It has been 732 days (two years and two days) since we lost our home to wildfire.

I had a vivid dream in the early morning of October 18, 2020. I dreamt I was walking through our house, and flames consumed everything. I felt no heat nor heard the roar of the flames, but I watched as the fire churned through the living room, the office, the hallway, and the bedroom. I woke with the certainty that we had lost everything.

It was several more days before we learned that, indeed, our home, and a third of our community, were gone. While losing our house was a body blow, we managed to recover and devise a plan. We are among a dozen or so hearty families that have chosen to rebuild on the mountain. A few neighbors have replaced their abodes over the past year. Our community is slowly returning to its former self.

Many of our neighbors, however, decided that the risk of losing it all was no longer worth the effort of living on the mountain. We’ve seen more For Sale signs over the past two years than in the past eighteen years. I can’t say that I blame some folks. It’s been a battle for us to get this far.

And we are inching closer to having a new home.

The basement walls have been poured and cured, and the exterior of the walls is coated with damp proofing. Next, our contractor will add drainage piping and rock to the ditch surrounding the structure. As of this post, we are clear to have the modular transported up the mountain around the last week of November. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds until our home is on the foundation. After that, let it snow!

While the last two years have certainly been challenging, our greatest challenge is still ahead. We need to get settled into a new home and figure out how to shoehorn everything given to us over the past two years into our new space. We have three (yes, three) storage units that are almost full to bursting with furniture, kitchen accessories, bedding, and other assorted household items donated to our cause.

For now, we are forced to be patient while the final steps of this adventure grind to a close. The picture that was once a dream is beginning to solidify into reality, one day at a time.