this can and will be fixed.
We've had one insurance adjuster and one engineer out to our home already to assess the damage. We are waiting for our Big Claims adjuster to fly in and come assess now. We are told it will be a very long process. It hit the load bearing beams and the roof/ceiling/walls from that whole side of house will have to be removed and rebuilt. Been told it could be up to 6 months. If there is a silver lining in all this, we better be getting a new kitchen out of this. Ugh!
I will be checking back in here to show progress of the home and the rebuilding. It may not be often as this again will sadly be a very long process.
Stacey, I am so glad to read that everyone is fine. How scary! You are very lucky to have been standing where you were. My neighbors went through something similar. It is a very long process. Hang in there. I'm sorry this has happened, but your outlook sounds good, this can all be replaced.
ReplyDeleteStacey this is so so crazy! I am so glad you and your family are safe and sound and your neighbors as well. You have a great attitude about it all! Wishing you and your family a happy Christmas season despite not being home. It's a family adventure! Best wishes to all of you. XO
ReplyDeleteWow..quite a story but good news is everyone is safe and things can be replaced. Hope you and your family enjoy the holidays wherever you are staying and thanks for sharing your story.
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