After the fire

Just to let you all know the insurance company is going to deal with everything including the clean up. Everything is covered and we will have the house 'as new' back in March 2012. I have my new laptop so totally Skypable at julianmerrow-smith or via Ruth (who didn't leave her laptop plugged in to the telly in front of the fire) at ruthphillips. The cause of the fire remains a little mysterious though not suspicious! We left washing to dry in front of the fire that though yellowishbrown did not catch fire, the sofas likewise. TV and ikea tv table with laptop etc a write off as were all our thousands of books, which we'd moved downstairs in the summer. The main thing that burnt were logs next to the fire but why or how they were set alight remains inexplicable even for the CSI guys from AXA. The fire was contained in the living room which fortunately has a steel and terracotta brick ceiling (unlike the wooden beams elsewhere. Although the burning was contained the heat and smoke has destroyed everything in the main house -- it is astonishing -- all the walls are brown and where the heat was extreme the electrical boxes have melted and the plaster has exploded off the walls. The three bedrooms will need re-plastering the ceiling in Ruth's room will need to come down and all the beds/ bedding/clothes/furniture will have to be be thrown out. The studio smells and needs cleaning but is otherwise fine, I'll wait for the clean up next week before going back to work as just being in the atmosphere for an hour is like smoking 20 Players Navy Cut. So Christmas in holiday accomodation and more disruption in a year pretty full of disruption. Ironically this all happened on the day we went to collect the brand new Renault from a garage in Aix -- so at least with the mini, we have a nice car each to drive around in. We were out for about 4 hours in the evening arriving home before ten, if we'd come back at midnight the house would no longer be there!