My first postings will consist of the e-mail updates I sent to a number of family and friends this week.


Here is what I sent out as the "Tuesday PM House Update":

1) Remediation started. I ended up remembering that a friend from church owns a remediation business. They were available to begin immediately and the insurance company authorized them to start removing wet carpets, etc. to prevent further damage. By the time I left at 6:00 this evening, most of the basement and 1st floor had been cleared of debris and carpets.

a. An SOS company will be arriving first thing Wednesday to professionally catalog all the personal property. They will determine if anything is worth storing and/or special cleaning and make arrangements for both. All non-salvageable items will be removed and disposed of.

b. The insurance company’s recommended builder and my builder of choice will be walking through the property tomorrow noon to get the basics of what needs to be done. They will both submit estimates and then I get to choose who I want to complete the work.

2) The insurance company has arranged for an agency to find us temporary housing (6 months with options to extend). The location/property will be our choice based on their research. Then furnishings will be arranged for us and they will assist us with moving in. They were also able to negotiate an even better price with the hotel than I did (darn J) and allow us to stay until 7/2 if we need to. Prior to this we were going to have to find another hotel on Friday.

3) I hope to reestablish electric utilities (via a temp hookup or generator) tomorrow and be able to connect to communications (phone and internet). This will allow me to be much more efficient while on site. Today I ran my phone battery out twice because I was making arrangements and providing updates all day.

Things are going way better than I could have hoped for. I think we have purchased most of what we need for the next couple of weeks while we wait for more permanent temporary housing. We are completely overwhelmed with how many folks have asked how they can help us. What a blessing.

Our neighbors have been beating down the Demi's and McMullin's doors asking how they can help. Debbie Demi is using them to coordinate drinks and lunches for us and the workers while we are there working through the remediation and cataloging. We all hope this will lead to opportunities for spreading the Gospel. Most of the actual work is being done by the contractors, but we would love to see any of your faces.

Thanks so much for your support, thoughts, gifts and prayers. They mean so much to us.

The Petits