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My mother and brother have moved out. I'm not going to give any indication as to where, juuust in case an arsonist is reading this. I doubt it, but after two fires in under a year and a half, despite the causes being quite different and the culprit in the second case being caught, you just can't be too sure. I've never shared an address on here while the person referenced is residing there, but I did give some descriptions of their circumstance relative to us.

They were motivated to move when it was announced that the estimated timeframe for people returning to their units was increased from 3-4 weeks to three months. Just two days ago, because I'm still on their mailing list until the end of April, this was updated to six months from the time of their message. So, including the two that had already passed, this would mean returning a total of eight months after the fire.

Apparently they had people requiring emergency accomodations living in seven different hotels. Now, for those willing to wait to return, they have partnered with another rental agency to take in people for the estimated half-year until their homes are habitable again. Those that are okay with moving will be given priority for properties owned by the company. For people staying with friends and family, they have frozen rent, and people still bound to a lease have been given permission to terminate it early.

So they're being mostly responsible about it all. It's interesting though, I feel like some of the new condo buildings have sprung up in a shorter time period than the estimate for restoration. Lee-Anne said that sometimes, it's cheaper and less labour intensive to destroy a place and build from the ground up. Of course, that's less of an option considering we're talking about people's homes, and Park Place cares at least about its reputation.

I'm happy to update that the paintings I was worried about were declared recoverable, so we should be getting those back. The couch and chair from Lee-Anne's grandmother's were not so lucky, which was the case for most of the furniture. However, the cleaning company said that they can still do their best and then return them. The declaration of "non-recoverable" is mostly to give the owner an option of getting refunded under tenant's insurance.

Although I feel like getting the furniture back might be a little bit more difficult than originally anticipated. We had pretty free access to the unit for awhile, until their hallway got blocked off for removal of asbestos. The people doing that were different than the cleaners, and during that time they bagged up all the non-recoverables in a giant pile. This means we lost our ability to survey the items in the apartment and since then, we've received some emails asking for permission to throw everything out.

I get the impression that someone felt freer to offer us our stuff before it was all bagged, but the asbestos thing has since made it inconvenient to retrieve items. I think they may be legally required to do so though, as they are still asking permission. But without access to the unit, and without being offered a list of what they want to throw out, it's hard to make decisions. My brother has still requested a few items.

To give the cleaners credit, they have offered to do us the great convenience of delivering their items to the new location. This would relieve us of the need to make moving plans. 

My brother moved out first. Mom stuck around with us a little while longer until they could get a bedframe at the new place. This is because her leg is still a little messed up due to breaking it last year. Even having one less person was a relief, as it freed up a room.

Probably my greatest feelings of depression about the situation would spark  in the mornings, while drinking my cup of coffee. It being a time of year when the sun was slow to rise, our appointment would be cast in darkness when I got up for work in the mornings. With someone sleeping in every room, I would have no choice but to return to bed, drinking my coffee in the dark with Lee-Anne sleeping next to me. After my brother left, I was able to go to the room he was staying in and have my beverage with the lights on.

 The cats moved on the same day that my brother did. It's hard to tell how they feel about everything.