Where There's Smoke...

I just sat down to work with what I had hoped to be a hot cuppa coffee until I realized that I didn't have a microwave to warm up the coffee in the pot.  Damn.  Okay, iced coffee, I can do iced coffee.  So I go to grab a glass and hesitate.  ...I wonder if these are really clean?  Well, what else am I going to do?  So I grab the glass fill it with ice, skim milk, splenda, and coffee (most of which will kill me anyway) and grab a straw from the drawer.  As I go to take a sip, another hesitation.  ...Oh God, is this straw covered in that stuff, too?  It feels kind of powdery.  Take a sip, ew, it was powdery, but dang that is coffee is good.

This is what has become of my life since late Monday morning.  As Rosslyn and I were trying to make old-school stove popcorn, we had a fire.  It was big and it was also scary, and I had to call 9-1-1, which is the first time for that, thank goodness.  In the end, though, I didn't really think it was that big of a deal.  Sure, the microwave had melted to an ugly clump of grossness that freaked Rosslyn out any time she saw it, and the cabinetry, wall, and ceiling above the stove were blackened with smoke, but we had cleaned most of it off and called it a dumb day.

Tuesday, however, a rep from a fire cleanup company came over to take pictures and see what they could do to clean up the cabinetry.  Basically what he told us is, "I don't foresee you using this kitchen again."  He wouldn't elaborate, just kept repeating that.  He did say that the cabinetry was so old and gross it wasn't worth cleaning and would need to be replaced.  Anything that was ours that we wanted to keep such as dishes, etc would need to be bio-cleaned to get the smoke out before being used.  Also, something about the appliances not being used anymore and our ducts needing to be cleaned out.  In the end, he said, we'd have to tear out the entire kitchen.  We asked whether it was safe for us to be in the apartment and he said as long as we don't disturb the damage, open up the cabinets, or try to use any of the appliances in the kitchen, we would be okay.  And just before he left, he pulled out our air filter and asked they'd changed it since the fire.  No.  "Yeah, okay, well this isn't doing anything for you - it's filled with smut."  Thanks, management.

Hence my hesitation in grabbing a glass or a fork or anything.  Our food in our cupboards are covered in the stuff that we later found out was melted pieces of plastic from the microwave.  These particles rose with the smoke and drifted into every space in our apartment and created a filthy film over everything.  We had to wash all the bedding in both rooms, we had to clean off every single surface.  The couch is ruined because its microfiber and we can't get the stuff off.  We didn't clean all of Rosslyn's toys so she's probably touching them and then putting her hands in her mouth like I did the other night with a bag of Pirate's Booty.  I mean the entire bag was covered with this stuff and I didn't notice before I ate out of the bag.  I didn't notice until after when I was washing the black off of my hands!  Ugh.  My anxiety is through the roof.  Should I use this robe?  Am I just wiping it all over my body?  Am I eating it?  Are we ingesting it through our glasses and dishes?  We don't know what else to do.  We have to eat, so we eat.  Marc's found it his personal challenge to cook as many of our meals as he can on our little griddle that we take outside and use on our little patio.  Like we're squatters.  Though that griddle was out in the open on top of the fridge right next to the fire, so we're eating off of something else that should be bio-cleaned and therefore ingesting more of it...oh God, it's a sick circle.

To make matters worse, we're all sick.  As I see it, we will all continue to be sick until we find somewhere to go.  Rosslyn has been on antibiotics since the 19th for an upper respiratory infection that was almost gone before the fire and now is back in full swing and so is Marc's, which he has had for as long as Rosslyn has.  I have a sinus infection, self-diagnosed because I'm too cheap/tired/time-crunched to go see someone, that I had four days before the fire and still have.  We have a 1000 sf apartment that never gets fresh air because its cold outside and we've been breathing in the smoke damage since the fire AND our management never sent over a new air filter that we asked for several times.  But where do we go?  We have nowhere to go.  This is when having your family in the same city would be highly beneficial.

Finally, Marc went up there yesterday evening and said, "I'll just wait if you could go grab a filter so I can take it home."  He also wanted to know how things were going and what we could expect, should we be moved to another apartment?  Should we expect someone to be coming up to take the kitchen apart and clean the ducts?  They are waiting on the estimate so that they can give it to us and once we work on paying it she'll get started.  ......  Excuse me?  I didn't hear you right.  We're not paying for this.  Renter's insurance, which we don't have, covers personal property damage, not housing damage, right? That's why the complex has insurance.  We've looked over our lease and we've even spoken to Geico and basically both state that we would be liable for any personal property damaged in the fire.  Geico stated that if we had renter's insurance it would be Geico going to bat for us saying, no we're not paying that, but since we don't, we have to do it ourselves, but I'm afraid we're not armed with the knowledge of any of this.  In the least we'll have to get a lawyer and pay those fees.  But to pay for the complete kitchen upgrade of an apartment?  Not to mention duct cleaning and anything else they think to tack on?  Where would we get that kind of money?

I need a brown bag to breathe into...

ADDENDUM:  We've just been notified that we have to leave our apartment due to the health issues of staying and we won't be able to come back until after all of the work has been done, which they expect to take a week once is starts.  Once it starts.  So we're going back on the road - we'll be staying at a friend's house in town for a few days and then Rosslyn and I might head South and stay with some family for a while.  Just keep our sanity/health/finances in your prayers, people.  Thanks!