Open Season

I saw Allison (our neighbor) this morning. They officially got their house keys today.

YAY!

Now comes the process of everyone returning. Many are coming this weekend (tomorrow), but others are coming a little later.

At one point someone said something about so many moving trucks--would we need to coordinate somehow to make sure everyone could fit in?

I thought that was funny. Because we've had 14 houses rebuilt & 37 seriously rehabbed (new windows? new stucco?) on a 1/3 mile stretch. Talk about trucks.

Everything's not quite finished, but the houses are certified for occupancy. Now there's landscaping recovery & rehab starting....like between our house and our other neighbor's house (which also burned to the ground).

Landscaping in process this morning--there's Bud.

This means good times for little boys who are really going to miss all of the different types of construction trucks. Bud and Wombles spent much of the morning in the sandbox or its vicinity, watching the landscaping contractor & crew doing some deep exfoliation of what was formerly a hill lined with thick trees between our house & Kathy's garage.

Bud watching the first day of work back in March--from inside the window

Kathy's house was the very first one to have work done (we live on a loop, and they started with Kathy's & worked around to Allison's). All of the fine finish work happened at the same time, though, and EVERYONE got their keys today.

I have a little surprise for my neighbors. I hope they like it. I'll share when I've got them finished.

We are so, so excited. Even so, I am aware that for we who have been in the 'hood, this feels like a closing, a "finally through" kind of weekend. But my guess is that for those who are coming home (to homes that are not home) there is yet another stage of grieving and processing to undergo.

My house didn't burn down, and I spent the first three weeks or so back in our house as a minimally functional slow-motion train wreck.

The rebuilds are built to the exact same specs as the former homes (which is one of the reasons they are now finished when houses the next block over are about at the stage of the photo of Bud last March, above). Can you imagine the disconnect of going to your kitchen drawer--you know, the same one you've had for 12 years--and finding your scissors are NOT in it? Or that the set of sheets you're looking for isn't in the back of the linen closet where they have always lived? I can't imagine having all of the structure and context the same, and none--I mean none--of the content. I think our dear neighbors have longer than three weeks of grieving ahead of them. I can't imagine, but I am trying.

Bud said today that he wants to grow up and be a "worker." This means a construction worker. He wants to drive one of those big trucks--or tractors, rather--too. I asked him why he wanted to be a worker (he had already confirmed that he was still going to be living next door to me, so we were cool). His answer? So he can help people get their houses back after fires.

He also told Allison today that God would give her new toys, since hers had burned up.

I warned you that the processing was coming!

I hope Halloween shots will be coming tomorrow, too. Today was pumpkin carving: J did this while I was on my run up the mountain. Bless him. And tally #4, 612 while you're at it.



He lets Pixie and Bud design their pumpkins and then he carves them to specs. They love it.

This shot captures a look that Wombles constantly has when Bud is involved: some weird hybrid of "I don't know that I approve of this" with "So, how do you do it?"


Up close, now:


This year, Wombles had his own pumpkin. He was so incredibly pleased. When I got back from my run, He showed me "triangle...triangle...boat!" (mouth).


Here are the finished products:



And in case you're wondering, no, there has been no more rain in SB...Pixie has an umbrella because we had just been playing a game where she walked on a tightrope (imaginary) while I held her hand. Duh. You've got to have the umbrella.

Have a great weekend!