midwife's muse

The clean-up

After a weekend of silence from the insurance companies Monday morning was full of phone calls. I contacted the dishwasher company, we had an extended warranty, who said they would send an engineer out to see if it was repairable, I declined, but they insisted. Whatever. Hubby and I are virtually living on the patio, thank heavens for good weather, the smell and soot in the house is still so bad that after about half an hour your throat starts to dry up and become irritated. We have two air filters running constantly in our bedroom and they do make an amazing difference. On Saturday afternoon I had started washing, linen and clothes and now all the clean stuff is piling up in our bedroom, un-ironed, no ironing board or iron.

Anyway, a cleaning company arrived on Monday. He toured around, piece of white lint in his hand, and wrote furiously on his clipboard. Afterwards we sat in the garden whilst he advised us on what was going to happen. Basically, the kitchen/family room will be emptied and everything chucked. The hall, landing and stairs will be redecorated and the carpets replaced. Every other room in the house is 'contaminated' and so will be cleaned, they will go through all the cupboards, drwers, everything. As I sat there digesting this information he told me that by today all our clothes were to be put in bags, they would collect them for cleaning. Nothing too terrible really, but that was what started me off. I am by no means a 'clothes' person, but I do like to have a choice, hence always having an overweight suitcase when we go on holiday, and here was someone wanting to leave me with only those clothes I chose to wear that day. I could feel my eyes prickling so was gritting teeth, clenching hands, anything to stop me blubbing, when he came out with the information that whilst all this was going on, about a month, we would have to move out. So, we would have to vacate our home whilst people came in, decided what was not cost-effective to clean (C.D's, L.P's, books, all my 'clutter') so would dispose of and sorted through the entire history of our family lives. I disappeared off down the garden, and once again sobbed. Tuesday bought the first of the loss adjusters, much the same, except he increased the decorating slightly but told me that I could take all the clothes to the cleaners rather than lose them all at once. Then came the news that left me speechless, we would be moving out for 3 months. Go and find a rented property. The magnitude of the disruption hit me and I began my, now familiar, battle with emotion. Quickly he tried to put a happy slant on things, imagine I will come to you and say, right you need to choose your new kitchen, carpets. As I battled with the tears trying to appear, I agreed that this would be wonderful, but that even though they were only two old moggies I felt their suffering was still a high price to pay, then I disappeared down the garden, again. Then came another loss-adjuster, same decision but with the addition of all new baby equipment, and a suggestion that we would be out of the house for longer than 3 months. Last to call were two forensic scientists, they took multitudes of photos and samples, and then wrapped the dishwaher in cling-film to take back to their lab where it would be ceremoniously unwrapped in the presence of the dishwasher, manufacturer's scientist.

In the middle of all this I has a long-standing Doctors appointment. Poor man, he greeted me with his usual title for me 'Super Midwife' and I greeted him with a rush of emotion. I am signed off work for a week, at which point he will ask Hubby how I am and decide if I am fit to return. His parting words were ' I know you think that you are superwoman, but even she has a weakness'.

This morning started well. Hubby had gone out to look at a job. I was sitting reading and ignoring everything. Then the doorbell went. It was the reporter from Saturday asking for an update on Elmo, the cat who initially survived the fire. 

I have so many people to thank though, the firemen, neighbours, friends, relatives, colleagues, fellow bloggers even the loss adjusters, everyone has been so kind. We have received so many offers of help and equipment, and I feel horrible turning them down, it seems ungrateful, but there is really nothing we can do, just move out.

22.6.05 11:38