After a house fire, where do you even start?
It’s one of the first questions homeowners ask after the smoke clears. The days that follow become a blur of insurance calls, unfamiliar terminology, and decisions you never expected to have to make. Every conversation feels urgent. Every choice feels important. Before long, you’re caught in a whirlwind, trying to make sense of it all — all while grieving the place your family called home.
Those emotions are a natural part of the home restoration journey. Learn more here: The 5 Emotions of Home Restoration.
That’s where one Minneapolis family’s story begins. After a devastating fire left their beloved 1930 Tudor in need of extensive restoration, the days ahead were filled with uncertainty. In the months that followed, working with an experienced team gave them something they desperately needed: confidence that someone knew the road ahead.
“They took the overwhelming list of things to do, and they had a playbook. It was a lot like having a guide as we went through it.” — Jessie B, Minneapolis Homeowner
Today, they’re living in a home that feels unmistakably like theirs, thoughtfully rebuilt for the next chapter of their family’s story.
The First Day
Disaster struck on a summer evening while Jessie and her family were visiting relatives. About 30 minutes from home, they received the call every homeowner dreads.
Their house was on fire.
By the time they arrived, fire trucks already lined the street. Windows had been broken out during firefighting efforts, and fire, smoke, and water had transformed every room.
“You think you’re going to be able to salvage something — your clothes, your pictures, anything. But when we walked through the house, everything was just black,” Jessie recalls.
They barely had time to process what they were seeing before vendors began appearing at the property. Business cards were pressed into their hands, unsolicited pitches interrupted already-stressful conversations, and complete strangers urged them to make a decision before the smoke had even settled. In the middle of one of the hardest days of their lives, it felt like everyone wanted the job.
“There were a lot of ambulance chasers that hit us up that night … it just felt kind of icky.” — Jessie B, Minneapolis Homeowner
The first 24 hours after a disaster have the biggest impact on the recovery process, making it especially important to slow down, gather information, and choose the right partner.
So, rather than choosing the first company that knocked on their door, Jessie and her husband stepped back and spent the next day doing their homework. Recommendations from friends in the industry kept pointing them to Restorations by Highmark, and after researching the company’s reputation, they decided to make the first call.
Within hours, someone from Highmark was walking the property with them. During the visit, the Highmark rep noticed several upstairs windows had never been boarded after the fire, leaving the home exposed to the elements and any critters that might wander inside. Rather than leaving the family with another problem to solve, they boarded the windows themselves before they left — even though they hadn’t been hired.
“They boarded up the windows without even being asked. They just did it. That personal care was nice. That kind of sold us on Highmark.” — Jessie B, Minneapolis Homeowner
Home Restoration Beyond the Structure
As the immediate crisis passed, a different concern came into focus. The family’s home had been built in 1930, so preserving its character was just as important as repairing the damage.
Learning that the original hardwood floors and vintage glass doorknobs couldn’t be saved was heartbreaking. Still, those conversations helped uncover what mattered most. More than any individual feature, the homeowner wanted to walk back into a house that still felt unmistakably like home.
“I didn’t want my cute 1930s Tudor brick house to look like a 2020 remodel.” — Jessie B, Minneapolis Homeowner
Highmark embraced that vision from the beginning. Throughout the project, conversations revolved around the details that gave the home its personality. Every opportunity to maintain the home’s historic, architectural character was pursued.
- The home’s signature archways remained a defining architectural feature
- Traditional crown molding carried the home’s historic character into the rebuilt spaces
- Even after the original flooring was lost, the replacement narrow-plank hardwoods reflected the look and feel of what had been there before
“I just wanted it to feel like my house again,” Jessie explains.
By the time the work was complete, the home still felt unmistakably like the 1930 Tudor Jessie had originally fallen in love with.
Want to see the transformation? Browse the before-and-after photos and learn more about the project process in our portfolio: Oakland Avenue Restoration.
Making the Most of a Fresh Start
Home restoration was only part of the journey. Once the walls were opened up, the conversation naturally shifted from replacing what had been lost to asking how the house could better suit the family in the years ahead. Because Highmark’s restoration, building, and design teams work together so closely, those possibilities were easy to explore — without doubling back to bring additional partners up to speed or starting over.
“All the Highmark teams partnered very well … It felt like I was working with one company, not multiple.“ — Jessie B, Minneapolis Homeowner
One priority rose to the top almost immediately.
“My kids were younger at the time, so I wanted to make sure that I was building for teenage boys if we were going to be staying here longer,” Jessie recalls. “We wanted the home to grow with us.”
That meant looking beyond simply replacing what had been there before. Rather than adding onto the home, the Highmark teams found creative ways to make every existing inch count:
- Walls were reconfigured to create a more open kitchen, dining, and living space
- The upstairs layout was redesigned to create a larger bathroom with dual vanities and a walk-in shower
- An egress window transformed part of the basement into an additional bedroom, allowing the family to maintain the same number of bedrooms after opening up the main floor
- Hidden pockets uncovered during demolition became built-in shelving and under-the-stair storage
Even the children became part of the process. They joined walkthroughs, weighed in on decisions, and picked their own paint colors (with a little guidance along the way, of course).
By the time construction was complete, the family hadn’t just restored their home. They had reshaped it together, creating spaces that honored its past while making everyday life a little easier for the future.
Coming Home Again
Moving day didn’t erase everything the family had been through, but it marked the beginning of a new chapter. After spending months helping shape every detail of the restoration, Jessie walked through the front door feeling like she was finally home again.
The house looked different in all the right ways, but more importantly, it still felt like theirs. Before long, the family welcomed the neighborhood over for a Halloween gathering — the first of many new memories made inside walls that already felt familiar.
“I just feel like we need to make memories in this new house now,” Jessie recalls her husband saying.
Looking back, that’s exactly what the home restoration made possible. The family’s beloved 1930 Tudor still carried the charm they had fought to restore, while also supporting the life they wanted to build inside it for years to come.
So … Where Do You Start?
Today, when other families ask what to do after experiencing a house fire, Jessie doesn’t hesitate.
“Call Highmark.”
After everything they experienced, that recommendation isn’t rooted in the finished home alone. It’s rooted in having a team that knew what to do when they didn’t, cared for the home before they were ever hired, and guided them through each step until they were finally able to walk through the front door again.
If your home has been damaged by fire, water, or another disaster, you don’t have to navigate the recovery process by yourself. Contact Restorations by Highmark to take the first step toward bringing your home — and the life built inside it — back together.
