In October 1996 we purchased our home in Clear Spring.  One year later, almost to the day, Colleen was born.  Two more Hixons were soon to follow!  As our family grew, we decided to "grow" our house too!  A few months before Cole was born in 2001, we began construction on a garage and transforming the existing garage into a family room.  In 2006, our family grew by one more when Emilee Mae was born.  

 As the kids grew, there was a familiar statement heard in our home:  "I wish we had a basement."  (Our home has a crawl space.)  It could be heard when we were having a birthday party, as we were tripping over left-out toys that didn't have a good play room to be kept, dragging Christmas decorations into a small attic storage area, and it was heard really loud when the "tornado watches" were flashing on the TV! 

We checked into moving, with strict guidelines  - stay in our current school district, not too far from church, not too far from work, the right number of bedrooms, land, etc.  As we looked, we couldn't find anything that we liked any better than our home (if it only had a basement!).  So we considered putting on an addition.  We drew out plans, visualized, but did not like the way it looked and how it took up so much of our back yard. 

"I think we can put a basement under the house" was a statement made several times.  When you live with an engineer, they see things differently than most!!  And when your dad is a contractor, who could have been an engineer, ideas start taking shape!!

Last year, we began researching, contacting and praying!  In January of 2013, we got estimates from a house-moving company that would come in and support the house and an escavator that would dig under the house that was supported on beams.  And started praying even more - for clear direction, open doors, closed doors, wisdom! 

We have been amazed at the answers God has provided.  We are to start the adventure of digging a basement in 3 days!