House fire and why I won't be blogging for a bit

On Thursday, around 3pm, I got a call from B and the conversation went something like this:
"Hi, what's up?"
"Did you get my phone calls? I've been trying reach you. Our house is on fire."
"Are the dogs dead?" (Seriously, this is what I said yelled because I knew B was already alive, obviously.)
"Yes, they're fine, the firemen are being really nice and giving them lots of water. I came home and the house was on fire and I went in and there was smoke everywhere, I couldn't see in front of me, and I got the dogs out." (What he really meant to say is, "You married a freaking superhero, didn't you know?")
"Ok, good. So, do you need me to come home?" (Ok, in my defense, allow me to explain. I get super hyper focused while I'm working and I was in the middle of writing an email when B called and I think I was in shock because it simply wasn't registering THAT MY HOUSE WAS ON FIRE.)
"Ummmm, I guess not." (Since Thursday, B and I have gone over this conversation many times. He really was OK with me not coming home because he too was in shock.)
After I realized what I said, I think I started hyperventilating and I left work. Here's what things looked like after the fire but keep in mind I only took a few photos because it was all kind of chaotic.

I didn't even bother editing these pictures because, really, what's the point?

As you'll note, NO, our house did not burn to the ground, thankfully. Also, although it crossed my mind that perhaps I left my Chi on or somehow caused the fire myself, I did not (thank you fire investigator man for clearing that up). Our water heater, which is located in the kitchen of our top story, 850 sq. foot historic rental somehow overheated and blew fire horizontally into the kitchen.  The dogs were in the furthest room from the fire. When B entered the home, he immediately went to their room and they were laying down breathing cleaner air. He said they calmly sat up an ran out the door. Thank goodness.
The most important thing to note about this whole scenario is that this happened around 2:00pm. B NEVER gets home from work this early. He just happened to get released from the site he was working on early and came home to take a nap. A fireman told him that if he had gotten there 30 minutes later, the dogs would have been dead. Ugh, it makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. It also makes me feel incredibly thankful and lucky. Things could have been so much worse.
The bad news (besides our house catching on fire, of course) is that we didn't have renters insurance. I'm kicking myself in the ass for that because I had been meaning to add it to our auto policy for ages and just never got around to it (if you're reading this and you're renting and you don't have renters insurance, I want you to stop reading and go sign up for it NOW). The good news is that our landlord has been very kind to us. For the first three days after this happened, there were fire restoration teams, electricians, plumbers, and painters who tackled the job of cleaning the walls and floors, repainting every room and restoring the kitchen.
B and I have set to work throwing away smoke damaged items, washing our clothes (yes, we still have much of those!), cleaning the surviving contents, buying basic necessities and trying to stay calm. Every time I throw away a wedding gift or an item I splurged on or something I recently bought, I remind myself that my husband and my dogs are alive and all of the stuff I own is just STUFF. None of of it matters. I'm 28 years old and I feel like I just learned one of the biggest lessons of my life and for that I can be thankful.
I'm going to take a break from blogging for the next week or so to get my home and my life back in order. I've been updating my twitter feed along the way and will continue to do so if you'd like to follow me there.

Thank you to the friends who let us crash at their places over the last few days and for our faraway friends and family for your kind words, prayers, and support. Also, BIG thank you to my sister who drove 14 hours to help clean and who, after blowing her nose after a few hours on the job, started laughing and made me laugh because her snot was black with soot. You're the best.