Two years after purchasing our property on SW 54th we have officially started construction! Or should I say de-construction. Below is a view of the existing house that is currently under asbestos removal, which should be complete today. Tomorrow the demolition of the house begins. Our plan involves removing the old house and essentially building our new house in the same general area.
Right now there is a lovely in ground swimming pool in the back yard that will be filled and made into a lawn area. I am sure in it's day it was a great pool, but is now beyond repair and not really practical for Oregon weather! I am sure the tadpoles, frogs, salamander, mosquitoes, etc will be sad to see it go.
The design of the house was done primarily by Josh, Steve (his Dad), and my myself. We started with a blank piece of paper and now have a complete set of plans. What a process!!! We are so blessed to have an amazing architect and designer in the family and an aspiring one as well (Josh). Steve's patience with us through the process was extraordinary and we thank him from the bottom of our hearts for his loving guidance and thoughtful advice. Now it is time for my dad, John, to take over the task of helping us out! He is our general contractor and is leading the charge to get this house built. We made him post a sign at the driveway so all neighbor complaints/questions come his way- and business too :-) We look forward to working with you Dad!
A view from the driveway! We have over 100 trees on the property right now and are planning to keep many of them. Of course we will have to take out some to get a large enough driveway to fit our friends cars for the blow out parties :-)
A view looking towards our property and down the street. Grant is already thrilled to go out to the property and scout around....just wait until tomorrow when the big equipment gets here. A little boys dream come true.
You might wonder where exactly this place is....well it is in between the Garden Home area (Old Market Pub) and Multnomah Village off Garden Home Rd., which runs parallel with Multnomah Blvd. The old Smith Elementary School is just a few hundred feet up the street from us.
We can't wait to call this place our HOME. But for now, I have got to run and get packing as we make one last move into a new rental house :-)
Then here is a picture of today around 3:30pm! Walla- WALLS on the first floor! 
Josh even got in on the action and was recruited to help lift a garage wall into place. It is truly amazing to be able to walk through the main living floor and see it take shape. I am already decorating it in my head :-)
So we have walls, but no Baby Will! He is just super cozy in my belly I guess and has decided to stay put. I have an appointment with Dr. Payne tomorrow and hopefully she can get things moving a little and set an induction date if he doesn't decide to surprise us earlier. So in the meantime, Grant and I are filling our days with fun activities to keep us busy (and my mind off being SO pregnant). Today we met up with Leanne, Reese, Taylor, Shannon, Emmett and Jo at Tanner Park in West Linn for some fun in the fountain and play ground. Here are the bigger kids on the teeter-tatter while Jo watched! 
This weekend, we celebrated Multnomah Days with a parade through Multnomah Village. It was Grant's first time seeing a parade and he really loved the candy that they threw. We tried to tell him to wave, but mostly he just stuck his hand out in hopes that they would throw more candy. 
We met up with Kate, Sean, Sabina and some other friends at the parade. Sean and Deco (the dog) kicked off the event in the dog parade. 
Go Sean and Deco!
