Phase 1 -Report

I wanted to take some space here and mention how generous everyone has been, giving so much time and money to the Annabelle's Circle project. It has galvanized us all to work harder and be good stewards of the investment. Early on we had anticipated needing more than the initial $1500 that we were trying to raise, but we weren't sure of the response. That amount was chosen because it was more or less the cost of the new Family Room window and sliding door, which we got with a wholesale discount. The enthusiasm of friends and family snowballed the projects, and -as of Sunday- in excess of over $10,000 was raised! And that's not counting the receipts of everyone who just went out and purchased things on their own, bought everyone lunch, burned expensive gasoline, and showed up with plants for the garden!

Every last dollar (and more) has been spent on the Linden home. We were able to haul off a lot of debris, which totaled upwards to seven tons, $500 in dump fees, and another couple hundred in trailer rental. We were able to replace the old planks on the deck and rebuild the railing and stair so that they are child-safe and up to code (over $1500.) Another thousand was spent on paint and paint supplies and floor refinishing materials, and another thousand was spent on replacement wood for the rotted out sections of the walls and front walk. Add the newly tiled kitchen and front path, Family Room insulation and drywall, new front door, and full back-to-front landscaping, and the house looks new and shiny! It's really quite a change, and must be seen to be believed. In a future entry I will post a detailed list of both finished and unfinished projects, and further needed repairs and materials. (We need to do a full assessment of the job so far.)

Money keeps trickling in, which is amazing and needed. Final receipts haven't been tallied from the equipment rentals, building permits, and last minute purchases. Though most of the exterior and landscaping is finished (aside from some stucco repair, the deck stain, and some minor adjustments to the irrigation) there is still some work to be done inside (Family Room finishing, some electrical and plumbing, and baseboards/moldings/casings in the rest of the house.) Many of the materials have already been purchased, and I will be arranging a few more work weekends before July 13th -the date of the Big Baby Shower. This coming weekend, however, everyone has off! Matt and Holly would like some time to themselves to digest it all, and who can blame them?

The following are people who have specifically sent or deposited money to fix up Annabelle's drafty old house:

(Please email me if we missed you!)

Kim Abrams & Rita Belter
Beth Bolles
Doug & Dianne Bolles
Elizabeth Brushwyler
Heather Buchta
Guy & Debbie Cambone
Solmaz & Michael Chandler
Carmel Cheely
Wendy & Shande Darcy
Kevin Day
Sean & Jen Day
Beverly Day
Mike & Pat Donahue
Dave & Kay Endow
Kelly Endow
Scott & Tami Fitch
Nancy Grimes
Jim & Cammie Griswold
Curt & Melissa Harrington
Sean & Marci Hawkins
Tony & Kirsten Hawkins
Brian & Laura Heany
Amanda Hines
David & Bev Hosokawa
Brian & Ruth Hoyt
Doris James
Kelly & Kim Keener
Jessica Kimbrough
Gary Klein
Raine Klover
Sara Lovelady
Deron Matson
Heather Mercer
Dick, Dina, & Danielle Mercer
Massimo & Jane Monticelli
Barbara Moss
Cheryl Otto
Cory & Katherine Parker
Chris & Kim Plant
Daniel & Nicole Schairer
Eric Simon
Tim & Kelly Smith
Bill & Val Standifer
Steve & Stacie Vetica
Chris Vithen
Jonathan & Lynne Weaver
Anonymous #1
Anonymous #2
Anonymous #3
Anonymous #4

There are many other names of people who bought their own items while they were working on the house, and gave in so many other ways. (For example: The Kessler Family provided living arrangements for Matt and Holly, as well as some excellent meals for the crew, and The Monticelli Family sent down a case of their wine!) We would very much like to recognize all of you. Please email me with comments and corrections! If you have a blog or web site, let me know and I will make your name a link. It's a great way for us all to stay connected.

A list of people who gave so willingly of their time is at right. (Kudos to the names on both lists!)

Local businesses who have been moved to assist the project are also listed at right. These are good, reliable, caring companies! Please check them out and send some business their way!

Corey and Jordan have reported on their experiences out at the Linden Makeover construction zone. It's really worth the read, and nails the experience in honest words I couldn't have found. Corey's report is here. Jordan's is here.

From Jordan: I learned that it is important to work really hard for your friends... When everyone works together, really big stuff gets done.

Day 9 - The Lindens Come Home

It was a beautiful spring day, with all the chaos of life glommed on to 2016 Dayton. Sod was piled high in excess and construction debris was everywhere. Kelly was firing up the new sprinklers and the drip line heads were rocketing off into the street from the excessive water pressure. The toilet was still backing up into the bathtub. The new front door had gone in crooked and there was no time to get the knob on it. The staples refused to hold down the palapa cover over the deck, which still lacked the new stairs and some of the railing. But there was a happy buzz in the air, and when Lynne took a break from tiling the front walk to go get In-N-Out for everyone, we stopped, took a step back, and gazed at the place from the curbside. It was actually coming together!

We worked all day. No one stopped to clean. The kitchen tile was being sealed, the garden boxes were being planted, mulch was tossed around, and another coat of polyurethane was slapped on the newly stained floor. At one point someone yelled out, "Matt and Holly will be here in five!" to which someone else responded, "Five o'clock?" and the reply came back: "No, five minutes!" I think we all dropped our hammers.

The crew ceased all projects and hurriedly moved furniture back into place. Some of the trash was picked up, and tools were moved into the unfinished Family Room, which had become the contractor's bane with all its problems. The catalyst of the whole affair, and there it was at the end of the week, little more than studs and drywall. Our vision for a luxurious Family Room had been reduced to mere tool storage.

But from the street the place looked pretty good. We dragged a rock from out back and bolted some nice new numbers to it. With the new sod and landscaping, and then the replaced headers and painted stucco and tiled walk and new door and window shutters, it actually looked pretty nice! I'm not sure what Matt & Holly expected when they took off the blindfold (probably a new Family Room) but I think they were satisfied. We were all mostly proud of our work, and very proud to be a part of the whole event.

We led Matt and Holly on a tour of our work so far, and then out onto the deck and into the garden, and tears were shed. It really was beautiful, but in the end it wasn't the house that was beautiful at all. It was all the people who came out to help, arriving daily with their bottomless kindness and good cheer. Most everyone ran out of some part or tool or another and went down to the hardware store to get what they needed to finish the job. We had run out of money days ago, but here the work was getting done and no one was handing me receipts. It was like the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, (Matthew 14) where I've always suspected that in addition to the miracle of the Lord, people who were there were inspired to lend food they were quietly keeping to themselves, and then kept giving and giving. It becomes infectious.

It was a joyful twilight out on the deck, with a few bottles of wine a la "Baja Winery" (the theme of the makeover). The lights twinkled on the new gazebo and the new tile in the kitchen just sparkled at sunset. At one point, Jenn accidentally spilled her wine on it, which caused everyone to laugh: she had just sealed the grout about 5 hours before. This was the moment that defined it all for me because there was no horror in the blunder at all, it was just a good laugh with friends and family in the kitchen.

It felt like home.

(By the way, she must've done a good job: the stain came right up!)

Day 8

"We need more time!" is the recurring mantra of late. Even as I type this, the other Sean is pacing the office, pressing me to abandon the blog so we can get down there and get back to work on the official final day.

So I leave you with this:

Day 7

As a contractor I've often had my phone ring while standing in line at the Home Depot. "Where are you?!" the customer demands to know. You have to politely explain that just because you're not at their house doesn't mean you're not working on it. It is an interminable experience, construction purchasing. The products can get pretty technical so you can't just send anyone, and oftentimes you have to have an employee pull it for you with a fork lift or otherwise. It takes forever. Driving to Lowes to track down and buy a 3/4" drip line hose pinch takes about an hour and a half longer than it does to install it, which takes all of 3 seconds.

So when the two Seans returned, there was an energetic push to get done what we had set out to accomplish that morning, and we pushed on till midnight. There were a few of us still hustling after the sun went down. Everyone seems to belong to a project, which they've taken ownership over (or it, them.) And when that happens you'll stop at nothing to beat the clock, lest it try and beat you. Can you paint a house or work on your front yard in the dark? Evidently you can. I went out back to get a tool and noticed my two-year old daughter sitting on a cardboard box watching one of those handy little dvd-screens. She seemed happy as can be, though I wonder what she makes of all this. Probably nothing at all. "It's just wherever my parents drag me," would be the look on her face if you attempted too ask.

We are all somewhat frustrated by this or that not being finished, and we have no good reason for it, as we have worked as hard and fast as skills and available tools have allowed. It will all get done eventually, and certainly before August, so I'm not worried. These commitments of friendship are set in stone, and any wasted sacrifice is too painful a thing to bear, so it's obvious that it will all be seen through to its rightful conclusion. Taking a look around the property, I noticed how much work it is to just repair things. Little was actually replaced on the house, and the work was almost all just plain old dumb repair. Tallying up all the loads to the dump, we spent over $400 and dropped off over 8 tons of debris (so far). Our thanks to the kind neighbor who had a hydraulic dump trailer handy. "I'll just leave it in front of the house. You kids fill it up and I'll haul it off for you and send you the receipt," he said. A godsend.

And then all the money that has just come in, seemingly out of nowhere. Just when you think you don't have $100 for those screws and post brackets, an email pops up with some distant friend or relative letting you know they just put another hundred in Annabelle's account. It's just amazing. When you watch the Extreme Home Makeover TV show, you see the teams of hundreds of people and the back hoes and heavy equipment. And then there's the "gifts" of appliances and such -which is just a corporate product placement, a tax ride-off. And then there's those hosts, who take ownership over it all like they give so much of their personal time (most of it spent in makeup and wardrobe.)

But this is real life with real people doing the real thing. There aren't any cameras and there aren't any corporate sponsors. It's friends taking care of business, giving what they can to help someone out, because help is needed. These folks give their own money and their own time and they do it eagerly and enthusiastically and ask nothing in return. They do it out of love and they do it with a smile on, and, amazingly, they're all happy to be there.

Day 6

Well, it was a day of good news and bad news, and a Day of Reckoning, to be honest. We all seemed to have individually worked backwards out of our corners, meeting in the middle, elbowing for space. However well-intentioned, the bright idea of doing some work on all the floors landed the crew and their tools square on our butts for the weekend, kicked out of the house! So there we'll be outside, finishing off the exterior for the next few days, while the floors dry. The bad news is that none of us will be able to use the bathroom this weekend. The good news is that it didn't work anyway.

It's still clogged and backing up. Deron arrived with a snake and went at it, with only nominal success, but he'll be back. Though everything is swimming right along, that nagging, bit-off-more-than-you-can-chew feeling might be getting the best of us astride the lack of sleep and general full-body soreness. A half-framed, half-drywalled, half-stucco'd Family Room was not a goal of ours for Sunday, and unfortunately there will be a certain amount of unfinished-ness to the place when the Lindens return, but there will also be a considerable amount of progress, and that and the fellowship of friends and family lifts the spirit altogether.

A highlight of the day was when Lynne arrived with a carload of plants and unloaded them onto the driveway. It got a grin and a sigh out of me just to seem them sitting there, and I thought what a wonder God is to give us simple flowers. You can build and hammer all you want while God grows the plants out back and out of sight. Those plants are the pointers, and for every road block we build for ourselves, God's small, but hardly insignificant, gifts direct us around.

Day Five

Well, you think you're tired. That's us at the end of the hump day. Matt and Holly really wanted to get together with whoever was working on the place and we wouldn't allow them to come over, so we went out and met at a restaurant at around 9:00. They wanted to meet up at about five but we all just laughed: "We're too busy!" These are the diehards of the crew, the ones who just won't give up. Okay, wait, I take it back. Dave Adey isn't in the shot because he was still back at 2016 Dayton mixing thinset and cutting kitchen tile. I think I saw him shaking his head as we left the place, muttering under his breath, "wimps."


The man's a powerhouse.

If you're wondering why Matt is out cold in that first pic, it's not because of those empty glasses on the table, rather, it's because of this. He told me he was up all night praying, and when I heard that I just wanted to cry. I realized then that I was pretty tired myself, and drove home with my brother singing at full volume in the car just to stay awake. The song was: come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together try to love one another right now... It was pretty funny.

We started off strong, in spite of the troubling news about Holly and the downswing of morale from the previous day. We didn't quite accomplish what we set out to, but progress was made, slowly but surely. There's a team of women who have taken to sanding some of the floors in the house and they have the gusto of Olympians. Those flecks in the photos are the dust of 60 years of life at 2016 Dayton. We had it in every pore, every fold of skin, and one little backed up sink to wash off in. We went to the restaurant really just to wash up.

Today the last of the donated monies will be spent. More is needed, of course, but if anyone has access to free drywall, lumber, and landscaping supplies, we'll take it! Thanks be to all who have given so freely of their time and treasure. Don't forget: Sunday afternoon everyone is invited over to see the progress and welcome Matt and Holly back home.

Day Four

Well, it happens in every construction gig -and I predicted it for this one. About midway through the project, progress seems to feather out. On that first day there are so many old friends and new faces. Everyone is pulling the old ugliness out and tossing it curbside. There's a lot of laughing and loud music, and we're all building a House of Hope!

But then that day comes in the middle of the week. The day where you realize the ambition has overtaken the budget, and good ideas need to be scaled back. The day where most people have to disappear to their real life jobs and families, and the optimistic weekend volunteerism is just that -suited for the weekend. And then there is the interminable sanding. Sanding, sanding, sanding. Everything is covered with dust, tools are everywhere, your ears are ringing from the ever-present buzzing of the machines, and that pile of debris in the driveway only gets bigger and just won't go away on its own, like you've been praying for. I woke up sore (again) this morning and was going to complain about it, but everyone else already was.

A low point was when we had a volunteer plumber replacing the cleanout on the laundry drain. He left to get a part after a lunch, right about when all twenty of us used the bathroom. Sewage backed up onto the Family Room floor, and it was nearly impossible not to walk through it and track it onto the newly sanded Dining Room floor. It was nobody's fault. The neighbor told me that the sewer lines on the whole block are aged and root-bound, and need to be power-snaked once a year, if not altogether excavated and replaced. It wouldn't have been so bad but there's been about 4 inches of brownish, hepatitis-ridden gookhh in the bathtub, rising and falling with the tide of people helping out. It's pretty funny actually, but this will be filed under "Unanticipated Costs".

I'd post a picture of it, but this is a family web site, and it's really just too nasty to gaze upon. Our sympathies go out to Sean Day, who spent the night there. (Please send sterilization/sanitation supplies and antibiotics to his home address.)

I stayed late yesterday to clean up and sat on the tools with Sean (the other Sean, 2nd in Command, hardest worker on the property) and we came to the conclusion that tomorrow is the day to push through a single room until we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. When you see that light, you reach for it, pull along everyone within reach, and take care of business all the way.

Help is still needed! There will be A LOT to clean this weekend, as well as all manner of gardening/landscaping projects, and needless to say, more money is desired. Some heavy tools had to be rented for longer periods and garbage dump costs have skyrocketed.

For a more inspiring blog: Please see Matt's assessment of Monday!

For more inspiration altogether: Please come by 2016 Dayton in Lemon Grove and lend a hand, lend your spare change, lend us borrow your 150' Power Grinding Drain Snake!

Thanks again, everyone, and we'll see you tomorrow!

Day Three

This one shot of video pretty much says it all.

Day Two
(As Seen in the Following Blog Pics)

Friends arrived with bottles of wine for the Baja Winery Cellar and plants for the nicely landscaped vineyard, as promised. Steve went to town on the house with the pressure sprayer, prepping it for a new look. The two Seans took their sweet time on the slider, wanting it to be just perfect (which it was.) And then the guys had some serious debate about soil amendments -thankfully, it didn't come to blows. Corey wrangled the stucco paper, and Kevin wrangled the ceiling insulation. Kristi modeled the tool belts for us all, and the first piece of drywall was set into the ceiling as Mr. Linden worked the barbeque to serve us all a nice Memorial Eve chicken buffet. It was a solid day of work. All the stories and memories wouldn't fit on this blogspace, but Matt reminded us all as we headed to bed: "This good night's rest brought to you by the Linden Family!"

Not sure who to thank on that one.

Day One

It was a great first day! As the sun poked out from behind the clouds, ten or fifteen of us showed up for a clinic on proper hammer swinging and we had a successful time converting the Family Room back into the garage it once was (just kidding). Drywall was ripped from the ceiling, paneling was ripped from the house, and the impractical facade of ugliness was stripped away to reveal its hidden potential. We're tired! No one was inordinately hurt and we were all thankful for it (best not to ruin yourself on the first day -save that for the end of the week!) Some of us were even inspired to take on entirely new projects, like Dave Adey deciding he would re-tile the kitchen counters! Fantastic! Hey Dave, you rip that tile out with this feral claw hammer while I stand over here looking for new tile in the budget!

Seriously, tremendous thanks to everyone who gave so much. It is really coming together and we are truly looking forward to another day at it.

And just check out these choice pics: