Just looking back.....

I am making a DVD of the flood and as I was looking at old pictures of the old house, I came across these. They are from 8-12-07, 3 days before I had Sammie

Christmas Letter

THANK YOU!!!!!

We want to say a very heartfelt and warm thank you to all that have been praying for us.

For those that need updating, we have been working on a house project since March of 2010 for our basement. There was a grant program available through Waukesha County for those who were affected by the June 2008 flood; that was the flood that put 5 feet of water in our basement. The program was to help restore our basement to pre-flood conditions.

There was a lot of time, effort (including 15-20 estimates from various contractors), and paper work put into this project which finally broke ground August 1, 2011. The first day they dug half way around our house, but then they stopped their work on August 2, 2011. It was then they found our house had no footings and they needed to come up with a new plan. While we were waiting for soil tests and engineer(s) to draw up plans, our basement wall broke away from the house. The house was still standing and soon temporary support beams were added. We lived there a few more weeks. Meanwhile, the 2008 Flood Grant program job position had expired and our house became the responsibility of Waukesha County’s Parks & Recycling department. They decided it was in their best financial interest to pay to relocate us and level our home, we then became the responsibility of the Waukesha County Highway Relocation department. So, a week before school started, Waukesha County put us up in an Extended Stay Hotel in Wauwatosa for 2 weeks. On Labor Day weekend we moved into a rental house in Waukesha and began our search for a new home. We sold our house to Waukesha County on Wednesday, October 5, 2011.

We had never seriously considered moving before this. It took only 2 weeks of serious looking before we found our home. We had a sharp realtor and we worked with an amazing seller, one that fixed all we asked him to fix and wound up with a great house that we had purchased on October 28, 2011 and we moved into on November 3, 2011.

Well, we serve a very AWESOME God who has used this project to teach us some lessons! We are filled with praise and thankfulness to our Lord for taking great care of our family in His timing. We never anticipated a new house when we pursued the “basement project”! We now have a newer, larger home, with a spacious yard and a dry usable basement! Our new address is:

Ryan, Sarah, Dash, Sammie, Ali Cohan

S37 W25065 Wesley Dr.

Waukesha, WI 53189

God is amazing!

What are you praising Him for this year?

To keep up with us over the next year, join our blog at rscohan.blogspot.com

Photos!

And the Walls come tumbling down!

This morning our old neighbor Mr. Bert called to tell me that the back corner of the house has fallen! He is going to try to get some pictures and am I later today! The house was to be demolished either this week or early next week. When Bert had called I was fearing he was calling to say the house was being demolished! We really wanted to see it go down and I am at work on Friday's. 

WE'VE GOT THE KEYS!!!

The house is officially ours!!!

Count Down

We have 1 week and 2.5 hours until we will be closing on our new house! Please be praying this week that things will fall right into place!

Closer and Closer!!

We are getting ever closer to the closing date! We are hoping to close on Wednesday, October 26th; that is if the seller is ok with it, if we can get a check from the city in time, and that's really it! We are getting really excited. We have purchased a few new things for the house already and are super excited

House update

Here is a view of the house we are looking to purchase. We had the home inspection on October 2. The inspector said it was a pretty clean inspection. There were a few things found "wrong" with it. The driveway would need to be replaced at some point. Loose electrical wire in the panel. Missing GFI outlets in the needed areas. No garage door safety sensors, poor sofit ventilation, and an exposed wire in the garage. There was also a leaking pipe under the laundry tub in the basement, missing smoke detectors in main rooms. We also had a Radon test done to measure the radon level in the house. The Radon level came back high which is pretty normal for the Waukesha area.

We proposed to have all of the electrical work done, the garage safety sensors, and a Radon mitigation system installed. All of our proposals were accepted :) It just seems too easy! So at that point we were waiting for the loan to go through and the septic/well tests. Those tests were done on Friday Oct 7th. We are still waiting for the results. We have turned in all of our loan papers. So really, we are just waiting to hear the results of the well/septic before we proceed and close. We are set to close no later than Nov 1st

Accepted Offer

The seller came back today offering $175,000. That is an amazing deal! We were expecting him to come back in around 186,000 since it is listed at $189,900. We quickly accepted that offer. We are now waiting on all of the contingencies to come back clear. We will be on well water and septic so those will need to be tested. We then need to have the home inspection go through. I am quite hopeful that most things will go through. The seller rented this property out to the state of Wisconsin, so they had to follow the rules. I am really excited!

offer in

this afternoon we put an offer in on the house my dad told I'd to buy and that we really liked. We gave 24 hours to accept so we are expecting a counter. Thus begins this avenue

A House?

Thursday & Friday night we went to the same location and came out of the basement saying well take it! My dad came with last night and told us we should buy it!! We are waiting to hear from our basement guy so we can have him come out and take a look at what he sees. Either way we will be placing an offer Monday am!!!!

Meeting

This morning we had a meeting with Karen, Perry, and some other lady. We found out we got $120,000 for the house. We also found out we have a potential $29,900 to use towards our down payment. This number was calculated by looking at area homes with which we could "buy" to replace our house. The numbers were taken strictly on sq footage, number of bedrooms, age of house, and vicinity to our location. Ironically, a few of the houses we looked at were in the list, but we ruled them out due to age. We are still in love with the house on Chapman Dr, but found out it is a short sale. We have been advised to not deal with it in those regards. I am still slightly interested. This is the only house on the market right now that I like! I did some numbers and have found that even if we pay the list price, we would be able to afford the house. So here come the prayers. God knows my heart, now it is my turn to listen!

In the meantime, we have found a potential rental house.

Big News

Thursday is our next day to find out news. In the meantime, we are packing up the house. I use the term we lightly, it is mostly, Ryan's mom doing the work. I am so brain fried that I can't even think about packing. It is to abstract for me.

There is a house we, mostly I really really like. Right now it is the only thing on the market that I am liking, for the area and amount we are thinking. Please be praying that if this is the house we are to have that God help/make the process move quicker than slower. The house is a short sale, so there is potential for this to take ETERNITY. We have not put an offer in yet, but I have an offer in my gut. This offer will depend on what the numbers come back at on Thursday. I will keep you updated until then!

Not Fair

This morning, I pulled the suit cases down and asked the kids to put enough clothes in it for tonight/tomorrow. I have intention to come back to the house to do laundry and we will need to pack everything up. We also did not know what to expect with our hotel rooms kitchenette for space and food/cooking availabilities. We have a full size fridge/freezer, Two burner stove, and a sink. The biggest thing missing is the oven! So, here's for creative cooking on a stove top for awhile! When I asked Sammie to get her things because we are going to stay at a hotel for tonight.

"That's not fair!" is what she tells me. Such a little teenager already!

Bought Out

As of Wednesday, August 24, 2011, we are moving out of our house. At this time we will be put up in a hotel(on the grants expense). It has finally been determined that our house isn't the safest place to be living, especially with 3 kids. So tonight is our last night sleeping in our home! We will be in a hotel until we can find temporary housing to live in until we have new house! I don't have much more to say than that! Please be praying for us as we figure out what this all means! Please be praying for us as we try to see where God would like us to be living. Help us to find a house that is big enough for our growing family. We purchased this house, less than a month before we were married! This is the only house we know as a family!

UPDATE

At this point, I am about to wish I never started this project!!! Currently we have that HUGE hole in the wall. Lori's last day was on Friday. Today, Marcia, the new girl told Jim that we are going to have to bid out the job. AKA they will not pay his additional price! Which means, I that I will sit with a hole in the ground for who knows how much longer! I can not get a hold of Marcia to find out what is going on with my house. Not to mention that we are suppose to get some good storms over the next few nights! Please be praying!!!

Sunday, August 8, 2011 to Sunday, August 14, 2011

On Sunday the 8th the rain started. Ryan had asked if I thought the rain would affect the basement since we had a moat. 3 of the 4 walls are dug up and have been untouched since Tuesday, August 2, 2011. Still waiting for engineers to come out and give their professional expertise, the week came and gone. I didn't think we had anything worry about with the walls and the rain. It was about 7:10 Sunday morning. Ryan was finishing his bowl of cereal while I made my breakfast and lunch for work when we both heard a noise. To me it sounded like rocks falling into a puddle. With the windows open again, we get to hear more of what is going on outside. Ryan didn't think anything of it, but I belined for the basement. Here is what I found:

So at 7:15 Sunday morning, I called Jim Ihn and let him know the news.

About 10 minutes later this second layer of bricks fell.

This picture is a bit blurry, but you can really see the outside!

On Monday, the guys came out and added more support beams and the wall propped up.

Ryan and I believe this crack came when the guys propped up the ceiling.

On Thursday, August 11, 2011 this machine rolled up!

I took this picture from inside the house.

This thing is as big as my house!!

Thursday, the soil test was done. This was done to verify the ground under the house was solid. As of Friday, August 12, 2011, the engineers have gotten their reports in and we are waiting for Jim to come up with his report. I talked to him Friday evening and he is working on it this weekend so it can be turned in Monday. At that point, we are waiting for approval from Lori and then the work can continue. I do not fully know what is written in the bid/report, but I do know that Jim is on our side. Please continue to pray with/for us!

Basement Progress

I have not had the time to update much on the basement front, I am hoping to sit down soon and write it all out when I have a final decision explained to me. In the meantime, check out the photos at rscohan.shutterfly.com

Foundation~Day 2

Well, when it rains it pours. Today the guys got a good amount of work done. However, we have hit even more hiccups in the road. As of yesterday we found walls that were to thick to drill through. Today, we found walls that, should be holding up our house, should have crumbled years ago! There is no surprise that God is at work in this house! He has literally kept it together! Tomorrow we will be having an engineer come out and look at our foundation to find out what we need to do to reinforce it for lack of better terms. Jesus, thank you for giving me the gut to work with this company, they seem like a company that knows what they are doing!

On another page, Lori, the lady who I have been working with will be losing her job in the next week or so. She knew it was only a temporary one, so soon enough I will be dealing with a new person. I can only hope that they are as nice, generous, and understanding as she is!

Please continue to pray with us for God's guiding hand in this project! We are just beginning!

Foundation~Day 1

Yesterday was Day 1 of the digging. As with all old houses, there are ALWAYS surprises! After digging up the west side of the house (the side with the AC) the contractors noticed that our walls in the area of the entrance of the exterior drain tiles to meet the croc and the pump, therefore forcing them to have to put in an exterior and interior croc and pump. Thus the beginning to request more money.