Don't rent your house out to toads

This is a letter that I just wrote to our homies....thought some of my internettys would like to know what's been going on and why I've been so incommunicado. I'm not the same person I was a few weeks ago.

To our Friends and Family,

For some of you this is an update and for others this may be the first you’ve heard of it. On October 24th our home in Portland was essentially destroyed by a fire. They think it started somewhere on the back porch, smoldered for quite some time, then engulfed the entire back of the house in flames. As far as fires go, they say it was a pretty impressive one. It even burned a good part of the apartments next door. The firefighters had it out in less than an hour of their arrival but the damage was still significant. Thankfully nobody was hurt.

Our home is a modest 1899 Victorian with lots of personality and is pretty well known in the neighborhood, especially by those folks that appreciate old houses and the work that we’ve put into her. I’ve included a couple of before and after photos. As you can see from the pictures, this fire meant business.

The good news is that the professionals say that, while it has to be torn down to the studs, we can put her back together again. Our insurance agency has been good to us so far and we’ve been meeting with contractors that can do the work. We’re hoping to find people we can trust because we’ll be overseeing the rebuilding from back in Ireland, and sometimes that can feel like an awful long ways away.

We realize that it’s just a house and that we are still blessed in many ways. We are lucky to have each other and Jezebel and all of our friends and family that have shown us so much support over these last couple of weeks. But it still hurts. We poured so much of ourselves into that house and we loved her in a big big way.

So, when you have a moment, let us know how you’re doing and send us and our home some warm thoughts and good wishes. They’ll be put to good use.

Much Love,

Millicent and Floyd