The check has arrived.

Finally, the first installment of money has been released by our lender, and we got the check in the mail today. After we turn over this check to Dennis, we fully expect to see some major work commence. This piddling around business has to end!

The house burnt down on Memorial Day, and we're now 2 days away from Labor Day...

...3 months without our house, and here's what we have to show for it:

Mosquitos a plenty!

We stopped by the house tonight, and as usual, we were attacked by terrorist mosquitos.

We were also pleased to see that some new construction had been done.

Finally, some progress (albeit still in reverse)...

Well, let's see...

So, today Angela met Dennis over at the house bright and early (7 am) with Don, the roof truss manufacturer. Last week Dennis "ordered" the trusses, which really just means that he got our name added to the job que. This morning the three of them confirmed the pitches for each of the roof segments. The roof over the main portion of the house will be constructed at 5:12, however the roof overthe garage and at the front porch will be a bit steeper at 7:12. The other sections of roof will all be made at 5:12 as well.

We're using scissor trusses in the "breezeway" to afford us the opportunity to have a slight vault in our ceiling.

Speaking of the roof over the garage - the existing one has yet to come down. This would be frustrating, except that we realize the garage is the only covered portion of the property and serves as a nice shelter for various reasons.






Last night we met Dennis in the backyard with Joel Birk. Joel is one of Josh's oldest friends who has been subbed out to build a wood deck over our existing patio/planters. We stood out there for a good hour trying to figure out the best game plan; we should be pretty close to nailing down our ideas. Joel's supposed to be figuring up his estimate and helping us finalize the design.





We also decided on a Hardiplank siding color: Evening Blue





Overall it seems as though the guys have been putting in a decent amount of work ever since the phone call between Dennis and Angela.

In other news, we are <---this---> close to being finished with Paragon! Hip Hip Hooray!!!

An hour's work is better than no work!

Well, the boys did a bit of work today. Enough to keep us happy, at least.

They pulled out the wall between the kitchen and bathroom, and most of the wall on the west side of the bathroom. The wall between the dining room and basement stair was removed and a stud was nailed across the opening to help maintain some structural qualities of the existing north and south walls, but probably more so to keep anyone from falling down the open stairwell.

What's interesting about the location of this stud is that it represents the height of the wall that will go back in it's place. We are proposing a half height wall between the stairs and the dining room, with the landing for the stairs on the opposite side they are now. In essence, we'll have a U-Shaped kitchen which will be closed on 3 sides, and the stairs will be accessed from the dining room (where the pantry used to be) and will descend towards the south.

Those are just a couple of changes we are planning to make. But we can't give away all the details too early, or there won't be any suprises for you all in the upcoming months!

Oh, and one more thing. The door that is currently located in the stairwell (about 3 0r 4 treads down) will definitely be going away. The new access will be located on the north wall of the stairwell, to open directly on to our back patio.

Hold up! Stop! Wait a minute!

Yeah, they actually worked on our house today. Ameren came out and got the temporary electric hooked up; now the crew will be able to use power tools on the job. They sprayed for ants, since those bastards had begun to run rampant. There were two guys over there today; they pulled off all the siding (save for the building paper on the studs) and pulled down the stud wall that stood between the kitchen and the living room. They also pulled down the header that spanned between the said stud wall and the breezeway.


Dennis has placed an order for our roof trusses, so we should expect to see them in 2 weeks. He's also going to get out there on site with our boy Joel, to coordinate the addition of the wood deck out back.


We expect to see the roof over the garage pulled down once they get a dumpster on site. In the meantime they're dumping all the siding out back on the patio and in the garage.

As for us, we have got to get over there and do some yardwork. It's getting out of control.

Of course, it would rain today...

We didn't even check on the house this morning. We're pretty sure the drizzling would have prevented any work from gettting done.

P.S. Angela laid into Dennis last night. He has got to start working or else...

THIS IS BULLLLLLL!!!!

Well, Angela drove by the house on her way home tonight to find the following had been done...NOTHING!!!!!!!!

And why would they be working on our house today?

Well, a promise isn't a promise unless you actually follow through with your pledge. At 8:30 this morning, there wasn't a man on site and at 10:30, nothing. Josh called Dennis this morning to find out why nobody was out working on the house. After a quick discussion, we learned that someone was on their way, and that he'd be pulling the siding off throughout the day. When questioned as to when the roof over the garage was coming down, Dennis said he was waiting to do that until they had a dumpster at our place.

How flippin' long does it take to order a dumpster?!

So, we're getting more than frustrated and have an ace in our back pocket if this continues on the way it has. We've been displaced for 3 months, and there is still alot of demo to be done! Not to mention, we're paying a mortgage on a house that's uninhabitable.

Minutes after Josh and Dennis spoke on the phone, Dennis called back to arrange a meeting with us, on site, with the roof truss manufacturer. At that time, he'll also bring shingle samples and Hardie Board samples for us to look at.

...about as fast as a tortoise...

Well, we were expecting to see more progress on the house by now, but we will have to be patient. It seems that our contractor might have been waiting to get his first financial installment prior to any major work. We are not positive of this, but with the lack of work being done, it is likely so.

Today we were informed of two things regarding the finances. First off, the check that we had signed off on for he demolition work Paragon had done has finally been issued and we should recieve it in the mail in the next day or so. Upon receipt of the check, we'll most likely throw it back in the mail for Paragon. And secondly, the estimate was well received and Countrywide has promised us the first third of our money by Tuesday (at the latest).

Dennis (our GC) has also assured us that he would have a crew out at the house tomorrow, to continue pulling off the siding on the house. At one point, a previous owner had put insulation foam board right over the existing wood lap siding. So, in essence we have had two building sheathings on our house -- no wonder our energy bills were so nice. The guys will be pulling this all down, and will eventually prep the house with building paper and Hardie Board! Hooray!

So, other than the crew pulling out the wiring, piping and mechanical ducts, we haven't seen much done to the house. We are hoping that the cash will be a nice incentive for Dennis, but if it's not, he'll have to deal with the wrath of Angela.

Processing Paperwork...

There hasn't been much to report the past couple of days. We've been issuing checks to banks and working on drawings. There aren't any photos of the work that's been done in the house, because the camera we got to replace our old digital camera sucked, and we're seeing about trading it in.

We'll report more later...

Just a mini-post...

We had bought an antique work table while we were in Rocheport a few weeks ago, but did not bring it home with us as we had the Accord and it would never fit in a million years. Well, today Josh had to go to Macon, Missouri, with the SR Manager to one of the hospitals up there, so they drove Buie's truck and will be swinging by the shop to pick up or table on their way home!
Hooray!!!

Well, at least they pulled some wires...

So after stopping by the house tonight, it doesn't appear as though they got as much work finished as we had hoped. However, we are seeing progress and that's all that matters right now!

And it must be said, something was making weird sounds from the depths of this bucket!

We've got the Monday Morning Blues...

Just kidding! We're stoked! Dennis has his guys out at the site pulling out the wiring and copper pipes. And what a perfect day to be working outside!!! They're also demoing some of the remaining charred stud walls, as well as removing areas of wall that will not be included in the redesign/rebuild of the house.

We've decided to add a door leading into the garage from the North side of the house. It sounds like they'll be demoing the portion of wall below the existing window (so they can frame out the opening for the door) sometime today or tomorrow.

We will drive by the house tonight to check on the progress and take some photos. Hooray!

On the paperwork side of the fence, Carol is meeting with our contact at Pulaski to present the revised estimate. Our hope is that he'll now sign off on the check and forward everything to Countrywide.

The new estimate is ready...

Well, Dennis reworked the estimate and Josh should be picking it up from him today. We will give it to Carol and she will hand deliver it to our contact at Pulaski Bank for approval.

The word on the street is that Dennis was going to have a guy begin work on the house today. He suspects there is about a week's worth of demo to be done yet. He is also supposed to be meeting his electrician out there today to get our temporary service hooked up. The temp pole was installed, but the service has yet to be connected.

Dennis has plans to order our roof trusses tomorrow; they have a 2 week leadtime. Between now and the time the trusses are ready, we expect to see a hearty effort of demo and light reconstruction.

It's about damn time!

Almost there...

Well, the information we provided to Pulaski was incomplete and we'll have to wait until the morning for Kerri from State Farm to fax over what she has and for Dennis to modify his estimate. The good news is: we're going to be completely IN budget.

Where there's a Paragon truck, there's an e-mail from Dean

Our original GC, Paragon, was fired after the Project Manager (Dean) finalized our estimate and his numbers came in over budget. During this time State Farm kicked us out of the Premier Service Provider program (which they had pushed us to participate in from the get go), cut us a check and sent us on our way.

Somehow, this was a blessing in disguise, as we have now hired Tim and Faith's neighbor, Dennis, to be our new GC/PM. He's awesome! After bringing Dennis up to date on all the work that had already been done (some demo) and the proposed scope of work, he began writing his estimate. That estimate was finished today and Josh (who is calling me right now) took it along with the check from State Farm over to Pulaski Bank. Here's to hoping they have what they need to process everything!

If things go smoothly, Dennis should have his men in there to finish up the demo work by next week. In the meantime, Angela needs to finish the architectural drawings and get those over to the city for approval.

Oh, and the title of this post refers to Josh seeing a Paragon truck on the road today. Neither of us has ever seen a Paragon vehicle, so we knew we'd probably get a call or e-mail from Dean, looking for payment for his services. Sure enough, about an hour after the truck pulled in front of Josh, Dean sent us an e-mail looking for his money!

So, there was a storm...

...and our house was hit by lightning. "The Hixey House Chronicles" is our way of keeping everyone up-to-date on the latest and greatest developments!