Time

Either there is not enough time in a day or I am really bad at time management.

I have a ton of house work, school work and photos to post from the last two days of EMHE. But it is 9:15p so I am going to bed. I am such a woous. (How in the world do you spell that word!?!?! Spell check is no help.)

I leave you with a photo of Madeline from last Friday. I have some really great photos to post from our fun with Maddie at Mo-Bot and today at the EMHE reveal*. They are so cute together.

September 5

*The reveal was a total bust, and we didn't see the "move that bus" moment... I'll explain later. Don't worry. It's all good in the 'hood.

mg

Piggies

mg

EMHE: Parts 4 & 5

Sunday, September 7th

I stopped by the house at about 7:15am before heading to work at my other part time job. (yep, working two jobs. I'm crazy.)

I found a house. It is amazing to think that just 24 hours before the "house" was just a whole with foundation forms still on. This is like two weeks of real life work crammed into 24 hours.

It looks like a house!

Crew change. This is the night crew heading home at about 7:15am.

They only had a small section of the roof to finish Sunday morning.

Monday, September 8th

I stopped by in the morning during our walk, then we went when Kevin got home from work. They have done all of the stone masonry on the exterior of the house and are starting to put the porch on. I was impressed that the walls inside were painted, and there are built-in book shelves, and a stone fireplace inside already. You can't really see too much inside, but they are amazingly fast.

It looks like a home!

I find this sign all well and good, but we haven't seen a designer in at least two days.

There is so much going on at the site. There are constantly people coming in and out of the house and there are trucks pulling up and bobcats leveling gravel. (I would love to know how many tons of gravel they used for this job, b/c every time I have been there more gravel has shown up. It is quite amazing really.

Madeline was ready for bed time. Isn't she cute?!?!

mg

EMHE: Part 3

Saturday, September 6th

I was a EM junkie on Saturday. I went four times.

First with my parents at about 9am. The foundation was poured and they were begining to take the forms off. At 9 the night before it was just a mud pit. Amazing.




The second time I went alone at about 12:30pm. The forms were off, and they were just starting to pump gravel into the basement so they could pour a floor.

t Designer Edwardo Xol was there... not doing much though. That is him in the black shirt.

I love this photo. This is a volunteer with his two children. The little boy would not let go of his daddy, not even a little.

One of the house's across the street has had a camera on its roof all week. There was actually a guy up there with it this time!

Can you see how huge that tracker is? Can you see how little those people are? Can you see how close the huge tracker is to those little people? I was happy up on the hill. It is tight quarters on this build, let me tell you!

Sponsored by Fitz's. That's my kind of build.

Then when Kevin got home from work at 5:30pm we went back to the site. Kevin's first time on Saturday, my third.

Madeline, snacking in her back pack. We {heart} this back pack. I forgot we had it... and it is much beefier than the one you saw my dad wearing earlier in the day. (sorry dad) Strollers are not really an option when there are that many people and only a 3 foot walkway.

The first wall going up.

Designer John Littlefield was on site putting in the first wall. They filmed him getting it into place and then he stepped over to the right side (in the black shirt and pants) and hung out.
Carpenters, working hard. John Littlefield, hardly working.
That's the theme this week.

And because I can't get enough of this craziness, Kevin, my dad, my brother and I came back to see the progress. We got there at about 8pm.

They had all the exterior walls up and much of the interior framing was complete. They were taking in plumbing fittings and already assembled shower pipes. It was pretty cool.

This is my favorite photo so far.
We were there as they set the first section of the roof.
Wicked cool.

I have more from yesterday and today. (not that many more... but it actually looks like a house... which is what I am sure you are all waiting for...)

Anybody actually care about this? I just can't get enough. If this build was in any other community I probably wouldn't even go see it. But because it is literally around the corner I can't get enough. Yep. I'm crazy.

mg

EMHE: Part 2

Life in our quiet town has been turned up side down this week. It is all very exciting. Really. We don't love all the traffic, but at least is it for a fun and honorable purpose.

Traffic signs near our street. Although they say the street is closed to only local traffic, there isn't anything stopping people from traveling the road. Well, other than the earth movers and dump trucks blocking the way.

On Friday they took down the house. Maddy and I walked over to take in the action.

What the house looked like on Wednesday.

What is looked like at 1pm on Friday.
They spent all of Thursday packing and moving the families belongings out of the house. They also spent some time reclaiming things like doors and windows to be recycled.

Ty in the center. If you have seen the show you know that they send a video of the house being torn down to the family on vacation. They filmed that at least twice that I saw.

Ty, filming with the crowd.

Ty walking by as they finished the filming. (Heading to his trailer for a nap.)

One of the Shea family. Part of the construction company running the site (Calliers, Thompson and Shea).

I guess they forgot to move the bed.

If you look closely you can see there are THREE back hoes taking down this house. (the third one is just coming up the driveway on the far left of the frame) The Fire department was spraying the demolition, so that isn't dirt, just water vapor.

We have many more photos from Friday night, Saturday, Sunday and today. So stay tuned. When I get around to down loading them I will post.

Life is crazy here!

mg

A converstation with my grandmother

Tonight at dinner with my Grandma, a good Irish woman, we were talking politics.

***
G-ma: I've known who I am voting for even before the conventions.
Me: Who is that G-ma?
G-ma: O'Bama, because he's Irish.

***
I love my Grandma. She is always good for a laugh.

mg

EMHE: Part 1

The big news in my home town is that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is just a block and a half away from our house tearing down and rebuilding a new home for a family in need. On Wednesday, the day the family found out they had been picked Kev, Madeline and I headed over to the house to see what we could see. We learned a lot about the show talking to the security and others standing around.

First, they have their own security that travels with them from house to house. They used to hire new security at every site, but by the time they got them all trained they moved on and would start all over. So now they just travel with them.

Second, Even the security doesn't know if they are going to be knocking on the door and giving the family good news or bad news. Sometimes they knock on the door and tell them they are not the finalist. Then they go home. That was not the case in STL.

Third, They told the family Wed. AM, sent them to Disney world in the PM, then finished filming, and started packing up their house. Thursday the finished packing. Friday at 1pm they started tearing down the house. By 6pm the house was completely gone and they were leveling dirt. They say the house will have a roof by Saturday night.

Fourth, The cast and crew have spread their tents and trailers over a six square block area of our city. The roads are completely closed off and the side streets all have no parking signs. (ours included.) There is only one way in and one way out for spectators.

Fifth, If you are a neighbor, and you live next door, they put you up in a hotel. If your lawn is being used as a spectator area they will be replacing it. They can also get massages and help themselves to food in the rest tent.

These are the photos we took on Wednesday.

The house. On Brunswick just a block and a half from our house.

The family. The mom is the one in black, the dad is holding one of the twins and the little girl looks like she has to go to the bathroom. Their other son isn't in the photo. They are all standing in front of the neighbor's house.

One of the women with Calliers Thompson and Shea the construction company that has taken on this huge project.

The spectators. We were a montley crew, and about 10 minutes later, after St. Mike's got out, there were at least 20 kids their with their moms.

The "Beefy" security guard kept hamming it up for my camera. They were all very kind.

Designer John Littlefield
I don't want you to think that I actually know who these people are. I got their names off of the EMHE TV show web page. You can find their bios there too. Which by the way, are really interesting. All of them are actors who just happen to be handy. They never really explain that on the show. I could have guessed after looking at this guy. He's just too pretty.

Designer Eduardo Xol (pronouced soul)
He's awfully pretty too.

On the far left of the group is designer Ed Sanders.
Ed, not so pretty.

The lone woman in the group is designer Paige Hemmis.

And of course, you have Ty Pennington. (That is him in the center between the tree and telephone pole.)

The family pulling away and the designers going into the house to "start working." The limo stopped right there and then backed up. The family then got out and they started over. They taped the send off three times before actually allowing the family to head to the air port.

Two of the crew members. They were hanging out with the few spectators that gathered at the site. They were extremely nice and weird.

Yep. That's right. They were eating Mom's deli on set. Lucky ducks.

More to come. Madeline and I walked up today as they were tearing the house down and that was pretty exciting. I have some really great photos of the tear down and of Ty. I'll post those soon.

What a crazy week.

mg