Fire Damage

March 23rd 2012 our upstairs had an explosion we do not know what it is that exploded just that it did and burned a lot. It blew out windows, and made a mess. The slide show shows the damage caused by fire and smoke. We watched the smoke roll from the house for 45 minutes while we watched the fire department try to get the hydrant(that dont work) to work, their trucks that should have had water in the m were empty. It was frustrating. The damage was minimal but would have been worse if they had gotten water on it sooner.
We spent 1 week in a hotel paid for by 3 organizations, we have been blessed in many ways through this. I'll post that in another blog!  I plan on keeping a picture journal of the repairs as we go!! As usual!
So here is a short blog and short update, luckily it was daytime and no one was hurt.

Topeka Dairy-Free Food Examiner - Food & Recipes | Examiner.com

Topeka Dairy-Free Food Examiner - Food & Recipes | Examiner.com: "Alternatives to milk
With a recent dairy allergy diagnoses many questions will go through your mind. How to feed your family, recipes, nutrition. The more you learn the healthier your diet will be, the better you will feel. Dairy allergies effect the whole body...."

walk for Autism!

I am participating to the 3rd Annual Autism CARE Walk at Heartspring on April 10, 2010, and I want you to join me. The Autism CARE Walk raises awareness about autism spectrum disorders in our community and across the nation. This year's walk will be approximately 2 miles and will start and finish on the Heartspring campus at 8700 E 29th St North in Wichita.

Visit http://tinyurl.com/yapn2bp to join Huffin Family and support autism awareness today.

new post on fixin as we go with pics!

go see http://fixinaswego.blogspot.com/

the cellar/the food and a snake or 2! AGHHHHHHHH

Yes you read right! We cleaned the cellar up, took in some shelfs, filled the cellar with water, figured out why the sump pump had not worked, pumped the water out and its now drying nicely! So yesterday I go down, we were moving all the shelfs onto bricks so they wont be sitting in water and get ruined, also so the water can get through to the pump easier. I walk down the stairs and look over, snake skin! new SNAKE SKIN. i CALMLY TURN GO UPSTAIRS AND FREAK OUT! Back down again. This time I make kids go with to help, and we get through putting 2 shelfs on bricks, no live snakes! Whew! I start doing stuff to the one shelf, with Nanna and Boo are lifting the other 2 shelfs onto bricks, they move one shelf and another SNAKE SKIN!! ok so I have 2 NEW snake skins, no clue where the snakes are other than somewhere in my basement! WAAAAAAAAAAAA I hate snakes, they are horrid, I hate them. I would rather bugs,spiders and mice! So I continue putting food on shelfs. I have moved most of the cans/jars down stairs. I dont want any boxed,bagged or anything like that in the basement. It iopened up a lot of room upstairs getting all the food downstairs. I have a fan going to dry it out soon. It would not be as wet as it is but the sump pump did not turn on when the water first came in and I did not know till it was pretty deep. I have that fixed and it does not get out of the hole it sits in now.
I never found the snakes. I know the skins are new, the one was not there on Tuesday when I was down there. So anyone know how to get rid of them? I am trying real hard not to freak over snakes in my house! But it wont take much for me to freak out
heres some pics!

porch measurments

porch bottom:   89 in X 20 foot long

fixin it stuffs!

Ya Ya bad grammar I know, but oh well! Here are some pics of the next repairs to be done! They look worse than they are(or I am delusional take your pick) I'll post pics as it gets fixed and moved.

I have to cover the door and re shingle and recover with new wood

replace all boards underneath

re shingle that small area on roof (to high for me)

finish moving pile of wood from previous owner

under the wood are flowers trying to come up!

clean up and repair and paint

 I can do most of it myself(I hope) The shingles on the roof are what makes me the most worried. And that's only cause I hate heights! If I get up there I may not come back down- with out falling! The rest is simple and I can do most. I have someone who has said he will help me- one of Nanna's friends. This is where its good that I helped L with so many remodels and paint jobs. I have a slight idea of how to pretend my way through it! I can pretend good enough to convince myself I know what I am doing! I am going to temporarily cover the top door. When I have the $$ to redo it real nice up there with a rail I will uncover it. For not it will be covered and fixed with out a rail.  Today I went and bought a new screw gun to make more repairs on the house. The one I had died, the battery stayed charged long enough to put in 1 screw, if it was short! So I bought a new one, its a small black n Decker, plugs in instead of charging. I also picked up some cement patch stuff to fill in some cracks. I hope this week to get out there and measure the top of the porch awning and the bottom so I know exactly how much wood to buy to fix it. I 'll take pics when I do! We also will get the pile from the side of the house moved. We got all the dead rose bush branches cleaned up! I'll be doing a few other things. We also hope to get a start on digging the garden spot soon. No repairs happened recently. Just getting ready to do the work I need to do.