On the morning of 11/1/07, Kevin and I woke up to our hallway smoke alarm going off. By the time we all got out safely and help arrived, it was already too late for fireman to stop the garage fire spreading to the attic which then spread to our whole house. Kevin and I both could have been severely burned and even killed and we are VERY thankful to God to be alive. We both opened doors to the garage ... flames actually came out of the door I opened ... I still am amazed to think about how the door got closed without any repercussions.

They had to get a bulldozer to get through the garage in order to get to the attic (yes, our garage was kinda fully packed. IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SMOKE ALARM IN YOUR GARAGE - Please get one NOW.

Does this look like a C to you?

Our kitchen was the prepping room for all the new wood flooring and painting we were doing.

I think most of that is our roofing all over the place. IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SMOKE ALARM IN YOUR GARAGE - Please get one NOW.

A bulldozer had to take down a big chunk of our front bedroom wall in order to stabilize the area to make it safe to go back in. (I think this is when I kinda forgot to breathe)

I promise I usually keep my kitchen a little cleaner than this! On the brighter side, many of our dishes inside the cabinets were salvagable.

This was my office/craft room - there were 2 floor to ceiling bookcases against that wall that ended up completely overturned and all my books ruined. (It was underneath those bookcases that the Fender acoustic guitar, protected only with a soft case was found. Thanks to one of my clients TLC, it was cleaned up of water/mold and smoke damage ... and is still kicking shinier than ever!! Thanks Derek Reese.

Our dining room hutch where we had most of our wedding pix displayed. IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SMOKE ALARM IN YOUR GARAGE - Please get one NOW.

Our new floor looked a lot better than this ... although Jami and her family are the only ones that got to see it since they came by Halloween night.

I think this is what had to be bulldozed out of the way to get to the attic.

The Rowlett Firechief was unable to determine the cause of the fire because of all the bulldozing that went on ... but Kevin and I are convinced it was the rechargable drill's battery that got hot while charging.

IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SMOKE ALARM IN YOUR GARAGE - Please get one NOW.

What the fire didn't destroy the water damage did.

Have I mentioned that IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SMOKE ALARM IN YOUR GARAGE - Please get one NOW??? seriously get one.