Home plans update (one of many)...

(Brendan)

Again, it's impossible to adequately follow the previous post, so this post will seem kind of silly. Nonetheless, we are excited about closing on our house and getting started on our new house, and I thought I'd do some posts on things that have changed since our set of bid plans. For the best background for this post, I'd recommend re-looking at where we were at the end of the bidding process (including known cost-cutting measures at the time).

This post specifically regards the elimination of the basement that we had originally planned, and our new plans for the home's foundation. Eliminating the basement was certainly done in order to save on cost, but the decision was made very easy when, in further conversations with the city of Ham Lake, MN, we were informed that our original plan would not be allowed since the depth of the basement was below the water-saturated soil level (which, due to the wetland nature of the Ham Lake area and our particular lot, is only a couple feet below the ground level). Never mind that this detail should have been given to us a long time ago on our site plan (and that it was written on a "livability plan" document that the city had, but we were never given), in the end all that matters is that elimination of the basement needed to happen. Due to our architectural sensitivities with this home, we also were not going to go with some sort of large grading effort to create an artificial hill for the home site in order to have a walkout basement (this would also be necessary even to create a simple crawl space). Actually, the neighbors to the South of our lot did that, and it looks a little silly. So the best option for us was to go with a simple slab-on-grade foundation (basically a solid concrete foundation, with frost-footings).

Switching to slab-on-grade is no simple deal when the house was completely designed with a basement in mind. Here's a list of just a few of the challenges this creates:

• Where do we create above-ground storage space?
• All the mechanical systems were going to be in the basement. Where will these go?
• Air ducts were being run through the basement ceiling, how will these be re-arranged?
• It's Minnesota. The first-level floors will be freezing cold in the winter with a slab foundation, won't they?

I'll address these challenges in future posts. The final bullet point I'll address here. We decided, with our general contractor's advice, to go with a hydronic radiant heating system on the first level. This will cost us moderately extra, but not too bad (4 figures, total, for the rough-in of the tubing and the mechanical services). Coupled with the large savings of not having a basement, it's still a big net cost savings. And it will be almost a necessity in the winter simply for livability and enjoyment of the home. No one wants to walk around on freezing cold wood floors. With radiant heat, floors will be toasty warm in the winter and will be a pleasure to walk on barefoot.

Here's how it works. During creation of the slab foundation, tubing is weaved and secured to a grid of rebar (or other support system), ensuring coverage of all areas of the floor. Concrete is then poured over the tubing, embedding it in the slab. The tubing will carry warm water through the concrete floor, warming the floor and eventually heating all of the rooms themselves as the heat radiates upward. It's a very clean, efficient, non-allergenic, and comfortable way to heat a home. The upstairs will still have air services for heating, but hopefully that mode of heating will be infrequent as the lower-level heat will also contribute, indirectly, to heating the second-level (especially with our highly insulated SIP's home construction).


Above: A section view of a hydronic radiant heating system installed in a concrete slab foundation. The water-carrying tubing is embedded within the concrete and is insulated from the bottom to prevent heat being transmitted to the ground. (Okay, the guy with the blue socks is annoying, but the time investment needed to photoshop him out just isn't worth it ;-)

Below: Examples of hydronic radiant heating being installed in new construction.


The case for radiant heating over forced air: with forced air we heat our ceilings (wasted heat) and the floor is the coolest part of the room; with radiant, it's the opposite. Because of the higher efficiency of radiant heat, it also costs less to heat the home. Why doesn't everyone do radiant then? Simply because of the higher up front costs (though you can get your money back over time with reduced heating bills).
One final note, this works ideally with concrete floors, and also does work particularly well with engineered wood floors. It can work with hardwood floors too, but you have to be careful which wood species you go with (the harder, the better). The issue is expansion and contraction of the wood. Engineered wood floors are multilayer constructions that don't expand and contract much, and that's the type of wood flooring we choose for the house anyway.

Another Son, Another Saint

(Molly)
We wanted to let you know that our baby is safely in the arms of Jesus along with his big brother, Henry Blaise.

The miscarriage began on Sunday at the end my silent retreat experience and still continues. Although I had spent much of the time praying for a miracle for this baby, we are at peace with the Lord's will for this short, but purposeful life.

Through prayer, we decided to name him Jude Thomas. St Jude is the patron of impossible causes and a dear "friend" of ours. Clara has especially loved the name Thomas for about three years now and we wanted to honor her connection with that name. We were also praying for twins and believe the Lord answered our prayers in His own way as "Thomas" means "The Twin".

We will bury Jude's remains at Epiphany Cemetary near Henry's grave. We will also include his name on their memorial for babies lost in miscarriage.

We thank you again for your prayers for our family. The chaos with our home continues and it's a bit of a relief to have something wonderful to look forward to as we continue grieving for our sons.

Isn't it beautiful to envision Henry Blaise and Jude Thomas together with all the saints at the throne of Our Lord?

Happy "Jesus Year" Birthday, Brendan!

Happy 33rd Birthday to my wonderful husband. You have officially reached your "Jesus Year," as your buddies like to say. May it be the holiest year of your life so far!

I am so blessed by you and praise God for the wonderful husband, father, spiritual leader, and provider you are. Thank you for walking this sometimes intense road with me. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Love,
Molly

PS--Maxy says "We go get [surprise]. Ah Daddy Boofday." You'll have to wait until you get home to see what it is!

Just plain cool

(Brendan)

As you may know, today (June 29) was the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, one of my favorite feast days of the liturgical year. Because of the close association of these two apostles, and their martyrdom in Rome, Sts. Peter and Paul have always shared a feast day going all the way back to at least the year 258 A.D. (and that's only because it's the earliest Roman calendar of the martyrs that has been found). It took some research for me to find that out, as I've always wondered why these great apostles did not have their own feast days. You can't argue with hundreds and hundreds of years of Church history!

Anyway, last Sunday marked the end of the Church's "Year of Saint Paul," and in case you missed it, Pope Benedict made a stunning announcement in his homily. The Holy Father closed the Year of Saint Paul by celebrating mass at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome (image at left), one of the four major (or "Papal") basilicas of Rome. Side note: Molly and I had the great experience of visiting this basilica when we went to Rome in 2000 as chaperones for a parish youth group trip for World Youth Day. (I wanted to dig up some pics for this post, but unfortunately I think those are packed :-) Anyway, the basilicas of Rome aren't located where they are, respectively, for no reason; just like the Basilica of St. Peter, there is a very specific reason the Basilica of St. Paul is located right where it is: the burial place of St. Paul himself. A news story quote (see also here):

With “great emotion” [the Pope] announced that a recent scientific probe confirmed what Catholic tradition has always held, namely that the body of the Apostle Paul is located under the papal altar in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls....

The Pontiff said that recently the tomb was “subject to a scientific investigation. A small hole was drilled in the sarcophagus, unopened for centuries, and a probe was introduced. It found traces of a valuable purple fabric, in linen and gold layer-laminated, and a blue fabric with linen threads. Red incense grains and substances containing proteins and limestone were also discovered. Small fragments of bone were found and radiocarbon dated by experts who did not know their place of origin. Results indicate that they belong to someone who lived between the 1st and 2nd century A.D. This seems to confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition according to which these are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul. All this fills our soul with deep emotion.”

Amazing. Imagine consecrating the Holy Eucharist during mass on an altar beneath which lies the body of the Apostle Paul himself! Couple this with the relatively recent (1950 and 1968) strong archaeological evidence that the tomb of St. Peter is directly below the altar of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome and it's doubly amazing. Whoever said the faith is boring?!

Craigslist is silly

(Brendan)

Just to try and keep it light around here (thanks again for all your prayers and support), I thought I'd report that in preparation for moving we decided to list a number of things on Craigslist. These are items that we either want to get rid of because they won't fit the style of our new house, or they are simply items that we have no interest in moving or storing. In total, we listed:

• Sofa
• Loveseat
• Large "L"-shaped computer desk
• Artwork hanging in our office
• Dresser
• Large speakers
• Stereo receiver
• TV/media cabinets (2)
• 200 disc CD player

Thinking these would take some time to sell, I listed them all on Craigslist a week ago Friday, in the evening (like 11pm). I had people e-mailing me at 3am in the morning after I had listed the items. By Sunday evening, everything was gone (except the 200 disc CD player). Just like that... cleared out. My only thought was, "What's wrong with you people?" When you have someone calling desperately on Saturday morning to let you know they want the art prints you had hanging in your office, it boggles the mind. I met a guy through Craiglist once (we bought an oven from him) and he said that one time he posted something for sale and within 5 minutes a guy called saying he wanted the item, and within 20 minutes it was gone. Craigslist is silly.

Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic to have gotten rid of so much stuff. And we made around $400, which isn't too shabby since most of the stuff was pretty old (except the office desk; that was a very nice IKEA desk which we just don't have a place for in our new house design). But I had planned to at least have some seating in our upper level for the next 2-3 weeks. Not anymore.

Right now our close date on the home sale looks like it will be July 24. We have a stretch goal to start construction on or around September 1.

Sad news

(Brendan)

I wanted to do a quick post to let everyone know that recently we found out, to our joy, that we were expecting a new child. However, last Friday at a very early 6-week ultrasound things looked concerning for the baby, and just yesterday at a follow-up ultrasound Molly's doctor confirmed our fears, and saId that a miscarriage would likely be occuring sometime in the next two weeks. I want to keep this brief, I'm sure you can imagine how sad this is for us, especially right after Henry's passing in December. We continue to submit to God's holy will.

Though trivial, I did also want to update to say that our home inspection went very well and that there were no issues. Thank you all so much for your continued generosity in praying for us. We also hold up in prayer all of your intentions.

Sold!

(Brendan)

We just signed a purchase agreement this evening! We got an offer today from a buyer who came through our house on Thursday (not the people I referred to in the previous post) and it is a fantastic offer. It's within $5,000 of our asking price, the buyer is putting 25% down (making financing fairly easy) and even put down 2% earnest money. It's a very solid offer, one which we were very happy to sign "as is" after going through all of the fine print along with our realtor, (looking for any catches). Praise the Lord!

As hard as it is to continue to say this, we still need your prayers! We need to get through the home inspection this week, and then the appraisal after that. It's kind of nerve-wracking, but it's much less nerve wracking since the buyer is so solid. The good news for us is that the buyer seems willing to do a close date fairly soon (the signed agreement says "July 30 or sooner"), and so we are hoping for a close around July 10.

Well keep you posted, and thank you so much for all of your prayers that helped get us to this point!

Another house selling update (Hint: more prayers needed!)

(Brendan)

This has been an interesting week for us. Out of the blue we had 3 showings scheduled on Monday and another one scheduled on Tuesday, and this is after having only one showing last week and no showings the previous 3+ weeks. It's quite a statistical abberation, and there has to be some sort of cause behind it. First and foremost, everyone's prayers are so very appreciated, and they are definitely working! Our realtor also believes that the rising interest rates are flushing people out of the weeds who were waiting to see if interest rates went lower.

The main update is that the people who came through on Tuesday gave us the best feedback we've had in a while, and they are interested in our home. There is an automated feedback form that gets sent to the realtor of any people who come through our house, and their response was the following:

1. Is the customer interested in the property? Maybe

2. How well did the property show? Excellent

3. Please rate this property. 4 (out of 5)

Comments/Recommendations: Beautiful landscaping!!!

Our realtor was able to exchange voicemails with their realtor and she communicated that our home is in their top 3 choices right now, and that she was confident one of the other three was probably not going to be the one because it is in a much further location from where they want to be. So we may be in their top 2. Unfortunately, the uncle of one of the clients passed away yesterday and so they will be dealing with that for the rest of the week. We won't hear back from them until at least the weekend and maybe not until early next week.

Please pray hard that they communicate further with us and put in an offer!

Remembering Henry and Henry's Blanket Travels to Rome

(Molly)

I have wanted to pen this post for a while as we just passed this six month anniversary of Henry's entrance into Heaven. Some of you know that I've been dealing with a random flare up of tendonitis in my left hand and needless to say, typing has been quite a chore. So, as important as this post is in remembering our darling son, it has taken me a while to complete.

For some time I have desired a permanent memorial of Henry, one that I could see daily, and hopefully even wear, so that I could share him with those I meet. (We do plan to create a memorial for Henry in our new home, but as of now, it's hard to know exactly when that will happen.) After thinking of a few different options, I finally settled on a ring with Henry's birthstone, Tanzanite, with one diamond on either side to symbolize Brendan and me. It's a sturdy setting, so I'm able to wear it all the time, which I love. It has become a constant reminder of his daily presence in our lives, his prayers for our family, and the short, but meaningful life he lived in my womb.

Before Henry's funeral we received some words of wisdom from the parents of some dear friends of ours. They lost a little girl, Mary Elizabeth, many years ago, and they had the foresight to clip off part of the blanket she was wrapped in before being placed in her casket. We loved that idea, so before handing over a gorgeous white blanket to the funeral director, we cut a corner off of the blanket and later had the edges sewn by Brendan's sister. I have slept with that blanket almost every night since. It has served as a great comfort to our family and I love to imagine Henry's perfect self wrapped snuggly in the blanket.

We were recently offered an opportunity to send the blanket with a family friend to Rome so that it could be blessed by Pope Benedict XVI. There is a beautiful story of how Henry's blanket received the Papal Blessing (one that is too long for me to type in my current condition) and we have been very touched by and opportunity to have the blessing of the Vicar of Christ in our home. The friend, who so willingly brought this treasure to Rome, also placed the blanket on the tomb of the great Pope John Paul II which means Henry's blanket is now a third class relic. Over the past six months I have envisioned our son in the presence of Our Lord Jesus, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and Our Lady. These thoughts have been very comforting to me. Perhaps, though, some of the most beautiful moments in my imagination occur when I envision Henry in Heaven with Pope John Paul II, a man that has so dearly touched my life and inspired our marriage to be what it is today. Brendan and I took the trip to World Youth Day in Rome in 2000 shortly after our engagement and seeing him was one of the most amazing experiences of our life together.

Wow, you guys are fast!

(Brendan)

We have a showing that just was scheduled for this morning from 11:30am-12:30pm! Thanks for your (very effective) prayers, keep them coming -- especially during the time of the showing.