GRAND COUNTY, Colo. — It still doesn’t feel like three years since the house burned down, three years since Julie Knauf closed her door for the final time as the East Troublesome Fire approached.
"This was home. This was my home," Knauf said, pointing at hole in the side of a hillside that used to hold the foundation of her house. "Right here was where our deck was. You’d pull up and this was the concrete pad for our garage. The main entrance was right about here."
If recovery is measured by how much is left to rebuild, there’s still a long way to go. The insurance money to pay for a rental house ran out a long time ago. The RV next to the old foundation will do for now as the struggle to rebuild continues outside.
"Never did we expect to still be in a camper," Knauf said. "This is now our humble abode. We’ve been living here since a year ago in June. You make it work. Home is where the heart is."
Of the more than 350 homes destroyed in the fire in 2020, only 40% in Grand County have been issued a permit to rebuild so far. That's according to the Grand Foundation, an organization helping survivors of the wildfire. Insurance money was tough to get. Contractors are in short supply. The winters make the building season short, and Knauf knows the list of challenges goes on and on.
"Two steps forward, one step back," she said. "You think that you’re getting somewhere and then you realize you still have all of these other things to do before you can get to that."
Right now, Knauf is focused on building a garage to live in, which will be quicker than trying to finish a home. She and her husband still haven't gotten to the point where they can get a permit to rebuild their home. The wait to get a construction company to help build will also be long.
Her husband is leading the project. In Grand County, a handful of construction companies are overwhelmed by the need. When the Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County in 2021, most of the builders went down to the front range.
In places like Superior, which lost nearly 400 homes in the Marshall Fire two years ago, nearly 70% have been issued a building permit already. With more resources down on the front range, the rebuilding process is quicker than up in rural Colorado.
It left people like Julie Knauf waiting.
"People hear them on the front range because they’re in it, they’re in the mix. It affected people who actually saw what was going on," she said. "Where up here, after it happened, it kind of just goes away."
But the impact hasn’t gone away. Three years after Knauf lost her home, frustration mixes with a sense of determination.
"You just have to let the anger go," she said. "Just have to realize this is what it is and when it’s done, it’s done. We’re going to have a really big party when we get the house put up."
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