Author: Beth V Powell

I haven’t been on social media much at all the past several weeks. While it’s been healthy there’s a reason. You see I suffered a home fire on January 20, 2021 which was our inauguration day in the U.S. It’s an easy date to remember.

The day seemed fine. I was busy most of it and found myself coming home late in the afternoon and tackling some chores. One of which took me to my basement, where I have some storage as well as my laundry area and a basement apartment where a friend lives. I walked upstairs and within about 2 minutes heard the fellow from the basement yelling at me that there was a fire. We were lucky that we were there, it had just happened, and we and our 3 pets could get out quickly and call 911 from the porch. The cause of the fire was the stove in the basement apartment.

I have always tried to be prepared for anything. I have talking smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in two locations in basement and in kitchen on the main floor. We were very lucky. Perhaps we could’ve put it out with a fire extinguisher but I believed it better to leave it to the fire department.

I try to make any experience a learning experience as well as a good time to share with others so you can learn from my experiences. Because of this I want to teach you what I’ve learned so far so you can check your own policy and plans.

I’ve always been aware that there are different parts of homeowner’s policies. I remember for all my years as a homeowner being given totals for rebuilding that is usually calculated by insurance companies and for personal property. Each of these amounts is different between different companies. I have in the past had higher limits for personal property when I’ve had large collections of firearms or other valuables over the years. Because I’ve purged a lot in the 10 years since my husband’s death I’ve accepted the recommended amount of personal property insurance.

What I’ve learned is that even though the actual burn area was confined to the kitchen area of the basement and ceiling tiles, everything in the house clear up through the attic is affected by smoke. Smoke penetrates everything in the home both in structure and in personal property.

Attic insulation needs to be replaced. Electronics are affected and lifetime shortened. Paper and plastic holds smoke and can’t be cleaned professionally (though I suspect an ozone machine might help). Besides smoke damage you may have water damage from the fireman.

Here’s some information you should know.

• Personal property falls into three categories.
  • One includes items that can be cleaned.
  • One is items you wish to keep that can’t be cleaned. Some examples for me were my photos, my record collection, some mementos, and a few books.
  • The last one is items that can’t be cleaned that you decide not to keep and are considered a loss.
• Personal property loss is best handled by content inventory specialists. They create a detailed list of every item that you agree will be a loss. They physically pick up every item and everything is counted. It’s very important to have the inventory folks come in first after the fire inspector from the insurance company completes his or her inspection.
• You and only you choose the company to remediate (clean) your belongings that can be cleaned. Choose wisely. You will also need a company to rebuilt. Few companies do both. You will be targeted by remediation companies when they learn of the fire and your insurance adjuster will recommend one as well.
• The packing, moving, cleaning and storage of your items to be remediated comes under your personal property portion of your insurance. This is important to note. For example if you are insured for $150,000 personal property and the remediation company charges you $50,000 for then you are down to $100,000.
• Damage to personal property can be:
  • Destroyed (no evidence of item left)
  • Smoke Damage (smells)
  • Water Damage (from fireman for example)

I didn’t know a lot of these details and believe I’ve always been in the know. You don’t know what you don’t know. This is what I’m learning…the hard way!

The first step was to go through the house with the remediation crew and determine what could be cleaned and what couldn’t. I don’t have a lot of furniture and what I have is solid wood. I have gradually moved away from cardboard and to storing in plastic totes. I do save boxes from any items I purchase or receive as gifts that are of value. This includes collectibles in my curio cabinets, computers, electronics. I have a lot of books. I love books.

The furniture can be cleaned. My brand new Tempur-Pedic mattress and adjustable base had to be disposed of and counted as a loss. Books will hold smoke smell and cannot be cleaned. They must be inventoried so that you can be paid for the loss. Of hundreds of books I kept my cookbooks and some books that were special to me or I knew my son would want some day. Plastic cannot be cleaned. That means that while I prefer to use glass storage bowls many do have plastic lids and I do have a few plastic cups for outside and some plastic storage containers. I have plastic cake and pie covers and pitchers. All must be tossed. All food must be tossed even if new in the package.

The much harder thing I now realize is that if everything burned to the ground and you were left with ashes you would be sad. You would be given your money to replace your personal property. That’s honestly what I think many of us, and certainly me, think of when we think of the personal property part of our homeowner’s insurance. The harder thing is the items that look perfectly fine and you see no reason to toss but certainly don’t want to smell smoke when they are brought back into your smoke-free home in the future.

There are some discrepancies. One is regarding plastic totes. Plastic will hold the smell and can’t be cleaned. Maybe it could be wiped down inside and out. Most of the totes I use have tight fitting lids. One company involved with me told me that everything needed to be removed from the totes and the totes disposed of. Another company told me that depending on what was inside and how well it was sealed it very well would be fine and could be boxed into a new tote or a cardboard box at a later date. This has caused me far too much stress because I made some decisions that I think were wrong.

Also important are how the employees handle your stuff. The inventory folks handled everything so carefully and with respect. The remediation company’s main contact was great. The crew that came to do the work acted as if it was just another job and a bunch of stuff. They broke a large B-29 model when they knocked it, threw away some things that were supposed to be cleaned, didn’t follow directions on my LP collection, and several other mishaps from what I can only sum up as lack of care.

In the near future I will need help to clean out and rearrange a few things in my garage so I can line with shelves and move items I’m keeping into there. I have some other decisions to make in the future about cleaning and storage of my personal property now that I know the bill for this is coming out of my total personal property allowance.

I have been staying at a hotel since January 20th and the housing company the insurance company uses has found me a rental home where I will move later this month and stay until my home has been renovated. I anticipate wiring will need replaced and perhaps my new kitchen appliances because of circuit boards and Bluetooth technology. My recent instant hot water system that feeds my radiator heat and hot water at faucets will have to be replaced as will my mini-split system installed a year ago. My hardwood floors original to my 1938 home may have to come up because they may hold smell. I’m not sure what all will be recommended yet.

This time last year I was involved in my fabulous kitchen remodel. This year is a lot different!

We were supposed to have the granite installed Wednesday.  Then it was Thursday.  Then it was on hold be unknown because so many installers were out sick.  Today was a Saturday but Premiere Stone from Salem just really did a great job.  Two very likable guys just did an amazing job.  I had no idea how this was installed and was just fascinated to watch.  I can’t stop staring at it!

I think my favorite thing beside the pantry is the appliance area that my designer created.  It takes things like coffee makers and toasters off the main counter and created a place for those as well as a little extra counter space.  There is plenty of room to use mixer, crock pot, pressure cooker on the new space as well.  The outlets there are spaced far enough apart to not crowd any appliances.

I also love my new sink.  It’s the deepest I could get and has a lower center area so you can put large items in it such as a big pan with room for the handle.  The faucet and sink are not working yet.  That will come Tuesday.  It sure looks nice!

Backsplash will be installed Monday.  I can hardly wait now to see it come together!

So the cabinets are all complete.  They were installed previously but we waiting on a couple of doors to be finished.  The area for the appliance bar was put in rather rushed and temporary for the granite install.

The granite install didn’t happen at all the week it was scheduled.  There was a delay of one day due to mis-communication.  Then they had five guys (not the burger joint!) out sick and their schedule got really messed up for everyone expecting installations.  Luckily I’m pretty laid back and easy.  It’s not a big deal.

This of course changed the schedule for a lot of other areas.

The biggest problem came from the most unexpected and smallest job one might say.  The paint.  I have all white walls in my entire home except for the two bedrooms that I have somewhat recently painted something NOT white.  I’m so sick of looking at white!

There were a lot of colors suggested by my designer but I wasn’t a fan.  I kept saying that with so much neutral colors of cabinets, flooring, granite, and backsplash I felt like we needed something bold to offset.  She showed me the paint color I immediately loved.  I will add that there isn’t much paint to show in the kitchen.  There is an attic door and a back door and most of the walls are covered by cabinets and backsplash.  One of the two areas to be painted is beside the back door.  That’s where dogs come and go and if one brushes against the wall or shakes from going out in the rain to pee made the white wall almost impossible to keep clean about dog height and below.  This new color will not show the dirt.

This brought about a gut-wrenching situation I never expected.  I’m pretty good at making up my mind.  I have all stained wood in my home except the bathroom where the previous owner remolded and painted white.  It doesn’t bother me at all.  In my mind and the way my brain works is that I must keep everything natural to the period and perfect.  This reminded me of something I heard about “I’m not the curator of this museum”.  I questioned myself but stayed firm that we would keep the stained wood.  That includes what had been around the back door, the doorway to the dining room, the attic door and frame, the window frame and sill, and all baseboards.

It was mentioned that I wanted white plantation shutters and asked if I was sure I wanted to keep the stained window frames?  I allowed the frame around the back door to be white because the trim was being replaced and the door is white so why not?  Then that baseboard between the new pantry and the back door looked out of place.  OK then it can be white.

I questioned the window situation far too much.  I posted it on Facebook asking for opinions just to see if I might be too close to the situation.  That didn’t help because it was divided just like my mind!  I finally decided the window trim could be painted when I looked at a picture of the stained trim next to the new cabinet.  But that was it.  No more white trim!  Final answer, Alex.

It pained me to see primer go over my pretty wood window.  I was almost sick as if I was putting a loving pet out of it’s misery.  I must be crazy.

The painter cut in the paint all around the edges of the walls and left for a little while.  I walked in the kitchen.  I stood and stared.  I was shocked.  I just couldn’t believe it.  It was so apparent that my decision made my nice, new kitchen look instantly dated.  I thought of all the homes I’d visited and comments I’d made about the dated features.  I knew I was going to have to go against all my beliefs about painting beautiful wood in order to make my kitchen stand out and look like a final product.

I called my designer and was still in a state of shock.  I sent her a photo.  I told her I was sorry to be so wishy washy.  I was going to have to change yet again and I knew it wasn’t going to happen today but on a future trip at some point.  I told the painter not to continue staining the baseboards.  Between the designer and I we decided to paint the surround to the door frames only in the kitchen only.  We would leave the attic door stained.  I could decide later if it bugged me.  Better to leave stain than have to remove.

The paint is great.  You can’t tell yet from the photos and the color doesn’t look right in these photos.  Here you’ll see what I saw that stood out as out of place.  I might be wrong and I’ve gone all over the place on this.  This was the hardest and most difficult part of the entire remodel process.  I doubt you not.

Painter will come back late next week and put some more coats on what’s primed and touch up as needed.

The neutral flooring was chosen to be attractive, durable, and easy to clean with two big dogs running in and out.  It’s a laminate product that is cut to fit.  Designs by Cyndi pointed out the inlay option available with this pattern.  It is eye-catching and different.  I do like it.  Had I known how much work this would be to the father and son team that normally do ceramic tile I would have left that out.  They have worked so hard and are such perfectionist that this has been a labor intensive process for them.

They put down a wood base over my original wood floors and screwed down any squeaky boards as best they could in the process.  A good part of the first day was prep.  Day two got back to the back door.  It would have been completed all today except the fridge arrived and they lost a lot of time while it was brought in and set up.  They had to stay out of the way.

They have in front of sink and middle of floor left that they will do Saturday morning.

The granite template was to be done today.  When the granite person showed it was when they were bringing in my massive refrigerator in and he couldn’t even get to the kitchen.  We’ve rescheduled for Monday morning.  Granite install will be Wednesday and he says that’s enough time.

Dishwasher and stove opening with row of drawers

Montgomery Cabinets have done an outstanding job.  These are quality wood cabinets.  Designs by Cyndi has really worked to make the most of my small space.

There are some doors yet to be added but everything is in place now for the granite company to come tomorrow and make their template.

I can now see the space where the stove and dishwasher will go.  They won’t be installed until after the granite.

Cyndi designed extra space for an appliance bar or some may call it a coffee bar.  It will be beside the radiator and while I’m not a coffee drinker there will be room for the toaster and outlets far enough away for Instant Pot or Crock Pot.  Granite will go over the top of the cabinet and radiator.

Two other great uses of space she designed are a pantry and cabinets above and beside the refrigerator.  I’m going to have so much more storage space and can adjust the shelves however I need to.  I couldn’t adjust shelves with my old cabinets.

I also have two wood pieces on the wall above the radiator to hang all my cast iron pans and it will all be very even.  This is something I saw on Pinterest and really wanted.

Notice the crown molding at the tops of cabinets?  The hardware is now installed.  I love it so far.

Thursday the floor will be installed.  That will be all new and shocking too.  Stay tuned for pictures with flooring.

Today was the first really exciting day in this kitchen renovation.  The cabinet maker came to begin installing cabinets.  The painter was supposed to have come first, but due to a mix up of drywall and everything going to shift to next week we were able to stick to the schedule of cabinets, flooring, and appliances this week.

Tomorrow will be second day of cabinet install and the granite template.

Thursday will be flooring.

Friday will be appliances.

Kudos to Montgomery Cabinets.  Absolutely thrilled with their work and work ethic.  Highly recommend.

There hasn’t been much to show or talk about with the kitchen remodel over the past week.  It’s been pretty boring for the most part. 

The drywall installers added drywall to cover the hole where the ceiling fan was and go around the new can lights.  They added drywall over what had been the framed wall over exterior brick. 

We lost a day due to miscommunication.  Originally we were going with beadboard on the lower half of what little wall space will show.  After the designer and I met we decided that this was silly.  She let the foreman know with the drywall crew but he missed the message and didn’t have the crew fill in the gaps in the grooved plaster that looked like tile but wasn’t.  They did get it done but did that another day. 

Monday, January 27 was supposed to be paint day.  We ended up moving paint to the end.  There will be very little to be painted.  The ceiling will be the biggest part.  I was insistent that cabinets, flooring, and appliances stay on schedule.  Part of this was for my mental well being and part was for the buyer of my old refrigerator to be able to pick it up over the next weekend.