Thankful between the tears...

During these past several weeks, we have found out some things that just make my head want to explode! But today, we are going to be thankful for the good things. On Tuesday, we met with our contractor, all the subcontractors, and the process, though slow, given all the logistics, has finally begun!

We are excited to be able to work with D&S Contractors - thanks to so many who offered their help when we first lost our home to the fire.

With the community's support (and our very expensive homeowners' insurance), we should be back to whole again one day.

The house is completely empty; only the basic studs remain at this point. But we will be rebuilding and adding (hopefully) some more old-time historic charm.

I'm a little sad the walls will be drywalled and no longer plastered, but we probably had about 60% drywall before due to flooding, and we know it is much more efficient on many levels. Having newspaper for insulation is no longer an option (LOL), and the knob and tube electrical work will be updated for obvious reasons - we had no idea there was so much of the knob and tube electric in our home - a little surprised it didn't burn down prior to 2025!

One of the cool things we have experienced since the house fire is the community that has shared memories of living in Pottstown, as well as those who used to live in our house. Seeing old photos of what the house once was is so cool, and just having the conversations about what their time here was like has kept me feeling honored to be a part of this community. Some of the photos this round are from the olden days of our home - you can't see a lot of the house, BUT we know where they are taken, and the changes that were made through the years.

The first picture below shows a small part of our kitchen during the 1940's. Somewhere along the line, an L-shaped addition was added to the back of the home. The second photo of our refrigerator hanging out the side after the fire from the N Hanover Street view. The third photo is from the back/side of the house with the current tarp covering the refrigerator. The kitchen at some point was flipped - remember, when we first moved into the house, it was abandoned for 2.5 years. There really was nothing in the kitchen but an oven, a countertop on a pole, and a shoe rack hanging on the wall - I don't even remember a sink actually being there, nor was there a place to put a refrigerator! I believe the addition to the kitchen area was added in the 60's or 70's and was used back then for laundry, which we moved to the basement when we moved in. We obviously needed a space for the refrigerator, and it made the most sense - plus 5 kids' worth of laundry was never a good scene to be visible in our side kitchen!

Imagine our surprise when we saw this earlier photo of the kitchen. The radiator remains today, and it's where you would enter from the dining room. We do plan to switch the first-floor radiators, which have years of chipping and many layers of old paint, for more decorative ones. Not a huge expense, and once I saw the decorative ones in other houses, I have always wanted them. The sink in the photo is very small and turned at a different angle than the one we had installed when we first moved in. The door was the back door on the side of the house, which was removed when the addition was added many years before we moved in. Behind this door is where the addition was put on and became the laundry room. What is so odd to see is that the small kitchen we had created when we moved in in 2009, was at one time even smaller! Obviously, my chef husband never liked the kitchen, but I loved its uniqueness. After all, how many people can say they have a brick wall in the middle of their kitchen and no windows! Not sure how we can adjust the kitchen without incurring high costs, but if nothing else, we may be able to add some counter space. With the original addition needing to be completely rebuilt, there could be room to add some windows...Stay tuned for future photos as we begin to build!

Since many of you live in these old houses, if you had the option to do things all over again, what would you do and what would you never do again? Leave us your thoughts here!