Hasken's Blog

9/16/09
The workers had all the dumpsters, equipment, tools, boxes, everything cleaned up around the house. Shutters had been hung on the second story windows overnight. The landscapers gave one more drink to the new sod and flowers. One of the volunteers had found a unique old birdhouse in the barn two nights ago, and had cleaned it up, painted it to match the refurbished barns, and placed it in the new herb garden. The weather was perfect, and the windmill was moving.

A new Ford hybrid car appeared – courtesy of Ford!! The volunteers and trade leads lined up around the yard, and along with the entire spectator crowd practiced "Move that Bus!" When the family finally arrived, the producer had them blindfolded. When the family took their blindfolds off, the crowd was instructed to ROAR!!! It was so much fun to see the looks on the Stott family's faces when they realized what was happening. Both sets of grandparents and the bone marrow donor were on hand to welcome them home. When the bus finally moved out of the way, the family was so excited to see their new home. Ty took them up the new sidewalk and after some TV time, they were finally allowed inside to explore. We'll have to watch the show to see their reactions to their new home!

9/15/09
The wallpaperers are working while the volunteers are filling kitchen cupboards with dishes. More volunteers are helping to carry in the furniture, wearing booties on their feet to protect the new floors. The cleaning ladies are trying to clean around all the people! The designers are doing their last minute fixes. Seamstresses are working at a local church to complete the pillows and window treatments. The landscapers continue to water the new sod and plants. The pastures are being re-seeded, now that most of the large equipment has been moved out. A final punch list is being created. The beautiful weather has held out for us for the whole week – only about 8 rain drops this afternoon!

9/14/09
The house was FULL of people – cabinets were finished, painters were doing touch ups, 10-15 people were trying to sweep the floor for the hardwood installation, the stair railing was going up, shower doors were being installed, mirrors hung in the bathrooms, designs painted on walls. Outside the sod was being unrolled for the new lawn, bushes, trees, and flowers being planted – even raspberry and strawberry bushes with berries on them! The windmill is up. The contractors are starting to move out the equipment and trucks, and clean up the site.

9/13/09
Drywall is complete and the base coat of primer is going on. Flooring will be installed today, then the trim. Outside the house we should be seeing the landscapers start to put things back together. All of our lead workers Rick, Jack, Brad, Russ, Mark, Doug have lost their voices! They work 12 hour shifts, then are supposed to go to a trailer or home to rest, but once they get on site they get caught up in the action and can't leave.

The outside of the house is almost complete. Just one more gable to side. They were starting the front sidewalk excavation. Painters and cabinet installers were on the main floor. Doors are hung, and hardware installed.

9/12/09
The roof is almost done, and the windows are going in. The wiring and plumbing is completed so the insulators started in the afternoon. The drywallers are starting on the first floor. They are actually running through the house with drywall!! The drywall "mudders" are at the house and ready to start.

9/11/09
Braveheart March – Trade leads and some of the volunteers assembled at 7:30 a.m about ½ mile up the road from the site. ABC/EMHE filmed all of us marching over a hill to the site with 4 ENORMOUS tractors following us. We were supposed to yell and smile and holler the whole way while they took camera shots from various angles. When we got to the driveway, we stopped, then had to practice walking up to the house and assembling in a circle. Then we practiced positioning the tractors to pull the house down. Between "shots" we stood and waited - lots of waiting!!! The workers were chomping at the bit to get back to work…but we finally got everything filmed, with Ty and Rick talking in front of the house, and Joey Stott's parents meeting the bone marrow donor. It was an emotional scene for everyone.

BACK TO WORK – the walls of the house are up. The tractors are trying to pull down the house with chains.

I had to run to town to get some supplies (65 cases of Mountain Dew), so I did not get to see the old house come down. By the time I came back, there was a flat spot of earth where the house had been, and a crew was setting up a tent for VIP spectators. The rafters were on the house and the crews were starting to put the roof on.

A word about the food – Linda and Jill put together an amazing list of food donors. We have eaten like kings and queens this week in the large food tent on the hill, including meals in the middle of the night.

9/10/09
When we arrived on site this morning, there was a house foundation poured! Amazing. There were still an unimaginable amount of machinery moving earth, but now we could get an idea of the placement of the house on the land. The carpenters put down the first floor, then the ground was backfilled around the house and basement floor were poured.

9/9/09
Hasken Construction LLC leads were introduced to the ABC/EMHE Production leads this morning at 7:00 a.m. at the Hampton Inn in Freeport. Coincidentally, Rick's aunt is the manager of the hotel!! We walked out into the parking lot and formed a big circle. GT, the producer, said a few words, one of the TV designers spoke, Ty Pennington shared a few stories, and Rick had a few minutes of speaking to the group. The really wonderful part of all this was meeting the man who donated the blood marrow which helped Joey Stott overcome leukemia. ABC/EMHE had flown him here from Colorado to be part of the week. After the meeting the EMHE crew got on "The Bus" and went out to the home with Ty Pennington for the "door knock."

Later in the morning we went to the site so that Rick could meet the family. Another great moment – it was Kaila's birthday!! What a present!!

In mid-afternoon, the family left in a limo for their surprise vacation. Then the work began!!! Fischer's guys started working with huge excavators and gravel trucks, and every kind of "snort" that Dr. Suess could imagine. They had to construct a new road onto the farm property that could handle all the trucks and equipment necessary for this build. They worked all through the night. I was unable to count how many machines or workers there were!

9/4/09
Meetings continue day and night between all the volunteer coordinators, the food service coordinators, the build teams, M45 marketing…there are hundreds of people working on the project. More people continue to call and email with offers of help. It's hard to comprehend this much support during such stressful economic times.

Labor Day weekend – phone calls, computer time, plan revisions, emails….ahhh, how relaxing!

9/3/09
Our wonderful friends are stopping by with food this week. At lunchtime today Rick and the guys were invaded by several carloads of my co-workers from FHN OB clinic office, loaded down with enough food for an army! We may need an Extreme Makeover of our kitchen just to hold all the goodies.

9/1/09
Some of the build team and one of the interior designers from ABC/EMHE are back in town. Mary S. cooked dinner for all of us tonight!

8/31/09
The website went live today – an overwhelming response – most of the work slots were filled in half a day! Came home from work to find 14 guys in our dining room and 5 more around our kitchen table…..that's a LOT of noise!! Grabbed my daughter and escaped to get a hamburger!

8/30/09
We actually took part of the day off to move Jamie into college. It was a nice break from the chaos.

8/29/09
Meg Z. came to the house and spent several hours helping Jess set up a database for this project. Thanks goodness there are people who enjoy computers!!

8/27/09
Our house is officially "Ground Zero". Folks are in and out all day long planning the project. The phones are ringing off the hook, and the emails are pouring in!

8/26/09 (later)
The phone is ringing off the wall! Everyone wants to volunteer. This is great! That 106-hour build time isn't sounding quite so impossible as it first did. The builder announcement press conference went well. Now the real work begins!

8/26/09
The official announcement was made to the media from the SportsPlex site on Walnut Road. It was pouring rain during most of the press conference...hope the weather cooperates for the actual build time.

8/21/09
About 20 of us traveled to Philo, IL to see an EMHE build in progress. I think it helped some of our leads to get a grasp on how to run the project. Philo received quite a bit of rain during their build, so we were able to see first hand how to cope with bad weather. Many of our group were excited to see Ty Pennington on the site. Jill and Linda have agreed to be food service coordinators.

8/20/09
After work we met with Diane, Diane, and Sally to ask them to be our Volunteer Coordinators. Hope they don't regret this!!

8/17/09
It is amazing how many phone calls we are receiving about the project - people are coming out of the woodwork offering to help, and it is not even official yet!

8/14/09
More meetings at M45. The design of the house began in earnest, and we worked on it most of the weekend. Thanks heavens for Eric D. who helped us with some AutoCad computer glitches on Sunday afternoon!! In the meantime, Rick is lining up his core group of trades to actually build the house. Jack G. has agreed to be his right hand man on the project. Our three core carpenters Brad, Doug, and Mark are also going to be critical to the project's success.

8/13/09
Joe and Marilyn at M45 hosted the initial face-to-face meetings with ABC/EMHE reps, Rick, Wayne F., and some of our team members. We were shown some videos of previous builds, and given a wealth of information about putting together a project of this magnitude. The meeting lasted most of the day. The ABC/EMHE crew then attended one of Rick's Park District softball games with us and met many of our friends.

8/11/09
I was at work at FHN, not knowing what Rick had decided...got a phone message at the desk that my "husband called and said you have a lot of work to do!" A bit overwhelming to say the least.

8/10/09
We received a call from Conrad Ricketts of ABC inviting Rick to coordinate the E.M. in Northwest Illinois. At first we thought it was a prank. Rick called at least 30 people throughout the day: to verify Conrad's request, talk with previous EMHE builders, and determine whether he could build a team to do this project. He also had to ask our current customers if it was okay to put their projects on hold for a month. The response was overwhelmingly positive, so Tuesday morning 8/11/09, Rick called Conrad back and agreed to work with him.