Dedication Day!

There you have it! just like that we're done the major part of the build! We had the dedication on Saturday and it went great! We had perfect weather for the event, and everyone was able to walk through the houses and see where we're going to spend the better part of our lives!

As far as what is left on the house to get done, they're still putting some trim up, and a couple doors need to be painted still... they need to put the hardware on the kitchen cupboards, and some handles on all the doors in the house. We also need to pour the concrete in the garage, and grade down the driveway. There will also be some landscaping stuff to do. Other than that, it looks like a solid house! We're super excited to move in, and we both can't wait! Jeremiah is also starting to understand that we're going to live there, he's been in his room and he's excited about it. Ethan has no clue lol.

I don't think we can ever thank the volunteers enough for what they've done for our lives. I always worry that I won't be able to give my family everything they need, and with this house, they are giving us security, they're giving us friendships - from the volunteers that helped, to our neighbours that have helped us build. And also to our Mentor. "K" is what i'll call her :) without K's help, I don't think our family would have been able to do this as smoothly as we did. She was the one who helped Helina when she was getting frustrated with trying to build a house and be a mother, wife and nurse all at the same time. She brought me movies and puzzles to keep my mind off my leg and my frustration in not being able to help with the build. Most importantly, K managed to form a bond with our boys, They both get so excited to see her, and there's always hugs to go around. It was a pleasure to have met her and her husband, and I hope we always remain neighbours and friends no matter where our lives take us.

The last bit of the build is mostly paperwork, we now have to wait for the mortgage papers to be written up, we need to get our purchase agreement and get all the legal stuff done. once we have all that done, we can move in! :) It's very very exciting.

Until next time!

Pictures!!!

So I promised pictures, so here's a bunch of them! Enjoy! :) After going though all the pictures, I realize i don't have a straight on picture of the outside... i'll get one pronto!

Stairs from the Basement

Our Shower

Electrical Box and Side Window

Step Father-In-Law and Brother In Law

Electrical Room - Where Washer and Dryer, Furnace etc will be

Ethan's Bedroom

Siding

Brickwork on the front, goes up half way

Back door, there are stairs there now.

House - Check!

Scott Golden = Slacker

Things have happened soooo quickly, and I've failed to update my blog regularly like I said I would. Unfortunately I have no pictures for you right now, which is kinda the reason why I haven't written! Helina's had the camera at the build site every day, and then I don't think of writing at night when the camera is home. So I hope to take the pictures off the camera tonight and i'll post them up tomorrow! deal?! DEAL!

So we, pretty much, have a house.

• Roof = Done
• Plumbing = Done
• Electrical = Done
• Insulation = Done
• Drywall = Done
• Taping and Mudding = Done
• Siding = Done
• Brickwork on the Front = Done
• Front Porch = Being Done Today
• Painting = Being Done Today

Tell me thats not rediculous! Things have happened so quickly! and now If you look at the outside of the house, it really looks like a completely finished house!

Today, they are just finishing the front porch, which is a LOT smaller than we were told it would be, which is a little disappointing. we were told we'd have an outdoor seating area, either in the front or the back. but the back just has stairs going to the ground, and the front has just a front landing about 4 feet wide. Kinda disappointing, but i'm not going to loose sleep over it.

Inside, they are painting, and installing the kitchen cabinets. We chose an off white for the walls (we only get to choose one colour). We chose an of white because we want to do decals in the boys rooms, and a white would be the best background for that. We have plans to repaint in different colours, but since we could only choose one, we chose one that could be painted over easily. The kitchen cabinets are white as well, they have a wood grain to them. I haven't seen them yet, but Helina likes the look of them.

Tomorrow we paint some more, and finish that up, and then Thursday the flooring starts going in. It's less than a week until the dedication (on this Saturday) and everything's going swimmingly!

i'll post pictures soon! I promise! :)

Raising the Roof

I blinked and almost missed it... I went to the build site today, and the crane was there lifting the roofs onto the houses. How Cool!

These volunteers have worked rediculously hard getting the house ready for this moment. They knew the crane was coming for 1pm today, and they made sure all the walls were up and ready by the time the crane got there! The first section of the roof took a little longer to get straight and secure down, but then they got the hang of it, and put the last three sections on the houses in less than a half an hour!

It's pretty surreal to see the house come together so quickly, I still don't think I fully realize that we'll be living in a house in just over a month. I'm one of those people that don't get excited over

something until the time has come. Just so you know what i'm talking about... I'm in a rock band, and all the other guys in our band get pumped up for a gig a few days before, where I don't get excited about the show until i'm in the venue, setting up. I think i'll really understand whats happening here, and really get excited once we start doing all the little stuff inside the house. Or maybe it won't be until we start moving stuff into the house. Not sure...

I took a ton of pictures today at the site, unfortunatley they're all the exact same angle because I was in my wheelchair... have I mentioned lately that Staph infections suck?

Time for electrical and pluming! :)

Ballroom Blitz!!!

So as I sit here, high as a kite on pain meds, my wife just got home from the build today.  I'm super disappointed that I wasn't able to be there today, and even more disappointed that i'll probably be out of commission for the whole build.

but I digress...

I went to the build site today to see the progress (don't tell my doctor...shhhh), i was blown away about how much was done!  

these people ROCK!  I have to say, i'm quite inspired by the volunteers at the site... when I went to the site, I didn't know anyone there, it's just amazing that people will volunteer thier time for a family they don't even know.  

In one day,  they got the bottom floor COMPLETELY done, and the subfloors for the upper floor. They said that by Monday afternoon, the roof will be on and secured.  How rediculous is that?! 

I'm really glad my mother-in-law is down for a couple weeks from PEI.  It will be nice to not have to worry about the boys when i'm all doped up on pain pills for my leg.  It also gives Helina a little bit of sanity to have her mommy down.

i'll be updating more often now that the blitz is on. There will be so much happening every day! CAN'T WAIT! :)

Personal Setback

So every day, i'm getting more and more excited to get working on this build!!  I have the countdown going until the blitz build starts, i'm ready to take pictures every day of everything thats been done, getting geared up to write up a blog entry every night about the days fun and exciting steps along this journy...

But then I run into  a setback that might sideline me for the entire build.

Celulitus A.K.A Staph Infection.

I went to the hospital Monday night after my leg started hurting Monday morning and just got worse throughout the day,  sometime Tuesday morning after the most PAINFULL ultrasound i've ever experienced, they told me the final verdict.  Since then, i've been in IV Antibiotics, and I have nurses coming in every day to give me more IV Antibiotics.  The Blitz  build starts in 9 days, and I can't even bare my own weight on my leg. I've been reassured by our mentor that they'll find a way to work around it, but i'm still super dissappointed.  I want to say 'I helped build our house!'

I really hope that I can find a way to feel useful during this process, but with my leg hurting as much as it is, i'm not sure if that would be completely feasable.

Dejected,

Scott

Roof - Pre-Raise

St. Claire College in Windsor did all the prefab for the walls and roof.  Not exactly sure why they're doing the roof first, but hey, i'm not a contractor! :)

My lovely wife baked like a mad woman to give the folks from St. Claire's a very filling snack or two.  she baked 17 loaves (or loafs, not sure which it is..) of flavoured bread, lots of muffins and cookies... we brought over some fruit as well if they don't want a sugar high.  Helina's been plowing through these sweat equity hours with all her baking.  We still have a LONG way to go, buti'm sure we can find a way to build them up.

Jeremiah was quite cute when we went to the lot... he sat on the roof of the car waving to

 everyone,  When he saw the guys IN the roof building, he yelled "HEY, YOU GOTTA CLIMB OUT OF THERE!!"

we've finally found out which house will be ours, when you look straight on the front of the house, ours will be on the right.  VERY pumped.  We haven't had too much interaction with our neighbours to be, but they seem like very cool people, and I think w

e have a bit in common from what i've experienced with them.  Can't wait to move in! won't be long now... the blitz build starts in two weeks! That will be a crazy busy/crazy exhausting/crazy fun two weeks!

 

Subfloors - CHECK

was scheduled to work on Sunday at the build site, I was very excited to get going on the build as I haven’t yet done anything with the house. Sure enough, I get a call on Saturday night, saying “no need to come on Sunday, they got everything done” 

  WONDERFUL

 I was definitely looking forward to going to the build site, but at the same time, how could you not be excited that there is progress on your new home?!

 It’s only 3 weeks away from the Blitz Build, which will be absolutely INTENSE! I’ve booked off two weeks from work so I can work every day and build my sweat equity hours.  Helina has been baking snacks for the work site, which also counts towards our sweat equity. I think that will be the hardest thing during this build, is managing to get all our hours in. between Helina and I, we need to do 300 hours of sweat equity.  

Here’s what is going to happen during the blitz build… it takes place from June 13^th to June 27^th.

•          Raising Exterior Walls
  
•          Building Floors
  
•          Raising the Roof (whoop whoop)
  
•          Plumbing
  
•          Electrical
  
•          Dry Walling
  
•          Painting
  
•          Flooring
  
•          Trim Work
  
•          Kitchen Cabinets
  
•          Siding
  
•          Bricking
  

 Basically what this tells me,  is that we’re going to build an entire house in 14 days.

 More to come… 

We Have A Basement!

Foundation... IN!

So we're uber excited to see the foundation has been poured, the barriers are on, and we're... so far... ahead of schedule.  We're not sure yet which house will be ours, it is a semi, and its attached at the garage.  We've met our neighbours already, and I think we'll get along great with them. they're about the same age as us, and they have 4 young kids.

I just can't wait to actually get on the site and start helping with the build!  There's not much for us to do as the foundation was being poured.  They are currently building all the walls in Windsor, and will be trucking them up for about the middle of June. Thats when all the fun's gonna happen! :)

Helina and I have been finding ourselves perusing through The Home Depot, to look at lighting, showers and toilet seats, and checking out all the housewares at the local Walmart and Zellers. Funny thing is, we don't get that much choice on the items in our house, we just get what has been donated and what is available. But we're fine with that, we just look around to dream. :) 

Thats all for now folks, until next time :)

Scene Setting

So, I’ve never blogged before, not sure how diligent I can be with it, but I got inspired when I read another Habitat Partner family’s blog.  It was very cool reading about the things they were going through  at various points throughout the build.

Our build is going to be fast and furious.  From what I’ve seen online about other builds they could last up to a year to be completely built.  The timeframe for our house, is 12 weeks from ground break to move in.

How ridiculous is that?!?

I’m one of those people that doesn’t get excited about something until it happens.  For the last month or so, we’ve been going to our meetings and sessions about finances, and being good neighbours and house maintenance etc.. but it still didn’t feel real.  After our last session, we decided to take a trip to the build site, and saw that they had the hole dug… it STARTED to hit me… I got a little excited and actually started to believe this is happening.  We found out that they’re pouring foundation as of yesterday and today, which is a week ahead of schedule.  Getting a little more excited now. J

 My work has been very supportive of this adventure we’re starting on.  They are letting me work from home every Wednesday so my wife (Helina) can put some hours in for our sweat equity, everyone at work wants to help with the build, and we might be able to get a big truck to help during move in day – free of charge.

 One very cool thing, is that Habitat isn’t just building a home, they’re building an entire neighbourhood. We have a cul-de-sac that already has two habitat homes built there, (they are just finishing those now with the brick on the front, but one family has already moved in) during our build, they are building two homes, (they were going to do 4, but didn’t have the funding for it).  I believe their goal is to have 12 houses built on our street when it’s all said and done.  At the end of next year, there will be 9 kids under the age of 9 living on that street.  Crazy.

Well it’s my first blog, and I think it’s too long, but I’m setting the stage right?  I’ll try give updates every few days – and once the blitz build starts on June 20^th, I’ll probably update every night.

 Thanks for reading! J