It's Ours!

The property next door to us has been vacant for awhile due to the house burning up.  We thought that it would be wonderful to be able to purchase it in preparation for our home addition - and a few weeks ago, thanks to donations (especially a large donation from The Lexx Howell Foundation for SMA, which made up close to half of the purchase price!), we were able to do just that!  It is officially ours!

On the edge of where the property starts :)

If you look closely, you'll see that what Lucy and I are holding is a set of blueprints.  Blueprints for our amazing new addition!  Bedrooms for Lucy and us, a bathroom for her, and laundry on the first floor so I don't have to leave Lucy alone to get her washing done throughout the week.

We contacted some friends of the family to talk to them about the addition, and they recommended CLA Design Service, LLC for the blueprints, which was the first step we were going to need to build.  We are nowhere near our fundraising goal, but we will need the blueprints eventually, so we contacted Jim Emmer at CLA Design to help us draw up our vision.  

Jim came out to the house with Dan and Marcia Valle of Valle Construction, who we wanted to talk to about getting an estimate.  Being the control freak that I am, I may or may not have handed Jim and Dan copies of a crudely-drawn-in-the-paint-program "blueprint" of what I was looking for. ;)

They checked out our existing house, checked out the property, took all the measurements needed, dealt with Bert tailing them annoyingly, and talked with me about my little drawing.  As they left, Jim said he would have a preliminary blueprint for me to check out by the end of the week.  Since that was in three days, I was surprised to see the blueprint arrive in the mail two days later!  So exciting!

There was only a slight modification to what he originally sent me, so after I called him and we discussed it, he got the official prints right out.  That's what you see in the picture!  And in a heartwarming and humbling display of generosity and kindness, Jim has donated the blueprints to us!  Now we need to figure out a general idea of what this is going to cost... I have a feeling my $90,000 guess isn't going to be too far off.

We will get there!  We have ways for you to help, if you feel so called - there are Thirty-One bags to buy, an auction for baby gift items, a Pink Zebra party, Lucy magnets to buy (email bzahn84@charter.com for more info), you can place an order with Couture to Cure SMA for hair clips, or you can donate directly.  We are planning a local fundraiser at the Culvers locations in Fond du Lac on October 8th, and are mulling over ideas for a pool tournament.  We will keep charging along, until we can make this a reality for Lucy.  Please pray that we can meet our goal of breaking ground on this no later than the beginning of next summer.  Lucy's safety is foremost in our mind, and shuffling her up and down the stairs multiple times a day isn't cutting it anymore.  Thank you all so much, for your continued support and prayers!