Happy Sunday friends and family, and everyone else in-between:

I am reaching out for one final push to help my parents get across the finish line and back to my childhood home.

As many of you know, my parents suffered a house fire when my father's clothing combusted in the dryer, one year ago today.

pictured above: original photos from the day of the fire.

My parents spent about a week in the hospital with smoke inhalation while my youngest sister stayed with her best friend, before the three of them moved into a local hotel where they have thankfully been safe and well looked after. The community really rallied around them, providing funding, hot food, and companionship in those early days and weeks. Your previous monetary support helped acquire initial necessities and clothing needs, initial food and medication purchases, a hospital bed for my mother so that she could stay at the hotel with my father and sister to support one another, paid for ambulance bills for both my mother and father, paid for their portion of inpatient hospital stays and treatment for a week each, helped to cover fire-preventative measures on a portion of the house not covered by insurance, and covered the out of pocket front end expenses for the board up to protect the property from further loss. I will truly never be able to thank everyone for all of their support, which especially helped with the emotional toll of not being able to be home at Thanksgiving or Christmas last year.

pictured: a technician from a local plumbing team attempts to find a broken water pipe.

Which brings us to today, the week before Thanksgiving. I am reaching out today for the final push we need to get us through the final weeks before mom, dad, and Haley are able to move back to the house. All funding raised will be used to pay for the final hotel costs of 7 weeks (booked out through the beginning of January 2026), while the remaining construction work is completed on the house.

Unfortunately, the homeowners insurance policy only includes up to 1 year of off-site housing costs of any kind, and today is the last day of that coverage. Trouble with the responsiveness of the mortgage companies property loss division (who held the monies released by insurance, related to the deposit for the contractor) ended up eating nearly 2 months of the schedule, which has caused the delay that pushes us out to a finishing date of early January '26.

Work is well underway now, however, and we are on schedule to finish in early January. New plumbing, electrical, and mechanical systems (HVAC, hot water heater) have been installed.

pictured above: HVAC after the fire, Dec 2024

pictured above: HVAC and water heater after replacement, Nov 2025

The weather wrap and siding to the effected area has been installed. New widows have been installed to replace those that were broken to allow the fire department access to stop the fire.

pictured above: after the fire board up, Nov 2024

pictured: new siding and windows, Nov 2025

A new door has replaced the one that melted next to the dryer. A new sliding glass door has been installed to replace the one that was broken to save my mother's life.

The cabinetry for the kitchen was approved, ordered, delivered. Flooring has been approved, ordered, and is soon to be installed. Next week (Thanksgiving week), they will install the fire caulking for the plumbing and electrical as well as the insulation for the house. Then they will begin to hang drywall, and install flooring. All that remains after that is installing cabinetry in the kitchen, installing the reverse osmosis system and the water softening system, painting, and installing appliances.

Unfortunately, the housing costs between now and early January when work is completed will fall on my parents shoulders. In an attempt to reduce any financial strain this may cause them, I am kindly asking the community to consider donating to or sharing this fundraiser.

Thank you for your continued support of my family - your love, generosity, and kindness has uplifted them this past year in ways that you do not even know. Thank you for your help in getting them across the finish line and back to the place they call home.

With all my love and more

Erin Watson