Framing Begins...

After the addition was enclosed the guys went to work laying all new subflooring. Then the walls began to go up! First one was 10' kitchen wall on the north side and the 7' bathroom wall on the south side with a 36" hallway in between.

This is where my kitchen will be, a 10' x 14' L shape with a center island.

This view is looking west toward the hall to the masterbedroom.

Greg getting ready to put laundry room/pantry window in.

New window

New Front Door...

Carson asked me what I wanted for Valentine's Day...I said to please see my new door put in! So Carson and Greg took advantage of a nice day and installed the new door on Feb. 5, 2009 when the temperature reached 64 degrees. We had purchased the door back in April 2008, so it was nice to finally see it in! It looks as good as I hoped it would!

Carson very 'nicely' lets me take his picture...

Me...standing in the open space anxious for new door.

"Well Jen, how does it look?"

Oh, I like it!!!!

*kt: I think the new door looks very welcoming!

Two Steps Forward...Then A Fall Out!!!

(Note: House was built in 1970's and never had any rain gutters)

On May 21st, 2008, it began to rain for 3 days. Mom(Cena) and I were in Iowa getting Kt while Carson was home facing a caved in basement. He said he could have cried when he saw it! It truly was overwhelming and discouraging, but Carson had the equipment and a plan and set to work to put the basement back together again!
I have to admit if I had found it first I would have poured kerosene on the place and burned it down!!! I admire Carson for his hard, hard work at setting things right again!
It was a set back in both time and money.

These first 3 pictures are what Carson saw when he drove up to check on the house. I am sure he was in utter disbelief!

The basement wall had caved in, taking dirt, blocks, windows and rain into the house, covering items that were being stored!

The damage was extensive!

Pictures of rebuilding the basement wall:

Carson was able to drive the bobcat right into the basement...which helped tremendously in carrying all the debris out!

Britni crawling thru basement window hole

Zoe and Papa Carson sitting on top of mountain of dirt

In the beginning...

In 2007 Carson and I decided to make the place on the corner our home, it was a daunting task to undertake, but my dad always said that my "mom could make a home out of a chicken house" (acutally I think the home he refers to had rabbits raised in it). So I thought with a lot of elbow grease and hard work, we could make this place a home. (and it actually had birds hatched in it as Bob raised birds, and before we started on the house the pigeons had made a home there).

To make my mark and claim the space before much was done other than hauling off trash and cutting weeds, gathering iron to be recycled, etc, I had Carson build me a berm, and I hauled every rock I had here at the house down there to frame it.........the funny thing being that most of the rocks came from there as Bob always brought me rocks, and he could tell me what kind of rock it was and where it came from, that man knew his rocks!

Some rocks came from our travels through Wy, Colo, and Idaho. And some came from Joyce and Dave's in Minn., and many came from Carson bringing them home to me from job sites, it was funny to watch them pull up to the house in the service truck and throw out 5 rocks and drive away!

This is during the work in progress and before all the plants grew

My 24 week pregnant daughter, kt, came home at the end of May 2008 to help...she wasn't allowed to move any rocks tho!

kt here now, adding a few notes...
I am helping my mom get this blog off the ground and running. She is always talking about what her and dad are doing 'down at the other house', and I encouraged her to start a blog to document this long journey and so we could all keep up to date!
I set up the blog for her and right now, I have the job of adding the pictures, while mom writes the text! But since I have the login and password...I still may chime in every now and then! ;)
I just wanted to say that I am way proud of my parents and have so enjoyed watching how God is blessing their 'dream' into a reality.