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Two Years Ago Today... A Thomas Fire TR update
Two years ago the Thomas fire began and burned 280,000 acres of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, the largest fire in California history (at the time, but that record was broken less then a year later by the Mendocino Complex fire.) 1,200 houses were lost including yours truly. My orginal TR of sorts is here. https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...ome?highlight=
It has now been two years since that "interesting" night when my wife and I left our home of 25 years with the backyard on fire. No point leaving any earlier, right? Well, life has moved on and we are doing well. We are 3/4 into the rebuild. As with any such project we have had untold delays, paper work hassles, idiot inspectors, but also worked with a great architect and builder.
As many of you know 2017 was a challanging year for us. A week after the fire I tried to die in a car crash, my mother passed away, my associate vet went out for prolonged maternity leave (leaving me as the solo vet in the practice), and my mother passed away, to mention just a few of the stresses we had to deal with. Ultimately that led to me selling my veterinary practice and retiring. That process was stressful in and of itself, but at least once it was over I was finally able to deal with everything that happened and am much better for it.
Once again, I want to thank all the mags and maggettes who have wished us well and provided moral support through a tough time. Many stepped up with gear and pro deals to get us back on the snow. Props also to Black Diamond and Patagonia for generous discount codes. It was a bit embarrassing showing up to ski the first time in brand kit and gear from head to toe, u
including underwear. Talk about feeling like the ultimate gaper!
So, on to a year of rebuilding.
It took a year to make the decision to rebuild, design and get plan approval from the city. We have a great builder who have been clients for over 30 years who hooked us up with a great architect. We were quite happy with the results.
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Even though there was a house there for 60 years we still had to over ex 5' of soil under and 5' outside the house footptint.
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Of course it turned out to be an epic winter in California. It was great because we got to ski into July at Mammoth, but not so good for construction.
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Once things dried out we got started for real. Things moved along at a good clip.
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It was nice to get windows to close things up a bit. We are done with rough plumbing, electrical, insulation, heater and ducting, roof, and are waiting for exterior siding and interior drywall.
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We found a couple up in Mendocino to build a custom front door from salvaged old growth redwood (no spotted owls were harmed in the making of this door, at least not in the last 100 years.) One of them makes the door the other does custom stained glass. Still waiting for it to be shipped, but have a few pictures as it is being built, but can't find the door itself. At least here is the glass.
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All in all we are well recovered, and just look forward to getting this finished so we can move in and get on with our lives. In the mean time, I hope to see and ski with more of you this season, so cheers for now.