Rachael Ray Just Gave Us A Peek At Her Rebuilt Home After 2020 Fire

Rachael Ray's fans had seen the devastating "before" pictures, of her and husband John Cusimano's home in flames and then utterly destroyed by a fire in August 2020 (via USA Today). One year and one month later, Ray had some satisfying "after" photos to share.

The premiere of the 16th season of the "Rachael Ray" show featured a look inside Ray's rebuilt home in Lake Luzerne, in the Adirondacks of upstate New York (via People). Ray said she and Cusimano made a point of restoring their home "as close to the original as we could," with one exception their guests will appreciate. "A lot of this is just rebuilt things that sort of look like a facsimile of what was here," Ray said (via YouTube). "We took out the skylights in the bottom guest room because no one liked them. It woke them up too early." Ray and Cusimano were able to give their rebuilt home an old, lived-in feel with wood beams and paneling that had been reclaimed from fallen barns.

"I just need to be grateful for the fact that we rebuilt this again, quickly," Ray said. "Everybody in life in the last couple of years has had to move on, and pivot, and rethink, and reorganize their lives, and that's what we're trying to do."

Rachael Ray told viewers on the Season 16 premiere of the "Rachael Ray" show that while her house in the Adirondacks is completely rebuilt, it remains only a shell of a home (via YouTube). She said she hopes to show her fans a fully furnished and redecorated home in the next few weeks, before "Rachael Ray" moves back to its New York studio.

Whatever Ray and husband John Cusimano furnish their home with over the next several days, it will be new to them. "Basically, John and I lost most of our adult lives" in the fire, Ray said on her show. After the fire burned for several days and the debris was removed, Ray said, "what was left was literally just the hole in the ground."

The fire that destroyed Ray's home and her worldly possessions started August 9, 2020, in creosote that had accumulated inside her chimney. Someone driving an ATV behind her house alerted her from her backyard (via USA Today). Initially, Ray ran upstairs to grab a handful of important things, such as medicines and photographs, but then she could hear the fire burning inside the walls. "I went to get the dog, and that was it. We left our house," she said. Ray and Cusimano stayed in their guest house while their home was rebuilt.