Breakin' Down the House!

If you've been following the exploits of our hare-brained house schemes, you'll know that before we could build anything we had to tear down the current home.  My kids called it "The Rat Hole" (well, because David named it that) and we were happy to see it go.  This old home did provide months of entertainment for Dave and I who constantly threatened our kids with the fate of "Going to live in the Rat Hole" when they were naughty.  Once Molly tearfully begged to never have to live in the Rat Hole we felt sheepish enough to stop.

We had a friend willing to swap demo work for eye-glass work and we were thrilled to get the old house down and start on the new one!

 

Then, in early April I got a phone call from my sister, who had recently recieved a panicked call from her husband (well, panicked for Shane, which translates to calm, if not somewhat bored, for the rest of us) informing her that the Rat Hole was on fire!  He could see smoke coming out the roof and it was literally surrounded by fire trucks! 

Little did he know that the firetrucks and other various emergency vehicles ringing the Rat Hole were simply there for firefighter training and that the smoke rising from the windows and holes in the ceiling were from a smoke machine to add some reality to said training.  In fact, for all the months following I have explained to many people (most giving me sly looks like they didn't quite believe me) that the original home did not actually burn down but was simply used for fireman school. :)   

See, the friend who was doing the demo for us is also a volunteer firefighter and he wondered if they could use the house for training.  The crazy levels, low ceilings and general oddities made it an ideal place for the Fire Dept to get some good exercise.  We readily agreed, though my inner pyro was sad to hear that they couldn't just burn it down for us (Maybe it isn't so odd that people thought we burned it down . . .). 

It really was quite the event, with firefighters' families there, the nieghbors out on their porches to enjoy the show and everyone who was driving by slowing down for a lookie-loo.  We also stopped and took some pictures and enjoyed the show ourselves.

The next week our friend brought in his track-hoe and we were awed once again at the spectacle. (The neighbors were out on their driveways again enjoying the next show-I forsee a long future of providing entertainment for them.) 

Owen couldn't wait to get out and help.  He declared then and there that he wanted to be a "Builder" when he grows up.  His enthusiasm for all things "builder" have since enchanted us while driving the real "builders" crazy.

Before long all there was left was a HUGE trash bin full of the metal bits we couldn't burn and instead of the Rat Hole we now just had a Hole.

But it was our Hole and we loved it.