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!

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.

Day 1

All Quiet on the Grant Front

Sort of! I know it has been quite some time since my last post on the grant process. This past Monday, July 25th we were suppose to start. So close that the guys showed up to the house to begin, but had to leave because of the road construction on my street. I thought we were in the clearing since they were past my house, but apparently not. I was devastated! It was a great thing I had a dentist appointment to go to shortly after I watched them leave my house! I cried a bit, was frustrated a lot. When things like this happen, I take it so personally. It has been the story of my life, as soon as I express my excitement out loud, it falls through. I thought my self at a young age to "not get excited" BUT I stink at hiding my excitement!!! After being unable to get a hold of the owner of the company (he had a funeral to attend on Monday), I got a hold of him on Thursday. Between my phone conversations with Jim and the city of Waukesha. After some detective work, we are back on the calendar to start the project for this coming Monday, August 1, 2011

Contract

On Tuesday, June 7th, we handed in our contract with the county!

What that means is that the foundation and us have signed the paperwork from the city for the work to be completed. We need to pay $1400ish towards the bill, but this way we were able to get the guy we want. The county picks up the tab for what the lowest bidder would have charged. Since we did not want him, we were able to chose the guy we want and then simply pay the difference. I am so excited for this step. At this point we are just waiting to step up a start date!

Ironic?!?

I think not. Yesterday I was able to fully surrender the basement work to God. Something I thought I had done, but obviously didn't. Later in the day, I received a phone call from Jim. Today he came out and is willing to drop his price by $7,000 and get us really close to the Keith. I don't know what Keith's numbers are, but I think that drop will them very close to each other. Close enough that Ryan and I can afford the difference. Not only is Jim willing to lower the price, but he is including so much more that unfortunately is not being taken in to consideration. He is willing to trench our downspouts and have them drain behind the garage. He is soooo willing to throw in the little extras for us! Jesus, thank you for all that you are doing and I am so sorry I got in the way!

Anxiety

anx·i·e·ty

   [ang-zahy-i-tee] Show IPA

–noun, plural -ties.

1.

distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune: He felt anxiety about the possible loss of his job.

2.

earnest but tense desire; eagerness: He had a keen anxiety to succeed in his work.

3.

Psychiatry . a state of apprehension and psychic tension occurring in some forms of mental disorder.

I have suffered from definition 1 and 2 over the past week and a half of the contractor debacle. As a matter of fact, I have been very nauseous about this. I kept turning it over to God to handle, but I guess I never really let go of that last tiny bit, with which Satan surely used to rope me back in. Today, I sat and talked and confessed my sin of anxiety to Him. I asked Him for forgiveness and then gave complete control to Him. Ironically, I got a phone call from Jim(the guy I want) asking more details about the latest hoop he needs to jump through. We shall see what God has in store for us!

Updates

Well, there have been a few major changes with the grant process since I last posted.

1. They are now paying for our gutters (YAY!)
2. We were sooooo close to signing a contract, but we are now waiting once again for more bids to come in. Based on technicality, we had to allow the previous companies to bid on the new work write up. I am not pleased with this technicality because that means there is a good chance there will be someone doing my foundation work that I don't want touching my house. I learned things about this company since I first submitted my bid back in August of 2010.
3. Things like this and this are starting to hit home. We have not received a letter stating we must repay the amount we received and I have a feeling we will not. We did not receive one penny from our insurance company!

Please continue to pray for guidance and God's hand on our project. I was very nauseous yesterday thinking of the company working on my house that I don't want to. I am hoping that there is a way around this and I need to trust God. Please ask God to do what is best for His house! My next post on this subject should hopefully be: We have a contract!

1 Step Forward, 2 Steps back

Tuesday afternoon, I had been give a phone call saying we have the contractor selected and we basically all just need to sign the contract and we can begin. Then yesterday, I received a phone call from Lori saying that we are not ready to sign the contract. Last fall I had several foundation contractors out to bid on the job. It was at the turning point this past January that I have really learned and tried to do my best job at selecting a foundation contractor. It was then that I wanted to do a differant route and find a contractor that I can trust, not just someone who will bid it low! Part of Lori's job is to send a letter to all of the company's that were not selected to do the job. The 3 bids that I handed in two weeks ago all bid one the latest work write up. The companys in the fall all bid on a differant work write up. So when she sends out the letter saying they did not get the job, she is not being fair to the first few companies, because they are not bidding on the same work. So she needs to send out the new work write up and offer them to bid on this. She is giving them a 2 week deadline to adjust their bids if they are interested in still contending. Therefore, it will be at least another 2 weeks before we can sign a contract! Now, I am hoping we can keep our guy!!!! He was willing to basically give us the Egress window for free so he could get the job! Now, I only hope he is still the lowest!

Basement

Well it has been a few days since I have been able to say anything on this. Last night Ryan and I drew up what we would like the basement to look like. I have faxed it to 1 contractor and I have 2 appointments in the next 2 days. I am looking to set up one more. The big thing here is we are looking to put in an Egress Window, not cheap, but this would really increase the value of our home, and we can legally put a bedroom downstairs. After much debate about things down there and how we would like it laid out, we are both very happy and really excited. There is a plan to demo our chimney, a plan set forth by my dad. So him and ryan are going to work on that before we have the basement finished. So for now, aside from waiting for bids, our next step is to clean out the basement. Step 1 is to pack up the toy room toys and then start hauling things out to the garage until the basement is finished :) We are getting really excited, have I said that yet?!?

APPROVED!!

WOW what a day! Today I received a phone call from Lori from the City of Waukesha saying we have the go ahead with the project with no price cap! I am so thankful she was willing to wait and work with me. She had been very kind and paitent. At this point, I am waiting for a new work write up and will be on the job of getting more bids. Once we have all the bid in again( I can use the same companies, just the work write up is a bit differant), we will award the contracts to the lowest bidder. I am so full of praise!

Grant Process

Well, We have hit some major points this week and quickly. Monday I got an email saying that there were no comments and we were ready to proceed to the next 7 steps. Wednesday, I got an email saying that we were just waiting for the print date from the Waukesha Freeman and she forwarded me a copy of the public notice. Today, I received the final print date notice, Wednesday, February 23, 2011.  We will be praying for no comments again. Lori sent the paperwork over to the state and waiting for the final okay, so that when the 7 days of waiting are up, we can start hiring contractors! WOW, we have gotten far fast. Please continue to pray for my patience, guidance, perseverance, understanding. Please continue to pray that God's will be done with His house.

Interesting...How God Works

I was looking back at my posts of the grant process. Here I blogged about things that we would like to use the grant money for. I think it is interesting how God works sometimes. He heard the cries of my heart when I asked for these specific things. Now, we have not been fully approved for the money, but this is what the proposal is for:

*interior/exterior drain tile system

*new basement stairs

*replacement of last 2 windows

*new driveway, front porch, and back step

*finsh the room down stairs with new studs, drywall, insulation, doors, closet

*make the rest of the exterior walls to a paintable surface~fill all the cracks with mortor

*new electrical down stairs, which means a new panel~bring it up to code



I think that about sums it up. God saw my desires to make our house more usable and he took it to another level. We might be getting somethings that we would NEVER dream of for our house because of cost. We still stand by what we said from the beginning, we want nothing less than God's name to be glorified in this process. We want nothing less than to worship Him with this house that He "gave" us. We want nothing less, even if it means we get nothing, to know that we are following Him in this manner. Only he knows the end result! Jesus, I lift this list up to you again, you know the desires of my heart for this house, for this family, and for you! I ask for another week free of comments so we can continue. Thank you for the learning opportunity you have given me in this project!

We are getting closer...

kinda~

About a week ago I got a call from Lori the lady in charge of the grant funds. She wanted to talk to me about the project and where we were at with things. We touched base earlier this week and she said that we should consider talking to a foundation consultant to get his opinion. Basically, we need to get the cost of renovations below $47,650. So he was out here on Wednesday and now I need to try to get someone out here to bid on his recommendation. ASAP. I told Lori that we are willing to forego some of the renovations to bring us below that mark. So hopefully I can get someone here in the next week or two.