April 21, 2006, New play ground equipment.

Gayle Hooper, Director of the Lebanon Learning Centers, asked Hawk what he would like for his new home. Hawk replied that he would like to have some new play ground equipment. Gayle talked with Brody and Angel Kane, who were helping complete the Extreme Home Makeover, while the family was in FL for Hawk's Make A Wish trip. Brody is the President of the Lebanon Breakfast Rotary Club. He proposed the idea of the club donating playground equipment to Hawk and the club approved the proposal.


Hawk and his family could not have dreamed of a playground set as elaborate as the Rotary Club's donated. The set is called the Castle. This a picture of it with the 2 story castle part complete with a large slide to the outside and a fireman's pole slide in the center from the set's second floor to the first floor.










Hawk is pictured here enjoying the large slide. Skyla, his 18 month old sister, and he enjoyed the Castle from the first day. Her cooking kitchen and his Bob the Builder work bench have been moved in on the first floor.

We pray that the members of the Rotary Club and their families will be Blessed as Hawk and his family have been Blessed by their genorsity.

Thank the Lord for the caring hearts of this community.

APRIL 3, 2006; THE EXTREME MAKEOVER- WILSON COUNTY STYLE CONTINUES

Below is a picture of Hawk's New Home that was taken this morning. The outside is being made over as the inside was made over by the contributions and work of individuals in the community.

The house now "sparkles" with the new vinyl siding, just like the inside. It is hard to believe that it is the same house. Just look at the picture of the house contained in the 2/23/06 update.

On Saturday, March 4, 2006, the old vinyl siding that was covered in mold, that had several holes in it and even had an area that had been buckled by heat from a grill was removed. It was replaced by high grade vinyl which was provided by Norandex of Nashville. The vinyl was a much higher grade of vinyl than was normally installed on new houses. The vinyl was installed by the Vinyl Store of Lebanon owners and their children, Frankie and Teresa Neal; Timmy and Jessica Blankenship, and installers, Larry Puckett, Marty Speck, J. C. Phillips, David Slaughter, and Douglas Frye. Glenn Corey, a local builder that had done a lot of work on the house, contacted Frankie to asked how to clean the old vinyl siding of the mold. Because of the mold having been on the siding so long and having been baked on by the sun, Frankie had responded that it could never be cleaned to look good. Frankie and Teresa contacted Norandex representatives and they agreed to supply the vinyl. The Vinyl Store employees quickly volunteered to install the new siding. What a Blessing!!

Below is a picture of the installers and Frankie and some of the work being done. In the picture on the right, Frankie is starting to install fish scale siding over the bay window of the master bedroom. In the large picture above, you can see that this created a very distinctive look.

The roof was badly stained with black mold. When Lyra Manning had reported on TV Channel 5 News about Hawk's New House and the Extreme Home Makeover, the roof was shown. Jim Hillman, owner of Like Nu Exteriors of Gallatin 615-533-2276, saw the report. He donated the washing of the roof. It now looks so good that one individual even asked if a new roof had been put on. This was another great Blessing.

There was also one bathroom that was hard to wallpaper. Because of the difficulty of doing the work, a more experienced wallpaperer was contacted. Scooter Burton, a realtor with Cumberland Real Estate, donated his wall papering expertise to complete this room. It completely transformed the room. Our special thanks to Scooter for his blessing.

We still have to put in concrete sidewalks, new gutters, a backyard fence and landscaping around the house. But the Extreme Make Over is closer to being completed. We continue to pray that the individuals that have blessed Hawk and his families with so much be Blessed by the Lord.

FEBRUARY 23, 2006, THIS IS THE 2/19/06 REPORT UPDATED WITH PICTURES AS HAWK'S NEW HOME APPEARED AS OF 2/16/06


















On Thursday, 2/16/06, Hawk and his family were able to view the current progress on Hawk's New Home for the first time since the remodeling was started on Tuesday, 2/7/06, the day the family left for Hawk's Make A Wish trip to FL. This is a view of the house of the road. The house is located on a 2.6 wooded acres. It is located at the end of a cul-de-sac. It backs up to a horse farm. It is like being in the country but is in a sub-division. The roof and deck are to be washed and cleaned. The vinyl siding has been ordered, received and is going to be installed by volunteers the first pretty weekend we have, hopefully 3/4/06. A large workforce will be needed to remove al the current siding and replace with the new. This was definitely not this weekend with 2-3 inches of snow and temperatures in the mid 20's all day on Saturday, a low of 13 degF Saturday night and freezing temperatures Sunday with a few snow flurries. This is the picture of the banner on the front porch announcing the Extreme Home Make Over-Wilson County Style. The remodeling that has been accomplished in only 9 days is beyond belief. Individuals have taken off work, used vacation, worked nights and weekends to reach this point.
















These are pictures of Hawk's bedroom. It has a race car theme with a race car bed, a craftsman toolbox for storage, murals all around the room on all four walls, and shelves for collectibles from Nascar. He has car floor mats to step out of his bed onto.
















These pictures are of Skyla's bedroom. It has clouds and butterflies in murals on the wall. Her bed and bedspread match this theme. Her name is included in the mural. All murals in the house were completed by Ms. Deanna Elwell, Henry's mother (Hawk's best friend at the Learning Center). She is so talented and has given so much for Hawk and the family.


These are pictures of the kitchen. It is so sunny, open and inviting. Notice that flowers have already been included on the table and the tops of the cabinets. It is so well decorated. A new stove and sink have been provided.

This is the recreation room with the storage units for tools. There is a table track for Thomas, the tank engine. This is one of Hawk's favorites.

A miracle has been performed on the house to this point, but there is more to be done. Hawk is going to have a new playground set donated by the Rotary Club.

This community has to be one of the best in the world. We can not thank everyone enough. We continue to pray that individuals that have given so much will be Blessed as you are blessing Hawk and his family.

FEBRUARY 17, 2006; PICTURES OF THE HOUSE AS IT WAS WHEN BOUGHT

Recreation Room: In the upstairs of the house, there is a large recreation room, a fourth bedroom/office and a full bath. There were drawings/writings on the walls and holes where metal shelving had hung. The floor had VCT which had seams that did not match after the third roll of tile and got worst as the installation crossed the floor.

Second Bedroom: The master bedroom and two other bedrooms are located on the main floor of the house. The walls of the second bedroom were painted in a light color of orange. About two-thirds of the carpet had been cut out and what was left was very dirty. This was to become Hawk's bedroom.

Kitchen: The kitchen floor was covered in a cheap, fake material that was suppose to look like hardwood. The seams were gaped and curled open. The lower cabinets had been covered in bead board. The upper cabinet doors were painted a barn yard red and the lower cabinet doors were painted a grass green.

Master Bedroom: The carpet had been removed and replaced with a distasteful color of VCT. The seams and joints were uneven. The edges had curled up all across the room. Bead board had been added to two walls. Hardwood flooring had been put down in the bath. It was water stained. We thought that there would probably be sub-floor damage below.

Repainting had been started in many of the rooms but never completed. There were overlaps of the roller on the ceilings.

The den carpet had been removed and a type of fake hardwood put down. The molding was not reinstalled. The flooring was gaped open and curled up in many places. The ceiling had a black ring where the fireplace had been burned with the ceiling fan on.

Repainting of the front door had been started. The back deck was covered with a foot of leaves, badly stained with mildew and covered with trash. The roof and the siding of the house were badly mildewed. The front driveway had two large mud holes the size of small ponds. The out building was filled with trash.

The work detail of volunteers on Saturday, 2/4/06, removed all the flooring in the entire house, the wallpaper that had been started in the kitchen, and all the bead board for the master bedroom, the den and the kitchen cabinets. The make over was ready to start.

FEBRUARY 16, 2006; DETAILS OF THE BUYING OF THE HOUSE THAT WAS TO BECOME HAWK'S NEW HOME

These are the details of the buying of Hawk's New Home as told by Pa. Barbara probably has some different comments but since I'm writing, the right of authorship will be claimed. We wanted to share the miracle of buying this house.

Barbara and I had been interested in buying a house for Lindy in Wilson County to get her back closer to us. She had a nice place in Hartsville but it was a 30 mile drive for us to them and even a farther drive for her from her home, to the Learning Center to drop the kids off for pre-school, and then the drive to Watertown Elem. School. We started to look for a place in the 4th quarter of 2005. We contacted Helen McPeak; a relative, close friend and an agent with Crye-Leike Realtors in Lebanon. Lindy had not fully warmed up to the task of buying a house, selling her house in Hartsville, and moving. We would look at a place or two and then not look for several weeks. We did not see any property that we were truly interesting in buying, a true blessing.

Then Hawk was diagnosed with the cancer on Wednesday, 12/14/05. All hunting for a new house stopped.

Then, Barbara happened to be looking in the paper for houses for sale. There was an article in the Lebanon Democrat on December 23, 3005 in the classified section of the paper giving Public Notice of a house to be sold at the Front Door of the Courthouse, Lebanon on January 10, 2006 at 3 PM. Barbara mentioned the house to me but being the typical husband, I did not listen closely. She handed me the paper. I looked at it and laid it aside. A couple of days later, she mentioned it again and asked if I had looked at the house. I had not. A few days passed and she asked again and give me a copy of the notice again. Finally on Sunday, 1/8/06, I went to look at the house. The owners had moved out and the house was vacant. There was no realtors' lock box. Looking in the windows showed a house in a total mess.

On Monday, 1/9/06, I called the attorney that was given as the Substitute Trustee asking to be able to see the house and for the minimum price, just to see if it was out of our price range. He explained that he could not grant access to the house and the minimum price would not be developed till latter. I called Helen and asked for her help which she graciously gave. We looked at the house, developed an estimate to refurbish, and an estimate of what the house would be worth when redone. Enough praise and thanks can not be given to Helen. Without her guidance, we probably would not have gone to the auction. There truly are angels on earth to help us with our walk.

Barbara and I developed a maximum price we would give for the house and went to the courthouse about 2:30 PM on 1/10/06. As we walked up the steps to the courthouse, I discussed how we should not show our hand in the bidding, like in poker - holding our hand close to our chest. Barbara suggested I inform the other bidders of our purpose in buying the house. I explained how this was business and emotions would not be involved. After a little more discussion, I explained that I could not align with her suggestion. We walked on into the courthouse.

There were 3 pews on different walls around the lobby of the courthouse. We set down on one of the pews. We were soon joined by three other parties taking up positions around the area. It soon became obvious that we were outsiders. Everyone else knew each other, joking and exchanges stories.

About 2:55 PM, Barbara surprised me as she stood up and explained to the group that we were going to try and buy the house for our daughter, whose son had an inoperable brain cancer. No one said a word, only looking at their papers or their shoes. I thought "way to go, that accomplished a lot." And of course I thought, "I told you so".

The lawyer arrived at 3 PM. He came in and said a few official sounding lines and asked all interested parties in the sell of the two properties to step forward. Barbara jumped up so fast I thought she was going to run into him. No one else moved, so much for being cool.

They sold the other house first. The billing started at $101,000. The bidding increased by $50, 100, or 200, until the property sold for over $118,000. I had been able to get Barbara to set back down half through the bidding.

We had not discussed how we were going to handle the bidding. I had gone through the thought process while the house was being sold, that the weaker my poker hand, the stronger I would come out on the open bet (this was from my younger years). I thought that we were definitely in the weakest position. The lawyer identified the opening price. Following my poker instincts, I increased the opening minumim by $1,500 and offered the opening bid. Then, there was a long silence. The lawyer waited and then finally said "Going once, going twice, and finally sold." After Barbara and I finally breathed again, she leaned over to me and said "You give to much". A man can never win.

The Lord's hand was truly, fully involved in buying Hawk's New Home. Praise the Lord for all the Blessings He has given us!!!!