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The Tracewater Homes Podcast brings you inside the world of modern homebuilding, market trends, and the partnerships shaping the future of residential construction. Known for their innovative steel-frame homes, Tracewater dives into what today’s buyers want, how the industry is evolving, and the experts who help bring every project to life. Whether you’re a homeowner, agent, or builder, this podcast delivers insights, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes conversations from the front lines of construction.
Welcome back to the trace water homes podcast, where we talk all things real estate. Today is a really special episode for us because it brings what we love to do every day full circle. We have a very special guest that i'll introduce to you in just a moment. But this story begins about 31 years ago And i've got an old school photo album here of one of the very first homes that we ever did, and That was kind of our beginning in the business when Matt and I were in college and we were married.
[00:34-01:08]
And that was this little guy's beginning in the business as well. He was about 2 months old when we found a sweet little farmhouse in in the countryside of South Dakota and we fell in love with it And we spent about 4 years living in it and renovating it, And we brought our first, or our oldest, daughter home to that house. We brought our first dog home to that house, And that house was just a very special little place for us.
[01:08-01:40]
But some life circumstances changed and we felt like we needed to move closer to family, which was about 3 hours away. So it was time for us to let a new family take over this home and start to write their own chapters and, make excuse me, their own memories. Wow, I really did not expect to get emotional about this, but I am. I knew I was going to, And that family is here with us today.
[01:40-02:13]
They are our special guests today. Welcome, Dan and Tammy. Thank you so much for joining us, For having us. Oh, you're so welcome. It's funny, We have never met. We did this real estate transaction with one another yesterday. We lived in the house about 4 years, So 28 years ago or so. How long have you lived in the house? We purchased the home in February of 98, 98, 98, Yeah, Yeah. And so we have never met before Until today.
[02:13-02:41]
we'd never spoken before. We did have some messages, And we'll keep people in suspense just a little bit longer about how our relationship did start 28 years after the fact. So I'll start, I guess, with our story with the house. So that house had to be moved, And I'm not sure how much of this home story you even know, but we had to pick that.
[02:42-03:17]
You don't know much. Oh, this is going to be so fun, So fun. So it was located actually in the countryside by Sinai, South Dakota, And I have this scrapbook I'll have to send you some photos of this or something I honestly could gift it to you. But you know old school all the way back, when it was a big announcement in the newspaper that we purchased this house and it was big, you know local story- that this house had to get lifted from its foundation.
[03:18-03:38]
And meanwhile we were busy. We purchased a lot. Yeah, we had to move it 13 miles from Sinai to Brookings And we had to dig a foundation, of course, and get the site all ready to move this house. And we used Milbank House Movers. We looked, They are still in business today, Or this morning.
[03:38-03:59]
We'll have to tag them, maybe if they have social media. So shout out to Milbank House Movers from 31 years ago. They lifted this house off the foundation and moved it 13 miles into the city of Brookings, South Dakota, which is where you live now. And it's just so funny.
[03:59-04:25]
I spent a lot of years in real estate, being an agent, and we'll probably put this on social media. I would think, and maybe I'll do a blog or something. but it's just a little single-page, hand-typed-out purchase agreement. That's great. ......... Do you want to buy it? Yep, sign here One page, one paragraph with signature lines on it. It's like a more of like a bill of sale than anything.
[04:25-04:44]
So now we're going to. now we got to put out there. Do we want to do? we want to have them guess what we, what we paid for that house? Oh, my gosh, ......... I think you, oh, I was going to say I think you told me, but I don't remember exactly. It was only like a few thousand dollars. Yeah, They were. they were asking five thousand dollars for it and we negotiated it down to 45.
[04:44-05:13]
......... Way to Jew them out of that. Yeah, And we've got a photo, a very blurry photo, of the earnest money check, of signing the purchase agreement in the living room with these folks. It was Phil and Faith Anderson And if I remember correctly, I think Phil was a pastor, maybe in one of the small towns there.
[05:13-05:41]
But yeah, it cost us ten thousand dollars to move it down the road. No, it cost us ten thousand to buy the lot. Oh, to buy the lot, It was on and then it was, I think, like fifty six hundred dollars, if I remember right. Yeah, it's right here The house moving company pick it up, drive it down the road 13 miles and then set it back down. and crazy part about that is is, you're moving a story and a half house down the road and you, you know, there's power lines and and all of that.
[05:41-06:03]
so we had to have the power company come alongside and then they had to lift the lines up so that the house could get underneath the power lines. um, on the route that they had planned out to get the house, you know, to the new property, I think, yeah, I have photos of all of that. I will take some pictures of all of this and text them over to you.
[06:03-06:30]
You know it's so funny because all these years ago, texting, you know, didn't exist Social media like we. you know, we had separate closings and we just really had no way of meeting or ever knowing anything about one another. So I will send this over to you after this is over. But yeah, At this stage of the game, I still had a pager And if you needed, you know, somebody needed to get a hold of you, they'd send you a page and then you'd run down to the gas station and make a phone call.
[06:30-06:49]
Oh, my God, are we old? Yeah, just a quick insert. I work at the Brookings Utilities Office and I do the billing on house moves that come to Brookings. So I get I bill like Milbank house movers. So you have a relationship with them.
[06:49-07:16]
You'll have to tell them about this podcast. And so we finished the basement first and we moved into the basement while we worked on finishing the upstairs. And when we first purchased the house, Phil and Faith had given us some photos from like 19 82. I think That's what the condition of the house was in in 19 82.
[07:16-07:43]
But when we did the renovation, we stripped it all the way down to lath and plaster and the insulation in the house was newspaper Because it was built in what year, So in the 18 eighties. Yeah, We aren't exactly sure, It's an 18 eighties house. Yeah, Yes, Because the newspaper installation I think we found like an 18, 87.
[07:43-07:59]
Yeah, newspaper. so probably around that time. so interesting reading too, because it talked about like troop movement, you know, like the cavalry moving from place to place, and it was pretty, pretty cool to read. crazy, there's just.
[07:59-08:25]
there's a lot of history in that house that you know. we don't even know, but our history starts with it in 19 94. but um yeah, and the renovation was so extensive that the insurance company insured it for us as a brand new home after we were all finished with it. so um, yeah, I mean we took it, took all that lath and plaster out and did insulation and drywall and all of that.
[08:25-08:52]
so, um, Yeah, the guys that ran the Brookings landfill knew me by name because I was in there so often dumping because all that lath and plaster we had to get out of there and then haul it out to the landfill. I mean we're probably. you know the dust and it was just crazy And I had this newborn infant in there, Shame on me, Like that was probably a terrible thing to do.
[08:53-09:10]
He probably has a really good immune system. Yeah, He's wearing this dust mask that covers his entire face literally and it's probably blocking out nothing. but I felt better about it that way at least. But that is so cool And some of those pictures are so cool that you know.
[09:10-09:34]
I mean you said our story as a company started back then. I mean legitimately, from day one I have been involved in y'all's construction life because after that house there was another one and then another, And so I mean it just, you know, kept going. And now here we are today, you know, from infancy to now, Right, And your role just kept growing and growing.
[09:34-10:06]
Yeah, Yeah, I think on that one, my role was just to be quiet, If you could get me to stop crying. that was a good thing, Because we were really busy. ......... And then, as I grew, it was pick up trash. You know that was my job for a lot of years: was walk around and pick up trash for a little bit, And now I actually have some legitimate response. That's called character building. Yeah, Find some nails, if you can. Exactly, ......... I actually did. I would straighten out nails, I'd go around and find the bent ones and hammer them straight again.
[10:07-10:31]
That's one of the things that drew us to the house, because it was completely renovated. right, I mean we looked at a lot of houses in Brookings before we bought this one, And that's one of the things that drew us to the house was it was completely ripped down to the studs completely started over. We knew it would be insulated. well, We knew it would be wired. well, here's the thing.
[10:31-10:58]
I hope it is because any issues yet. Well, that's good. And 31. That's good. That's good. Yeah. My my dad and I did did that wiring in that house, you know, over. We did the lower level and then the upper 2 levels. And there's a lot of work. I have a lot of respect for your trade. Well, thank you. I have a lot of respect for yours, especially because of work. So. That was, it was such a labor of love.
[10:58-11:26]
I mean, our families, I think our moms finally started to take pity on us and our baby because our family started showing up a lot on weekends to help move it along a little faster. Because, I mean, we didn't have a single trade. We did every single bit of it ourselves. And it took us about 4 years. And so there's, you know, pictures of our parents, our siblings, our little tiny nieces and nephews, everyone's like, pitching in to help make this happen.
[11:26-11:55]
Well, you know, what's actually really kind of cool about that is the house that we're sitting in right now, we kind of brought, just brought it full circle because he and I did almost everything in this house. I mean, we ran the plumbing, we had electricians in here, um, and like drywall guys, but we did all the framing, worked on siding decks. I mean, the 2 of us did almost everything in this house. And so, I mean, that's pretty crazy. I From there till now, we're still doing the same thing.
[11:55-12:27]
You know, there's one more thing that the 2 homes have in common, and they both had critters living in them when we took them over. True, true. Your house had raccoons. It still has critters. Yes, that's true. Now they're just taxidermied. Yeah, that's funny. But yeah, when we purchased that home, there were raccoons that had gotten into the house and were running around the house. And when we purchased the home that we're in now, there were squirrels that have gotten into the house and were running around.
[12:27-12:46]
Yeah. Like you said, it came full circle. Yeah. So, you know, I'm sure we'll get into some more details along the way, but that's kind of our chapter of the story in the house. And I'd love, love, love to learn all the chapters that have been written since you've lived there.
[12:47-13:09]
And We kind of touched a little bit on, so I was going to ask if you knew that the house had gone through that much renovation, but you apparently had probably from your realtor found out that it had been taken down to nothing and it was all pretty much brand new. Well, and I think all the houses on this street, they kind of called this cemetery lane because you had to bring old house.
[13:09-13:30]
I think every house on this street was brought in and remodeled. Yeah, because the place next door was one of the, I think it was a movie motel or something downtown. They moved that out here. And so there was a big pink farmhouse that got moved in right across the street. And I thought, oh, do we got to look at that forever?
[13:30-13:53]
But it took him a long time. It's him and his wife. And they went through that and got it finished. But yeah, just this kind of this one street is all that was remodels, complete remodels. Yeah. And that was I think that happened while we were in the process. They kind of decided that they'd make that cul-de-sac, you know, available to moving homes in.
[13:53-14:11]
Because initially, if I remember right, when we when we were signing the purchase agreement for the land, we were we had 2 options and we had to see which one they would approve us on, if I remember correctly. And that's how we wound up at, you know, on Teresa Avenue there.
[14:11-14:40]
Well, in the news article that talked about your plans to move the home in, I noticed that the mayor was quoted in there as having said something about needing to make it more affordable and encourage people to move homes in. They had previously had like 2 home move requests a year, and now they were getting like 2 a month. And so I guess it was something that was happening in Brookings at the time that people were moving in old homes. It seems like it was pretty popular.
[14:40-15:12]
Yeah, it was an initiative from the city to start doing that. And I mean, the city was very easy to work with during that process as well. It's just not something that you see a whole lot anymore. But maybe you do there if Milbank is still moving houses successfully and They're moving some of the older houses to different areas of town to put up apartment buildings and different things like that. For the college, especially up by the college area, they're picking houses up there and moving them across town or even moving them to the adjoining towns.
[15:12-16:06]
like she said for apartment buildings for housing so it still happens yeah that makes sense moving in though but yeah yeah I mean that's how we started in Brookings we went to SDSU and we stayed living in Brookings for about 7 years so while we were renovating the house we were working full-time we were brand new parents and so no wonder it took us 4 years but I look back at that now and i i would not really want to do it all again by ourselves so um okay it took me it took me 8 years to wire the garage and i've been doing it for 34 so isn't that how it goes the uh shoemakers kids never have shoes right right right well your stuff always waits to last yeah exactly So that was a question that we were really excited to ask you.
[16:07-16:24]
We see that you're sitting in something we don't recognize, and you mentioned a garage, so you must have added a garage. Well, it had a garage. It had a garage. It had a tree garage. It just was, yeah, it was just a basic garage. But it was detached, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It still is.
[16:24-16:44]
It's the same garage you guys put there. ......... That was kind of one of the first things we did probably in the first year or 2. We put concrete in the 3stall garage that you had left because it was just a dirt floor. And then we added the driveway and landscaping and sprinkler systems.
[16:44-17:20]
and then we insulated the garage it was about 2002 when we got to insulating the garage and then we added on this addition because you didn't have any back out out the back door was nothing as far as like a deck or anything and we talked about putting a deck on and then my husband kind of has this fetish of hunting so we decided to put this fetish Whatever you want to call it. But yeah, so we added the addition on as more of a Four Seasons room, which really in South Dakota, it's probably a better decision than a big deck.
[17:21-17:51]
Those tend to not get used very often. We have a deck, but it's about 6 feet off the back of the addition that we put on. And then we've done some different things. If you want to kind of know in probably 2004, we ended up repainting the dining room. We pulled the Apple wallpaper off the border there. And good move. Good move. I was really I was really happy about the Apple theme when we first moved in. But it got a little got a little old soon.
[17:51-18:19]
About 6 years later, we ended up pulling that wallpaper off and we stenciled just some words around in that. frame of the wallpaper and or border I should say and then we um paint painted the office we turned the I think it was an office it's kind of the tucked back room behind the kitchen yes Yeah, it was like a sitting room when we had it. I know which room you're talking about, yeah. Yeah, so we turned that into an office.
[18:19-18:36]
And my husband's a firefighter in Brookings. So we painted one of the walls red and kind of put the fire department theme behind that. And I really loved your bedrooms. When we first moved in, we didn't have any children. We had just been married a few years. We were trying to have kids.
[18:36-18:56]
And I was really excited because you had a Noah's Ark bedroom. Yeah, that was his bedroom. Oh, yeah. It had a Noah's Ark corner. And then you had the cutest little girl's room with pink. Oh, my gosh. Pink and white striped paper. And you had these little, like, toolings in the corner. Do you remember that?
[18:57-19:20]
Oh, I have the pictures. Yeah, I totally remember. In fact, that had also a wallpaper border. Wallpaper's back, by the way. But in the wallpaper border was called Teddy Bear Picnic. And it was little teddy bears with like, I think, a tea set or something like that. Yeah. Yep. And so we were really excited because we thought, you know, we could be upstairs.
[19:20-19:48]
We don't really have any kids yet. So this is a really good starter home for us. And it had a boy's room and a girl's room like it would be fine, you know, either way. So we were we were just pretty excited about that. But. As time went on, we ended up I'm sorry. We tore the wallpaper down. It was awful. It was an awful experience. It's okay. It was time. But it was time. So in about 2008, I think we took the wallpaper off and we just painted kind of neutral rooms down there.
[19:49-20:11]
And we added kind of back on the southeast corner of the lot because really You guys had the best We have the best lot in town. I'm just going to say. It is the best lot in town. This was absolutely the best choice of the lot with the west-facing garage. Everything melts off. Everything gets rid of the snow. We have a huge yard.
[20:11-20:42]
We throw huge yard parties. We had our 50th birthday party here. We had a hundred people for my 50th birthday party and just had a wonderful time in the backyard. And Yeah. So then we built a two stall garage back there in the Southeast corner. So that was nice, because A twenty four by 36 back there, 24 by 34, 30, Oh, wow, Big. And so that's where my husband runs his electrical business out of as well.
[20:42-21:04]
So that's kind of nice just to have that space And it's allowed us to grow in our business and stuff too. So I'm trying to think what else we did. We We put a bay window in the dining room just to give a little bit more space, because that dining room is a little bit smaller. So we just popped a bay window out of there, which made it look a lot bigger.
[21:05-21:33]
And then we added some rock. The whole house has got a four foot border of rock that goes all the way around and it's attached to the front of the garage and kind of meshed it all together. When we put the addition on, we added that all the way around and we swept it all the way around through the front porch and kind of made it look- I don't know what you would say- More authentic kind of for the area, I guess. Yeah, I know, Yeah, I love it.
[21:33-21:50]
I would love to see some pictures of that at some point. So feel free to definitely send you some pictures. We'll take some of them to you- kind of the garage and how it's all laid out. nice, yeah, that would be amazing. but on the interior of the house we haven't really changed that much in 28 years. we've been here.
[21:50-22:10]
maybe some painting, yeah, but other than that, you guys did a great job of. I like the arches when you go into the. you know the arches when you go into the living room and in the doorways, and So I don't really want to get rid of that. If it's out, it's going to come back. Well, guess what That already happened?
[22:10-22:38]
That already happened. So I just kind of do what I want. I don't like to follow the home trends because of what you just said. They go in, they go out. I do what I love for myself. If I'm going to live here, I like to do what makes me feel at home. And you know the whole open concept thing. that was the whole big thing over the last decade. It was just like one big box and there was no separated rooms or anything like that.
[22:39-22:58]
Well now, COVID, everyone got so tired of being on top of one another. Everyone wants a separate corner now. So now the trend is going back to separate rooms, some sitting rooms and dining rooms, and some arches to separate those spaces. and so you're right back in now again. so perfect, you rode out that whole wave.
[22:58-23:26]
well, and that's why those spaces are separated that way. because, um, at 1 point there were doors in all of those openings, and i don't even think when we purchased the house, i don't think it had forced air. um, i believe it had a center, um heater in the middle of the main space, and then that just heated. there was. there were grates between the main floor and the upper floor, and that's how the heat flowed to the upstairs.
[23:26-23:51]
yeah, exactly. well, you guys fixed that when we. that was already fixed before we got in here. yeah, yeah, well, we were looking at the photos, and i mean there was a wood burning stove for cooking in the kitchen, with a chimney pipe coming out the back of it. i mean it was definitely old. yeah, Yes, Oh, I want that back. I love to cook that way, don't I? Right? I mean cooking on fire is great, but it's a little more convenient nowadays.
[23:52-24:16]
I think my favorite thing that I heard y'all say was that you have a yard. now. When we lived there there was no yard And there's a picture of me at like 2 years old and I am covered from head to toe in sand burrs. I fell down in the yard and they were stuck everywhere. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's walking, he's doing doing this, walking up with, you know, crying, and his hands are just full of sand because he fell down.
[24:16-24:38]
you know, that's probably one of the reasons we did the lawn pretty quickly, because that there were sambers all over the place. i had dogs and i couldn't let my dogs out. i had to peel sambers out of their feet all the time. yeah, we had a husky when we lived there. so yeah, she was. that had to be fun. yeah, she got brushed every day pretty much because of it.
[24:38-24:54]
yeah, well, and the neighbors didn't have any yard. so you, you still have the sambers, but you were just trying the best you could to keep your yard as nice as you could. Yeah, Right, Right, Well, do you? you teased it a little bit.
[24:54-25:12]
We talked a little bit about some of the things that they've done, but do y'all want to tell us about what you did? that obviously got you to be able to connect with Jeannie. So, yeah, So, Tammy, was it about 5 years ago? Was it 20 20? when it was, you brought up COVID and we're all stuck.
[25:12-25:29]
Yeah, I was going to go off of that COVID deal. So in 2020 and I'm not dissing my husband, but let's be honest- home projects just aren't on the top of the list at this address, Right? And so it's this trade. So it does. a lot of that stuff doesn't get done.
[25:29-25:58]
But in 2020 we didn't have a lot to do and everybody was improving things in their home. And we actually- I forgot to tell you this, but we took the laundry facilities and we moved them into that basement bedroom that was on the south side. Yeah, because we we did foster care for quite a few years and we couldn't use that bedroom as a bedroom because it didn't have a window, And so we thought you know what the laundry facilities would be easier, We'd have more room and space.
[25:58-26:27]
And so he decided: go ahead To move the laundry room back around the corner and add cabinetry around the washer and dryer and put up racking so everybody could hang clothes and and that. so then we got that done and he goes: no, i should put in new lights. yeah, so i put in flat panel leds and took out all the other lights and put flat panel leds in, and my last light was in the bathroom right by the tub.
[26:27-27:04]
and then when i got in there and I pulled the light down to the screen, I got up in there. I had to readjust some wires and I looked up underneath of the upstairs tub because of the hole that they have cut for the drain in the tub. I could see a glass jar. Now, being an electrician for 30, 4 years, we find stuff like this. I mean because you know we cut holes in walls and just a little backstory. I cut a two foot off of a wall and I found 3 Coke bottles in a guy's house with corks in them full of coke, yet, oh wow, and i gave it to him, he won't let me have them, but i would understand why.
[27:05-27:25]
um corks, wow, well, this is gonna be cool. i mean somebody left us something and i remember grabbing it. i remember i yelled at my wife: i'm like you gotta come down here. i'm like open it. we were like super excited. i'm like, maybe there's money in there. yeah, It's like. but that was a little disappointment. no money.
[27:25-27:47]
But if I leave it the same way, when we put it back, you know I found that jar and we opened it up and we came upstairs and we kind of read it. It was so interesting how the We found the prices. You put prices of everything, What they were back then, Pictures of a remodel. It's still right here.
[27:48-28:14]
Oh, my gosh, I felt like, especially because we were quarantining. it was almost like we met new friends in our own home. You know what I mean, Like we hadn't been out and about. and it's like, oh, we got these new people in our life and we didn't even have to go anywhere to find them. And so we were super excited and we inside of that. so I don't know if you'll be able to see it, but this is a picture of the house that you had in there.
[28:14-28:39]
Oh my gosh, That brings back nightmares. Here's another picture of the house And you'll notice again all the sambers. Yeah, And then there was a letter. So you had written just a brief letter. I don't know if you want me to read it, But it did say that you had purchased the home from Phil and Faith Anderson and signed the I for forty five hundred dollars.
[28:39-28:59]
So that was a true statement you made, Matt. Yeah, It was moved into Esther Heights addition lot 3 in Brookings in November of 19 94. All the work was done by owners Matt and Jeannie Hanisch. Many smaller rooms were destroyed to create more spacious area. All plaster was removed and wiring and electrical work was redone, and all new plumbing.
[28:59-29:21]
We have lived in the basement while completing the upstairs. It has been long but will be worth it when we finish sometime in 19 96. We did not know exactly how old the house is. However, when tearing down some walls we found a Bismarck newspaper that had been used as insulation dated back to 18, 87. Today's date is February. third, 19 96.
[29:22-29:40]
Matt and Jeannie Hanisch originated from Minnesota and we have a son, Brenton, born in September. 6 of 94. Matt, is a contractor in New Home Building working on a degree in accounting. Jeannie works at the Brookings Hospital while working on her nursing degree. We are expecting another child to be born August of 19 96.
[29:40-30:13]
And then you listed your birth dates and the 1996 prices. So gas was a dollar 6. A gallon milk was 2 dollars and 50 cents. And then- which I just love this part because my husband's a farmer as well- And you listed that corn was being sold for 3 dollars and 30 cents, a bushel and beans were 680 a bushel and bread was 69 cents. And then the last thing you wrote is the computer Internet became very popular this year.
[30:13-30:37]
And then my favorite part. can hear that AOL dial up right now. Yeah right. And then my favorite part is this little itty bitty like not even barely the size of my thumb. Oh nice That's a postage stamp. ......... Seriously, it's smaller than a postage stamp.
[30:38-30:55]
Oh my gosh. Great. We just loved it. But I'm kind of a sentimental kind of person and I love surprises. So this was right up my alley. I like them too. I hope we can do. Well, we are probably going to renovate here in the next year or 2. Nice.
[30:56-31:13]
My wife is kind of asking for that for ten years already. He told me if I wait long enough. So, like, do you remember kind of the step down? Tray ceiling kind of you did? Yeah. Yes. I said, that's coming back into play now. Just wait, it'll be back in.
[31:13-31:35]
That was rage back then. We couldn't afford it. Yeah, so I did all of that by hand myself. I did the mudding and the finish work and all of that. I mean, there are pictures of me spraying texture in the house and everything. So yeah, it's something.
[31:35-31:59]
Well, you said you couldn't afford it. I thought that when they talked about no money in the jar, that's because there was no money. We can't afford to leave anything in the wall. We need everything we can. I just kind of opened it with Grandpa Anderson's. Was that their name, Anderson's? Yeah. Maybe you missed it. Oh, my gosh. Yes. So we we do like to leave some time capsules.
[31:59-32:25]
We've done renovations and like my parents home and there there is a time capsule under their tub cavity as well. And we do something called the special touch where we allow families to have a part of a day in their house and put their like handprint and scratch into the concrete or. They can color on the floors or write scripture on the studs.
[32:25-32:44]
We do still framing now, but, you know, they can do some writing or kids can color on their bedroom floors. Or this, leave a message to a future homeowner, you know, write on the studs, you know, the Hanisch family moved in in 2025 or whatever. And maybe someday somebody will find it.
[32:44-33:09]
And so maybe once this podcast gets released, maybe that'll become a popular personal touch for our homeowners to choose. Yeah. It's so cool. I think your hand printer or your name is still in the concrete and we put a flower pot right beside it every year. I put my flower pot every year. So I always think of your family because your son's name is in the concrete there. So when I put my flowers out in the spring, it's like, oh, I wonder how they're doing.
[33:10-33:38]
Oh, that is so, so sweet. It's really cool. And you know that We did the same thing with ours when we did the concrete for the garages and the addition. Because there's roughly 8. I figured it out last night. I think there's 88 yards of concrete I poured from through the yard, through the driveways, all the way down to the street. Oh, So we did the same thing. We did the same thing. So our kids' names are in there through foster care.
[33:38-34:04]
We adopted 2 of them. So our kids' names. Oh, that's great. And the handprints and stuff too. So there's a couple different families that'll be on the concrete if it stays there. That's really heartwarming, too. That's so beautiful. I think that one of the coolest things about this whole story for me is that we just love what we do, and I'm going to tear up.
[34:04-34:30]
I can't help it. This is me. I don't know. I turned fifty, and I turned into just a mess. Good job. But, you know, we love what we do so much. And to be able to see this many years later, you know, that it is still impactful today is just super cool. So we're just so grateful you guys found that and reached out. And it's just it's awesome for us.
[34:30-35:03]
It's impacted a lot of kids. We've probably had 20 foster kids that have lived with us, I believe. yeah and to go back even back to the first the year we bought this house my husband moved here without me and he was living in a basement of someone's house just looking for a home to live and I was 3 about two and a half hours away and so then I would come up on the weekend so he found the home and just that month prior, my grandmother had passed away.
[35:03-35:38]
And so we had an opportunity to inherit some of her furniture and some of the special things. Like she had a family piano that we had had in the family for years. And my mom's like, would you like her piano? And I was like, oh, I would just love to have that piano, but I don't really have anywhere for it to go. And then we happened to find this home. And so we did inherit the piano and my grandmother's kitchen table and chairs and stuff. And so that was one of the things that just right away served, this home served a purpose for us, was having a place to bring our family heirlooms into.
[35:38-36:07]
And so that was really nice. And then, We built our addition. My mom got to be here for that, but she passed away at age 50. So she was so excited. And you go back to those Apple borders. She's so excited. Like almost everywhere she went, it's like, oh, I found this Apple theme of stuff. And she would bring things over to the house. And so we still have just a few of those things that kind of remind me of mom. So we've had that. sentimental stuff that's been part of this house for quite a few years.
[36:07-36:41]
And then like Dan said, we started doing foster care. Oh, I don't remember what year it was, but it's been quite a few years. We did foster care for 17 years. And so a lot of the kids that came into this home either didn't have good home lives or didn't even just have a good home. And so it was a blessing to have a roof over our heads to put Multiple bedrooms. Yeah, multiple bedrooms to bring kids into. And that was one of the reasons we kind of did the for the bedrooms because we didn't know if we'd have a boy at the time or a girl at the time.
[36:41-37:06]
And through all of that, we ended up adopting 2 special needs kids. And it's just wonderful. Just been a wonderful home for us. I'm getting a little bit older. There's no bedroom on the main level. So I'm like, I don't know how much longer my knees can take it, but we might have to move. And then the thought of it's like, I don't know. I just don't want to leave. And we love it. My 4 Seasons room might become a bedroom, I believe.
[37:07-37:47]
There you go. And the deer have to come down, I bet, at that point. Or they're just a clothes rack. No, that's not part of the deal. I tell my wife regularly, deer are decor. Whether she likes it or not, they belong on the wall. That's right. That's what we do. It fed our family. It's good food for us. That's what I say. Yes, absolutely. Well, this is just been an amazing hour or so of your time, which we're so, so grateful that you were willing to take time out of your day to meet with us.
[37:47-38:10]
And I guess we didn't even say that. So when they found the time capsule, Tammy messaged me on Facebook Messenger. That's how we connected. And do you remember, did I answer you right away? Or cause I don't always watch Facebook messenger. No. And, and back then, like if, if you weren't a friend with someone on Facebook, you really couldn't see their messages. Yeah.
[38:10-38:47]
And so I was kind of just going out on a whim and I didn't really know for sure. I knew a little bit about you. i i was talking to my husband like i think we got their mail for like 5 years we just kept getting mail for you guys and i would write no longer lives here put it back in the mailbox and i sometimes write move to minnesota with a question mark because i i was pretty sure you were really good friends with the neighbors kitty corner across the street they didn't stay very long but i think they had told us you had moved to minnesota and so then um I was kind of thinking you might still be in Minnesota, so I didn't know.
[38:47-39:05]
And then I think when I found you on social media, I was like, Florida? I don't know. We'll take a chance. And so I reached out, and I think it was a couple of days. I could be wrong, but it seemed like a couple of days before you got back to me. And then I was like, she replied! So we were excited.
[39:05-39:27]
And then, of course, we talk about it at work and everything. And the girls at work just thought that was the coolest thing. And then it kind of went by the wayside for a while. And then here we are 5 years later and you reached out to me again. And I feel terrible because I did tell you back then, I think I said, oh, I'll send you some updated pictures. And I looked around. I'm like, you haven't done much. ......... What do I really send her?
[39:27-40:01]
......... Here's the purple carpet that's still in the living room. Purple carpet. But let's see. Oh, man. vikings fans yet the time and i are you too yeah okay so see it all works out it all works out disappointment but we're all right with that yeah yeah rough year been a rough year but years years yeah fact yeah so we're planning to refill the jar someday soon and maybe probably put it back in the same.