Construction Begins!

Our first day of construction has finally arrived! We woke up bright and early saturday morning. We met the other families out at the construction site at 8 am. Everyone seemed a little apprehensive since no one really new what to expect. Our construction supervisor showed up with donuts and juice. It's amazing how donuts and juice can really motivate a group of people :) Actually everyone was really excited to get to work. Our supervisor wasted little time giving us some basic instruction about what to expect. After a short meeting it was time to get dirty. We spent the majority of the day down in a trench around the outside of our basement. Our assingment for the day was to apply tar to the bottom of our foundation. That is a nasty job. By the end of the day we were covered in tar up to our elbows. It gave us a tiny glimpse of how aweful it must have been for some of the early pioneers that were tarred and feathered by angry mobs. By the end of the day everyone had pitched in and we finished the job. We had also installed the window wells and our future home was beginning to take shape.

Since children aren't allowed out at the construction site Lydia, Luke and Maggie spent the day with Xander. He was kind enough to wake up early to watch the kids. We thought that we would be done by noon. When noon rolled around there was still a lot of work to be done. Since it was our house that we were working on we felt that we needed to stay there and complete the work that needed to be done before monday. Heather came to our rescue. She rushed over to take over for Xander when Dani called her. She spent the next couple hours of her saturday watching the kids until we finally came home. We got home dirty, hungry, sore and exhasted. We realize that we are going to develop a profound appreciation for what it takes to build a home.

Even though Lydia can't go out and help she is thinking about what she can do to contribute. The other day she offered to make a sign urging those passing by to stop and help. She thought that we could put it on the front of our lot. Luke and Maggie may not completely understand what is going on but they will benefit from having a place to go play.