Op 31 oktober 2024 was er in ons huis een uitslaande brand, waardoor het huis onbewoonbaar is geraakt. We zien beide nog de beelden voor ons van die avond en de vlammen in en uit het huis. Dankbaar dat de buren thuis waren en ons hebben opgevangen tot de brandweer klaar was en de ambulancebroeders Harrie nakijken, hij had namelijk rook ingeademd en brandblaren door het blussen. De brand is ontstaan in de keuken, waarvandaan het vuur onder het dak is gekomen. Daardoor was er veel schade aan het achterhuis, het dak en zelfs de muren zijn onherstelbaar met als gevolg dat die geheel gesloopt moest worden om het te kunnen herbouwen. Het voorhuis had veel rook en roetschade. De eerste weken na de brand worden we geleefd door afspraken met het schoonmaakbedrijf, de verzekering, de brandweer etc. In 2 weken hebben we het hele huis leeg gehaald en is alles gestript. Er gaan twee grote containers weg aan spullen en een kleine bakwagen aan spullen gaat naar het schoonmaakbedrijf om schoongemaakt te worden. Er word een container op ons erf geplaatst waar we in kunnen wonen, onze buren helpen ons met ruimte maken op ons erf hiervoor. Het is een slecht geïsoleerde keet, dus inmiddels hebben we er 2 koude winters opzitten en staat de derde voor de deur. Gezegend met een keet. Mijn atelierruimte achterin het huis lijkt nog een beetje gespaard te zijn, ik had veel van mijn kunst in een afgesloten ladenblok, waardoor het na geurvrij maken behouden is gebleven. Maar de meeste moeten weg, gezien de geur er niet uit kan of omdat er roet in zit. Van de door ons de jaren heen verzamelde spullen blijft weinig meer over. Harrie heeft door zijn leven heen best veel dingen verzameld, van camera’s tot skates tot kunst, wat nu allemaal weg is. Tekening van D.J. Pattje uit 1939, het enige werk dat bleef hangen in de gang. opgegeven door de schoonmakers, gelukkig gered door Bax kunst De schoonmakers komen niet uit de inventarisatie van onze eigendommen, daarom neemt Harrie de inventarisatie over, het is zwaar om geconfronteerd te worden met alles wat er niet meer is. En dan hebben we de eerste financiële tegenvaller, veel eigendommen vallen onder “verzameling” waar een maximaal bedrag van 15.000 euro voor staat bij de verzekering. Daar lopen wij ruim 45.000 euro mis. De specialist van de verzekering had ons gezegd dat alles onder de verzekering zou vallen, nu achteraf gezien vragen wij ons af of we wel alles hadden moeten weggooien of dat zaken nog schoongemaakt konden worden. Dat is zacht gezegd flink balen, zeker gezien ons verteld is dat we goed verzekerd zijn en zelfs verzekerd zijn tegen onderverzekering, maar ook dat kan ons in deze situatie niet helpen. Een container vol herinneringen. Harrie die zijn hele leven al spulletjes spaart als autist zoekt nog steeds waar dingen ook alweer zijn; weg dus. Voor de herbouw van het huis krijgen we een bedrag van 160.000 euro van de verzekering. De eerste offertes die we krijgen zijn het dubbele en stijgen de prijzen nog meer door Corona en de oorlog. De verzekering wil nog een beetje geven, maar niet het gehele verschil in bouwkosten. We passen het plan aan om het financieel haalbaarder te maken en vinden een lokale aannemer die de bouw kan uitvoeren voor 167.000 euro, dan staat er een kaal huis, waar nog geen keuken, badkamer of toilet is en worden de installatiewerkzaamheden niet gedaan. Dus een kaal huis, zonder vloeren, gordijnen of wat dan ook. Met ons eigen spaargeld erbij komen we rond de 200.000 euro aan budget, dat is niet genoeg om alles af te bouwen. Om een huis te hebben met een keuken, badkamer, toilet en het liefst ook nog wat gordijnen, een vloer etc hebben we zeker 30.000 euro nodig om van ons nieuwe huis weer een thuis te kunnen maken! Om geld te besparen doen we veel zelf, met hulp van lieve mensen. De riolering ligt al onder de nieuwe vloer en zelfs een deel van de elektra, maar materialen blijven duur en ons budget heeft geen rek meer. En we hebben toch echt warmte en verlichting nodig. We kunnen niet alles zelf doen, en konden we dat, ook dan komen we er niet. Daarom hebben we hulp nodig! Een paar weken geleden is er gestart met de herbouw, daarmee gaan we een nieuwe fase in. Desalniettemin ook een hele spannende fase gezien de financiën, hoe meer er gebeurd hoe duidelijker het wordt dat we echt niet nog een tegenslag kunnen opvangen. Harrie heeft zich de afgelopen jaren hard ingezet om alles te doen wat hij kon. Daardoor is hij nauwelijks toegekomen aan zijn werk. In het huis heeft hij gesloopt en hij heeft onze garage vrijwel geheel opnieuw opgebouwd in de tussentijd. Daar bleek door houtworm de constructie beschadigd te zijn en er ontbraken wat balken (wat natuurlijk niet kan). De laatste weken heeft hij hulp gehad voor de elektra en riolering, zodat deze op de goede plek komen, uitgezocht welke deur waar kan, tweedehands materialen en deuren gezocht om het huis weer wat eigens te geven en natuurlijk om te bezuinigen. Zo blijft alles passen bij het bestaande deel van het huis. Harrie bouwt van alles met Len, hier een nieuwe verdieping met hout gekregen van Oane Voordat de bouw startte werd ons steeds duidelijker dat we het financieel niet gaan redden. Werk is voor mij een welkome afleiding van al het regelwerk thuis, maar daarbij bleef Harrie thuis achter om op te ruimen, schoon te maken, lijsten uit te werken met wat verloren was, muren te slopen, spullen af te voeren, contact op te nemen met architecten, aannemers, verzekering en tussenpersonen. Voor ons is de rek eruit, we zouden graag weer vooruit kijken. -------- Dank je wel, Saskia van Montfort Het achterhuis gesloopt, tijd voor de herbouw! Harrie's story in English Oktober 31 2024, A video of the aftermath After a day of working on a new backdoor for my shop me and my wife Saskia made some fries and were enjoying them in the living room. When the power went out. Something didn't feel right and as I made my way through the hallway I noticed there was light in the kitchen. It wasn't light, the stove was on fire, flames all over it and up to the ceiling. I yelled out to Saskia that we had fire and tried to put it out. Threw the lid on the pan and found a woolen blanket as Saskia was on the phone with the fire brigade. In what seemed an eternity the whole kitchen was filled with smoke and I started to panic as I had no idea what to do left and lost my breath, I called out for help and Saskia, still clear of mind called that I had to get out, through the back door. I closed the kitchen door behind me and as we waited for the fire brigade non of us could have expected what was to come. We were outside, I believe Saskia had shoes on but I was on socks, out in the windy cold. By the time we got outside we had no idea the fire was still going on, in between the lowered ceilings and the roof. By the time I got an fire extinguisher from our next door neighbours it looked like there wasn't any fire going on and we waited on the fire brigade. The picture I used for the campaign I made as they were arriving, and was told to wait inside at the neighbours to wait for an ambulance to help me out. I had inhaled quite a lot of smoke and had burnt my hands trying to put the fire out. It took about a year for me to get over the throat pain and still feel sick allot from the damage. The fire brigade took about 45 minutes if not more to put the fire out, they had to rip down the ceilings to get to the fire in the ceiling, destroying all the artwork we had hung in the hallway. They had a hard time getting all the smoke out as only the window in my office was open, meaning everything in there was all but destroyed. The only picture I took of the initial state of the house, that is Saskia as we are seeing the damage for the first time. This was the hallway where they tore down the ceiling to gain access. We were helped by a fine man who helped us through the process, he insured us that we had an amazing coverage from the insurance company. We even had insurance against being under insured. So that gave us quite a bit of hope. When we eventually were able to go back in to the house it dawned on us that we would not be able to stay in the house and slept over at Martin and Vroukje. They helped us wash our clothes so we had something to wear. I even started planning the rebuild that evening as, since we heard the roof had to go I thought we may as well improve one or two things. Our neighbours on both sides were amazingly helpfull in the mess after the fire, here they are helping clear space for the temporary units. (where we still live) The next few weeks were extreme. The people who came over to help us clean the house were ill equiped and it took a long time to get anywhere. I ended up having to throw out about 35.000 Euro's in shop goods. As I am a small business owner I had no coverage over these items, basically stopping my shop dead in it's tracks. Sadly allot of the boxes of skates I had in the house to process didn't make it. Luckily I was able to save most (not all) of the items I had just gotten from Rene Hulgreen just before the fire. Decades of skate collecting gone. We also arranged a temporary living arrangement, which we had to rent from a company. Not untill about a year on were we able to buy the unit, it cost us a whole lot of money but at least we are not paying an extra 1000 every month to stay here and I was able to make upgrades to the unit so it wasn't so cold in here in winter. I spent a couple of weeks waiting for the cleaners to make inventory of all the items we lost before I stepped in. It seemed the people over at the cleaners had no idea what they were dealing with and couldn't get an accurate evaluation done. With some effort I was allowed to do this myself, I spent about 3 months going through old pictures, pictures I took after the fire and allot of time confirming with the insurance company to make an indication of what was lost. One of few pictures I took on the first days. The Kitchen looks alright in the picture but was not repairable sadly. My entire music collection, all my computers, all my camera gear, my new server and all my audio equipment ended up not being covered under the insurance. The person who was guiding us missed the fact that there was a maximum of 15.000 for Audio equipment, computers, camera's and collections. So all the skates I had to throw out that were mine, the wheels, the rare items and all the books I had collected since I was a kid were not only gone, but I wasn't going to be getting any money for them. Out of the 60.000 Euro's I had in special items we would get only 15.000 Euros. Items I had in the house for the shop were also not going to be payed for, quite a hit as we only found this all out AFTER we had thrown countless items out, which you would probably keep if it came out there wasn't going to be money payed out for them. After getting through this phase we had already gotten some drawings from a friend for a possible rebuild. The damage on the house was assessed at well, at this time they assumed the rebuild would cost 155.000 Euro's to rebuild our house. Which seemed like a workable sum! We looked for an architect to get everything ready for the council but when we arrived to a good drawing it was shot down by the council, it had to be a bit smaller which I guess they had a point about. I was trying to maximize space in a cheap way and they want to keep the character of the house in tact. Though the back wall and one side wall also have to be replaced as these are no longer structurally sound. I believe the first number got to 420.000 A drawing round later we got a price in from the contractor we had worked with in the past. It was well over 300.000 Euros. The contractor assured us that prices had risen, as Covid and other international crises had made some building materials extremely expensive and hours got more expensive. A bit dumbfounded (we had clearly stated our maximum budget through the entire process) the contractor agreed to make a new price for the initial damage, fixed in the way the insurance expects. All the work has to be done up to the new code and standards so we couldn't just put the house back together. The new total to rebuild the house would be 213.000 Euro's, quite a bit away from the 160.000 we had initially expected. We made changes to the plan to make it cheaper, I started demolition the house on my own to save money, I have started doing a few walls and decided to do all the work needed on the hallway leading to the shop and the shop itself all on my own (with friends) to save even more. As I was tearing down the house the actual damage became more and more obvious, almost everything had to go. The people at the insurance however would not move all that much. We got a little bit more money from the insurance and ended up with a 162.000 to rebuild. We went back and forth with the contractor and changed plans multiple times to get both the local council and the contractor in line but weren't able to fix the situation. Even with them building only a frame with only the outsides done it would be 200.000 Euro's. With help with people from Wender, a company who help people in need we came in contact with Jan, a local contractor who has been helping us to get things together. We altered the plan and will have a more simple home and end up with a house completed for about 167.000 Euro for an "empty house". We will end up with a house within the original dimension but some extra space here and there! He hasn't included a kitchen, bathroom or electrics, stucco work, painting or any finishes so we can stay under budget. The kitchen would cost only about 20.000 Euro. So we are trying to at least get that done. Sadly the handmade kitchen original to the house had to go, restoring would be more expensive then replacing it and deemed not viable. Now almost 2 years later we are expecting to start rebuilding. But without help we simply can not make it. We have gathered all our savings and the pay outs from the insurance and end up somewhere around 200.000 Euro's So we would have 13.000 Euro's to do 30.000 Euro's worth of electrics, a bathroom and toilet area, do grouting, painting and then we still have to get furniture. without having the money for it. Now I know how to be budget concience and will do everything I can to make things cheaper, Martin and other friends are helping me to get as much done as possible but with the stress of the last years behind me I feel like I am about to collapse. I have done anything and everything to try and make it but have to say I can't go much further without help. So far we have started with all the electrics ourself but have ran into a few issues already where things will have to become a bit more expensive. We are asking for any donations towards a goal of 30.000 so we can finish the remaining work ourselfs! It will not be anywhere near what we lost or even what we would need, but I don't expect people to do that <3 Thank you for reading, Harrie Span - van Montfort 31 oktober 2024
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