1 ## Black Forest Fire 2013 ##
3 Our home which was the hosting site for gag.com fell victim to a forest fire
4 which began on 11 June 2013. Our house was <em>very</em> close to where
5 the fire started, so we had no real warning and feel very lucky to have escaped
6 with our lives, our pets, and a few of our most precious possessions. This was
7 the second really significant forest fire in the Colorado Springs area in less
8 than one year, and is the worst fire in Colorado history in terms of
9 structure loss... the count of destroyed homes is over 500.
11 Our property is on an edge of the burn area, so while we lost the house,
12 greenhouse, and one of our sheds... our other shed and many of our trees
13 survived. So we quickly decided to re-build on the same property, and hope
14 the new house will be ready by late summer 2014. In the meantime, we're
15 living in an apartment in nearby Colorado Springs.
19 For those of you who have asked how you can help us restore and rebuild,
20 thank you. We put together several wishlists and a registries of items we
21 needed to get started in the apartment, all of which were quickly and
22 completely filled. We are extremely grateful to have so many kind and
23 generous friends both in the Colorado Springs area, and all over the world!
25 Many of the others in Black Forest who lost homes actually need help much
27 we do. The [Pikes Peak Community Foundation](http://www.ppcf.org)
29 [emergency relief fund](http://www.ppcf.org/products/emergency-relief)
30 that specifically benefits victims of this fire.
32 If you'd rather send money to help us rebuild, PayPal transfers to
33 bdale@gag.com may be the easiest way to do that.
35 We are also deeply indebted to the three local fire departments that we know
36 were directly fighting the fire on and around our property:
38 * <a href="http://www.bffire.org">Black Forest Fire/Rescue</a>, the
39 department that serves us directly and were likely first on the
41 * <a href="http://www.wescottfire.org">Wescott Fire Protection District</a>,
42 an adjacent district whose personnel were fighting the fire literally
43 along the edges of our driveway when we tried to drive out, and who
44 ended up walking us out through the already-burned area to safety.
45 * <a href="http://www.falconfirepd.org">Falcon Fire Protection District</a>,
46 whose members showed us immense generosity in the days following the
51 * 2014 April 9<br>Roof trusses installed.
52 * 2014 March 25<br>Framing started.
53 * 2014 March 14<br>Concrete poured for the foundation / basement walls.
54 * 2014 March 3<br>Concrete poured for the foundation footers.
55 * 2014 February 26<br>Ground broken! Excavation underway...
56 * 2014 February 19<br>Building permits issued!
57 * 2014 February 7<br>While visiting the site for other reasons, Bdale observed
58 that [Mountain View Electric](www.mvea.coop) has installed a new
59 transformer, riser, and meter base on the last electric pole on our
61 * 2014 January 22<br>After some iteration between the architect and engineers,
62 we now have a complete working plan set with engineering stamps on
63 the way to Regional for issuance of building permits.
64 * 2013 December 16<br>Got our "last" set of questions answered by our
65 contractor, and signed the contract for constuction of our new house.
66 * 2013 December 10<br>Met with contractor to review cost estimates for our
67 revised plan. We're within budget now, so gave him the go-ahead to
69 * 2013 November 25<br>Met with contractor and architect to deliver our
70 proposed updates to the plan and discuss. We're actually happier
71 with the revised design, they both seem to like what we proposed,
72 and everyone is optimistic it will come in within budget.
73 * 2013 November 18<br>Met with our contractor to discuss costs. Not too
74 surprisingly in hindsight, what we designed would cost more to build
75 than we are prepared to spend. Back to the drawing board, literally!
76 * 2013 November 2<br>Met with our contractor to provide information he needs
77 to put cost estimates together for us in parallel with waiting for
78 structural engineering work to be completed.
79 * 2013 October 21<br>After several iterations, we now have floor plans and
80 elevations that accurately represent what we'd like to build.
81 * 2013 September 19<br>First draft of main floor plan received from the
82 architect we're working with.
83 * 2013 August 16<br>Demoliton work completed. The remains of our house, shed,
84 and greenhouse are now gone.
85 * 2013 July 26<br>The remains of the two cars that burned were removed from
86 our property and sold as scrap metal.
87 * 2013 July 21<br>After a week spent interviewing contractors who might help us
88 build a new house, we made a decision! We'll be working with Doug
89 Strecker, dba <a href="http://www.rampartcustomhomes.com/">Rampart
90 Custom Homes</a>. At his suggestion, we'll be using David Woody as
91 the architect tasked with turning our sketches into working plans.
92 * 2013 July 4<br>all web sites formerly hosted returned to normal
93 * 2013 July 3<br>gag.com web presence returns to normal
94 * 2013 June 28<br>gag.com mail service returns to normal
95 * 2013 June 20<br>Intenet service connected in the apartment
96 * 2013 June 18<br>First night sleeping in the apartment
97 * 2013 June 17<br>Started populating the apartment, almost entirely with
98 donated things. Initial registry links posted for things we could
99 use immediately to re-establish ourselves in the apartment
100 * 2013 June 15<br>Signed lease on 2-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs.
101 * 2013 June 11<br>House destroyed by forest fire
103 <center><IMG SRC="bfs.png" width="300" height="300"></center>
105 We're not sure who created the original artwork, but thanks to Eric and the
107 [Black Forest Automotive](http://blackforestauto.com)
108 for the cool bfs.png!
projects / web / gag.com / blob