For tornado-blasted red house family, ‘everything leads home’ – Kitsap Sun

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John Mueller is all smiles as he carries a stack of couch cushions to his newly rebuilt home on Tiburon Court in Port Orchard on Saturday. The Muellers' home was destroyed during the Dec. 18, 2018, tornado, which ripped the entire roof off of the home.(Photo: MEEGAN M. REID / KITSAP SUN)

PORT ORCHARD Beth Mueller learned that the roof had been blown off her home when a neighbor texted her a pictureon the TV news.

"It was just insane," she said. "To see it completely mangled, it was just heartbreaking."

The image of "the red house with no roof" went viral, becoming an icon for the freak tornado that struck Port Orchard on Dec. 18, 2018. The tornado plowed a 1.4-mile path of wreckage and causeda total of$1.81 million in damage to homes and businesses. No people were seriously injured or killed.

The tornado's power, EF-2on a scale of zeroto 5, was such that corners of the Mueller's home were torqued. Remains of the roof were never found.

Exactly 11months to the day, on Nov. 18, the Muellers passed inspection on their rebuilt home. They moved in Saturday.

"It's not moving day. It's coming home day," Beth's husband, John Mueller, said.

And, yes, the new house is painted red.

Beth Mueller and her ex-husband bought the house on Tiburon Court in 2003. "It's literally the only home my kids have known," she said.

John and Beth married in 2015, blending a family of his two girls Hannah andJasmin and her two kids Amber and Nick. Jasmin Mueller, now 17, and Nick Watson, now 18, were the only two still living at home last fall, both attending South Kitsap High School.

The tornado hit just as school was letting out, so Beth, at work in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, knew they hadn't been at the house during the storm. She and John, also a PSNS employee, took a back routehome to avoid "insane" traffic on the main roads.

Hannah Mueller carries Christmas presents to the driveway of her parent's home as she helps salvage what they can from their now roofless structure on Tiburon Court in Port Orchard on Dec. 19, 2018.(Photo: MEEGAN M. REID)

Their first thought was for the pets.

The neighborhood was blocked off, but firefighters allowed them to walk in. John, with help from two firefighters, located the Muellers' two dogs, Cinder, a chocolate lab, and Merida, a corgi mix, safe in their kennels in the downstairs den.

Hannah's dog Lyla also was at the house that day and had found refuge under a fallen china hutch. Nick's elderly cat Summer was hiding unscathed under Nick's bed. Even Jasmin's rabbit Gandalf the Grey made it throughalthoughcovered in shreds of insulation.

John Mueller and the firefighters evacuated the menagerie to where Beth waitedanxiously. "So I have the rabbit in my jacket, the cat in a carrier and a dog in one hand," John said. "All our animals survived, which was beautiful."

John believes his Army infantry training kicked in that day. "In the infantry, you are mission-centered," he said. "You take all the emotions out and you do what needs to be done."

A large red family house known locally as the 'red home' lost its roof when a tornado hit Port Orchard. Joe Jacquez, wochit

The next day, they had just a short window of time to salvage what they could from the house before it was red-tagged. Among the things they saved: Beth'spiano, Jasmin's vanity andthe rocking chair from when John's girls were babies.

The Muellers have nothing but praise for their insurance company (Allstate), which sent a "catastrophe team" to assess their loss and quickly cut a check for reconstruction. Some of their neighbors have struggled with getting settlements and at least one has yet to move back in, according to the Muellers.

Their coverage for a temporary rentalwas for one year, so the rebuild needed to move quickly.

The first roadblock: their foundation was cracked. The whole house would have to go.

Demolition was Jan. 29. John Mueller still has the video on his phone ofwhen the two-story machinebegan clawing at the house, crunching an upstairs window.

"Absolutely surreal," he said "This was kind of a hard day ... when we had to say goodbye to the old red house."

The Muellers were their own contractors and have learned a ton about permitting and local building codes. They went with Coval, a local construction company. The split level is gone, the layout is flipped, the garage now on the left. But they've replaced their four-bedroom andincreased their square footage from 1,822 to 1,910.

John Mueller documented their construction progress on Facebook. They hit another snag in September, when there was a delay in the electrical hook-up on which other steps of the rebuild depended. Coval found a workaround, and interior work continued. John applied pressure to Puget Sound Energy, and the hookup took place near the end of September.

Exterior painting was done by early October. The interior was painted and appliances installed in mid-October.

There was a recent scramble to spread topsoil and hydroseed before the inspection, but they pulled it off.

Beth Mueller unloads a bed frame from the U-Haul as she and her family move into their newly rebuilt home on Tiburon Court in Port Orchard on Saturday.(Photo: MEEGAN M. REID / KITSAP SUN)

Beth says the rebuild was "super-stressful." She jokes since their marriage has survived this, it can survive anything. She can't wait to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family back in her own home.

John, walking with his wife throughempty rooms two days before move-in,displayed his ever-ready optimism.

"This has been a long road, but it's been a good road, hasn't it?" he said. "What's the biggest thing? Always keep a smile.You know what? This house, it was just stuff. Everybody was OK. I knew we'd be OK. With faith, all things are possible."

Beth got a tattoo on her right leg. It shows a tornado, ruby slippers and a rainbow.

"God's promise, right?" she said.

John commissioned from a woodworker in Bonney Lake a plaque that hangs outside their front door. It shows the old house in the background being carried away by the tornado. In the foreground is the new house, study and bright, with a yellow brick road out front.

"Let me just say,home ... there's no place like home," Johnsaid. " We have our old house that's going away. It's in the past. This is new. This is us. Everything ...everything leads home."

John Mueller shows off the artwork that features the old house in the background being carried away by the tornado. In the foreground is the new house, study and bright, with a yellow brick road out front. The woodworking piece hangs next to the family's front door of their new home on Tiburon Court in Port Orchard.(Photo: MEEGAN M. REID / KITSAP SUN)

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For tornado-blasted red house family, 'everything leads home' - Kitsap Sun