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...and bring me right back down.

It has been an interesting past few weeks. We've been searching for funding, and just haven't gotten anywhere.

Another interesting wrinkle came a little over a week ago. We got a bill from the water company for $3,200. Why? Well, they were billing us for digging up the street, filling it back in, and paving it. I thought I had been told, repeatedly, that if the line was fixed, and they didn't have to dig it up again to turn on the water, we wouldn't be charged. Either I was told incorrectly, or I misunderstood. No, I never got it in writing, and no, I never wrote down who told me. It was all verbal, and I don't think I was ever on the phone when I was told, so I didn't have anything to write it down. Right now, we're waiting to hear back from them as to how much they'll let us pay per month.

This past Monday we met with Fairbanks Neighborhood Housing Services (FNHS), the organization that helped us buy our house in the first place. They have some funding available for renovation loans, and we talked with them about that. The loan officer was very helpful, and very encouraging. It was almost a "sure thing" that we would be able to get a VERY low interest loan for $45,000 and finish the house. We were pretty excited, but still a bit cautious. We talked to him today, and were told that Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (the source of FNHS's money) is very reluctant to (translation: just about never will) loan money for work on a house in which black mold has been discovered, even when all the mold has been removed (in our case, the house is gutted). Even with an air test to prove the mold is no longer in the house, he was not optimistic. We'll do an air test and see what it gets us, but for now, that door is closed.

So, we're right back to where we started. We need $45,000 to finish the house (ideally $50,000, but $45,000 will do). And yes, I have a spreadsheet with all the numbers to back it up.

If you happen to know the source of a very low interest 30 year loan, please let us know.

God is in control! We know we'll get through this. We're just a bit discouraged right now. I'm just glad that the kids are young enough to not have any idea what's going on. Elizabeth knows that I go "work on the house," but she doesn't understand why I'm working on it, or why we're not living there. She and Jonathan-David are just happy being kids.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was heading over to the house today to shovel dirt back in to the trench. After working for about two hours, you could tell I had made progress, but you had to look closely. The tops of the dirt piles were gone; that was about the extent of it.

About that time, a paving crew from Bloom Enterprises drove by to do some asphalt patching down the street. On one of their trailers was a Bobcat. Maybe, just maybe. I walked down the street and ask the supervisor how much they charged an hour for bobcat work. "I don't think we really do that," was the response. Ah well, at least I tried.

About 15 minutes later, I look up, and coming down the street is a Bobcat being driven by one of the crew, and the supervisor riding on the bucket. I smiled, but kept my enthusiasm in check, because after all, there was a trench in the street in front of our house which needed repair too. But I did get excited when they pulled in the driveway.

We worked out a price, and Travis went to work. In about an hour, he accomplished far more than I could have working all day, maybe two days. All the dirt is back in the trench, and the driveway is, oh, semi-level, but functional. It'll probably settle over the next week or so, so we'll need more dirt, but that's OK. It was such a blessing to have that done. It saved me hours upon hours, and didn't cost us anywhere near what renting a backhoe or Bobcat would have. God is truly good.

If you're in need of paving work in the Fairbanks area, please give Bloom Enterprises a call. 907-474-0625 And let them know you're calling because they helped out a friend of yours.

For the first time is many moons, we now have water flow in the house. Granted, nothing is hooked up to the water in the house, we we have water when we turn on the main valve. It's all foamed up (we have to insulate our outside water pipe in Alaska to protect from freezing), and I'll be heading over there today to throw dirt back in the hole. We'll see how long it takes me to put back all the dirt a back hoe took out in three hours.

We now bring you an update of our water rupture story.

My father-in-law Steve got way more than he bargained for when he came to visit last week. He arrived in Fairbanks the evening of July 2nd after driving for over nine hours from the Kenai peninsula. Within a half hour of arriving, he was helping me dig out the driveway while Philip L. operated the back-hoe I had rented earlier that day.

In about three hours we dug up some 40 feet or so of driveway, and we did manage to find a rupture, hopefully the only one. The rupture was about two inches long, so must have pushed out thousands of gallons of water before our line was shut off. I'm surprised our neighbor's yard didn't settle any.

The bad part in all this is that our home owner's insurance won't pay for this, as the house 1) wasn't occupied, 2) wasn't heated (true, but peripheral to the cause of the freeze-up), and 3) there was no circulation pump (not required by code if you are less than 100 feet away from the main). So, if you know of anyone that might have some "pull" at State Farm, let us know.

Pictures included for your viewing pleasure.

My afternoon was interrupted at a quarter until four today by a phone call from our local water company, Golden Heart Utilities (GHU). The nice lady on the other end of the phone informed me that I needed to go to the house at 1612 Southern Avenue (the house we're currently remodeling) and check if we still had water service.

My reaction: "Huh!?" She went on to explain that a water supply line (the line going from the main to a house) had ruptured, and they had determined it was most likely ours, and they had dug up the street^* and shut off our valve. How did they know about the broken water main? Water running down the street.

At this point, I'm thinking one of two horror scenarios. 1) I had left the valve in our basement open, the lines had thawed, and our basement was "full to overflowing." That was worst case. 2) The line right next to our basement had ruptured, saturating the ground next to the basement which would cause expansion of the soil come winter, possibly compromising our basement wall. That was best case.

When I got there, it turned out to be nearly not so bad. Walking across our neighboor's lawn I noticed it was rather squishy (important!), and our entire driveway was dry. A couple of employees from GHU arrived a little while later, and we discusses what had happened. Since there was not enough flow through our water lines, even with the recirculating lines (due to non-occupancy and the freeze up last winter), our water supply froze up and ruptured. It finally thawed out (yes, I know it's July), and started leaking. The fun part? It started bubbling up in our neighbor's driveway, some 40 feet away. GHU started digging in front of our neighbor's, looking for the valve to turn off. When that didn't work, they dug up nearly 40 feet of street looking for our valve. Shutting it off stopped the "spring" in our neighbor's driveway. The guys told me they were out digging in the street until 2:00 AM this morning, and then came back later to continue digging before they finally found our valve.

So, where does that leave us? We need to dig up the supply line, find the leak (hopefully only one), repair it, re-foam (insulate) it, and rebury it. I'll be coordinating that over the next few days.

^*No joke. In our part of town, the main shutoff valves are buried about six feet under the street next to the water main. No exposed shutoff valves on the property line like we had in California.

It started out that we thought we needed to rebuild the house. As other posts have shown, it might just be a remodel. When our chimney liner collapsed, causing our heater to stop, and freezing the house, I thought we may have escaped broken pipes since water leaked into the tub down stairs.

I might have been wrong. In the past couple weeks it has really warmed up. Our water is off, thankfully, but it appears pipes leaked. We went to the house tonight to get some things, and discovered water in the laundry room, and out into the down-stairs hallway, some icicles in the down stairs bathroom (not sure which pipe leaked in the up stairs bathroom), as well as about an inch of water in the furnace room.

So, what I know or think I know right now:

1. Water has leaked in from outside (the "well" around the chimney has water in it)
2. It appears that possibly the water heater leaked after it thawed out.
3. A pipe in our up stairs bathroom leaked.
4. A lot of repair is going to have to be done, and a lot of walls torn off.

Well, God is in control. "For I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him." Just pray for us...we need it right now.