Fire Destroys Christine's House and Business.

At 4am on Gasparilla morning, my neighbors were frantically calling my cell. My house was on fire. I was not there. It's something you really can't believe until you see it.  When I got there, I just crumbled to the side walk at the site of my house being engulfed in flames. I thought EVERYTHING was gone including my business. 

After the final flames were out, we could see that some of it was still there.  The sewing machines were okay, so I got the business out and relocated.  All of my personable belongings are damaged with smoke. Some of it is savable with a good cleaning.( My mom did a lot of laundry, 2-3 times over to get the smoke out of bedding and clothing.)

 The house has extensive damage, but enough of it survived that makes it worth rebuilding.  The fire fighters told me that if my house were new construction, it would be gone. But my house was built in 1920 using heart pine. Heart pine is very dense and hard to burn.

I bought this house 20 years ago. It is my first house. It was cheap. I paid that loan off pretty fast. Because home owners insurance is not required if you own the house outright,  I thought I would skimp on that and save a few bucks. That was a very bad idea.  Yep, I had no insurance.  

So, I am scraping up the cash, every way I can.
Thank you for reading my story. 
-Christine