bricks and stones

Contest Udate :(

2008-09-16T10:24:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

We just wanted to let you all know that the Home Make Over Contest is over. The family with the soldier won, and even though we're disappointed, we're glad for the other family, as they were very deserving too. That being said, a BIG Thank You for all your votes, well wishes and hard work, we never knew we were so loved! Life will go on, foundations will be poured and eventually this little house will be put back together. With much love, The Siufanuas.

Friends and Family-We need your help to gather 600 MORE votes!

2008-08-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

We've only got TWO WEEKS LEFT! We need your help to get 600+ more votes. We can do it!

(My friend Carol wrote this for us :)
It is not very often that you have an opportunity to truly change someone’s life. Our reach is wide!! We all know this simply based on the existence of this site!!

We all know people who are not participating on this site. Remember the commercials for Breck? TELL 2 FRIENDS…TELL MORE…TELL YOUR WARD!!

We have 2 weeks. It’s not a big task and2 weeks is enough time, we just can’t waste it. We all need to follow through and do this!!

Here's what you can do to help us:

1. Before you can vote at the site, you will need to register on the site.
2. Then you can sign up and vote.
3. Here is the link you can follow VOTE (in the upper corner you will see a JOIN button, you'll need to register there, then you can vote.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

2008-07-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!  Here's the contest that we've entered.  You can VOTE by
clicking on the link above or HERE; it takes only a second. IN
ORDER TO VOTE YOU'LL NEED TO JOIN-LOOK UP TO THE RIGHT FOR A
BUTTON, THEN YOU CAN VOTE.The winner of the contest will
be chosen from the stories with the most votes.  So many people
have asked how they can help, and your vote would mean so much
to us!

Below is the awesome write up that David's sister did to nominate
us for the contest:

Dear KSL Home Makeover Team,

Thank you for offering this makeover!   I have a brother in Provo
who is SO deserving of this!   In 2002 he and his wife bought a
lemon of a house--I mean a real lemon!  I will not list the night-
mares.   Over the years my brother David has toiled and worked
the skin off his fingers to turn this house into a home.     Well
why am I writing in, when it seems he has this taken care of?
Because he doesn't.

Let me tell you about my brother.  He is a father of four gorgeous
children and married to a  lovely wife who has rolled with the
punches on this house (She deserves a medal!).  I have been SO
impressed as the years have gone by at how he has taken the gifts
and strengths he has and blossomed into this AMAZING DAD AND
HUSBAND!  I must capitalize the words, as if I am screaming it
from a very very high place.

Now, getting back to the subject at hand,   this past year he
decided to upgrade the kitchen.This was not a want, but a need
to do so.   His budget was $5000. Their three sons also share
a room that was freezing cold.  So he decided to renovate that
room as well--as it sat adjacent to the kitchen.  When he
uncovered the walls he found cracks everywhere in them!  And
this is where my sweet nephews try to sleep--- and the kitchen
was even worse!  Suddenly a  $5000 dollar job ballooned into
a 40-50K job.   He has had four different contractors come out
and give him their advice.  All four have told him the whole
thing (kitchen & room) need to be completely knocked down
(as these were additions that were built in the 1950's, ten
years after the house was built).

Why would he deserve this makeover?  His neighbors love him.
Anytime they've needed him he was there.  He mows their lawns,
even if they don't know its him doing it.  He is a community
man!  He has worked with troubled teens,  he works with the
Boy Scouts and loves it.  He teaches his own children how
to serve as he takes them along with him to help others.
He is as frugal as they come.  No cable tv,  buys
used cars.  He is a very wise person and he's just hit a wall
(with cracks).

Please,  Please, Please choose my brother David and his wife
Malia and finish their kitchen  & room!   The whole back of
his house IS FALLING OFF  ( again, I am screaming from my
high place)!    And for the first time,  I've seen despair
start to marr this happy soul.  He is a
loving dad who is stretched to the breaking point.


He has never sat back on his haunches but  has rolled up
his sleeves, mustered the courage and sledge hammered through
the rough times.    I would LOVE to see him and his good
wife rewarded.    If its true "what comes around, goes around",
he deserves an "around".

You'll find the six of them squished together in a two
room dwelling in Provo.  Please make the call and offer
your extension of help!
THANK YOU!

Sincerely,


Jeanette Southon

A simple $5,000 kitchen remodel evolves into a jaw-dropping $70K makeover

2008-05-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

This final post will bring you up to date on the latest house drama. Our kitchen and boys room have been last on the list for remodeling. We've tried to put off the kitchen because we know it's going to cost an arm and a leg, and another arm and a leg and maybe even a torso. Even though the kitchen was decorated with wood paneling and plywood cabinets and was pretty close to being non-functional, I've lived in worse (we're talking bathroom with a basketball sized hole in the floor and a kitchen floor so badly cracked that little slugs would join me for breakfast when it rained). I was content to let it go until we had saved up enough money to pay for it. Drama first occurred when the lights went out in the kitchen; when hubby went up to inspect the wiring he was the unfortunate recipient of a snap, crackle and pop. We knew kitchen renovation was no longer an option. Because our foster child was no longer living with us in our basement apartment we decided to move our upgraded family (6!) into the 600 sq ft abode. We were only 2 weeks into our renovation bliss (I say "bliss" because gutting took a mere 2 days and projected finish time was "only" 2 months) when it was realized that the adjoining room(children's room) was attached to the kitchen and must also be gutted and done over as well. As we were slowly coming to terms with the new price tag; we would soon become even more familiar with this term- "opening up a can of worms". While gutting the attached room it was found that the brick walls had started to crumble and the far wall of the room had completely separated about 8 inches from the main part of the house (hence all the unwanted visitors over the years). The foundation under that room was sunken as well, which meant our simple kitchen renovation had evolved into almost complete demolition of the backside of the house. Sad little house. But, fortunately happy little family. Life is good, believe me, I am grateful every day for the portion of house we do have left. We have pretty much everything too , well except for the est. $70, 000 it's going to take to put Humpty back together again. So, our goal with this blog is to plead, beg, offer our next born, whatever it takes to get the funds together to glue our little house back together.

Honey I'm doing a "Weekend Makeover" just for you!

2008-05-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

I have to give props to the Hubby for pulling this one off, even though the weekend makeover turned into three blessed months. This turned out to be the least hideous and least expensive of all the "Home Makeovers" but it was the messiest. Construction in an old home = lead paint everywhere. It reminds me of the scene in Tommy Boy when Tommy's brother asks him if he ate paint chips as a child because he is so dang clueless. I think some of the cluelessness has rubbed off on all off us; it seems that nothing about this house shocks me any more. Or maybe that's just apathy?

Rock And Roll

2008-05-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

You've probably never heard the term applied to the bathroom, but here goes. One day Mom is taking care of business in the ladies room and notices a tremor. What was that? An earthquake? Oh, you only wish it was. Nope, that's the toilet rocking back and forth because the floor below is so rotted that the toilet can no longer be bolted down. Now, it is widely known that when your toilet starts rocking back and forth you have two options: renovate the bathroom or never ever go to the bathroom again. You can guess which one we choose. So, we pack our things and wait out the renovation in the newly finished basement apartment. Luckily, the only detour on this trip were the two years taken to pay it off.

You don't want to go down there

2008-05-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons we purchased our home was because it had a basement apartment; we planned to rent it out to help with the mortgage. But like all plans, there are detours.

Detour #1: Major renovation. This means, gutting, jackhammering and mucho dinero for replacing the plumbing and electrical systems in the entire house.

Detour #2: Hubby loses job. Hubby loses great job and benefits; receives excellent compensation package which is promptly fed to the basement monster.

Detour #3: Congratulations, it's a boy! No job or insurance means remaining savings is fed to the baby monster (Okay, he's only a monster now and then).

Home "Tweet" Home

2008-05-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

After a few coats of paint, a new door (because you can only kick it in so many times before you have to completely replace it-thanks previous tennants!) and carpet we moved in. It was pretty cozy and comfortable and we found that we were not the only ones that felt that way. We discovered that we were sharing our new home with mice, birds, wasps, bees and the occasional bumblebee. Where were they all coming from? Well, that lovely story will be shared in a later post.

The Little House That Could (n't)

2008-05-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

We (meaning I) fell in love with this house when we first saw it. We knew this was the one, even if no one else knew it. Maybe it was the price (cheep, cheep) or maybe it was the fact that we were being shooed out of our current rental, but in February of 2002 we signed our lives away, and this begins the story of the Little House That Could (n't).