Guess Who Showed Up to Work?

Yes, Santa put Zan to work today! I think he looks really cute in that CRAZY shirt...totally fits him. He has this shirt on because Chance grabs it out of the closet everyday for him to wear while they play together.

Zan ripped out the drywall in the downstairs bathroom. Guess who cleaned it up? ME,ME,ME... I actually cleaned up twice because I thought he was done then he tells me that he has two more walls to do. I told him to just do it another day but he said Santa was coming back tomorrow so he had to get it done!! Santa, can you teach me how to get him to jump so fast???

They almost have the basement walls up, gonna try to get it finished up before it rains again on Monday.

Starting to Take Shape

We are getting there! The poor guys are working so hard to beat the crazy rain! YES, more rain tomorrow and Monday, its not even April yet!

The kids are so curious. They ask "how do we get into our new basement?" They have come up with a few good ideas.... Blaine thinks Santa will put in a door outside and we will go around back to enter house. Quinton thinks they can climb through the small window from the other basement. I gave Chance the inside secret... he promised not to tell his brothers that the wall from the other basement will be knocked out!! ha Kids CAN be cute sometimes. The boys are really enjoying the project. Blaine walked out yesterday when I was talking to Santa and he greeted him as if he has known him for years. We feel very blessed to have a good relationship with our builder...as of now. ha

Hilldale Demolition Incorporated

Check out our new employees! They come a little cheaper except for the amount of gatorade they demand!!

Boys were here working on a school project and Zan walked in and blamed them for destroying our wall! They thought it was real funny that he thought they had done it!

As you can see in the other picture...IT IS RAINING AGAIN!!! I felt like going nuts looking out the back door at the floods so I decided to have five "calm" boys over to take my mind off the mess!

There wasn't much that could be done to the house outside so Santa tore down the drywall in the family room today. Hopefully, the rain will stop soon so we can continue.

Santa and His Sleigh

So the pumps are still working and the day has come to lay the footings for the foundation. Santa and his elves arrived about 8 AM on Saturday morning to finish up the forms for the concrete being delivered at 10:30. They worked feverishly and were able to have it all ready to go once the truck pulled up.

Santa kept filling up his sleigh carrying loads of concrete from the truck to the backyard as his elves unloaded and filled the forms. The forms were about 90% filled until the concrete guy informs Santa that we are going to be about 3 sleigh fulls short! Oh NO!!!!!!! Are we upon set-back number 3? Santa swore that he calculated the delivery correctly. Come to find out that there was EXACTLY the correct amount. Santa, my man! It took them about 3 hours to unload and smooth out the concrete.

The Rain May Have Stopped but the Water Keeps Coming

One week into our project and we had our second set-back. This time it was MAJOR! Due to all of the rain that we've had and the fact that our house sits on a high water table, Santa had problems keeping the water out of the area that the foundation was to be built on. After a few days of head-scratching he figured out a solution. He dug 2 holes about 3 feet deeper than the foundation floor and dropped 2 cylinder casing in them. Inside those casings he put in temporary sump pumps. All the water would drain into the cylinders and out the hoses via the pumps. Genius, I tell ya!

When he told us of his solution we were extremely confidant that it would work. Within about 3 hours after installation approximately 85% of the water had been pumped out and still going strong. The only concern he had was that the sandy ground could have kept clogging up the pumps. It had already happened and broke one.

Santa left for the day and all seemed working perfectly. Zan came home and was pleased that almost all of the water was finally gone. Zan had left for a coaches meeting around 7PM and returned about 10. He took a look outside when he came home and almost ALL OF THE WATER WAS FILLING BACK IN! We nearly had a heart attack. And then the light went on (pardon the pun), we looked to see where they had the extension cord plugged up and noticed that it was plugged up in the garage where the overhead fluorescent lights were. These lights are controlled by a switch and Zan must have flipped the switch in the garage to turn off the lights when he left for the meeting. So we turned the switch back on and went to bed. When we woke up in the morning, almost all the water was gone.

SHHHHH, don't tell SANTA!

It's Hammer Time

Today actually got worse! Santa looked so frustrated at the big hole in the backyard. He said that he had to dig deeper than expected to remove the septic tank. He dug so deep that he hit the water table so he spent the WHOLE day trying to remove water. He said our dirt is sandy so it clogs up his pumps so guess what? We still have water in the hole! I suggested to give it a few days to dry up but he advised me that we are getting rain again on Monday and it would not be a "pretty sight". So does that mean the house may sink in the hole? ha I just decided to stay out of it and asked Quinton to scream my name a bunch so I can sneak away and refer this to Zan. Sometimes, interruption is good and my kids are masters at it!! The concrete is scheduled for Friday so we will see what happens....

The Rain Has Stopped but Chaos had Just Begun

It seems as though the 100 year storm has just passed through our town. There were uprooted trees, impassible flooded roads and power outages everywhere.

So after 3 days of torrential downpours the sky cleared up and we were able to start the dig. Santa had said that his plan was to start today but we thought that there was no way that could be done because the ground was so saturated from the storm and it would not allow the backhoe traction into the backyard. But he proved us wrong.

Neither of us were home and we assumed all was OK until Zan received a call at work saying that "We encountered our first problem"! Oh no...... 1st day and we are having a problem already? Yes, as they were digging the foundation they hit the old septic tank. Luckily the house is on public sewer and not hooked up to the tank anymore. Regardless this put a kink into the project. The tank now has to be broken down and excavated which is going to cost time and $.

Zan decided to try to come home as soon as he could to come see the damage. When he came home he was greeted by Quinton and Blaine who were doing homework with the babysitter, Deseree, but EAGER to go outside and "check it out". So the 3 of them put on their boots and headed out to the site while Deseree went to pick up Chance from the other sitter. Q&B were loving it as they had free reign to go and climb through the nasty mud and climb on the machinery. They even decided to chip in with the digging (except they were filling the hole in)! Blaine also decided to go around scooping up all of the sharp, rusted lag bolts from the deck in the yard and bring them in the house to collect them.

Let's not forget about Chance! He is our "little helper". He put on his work boots and had a blast throwing everything in the big hole. Zan kept trying to chat it up with the neighbor as I yelled to keep a hand on him before he face-planted in the huge hole!

I bet it will take Santa longer to dig out all of the "Chance debris" than the septic tank.

The Backhoe gets delivered

Zan and I came home and realized our project has officially begun! We are so excited and nervous. We feel that we are ready, we have done a lot of research over the past six months. We interviewed twelve contractors for the job. We narrowed it down to two and chose the one that seem to care about us, not just the job. He gave us advice and caught a huge mistake the architect had made in the plans. Did I mention he looks like SANTA? Not everyone can grow up saying Santa built their house! I offered an additional $1,000 if his workers will wear "big ears" when I pull up with the kids!

So, the "digger" as I call it from here on out is in the driveway. I am sure the neighbors are wondering what's happening here but then again, they have probably thought that since we moved in! We have already proven to be a little strange. ha

Santa tore down the deck on his first day. Chance kept looking out the sliding glass door and Santa would tap on it and he would run and hide! Good thing I am not paying by the hour cause Chance wanted to keep playing! Within his first few hours of working, the weather changed. It began to rain so hard! He put a tarp across the back yard to keep ground dry and had to stop for the day. He will be back on Monday if we aren't flooded to OFFICIALLY start our renovation! So Excited!!!