Somebody needs a nap

People have asked us how we have been sleeping. Does this help answer your question?

Isn't he adorable when he is tired, cranky and red eyed!! :) We think so....

Who loves concrete??

The answer to that question is the Paulsons love concrete. After waiting and waiting for some concrete on our land, it finally started today. The footings were dug, the framing was constructed and the rebar hung last week and it passed the city inspection yesterday. Today, at noon, the first dump truck arrived and started pumping out the concrete. It was really a fantastic sight!

And I wouldn't be a good father if I didn't include some great pictures of Jace! He is doing great. Ma and Pa are learning how to learn with less sleep. Wouldn't change it for the world.

And how is Sidney taking to our newest addition???

Yeah, he is super needy!!

Jace AND house update!

Today is a great day! Stephanie and I took Jace out for his first walk and I got to carry him in the very manly Baby Bjorn... I put him in there and 2 seconds later he let loose with a great spit up. I love it! I feel like we bonded.

We also sponge bathed Jace to make him look studly for his first walk:

And there is the every cute squirrel pants and hedgehog coat! We dressed him up in this outfit yesterday before our trip to the doctors!

We had Grandpa Ron and Grandma Marcia come by for the weekend (and Grandma Marcia has stuck around for the week to help us out). I can tell you this, Jace is going to be well spoiled, I mean taken care of!!!

And a few pictures of Jace and friends!

As for the house, well, we hit another snag last week. We had the footings all dug out and it was ready for the footings to be framed and the concrete foundation to be poured, however.... We had huge rains last week while we were in the hospital and our hole had a few feet of water and the the footings filled up with mud. So, on Friday we had to bring the excavation crew back out to dig the footings out and we are back on track. Monday and today the crew has been out here to get the footings framed and our rebar has been dropped off and it looks like we have movement, at least.

What a day! What a week! More updates soon....

Jace John Paulson

The most exciting time in Stephanie and my life happened this week. On Monday, December 3rd, Jace John Paulson arrived. He weighed 9 pounds and measured in at a whopping 22 inches and he was the most beautiful thing that I have ever layed eyes on.

Its time for Jace to be fed, so I can't write anymore at this time, but I wanted to get some pics up for those of you who have been asking for them.

Tons of Dirt

Well, we finally have some pictures to show that there has been progress. The last time I posted, we had found out what we thought was a small amount of diesel oil from an old underground tank in our soil, about 200 tons worth. Well, yesterday we dug some more dirt up and found at least another 100-150 tons of contaminated soil. Well, it gets better than that! After Stephanie's and my final doctor appointmet for the baby before he arrives, I hustled home expecting all of the contaminated dirt to be gone. Well, the crew dug up another 150 tons of contaminated soil. I haven't seen the final number yet, but I am thinking that we shipped about 500 tons of contaminated soil out to a transfer station in Everett that will then ship it by train to Oregon and the soil will be burned... Wow, what a process. I keep reminding myself that this is just a speed bump in the process, but it is a little depressing that we kept finding more contaminated dirt. It is gone now, and the half swimming pool sized hole that they had dug within the hole has been filled, ready for foundation to get started!

So, tomorrow we will have the trackhoe operator back out to dig out the trenches for the foundation and I hope that the foundation guy will come out on Thursday to start framing the footing and by Monday or Tuesday of next week the foundation pouring will begin. I think that once this happens, I will really feel a sense of accomplishment and that we can move onto the next step.

Here are some pics I just took:

These pics can give an idea of how much dirt we took out. At the back end of the property, we took about 9 feet of dirt away.

As for baby news... Stephanie and I went in for our final pre-baby appointment and everything was great. Baby P is kicking up a storm and seems healthy. We will get to meet him very soon!

Dirty Dirt and Baby P

Well, it has been 17 days since I have posted anything on the blog, thank you Todd Moore.

Unfortunately I don't have anything fun and exciting to post. It turns out that the old underground oil tank that was on our property had a small leak... Though this tank was removed 20+ years ago, the residue remains. So, on Friday the 16th, 4 dump truck loads of dirt was sent back to our lot because it smelled like diesel and boy did it ever. Thank goodness the oil tank was deep down in our soil, so only a small portion of the dirt was contaminated. We have about 200 tons of dirt left that we need to remove, so I have been working on that today. I have had an environmental services company out and hope to have a second one out later on to get all of my options.

On much more exciting topics, we have a date set for Stephanie to go in and get induced, December 3rd. There is a chance that the baby will come early, but if not, we at least have a date where we are going to the hospital. I can't wait, I am so excited to meet my son.

Dirt, Dirt and more Dirt

Since the excitement of the house demolition, there has been a lot of throwing the scraps away, shifting of dirt and a huge hole. The house came down quick, leaving a big pile of, well, matchsticks and concrete. It took the crew 3 dumptrucks to get the house and garage out and 2 HUGE semi like trucks to get the concrete out. The semi like trucks were easily twice the size of a regular dumptruck. I didn't get a picture of the big trucks, but here is one of the small truck and the hole that they started making.

Here are some pictures of the removal of the house and concrete:

With the house/garage and concrete gone, it left us one giant hole that they kept digging. It is amazing how much dirt was actually there. There is dirt under the plastic.

And for those of you concerend about our outdoor cat OB, she was freaked out each day and hid, but at night came back and sniffed around for food, found that she had a new HUGE kitty litter area and found the trackhoe....

We have been informed that the company that is buying our dirt is not quite ready for the remainder of it, so now we wait. I hope to have something up a week from today.

Chimney Removal

I love this video! You can hear Eric Adams and I squealing like little kids in the background.

The house goes down

On October 29th, Stephanie and I watched our garage and our house come toppling down. The crew arrived early, at 6:20. He started on the garage at 7:15 and it was down by 7:30.

After the garage went down, we watched the big trackhoe come in to take down our house.

The big trackhoe started at 11:05 and the house was down by 11:30.

The trackhoe then went in for the stump that was left when the cypress tree was taken down. The cypress tree stump put up quite a fight.

And on the 29th of October, we had no more house. It was a draining day. We were up early, we had many neighbors stop by to see what was going on, we had a house, we had no house and then it was done.... Tomorrow they come and take away the scraps and continue the digging. In a few short months, we will have a new house and our baby will be a few months old. This is indeed, exciting times.

There goes the house!

More to come in a little bit, but here is the big one!

Garage comes down!

Here is a teaser! The garage came down at 7:15 this morning and it took no time at all. The movie is dark, but you can tell what is going on. More video and pics to come.

Concrete and blackberry removal

On October 17th, the demolition and excavation crew came in to remove the blackberry and other organics from our side yard and lawn as well as the concrete path and patio. They also put in a silt fence and a few days after that threw some straw over the exposed area to keep the dirt from escaping into the streets. We were hoping to have the house come down on the same day, but Seattle City Light has decided that they have more important things to do and hadn't removed the power to our house yet. (Yes, I am still bitter as here it is the 22nd and they still haven't removed the power. AND, they were in front of my house almost all weekend long working on something else. Couldn't they have just snipped it then... Ok, I feel better after venting)