Watching the house get emptied

Today we watched ten people pick up, wrap, box, and carry out pretty much everything we own.  We will continue tomorrow.  Bag after bag, box after box walked out of our house.  We could not see what was in the boxes, but they were labeled "office", "girls room", living room", etc.  We saw workers throw more drywall and ceiling than I thought was in the house out of my bedroom window.  There were two dumpsters full of debris evidence from the house that exploded in my yard and driveway.  We watched as workers nailed shoring walls into the floor of our kitchen, bedroom, and living room.  I saw the house we called home for 10 years and less than a month emptied of all we have.  It looks as if a giant took my house off its foundation, shook it and then slammed it back down.  I saw the house Lori and I chose, decorated and filled with things we love look like it was located in 1944 France.  It was horrible.

I've been asked about my thoughts on the change in the investigation to criminal homicide.  I was sad that it now turns out that my neighbors were murdered.  Now I am angry that someone thought that lighting a gas leak was a good idea.  I don't know motive, I do know result.  The result is horrible for so many reasons - there is no way that the person(s) responsible should not be held to the highest level of culpability.  I have great faith in our police and fire investigators.  I saw them in action, live and up close.  They are professional and very dedicated to getting it right.  I know that whoever they charge with this has a lot of evidence against them.  Justice will be done.  I was thinking about this a great deal while I was watching the men and women empty my destroyed house.  A house I loved that was destroyed by someone who did it on purpose.

We got pictures of the inside of the house.  Here they are:

 

This is our kitchen/dining area.    All of the cupboards on the south wall opened and the dishes fell out.  Broken glass and bottles of spices and other food items are all over the floor.  The counters detached from the wall as did the wall from the floor.  I was told that if you look down you could see into the basement.  The new window was created by pieces of the roof that came from the exploded house.  I was told the pieces tore through the wall and snapped the studs like toothpicks.  I told Lori that we should have made a window on that wall because the natural light made the room look brighter and bigger.

 

This is the master bathroom.  The wall has pulled away from the tub and the shower.  The new skylight adds to the bathroom's atmosphere.

Our bedroom.  The wall is eight to ten inches away from the floor.  I'm told you can see outside where the floor meets the wall.  Not sure if the bed was moved away from the wall or the explosion moved it.  There is a foot of insulation on the floor and the ceiling does not exist any more.  The firemen told me that the ceiling was on the bed.

I don't have pictures of the girls' rooms, but I am told that theirs are not any different.  We were told that a lot is broken.  We were able to get all of Molly's One Direction posters.  She was happy and will kill me when she sees that I mentioned this...  If you don't know who One Direction is, check this out and then come back. 

If you don't understand their allure, I am with you.

The people unloading our house are so wonderful.  They are cautious, courteous, respectful and patient.  They are wrapping and carefully boxing ALL of my junk in the office.  I get one room in the house to put all of my stuff and it is the office upstairs.  I have taken advantage of that and filled it with tons of wonderful things. (Well, I think they are)  I have 530325 books and random things in that room.  I do not envy them that job.  They are great.

Tomorrow we are to look at the things being removed from the basement.  There was 2 feet of water there for about 8 days and the things in the basement have to be in poor shape.  Not looking forward to that at all.  I hope the beer can collection from my youth makes it out.

Monday is D-Day.  D for demolition.  Not sure how I feel about that.  It doesn't matter how I feel because the house is coming down whether I want it to or not.  The city emailed me the demolition order today.  No appeal.  When it's gone, I am not sure what to do.  We have decisions to make.  Rebuild? Build somewhere else? Buy an existing house?  We have talked briefly about it, but made no decision yet.  Pros and cons exist for all three options.  Another thing on our mind.

Something else on my mind is the amount of school I have missed.  My students tell me it's ok, but I know they are tired of substitutes.  I have missed five of the last seven days of class.  I miss the interaction and seeing them.  They are such great kids and so fun to be around.  Hopefully after Monday I will be back for good.  It is really hard for me to miss school.  My reasons for missing are important and we have to take care of things and find a place for us to live.  That has to be my priority.  It is, and will be, but it still bothers me to miss school.

We will see what tomorrow brings at the house.  Not too excited to look at the basement remains.  Every thing I see that is ruined will make me mad.  I know my losses are nothing compared to my neighbors.  Absolutely nothing. But when I see our wedding china and the Waterford crystal we have bought and been given broken I get angry.  I know it's all stuff and can be replaced, but that isn't the point.  All of that "stuff" was broken by a selfish person who decided to open a gas line.  It didn't have to be.  To me it is just like if someone chooses to come into my house and begin to break things and tear things up.  I would be angry then, too.  Both are choices someone made to destroy things.  Choices have consequences.