WAKE UP CALL!!

Two days ago, life was really good! I was finally getting the upstairs carpet replaced, something that I have been waiting for since the day we moved into our house!!!! Matt and I have been diligently working on our house to make it "more roomy, more comfortable, a place where the kids have space to play" and all of those other excuses to get our basement finished!!! Well here it is.... It is all crap!!!

Two nights ago our "brand new" pellet stove exhausted smoke into our brand new basement where our two oldest children where sleeping. I was all but asleep and Matt had taken a shower. He came walking out of our bathroom and asked if I smelled the pellet stove? I grumbled "yeah a little bit" then rolled over and went back to sleep. See, when our pellet stove lights it always get a little smokey smell. This has always been a common thing.... Matt knew this too, but being the good man he is, he went to check it out. He opened the door downstairs and the entire basement was FILLED WITH THICK WHITISH GRAY SMOKE. He screamed up to me that it was filled with smoke. I ran down to get the kids. We called the fire department and now.... I have a brand new basement, new carpet, new couches, and an upstairs that is smoke scented!

This is my issue. I paid nearly $4000 for that pellet stove, something that nearly killed my children? Something that was suppost to help heat and keep the kids warm, healthier..blah, blah, blah. That I can't get out of my head! Here is the kicker.... Matt had taken the smoke detectors down in the basement when we painted, and had yet to get them back up. Here is the worst part, our sensors upstairs didn't go off either...?

Needless this is a wake up call in our lives that having a finished basement and working your butt off to make it happen, matters none. To think that I could have gone down the next morning, (had we lived with the smoke in the house) to find my two oldest children dead, is horrifying and the most scariest feeling in the world. Take aim in our mistake, check your smoke detectors, and above all... be more grateful each and every day that we have our children to teach us love and patience.