Jaye and Alex need our help.

Sometimes everything goes wrong. Sometimes you lose everything you need and sometimes that includes treasures in your home that mean so much to you. This has happened to my dear friends, Jaye and Alex.

Sometimes, though, we can all do something to help. This is one of those times. Please pitch in and help Alex and Jaye find another home for them, Cheyanne and Aspen and help them refurnish some of what they lost.

Here is Alex’s story.

“On Dec 16th the pipes to my condo froze due to extremely cold weather (-30C). My landlord brought in plumbers throughout that week to try to get the water moving again so my sink would stop backing up with nasty sewage water. In their last ditch effort they wrapped the pipes in heat tape and insulated the bulkhead surrounding the pipe (most of that work happened the evening of Dec 22nd). I woke up the morning of Dec 23rd to the smell of smoke and discovered plumes of smoke coming from the areas in my condo where the pipes went into the subfloor. I immediately grabbed the dogs and a coat and got outside. As I was leaving the building I noticed the halls were filling with smoke and the alarms started blaring.

Once outside in the freezing cold about 8 fire trucks showed up and entered the building. I could see my condo from outside and the firefighters inside opening the windows. Smoke was just billowing out of my condo at that point. The firefighters diagnosed the fire starting from faulty wiring with the heat tape and insulation job just underneath my condo. They proceeded to tear out the floors of my condo to get to the fire and put it out.

I was picked up by a good friend and stayed with him for several days afterwards as my landlord said my condo was destroyed and would not be habitable for a long time. When I finally got approval to go back into the condo I found that all of our belongings had extreme smoke damage and a potent chemical smell due to the burning insulation and smoke that flooded the condo. So tomorrow I will have to throw everything we own into On Dec 16th the pipes to my condo froze due to extremely cold weather (-30C). My landlord brought in plumbers throughout that week to try to get the water moving again so my sink would stop backing up with nasty sewage water. In their last ditch effort they wrapped the pipes in heat tape and insulated the bulkhead surrounding the pipe (most of that work happened the evening of Dec 22nd). I woke up the morning of Dec 23rd to the smell of smoke and discovered plumes of smoke coming from the areas in my condo where the pipes went into the subfloor. I immediately grabbed the dogs and a coat and got outside. As I was leaving the building I noticed the halls were filling with smoke and the alarms started blaring. Once outside in the freezing cold about 8 fire trucks showed up and entered the building. I could see my condo from outside and the firefighters inside opening the windows. Smoke was just billowing out of my condo at that point. The firefighters diagnosed the fire starting from faulty wiring with the heat tape and insulation job just underneath my condo. They proceeded to tear out the floors of my condo to get to the fire and put it out. I was picked up by a good friend and stayed with him for several days afterwards as my landlord said my condo was destroyed and would not be habitable for a long time. When I finally got approval to go back into the condo I found that all of our belongings had extreme smoke damage and a potent chemical smell due to the burning insulation and smoke that flooded the condo.

So tomorrow I will have to throw everything we own into a dumpster and start anew. We are currently staying in AirBnB’s as we search for a new place to live.

To top it off, due to the cold weather and snow I hit a patch of ice in my Mini and hit a curb, breaking my front end suspension. Only have liability insurance on that car so won’t be able to fix it and I’m looking to buy something else.

That’s pretty much the gist of the last week. Also, Chey had what looked to be a seizure on Jan 1st and once we got her to the vet they diagnosed her with a geriatric vestibular disease where she can’t find her balance. Her eyes are darting back and forth constantly trying to compensate and it makes her very nauseous.

It’s been a shit few weeks to say the least.”