If There is No Struggle, There is No Progress

In fancy terms, that means No Pain, No Gain. Growing up, we are taught that patience is a virtue. Be patient. The lessons you learn today will prepare you for tomorrow. To lose patience is to lose the battle. Well folks, we can tell you that we are doing our best to NOT lose the battle. We have been tested in more ways these past 8 weeks than ever before. But with family, friends, God and each other, we have made it to TWO WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Not sure how times flies so fast when there is so much to be done, but it always does. Let’s get you caught up on what has been happening with the Flores renovation for the past few months.

Basement Battle

On May 18th, 2022 we had our first, and only, in person meeting with the owner of the company we hired to pour our basement foundation. We were told at that time, from start to finish, it should take 4 weeks to fully complete our basement project. On August 31st their crew started the first day on the job. At that time, we were hopeful to have our basement completed by the first of October. That would put us on schedule to have the house moved by the first to middle of October. On September 26th, 4 weeks into the project, the exterior walls for our basement foundation were finally poured. We were relatively disappointed with how slow progress was happening, but none the less, eager to see walls done and ready for flooring to be poured.

Unfortunately, there was no progress made to the basement again. After numerous unanswered texts, calls and emails we had to cut ties with the company we hired due to lack of overall communication and major issues with meeting any/all expectations. We began to seek out help in getting the remainder of our project completed before the freezing temperatures made it impossible to set concrete.

We were incredibly grateful that a local contractor, Brennan Johnson of Elite Construction, and masonry professional, Travis Schwerdtfager, stepped up and said they could finish what had been started. By the end of the day on October 27th, we had a clear plan for getting the remainder of the floor poured and ready to go within a two-week timeframe. We are very pleased to say that less than two weeks later, on November 10th, we got a basement floor poured and were given the green light to let our house movers know we are ready to MOVE THAT HOUSE! If there is no struggle, there is no progress. The lessons you learn today will prepare you for tomorrow. SO TRUE!

Digging for Water

Associated drilling of Olsburg Kansas agreed in August to come drill a new well for our home site. When we called and scheduled our drilling, they informed us they were 3 months out for any new bookings. We were excited to get a phone call on October 25th asking if they could come drill our well on the 26th. By the end of the day on the 26th we had a well! Everything went incredibly smooth, and we had an amazing experience working with Kyler and his team.

Moving a House

You may wonder, what does it take to literally pick a house up off its foundation and move it down the road? Have no fear, we had no idea either! There is an amazing demand in this part of the world for companies that move houses. We have hired Unruh House Moving out of Galva Kansas, and it blows our mind to see how busy they are. They are picking houses up at least one every week, how crazy is that? Whether you need it moved down the road or if you are building a basement under your existing structure, Unruh is the company you call within a 2-state radius.

We have met them 3 different times now and are extremely impressed with their professionalism and knowledge. We have sadly had to delay multiple moving dates because of our issues with getting the basement foundation completed.

After months of delays, we have scheduled our house to move during the week of January 9th. The entire process can take anywhere from 4-6 days, depending on the house conditions and also the weather conditions. Once they have arrived where the house sits currently, it will take 3 days to jack up and move it onto their trailers. When the house is secured on the trailer it will be moved to our new location all in one day. Depending on how smooth things go with moving day, they will either slide the house to its new foundation the same day or, come back the following day to move it from their trailers to the foundation. Any way you look at it we are SO excited to finally have a set week on the calendar to get this house rolling!

Interior Demo

Second floor demo

Last time I wrote we had just started demo on the attic floor/second story ceiling. What a mess that project was! We started knocking down the ceiling on October 3rd and finally by the end of the day October 17th we had the entire second story ceiling tore off and the mess cleaned up. It is amazing how different it feels up there now having the ceiling joists exposed and being able to see all the way to under the roof.

Kitchen demo

November 7th was the day we tackled kitchen cabinet demo. Our original plan was to salvage as many of the kitchen cabinets as we could to reuse in the basement kitchenette. However, as we got further into the demo process, we realized that kitchens of this era were not actually constructed of individual cabinets, like we are accustomed to in modern construction. Rather, the entire kitchen, with the exception of the corner cabinets, was pieced together one board at a time. The interior shelves of the entire wall of cabinetry were all one board. So rather than being able to remove the kitchen one whole cabinet at a time, we took it apart board by board. Talk about your classic lesson in patience!

After meticulously deconstructing the kitchen, we decided we needed to end the day with a little less-tedious demo. We proceeded to begin tearing the downstairs bathroom apart. We found it very interesting to see how father time had taken his tole on the color of wallpaper in there.

First floor wall demo

On November 30th we were able to begin the long-awaited demo of the first floor. It seems to be going slow, but steady none the less. We have completely taken plaster out of the old dining room and have begun removing lathe. I have taken roughly 40% of the trim/woodwork out of the living room. As soon as that room is clear of all woodwork, we will begin removing plaster and lathe. The kitchen and downstairs bathroom were remodeled sometime in the 60s-70s so the walls of those two rooms are sheetrock. Demo for those rooms should be very quick. The only room that leaves is the front sitting room, which is currently acting as our storage room. We are excited to have the challenge of getting the entire home gutted before the moving date in January.

Community Awareness

MakeMyMove

From the very first day we knew we were moving to Lincoln, we have had community awareness in the forefront of our thoughts and decisions. We have many thoughts and dreams for projects and outreaches that will extend far beyond the ‘small’ world of our personal renovation journey. We(mostly me, Julie) will often find myself dreaming LARGE of things that we can do to help better, grow, and increase the value of our small town. There are endless opportunities for involvement and leadership roles here, that is one of the things I love most about small-town America. We were honored to be a featured family for an upcoming marketing promotion that the Economic Development office sponsored.

On November 2nd we were happy to host the folks from MakeMyMove. They are a company based out of Indianapolis Indiana that specialize in bringing new people to communities. They partner with local economic development type committees to devise a plan for incentives, marketing campaigns and social awareness related to getting people to move to “your” town.

There was a camera crew on site to capture the ‘magic’ of our growing family of 5 taking on a complete fixer upper in a town that needs more motivated and driven community members. It was such a blast to tell our story on such a large scale, we were truly humbled to be interviewed and we loved sharing our story of how we came to live in our small town. The campaign is still in production mode, but we are excited to see the end result and to share it with you all!

www.makemymove.com

Northwest Kansas Today

Another opportunity that we were able to be a part of was an interview for a magazine called Northwest Kansas Today. Below is a little about the magazine.

Northwest Kansas Today is published quarterly by the Dane G. Hansen Foundation and distributed to all residents of the foundation’s 26-county service area in Northwest Kansas. Each issue will feature the area’s businesses, arts, lifestyle, communities and people.

The Hansen Trustees believe that this publication, highlighting the many positive attributes of the region, will contribute to the sense of pride for our communities. It also can be used by residents and businesses to recruit new people to the area. Readers are encouraged to share their copy with friends and family who do not live in Northwest Kansas.

Northwest Kansas Today is distributed at no cost to all verified post office addresses in the Hansen Foundation’s 26-county service area. It is designed to share stories for and about the people and communities in Northwest Kansas.

Taken from the danehansenfoundation.org ABOUT page

On November 17th I was able to be involved in a phone interview with Erin Mathews, a writer for the magazine. Erin explained that the magazine was going to be doing several housing related stories in the February issue, highlighting various initiatives that different communities have tried to attract new residents. She had planned to do one on what was going on in Lincoln, mostly because of the countywide open houses Kelly Gourley(Economic Development director) had been doing. However, when Erin talked to Kelly, she realized that the open houses were only a small part of the story. She was very interested in our history with Lincoln and how we found our way to living here.

Just like the marketing campaign, the article is still in production, but we are so excited to see the final product. It is very honoring and humbling to be chosen for these opportunities, especially knowing how many motivated and amazing people already reside in Lincoln and have been promoting it for many more years than us. We hope that our contributions will help the community grow and be a better place for us and future generations!

NORTHWEST KANSAS TODAY MAGAZINE – Dane G. Hansen Foundation (danehansenfoundation.org)

Family, Friends and Fun

It seems the work to our renovation is ever mounting and never ending, which is also the case with our lives as a family of 5. These past few months have been filled to over-flowing with school, work, doctors’ visits, sickness, parties, and all the things life can throw your way. But without all the craziness we would not be able to enjoy the fun!

We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and we pray your holiday season is full of the magic of Christs’ birth. Until we write again.