Baby, It's Cold Inside

Hey, it got cold last night! Our bedroom is really warm and cozy. But, at 5:30 this morning, the front room was cooooold. Our "desk" sits right in front of an outside door. I tried sitting there, as I have done every morning for the past week, but even with a blanket around my legs, the cold air coming in beneath the door was too much. I moved to the living room.

When I reached to turn the living room light on, I felt cold air blowing in through the open light switch. I was pretty cozy in the soft chair in the living room, but I could see the curtain beach towel hanging on the window moving as the wind blew it!

Hey, it IS a 104 year old house, so a little draftiness can be expected. FOR ANY POSSIBLE BUYERS OUT THERE, not to worry, we have new windows ready to go in, the extra outside door in the front bedroom will be replaced by a new insulated window, switch plate covers will be on all switches, and new insulation will be added. This house will be one warm, cozy happy place by spring!

Now, I need to go to the store to get contact paper for the bathroom. We are ready to put our personal belongings in the drawers and cabinets. Whoo Hoo.

And Les is ready to move the washer and dryer into the utility room, if he can get a big strong man to help him. Any big strong man reading this blog?

Recalibrating Our Minimum Standard of Living

From Les 

In many ways, our adventure in this house makeover has been similar to my trip to the remote area of the Congo in Africa back in 2008. We’ve been without running water at times with limited ability to bathe with hot water; drinking only bottled water (which is universal in the 3^rd world); strange and sporadic eating patterns; having only a grocery sack full of clothes and personal items; wearing the same clothes for days on end; dodging the debris strewn about; and last but not least, the never ending layers of dust on everything. The only thing missing are the mosquito nets.

But ahhh . . . today I’m thankful for those non-negotiable comforts of living. You know what I mean -- your bed, your pillow, your bathroom, your easy chair, your coffee cup, and of course . . . your TV. Honestly, I wouldn’t have added the TV to the list but today the satellite TV installer is here and our five week fast from nighttime TV is over! I’m not going to guilt trip over this too much, however, because while in Africa, I walked through the neighborhoods where people live in their tiny mud huts with grass roof tops, bed sheets for doors and the dirt for floors. I also noticed an occasional TV that neighbors would gather around to watch a soccer match, though the country had only one state run TV network and the reception was awful.

During this sabbatical we’ve typically hit the sack about 9:30 each night since we can’t stay up late and watch the news. Having TV surely falls into the category of things that are not beneficial to your health, while getting to bed earlier and developing more realistic sleep patterns are beneficial. But after all, who cares about sleep anymore?

We’re pumped because we’ll be able to watch the news and weather, as well as our favorite comedy sitcoms, perhaps a little sports now and then, some House Hunters International (which takes us to places we’ll probably never see), and of course . . . some more home improvement shows. Gad zooks. You’d think that would be the last thing we’d want to watch considering the obvious, but we especially love the ones where people get half way through their remodel /makeover project and hit the wall of shame. They’ve either made a mess of things, ran short on money, or didn’t have the know how to proceed, so they called in the experts to get them over the hump to the finish line.

And so the moral of this story is to “Never fear. There’s always nice people willing to help you find the way to the finish line.” So take it easy. Pace yourself. Don’t let yourself get burned out. Watch a little TV in comfort of your living room full of construction materials and absent of furniture. J

HOLY HELPERS!!

Boy, did we have helpers today.
When we first started this project, our friends Rod and Stacey Cole said that they wanted to help. We talked last week, and planned a work day today.
They showed up this afternoon with three of their children, Kressyn, Shad, and Zane, plus they brought extra helpers, Daniel Winkler, Austin Moyer, Matt Collum; and three boys we had never met, Adam, Ethan, and Aaron Snyder. Here are the pictures, no explanation needed for most.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And finally, here is Les trying to get the chainsaw started. He tried and tried, but could never get it going. 

And here is Daniel, waiting, not so patiently to use the chainsaw. Yes, for those of you who know Daniel, God was watching out for him. Daniel Winkler with a chainsaw is would be really scary.

What a great day. Those folks did about a weeks worth of work for us. We are so grateful for the friends God has given us.

We're In...sort of

We moved into the house, well sort of.
After a month of living in the RV, with the house under construction, we decided to make a change in our plans. The RV was good. Living there was not a problem at all, except, well the "holding tank" was full, which meant that we could not use the toilet. We were (I was) tired of going to McDonald's or a convenience store to use the facility. When the plumbing was finished, we were able to use the master bathroom. Les thought that was fine, but, I was still not happy about getting up, putting on shoes and coat, leaving the RV in the dark, and going over to the house, just to use the bathroom. (Is this too much information??)
 We had  made the decision to not move anything into the house before we refinished the floors. At that time, we did not know how much plumbing and electrical work had to be done. We thought we would be further along after 6 weeks of work.
We tossed around a few ideas about getting a bed into the house. A couple of  Les' friends came over Sunday night and together, we decided to clean out the master bedroom and move our bed in.

So, Monday morning, we started working on the room. Unfortunately, the room was full of tools, doors, shelves, other wood salvaged from the house, so the first hour was spent clearing it out. Then, we really got to work. I removed the carpet tack strips and the staples from the floor.

Les set to work enclosing a doorway that led to the bedroom next to the master.

Don't we do good work???

Then we swept, and swept, and swept, trying to get all the dust off the floor. Then we said, Good Enough, and we got our bed out of storage and set it up.

 The room is much bigger than I thought. When we looked at the house, it was full of stuff and looked small, so when we put the bed in, I was shocked at all the room we have.

And look at these windows. We will be installing new, energy efficient windows soon, but I love the light and the view from that room.

We have decided on a beach theme for our decor.

To make the best of the view, we added wire tiebacks.

 Classy.
So, we spent the night in the house last night.



 We ordered internet service Friday, but, as of now (Tuesday morning) it is not up and running. We do have our computer hooked up, ready to go.

So, this morning, I got up, so happy to not have to leave the house, but, after an hour, I wanted coffee, and I was hungry. (No provisions in the house yet.) And, I was really excited to share this big step. So, one last (maybe) early morning trip to McDonalds for food, coffee, and free wifi!

Home Sweet Hot Shower

From Les
               

                Yesterday was a kind of milestone for us.  The plumbers got the new water heater running and the sewer line rooted out.  You may think this wasn’t such a big achievement with all that we’ve gotten ourselves into, but I can tell you it was huge.  For some twenty days now we’ve been making potty runs to local gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, etc., as well as mooching showers off of our daughter and other friends.  We were to the point of getting all excited whenever we needed to go some place and we’d remember that they had decent restrooms.  Hey, we’ve been without TV and stereo too so it doesn’t take much to entertain us.

                But yesterday we had a real breakthrough . . . literally.  The old grossed out and clogged sewer line was ridden of its contents.  It was like the final push through to daylight in a tunneling project, making way for our one working toilet to get into action.  Yee Hah!  And the hot shower was – well, let’s just call it luxurious.  The electrical wiring to that part of the house hasn’t been redone yet so it was a shower under the warm glow of a mechanics drop light.  I’m calling it the NEO-INDUSTRIAL look, complete with sawdust and rusty nails on the floor.

                To be honest, I felt at home finally because this is our toilet and our shower stall.  Of course they’ll be spiffied up a bit in coming days when we get to that part of the house, but for now I feel like a king in my castle.  So the old saying “Home is where your ____ is”,  can now take on a whole new range of possibilities such as “Home is where your toilet is” or “Home is where your shower is.”

                It’s amazing how we can make adjustments and adapt to our environment.  I heard an interesting interview on NPR the other day with a Harvard professor of Neuro Science talking about that very thing.  Thanks to MRI’s and sophisticated diagnostics they now have the means to map how our brains work and process information.  He said that what amazed him the most as a clinician was our brain’s ability adapt and overcome adversity.  It seems that negative thoughts, traumas and memories leave imprints in the brain that light up on a brain scan, but those imprints typically seem to fade away within 12-18 months.

                Of course he wasn’t factoring in the positive and cleansing affect of forgiveness and grace.  But even so, he said it is clear that we were hard-wired to overcome.  My question to him would be . . . who hard-wired us?  J

Keep Looking Toward the Finish

From Les     
           We’re 5 1/2 week into this adventure and just about every day someone asks if we’re ready to be done with this and move on.  Absolutely not . . . or at least not yet, and I think the motivation is that we both can visualize the end product from the beginning.  It’s best to not focus too hard on the state of things on a day to day basis, but keep the eyes of your imagination on what it will be.  Not what it is today but what it’s becoming.  In our mind we’re already sitting in the living room, relaxing and enjoying our fake fireplace, admiring our hardwood floors and lovely kitchen with its warm glow from the newly installed recessed lighting.  (We can do that you know because the kitchen/living room wall was taken out to open up the living space).  That sounds just like what Property Brothers would do on HGTV.

              

  We can just see the half acre behind the house all greened up this spring as we relax on the future deck.  Wildflowers will be blooming in the field, fruit trees will be budding, newly seeded grass will be growing and filling in all the dirt patches around the house.  The laughter of happy grandkids will fill the air as they run about, climb trees, dig holes and plant things, or play hide and seek.  Soon they’ll turn the old greenhouse into a secret clubhouse and let their imaginations rum wild.  Well . . . that’s the way it looks from this vantage point.

                I imagine that’s how God looks at us.  Not as we are today . . . but at what we are becoming.  He can just picture us being glorified, without any sickness or pain, no sorrow, no debts, no regrets . . . full of life and brimming with joy unspeakable as we drink in His majesty and the awesome splendor of a perfectly restored heaven and earth.  I don’t picture Him on a throne that is intimidating like in the Wizard of Oz, but I relate better to a God who sits on His throne as if He’s chilled out on a chaise lounge drinking a lemonade, laughing with pride as He enjoys our joy.

                From here, I’d say this house looks like “a real beaut Clark.”  J       

Time to Pause and Reflect

     Here’s wishing a very warm greeting to all of you who’ve been following our blog and thanks for the words of encouragement as we plunged into this project.   I emphasize a “warm greeting” because it’s been a very cold week, especially the nights.  As a matter of fact, it’s been cold since this adventure started.  We were wondering back in early December why winter was delaying its arrival here in Texas, and now I have the answer.  It was waiting for us to start the demo on the house, and almost the very day we began it blew in. 

     For a month now I’ve been doing a lot of gutting, ripping, prying, sweeping, yanking, tearing, cutting, sweeping, sawing, scraping, nailing, sweeping,  tossing, splitting, towing,  and . . . you guessed it . . . sweeping.  Not to mention SPENDING.  You’ve been seeing the pictures Jeannette posts so you know we’ve really changed the floor plan of this old house.  And that reminds me that I wish I had watched all the episodes in years past of that cable TV show “This Old House” where the handyman guy helps people remodel, repair and restore their old fixers like ours.

     It’s been fun and interesting to say the least.  What amazes me first is how sturdy this old house was built.  Pulling nails out of this wood is like pulling rebar out of concrete, and I think the wood is petrified now by now.  I never personally appreciated the bones of these old structures and never looked beyond the external appearance, but let’s just say I see them in a different light now.  Not only can I praise this old wooden box for standing strong for over a century, I now know why the wood is so darn solid and straight.            

     The city inspector told me the other day that back when this house was built, the saw mills typically cut lumber from what we now call “old growth” trees.  They weren’t concerned yet with forest management per se, but cut trees that rendered top quality wood which could remain straight after cutting.  Old trees have a much tighter grain and fewer knots.  Today’s forestry service, however, has to make sure that the old growth trees are not extinguished, so, under strict regulation, it is difficult and expensive to get that type of wood anymore.  The construction lumber we are able to buy nowadays is from those fast growing “new growth” trees instead and it’s nearly impossible to get any straight stuff.  If it’s straight on the rack at the lumber yard, it’ll be bowed by the time you get home with it.

     I’ve been asked several times if I’m getting tired of this construction mess and the answer is “No”.  I do get tired and I need to pace myself to avoid burnout, not to mention the escape from so much dust.  It seems that God has blessed me by sealing my respiratory mechanism from the ugly dust monster.  For years I have been extremely allergic to dust of any kind – sawdust, country road dust, and especially vacuum cleaner dust.  Okay.  So we all know that I should wear a dust mask, but it’s not that simple.  Wearing eyeglasses and a dust mask don’t work together very well.  My glasses fog up instantly and I can’t see a thing.  So it must be that God has been busy protecting my immune system lately.  Thank Him!

     We have turned a big corner in that the demo is 98% done and some rebuild has already started.  The new central heat has been a blessing this past week despite the numerous holes for it all to escape through.  The electricians are about 90% finished and were able to get us some lights and live outlets to work with.  The plumbers have completed the enormous re-do under the house and we’re ready to fill in the gaping hole in the bathroom floor.   They finished installing the new water heater today and fired her up, as well as roto-rooting the sewer from house to street.  Heck, we’ve just had a major upgrade.  We now have lights, heat, a working shower with hot water and a functional toilet.  Let’s just say that the trees have been well irrigated by me and all the contractors these past 5 weeks.  J

        

Plan B...Plan C...Plan D...

We had a busy week at the old home place!
We knew before we started this project that we should expect the unexpected, expect problems, expect unplanned expenses. We knew this because we have watched a lot of HGTV, especially Property Brothers. Drew shows a couple on an old mess of a fixer upper, and his brother Jonathan says, "I know I can make this your dream home. I can put all of your must-haves in this house and still keep it under your maximum budget."
The couple buys the house, and, there always unexpected structural problems that cause a lot of anxiety, but, in the end Jonathan comes through and the result is a true "dream home".
We have watched enough of those shows to know that there will be unforeseen expenses. In our house, it turns out that while it looked like SOME rewiring would be necessary, we have had to have the whole house rewired. AND, although we knew that we had a plumbling leak in one bathroom, just about all the iron pipes under the house had to be replaced with PVC. So, much of our budget is going to invisible, but necessary improvements. For two weeks, we have had electricians in the attic, and a plumber under the house.

I am already writing the ad in my mind, "The charm of a 103 year old house, with all the safety and luxury of a new build. High ceilings, beautiful hardwoods, with new wiring, new plumbing, new heat and air, new water heater...Sounds wonderful, right?

Take a look at the progress so far. Oh, and Les is building walls.

 

 

Rutledge Electric removed the old electrical box from the front porch, where it was situated right next to the front door, and moved it to the side of the house where it is out of sight, a definite improvement. 

And, while all this is going on, I decided that I will work on the floors. When I have time, I am removing the carpet tack strips, and taking all the staples out of the floors. 

Before, all the rooms have these strips, full of small nails, and nailed to the floor around the walls. 

They have been down a loooong time, and don't come up easily, they break into pieces.

I've finished the front bedroom, the only room that the workers are not in very much. Hey, every little bit helps, right?

Hey, but look at these lights!!!

It's coming along!

Great Helpers

Last Friday, the last day of the Christmas school break, Mike and Carter came to help in the house.
Les put them to work rebuilding a wall that had been torn out in the hallway. He had torn out a closet to build a larger closet to hold the water heater. Now, we needed a wall built to finish out the water heater closet, which also created a new, smaller closet in the hall. (I am sure that makes NO sense...)

So, Mike and Carter got to use the power tools. They sawed wood to the correct height, then nailed the boards in place with the nail gun.
Here they are hard at work

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RV Living

While we are in the early remodeling stages of our house, and it is really, actually, truly NOT live able, our dear friends Rod and Kandi loaned us their RV. They delivered it, set it up In our driveway, hooked up the electricity, filled the water tank and the butane, invited us to use all equipment a and supplies! Now, that's service.

Les and I have never owned a camper, never stayed in an RV before. We just moved out of a house big enough for us each to have alone time quest easily, even watch separate  TVs if we wanted to (but we rarely did that). It wasn't a mansion, but, for two people, it was roomy.

Not so much in the RV. We really like it! I have to admit it hasn't been that long, and we stayed in the old house some while Emily and her family were gone. But, it is really cozy. I am sitting in the chair writing, while Les sits on the couch working on something. I can each out and touch him. ( He is wearing my snuggy, he looks so cute!)  pretty much anywhere he is, I can reach out and touch him!

Occasionally, it gets complicated, like when I decide to head to the bathroom at the exact time he decides to get a drink in the kitchen. Oops, traffic jam. I suggested tonight that every time we are stuck and neither can get where we are going, we should just stop and hug. After a hug, we can figure out how to get past.

My hair routine is simpler. I can't see my back in any mirror, so I don't worry about the back of my hair. Today, the front looks pretty good, so I'm calling it a good hair day. And, the light in the bathroom is a bit dim, so I'm not sure how my makeup looks. I try not to check it in the sunlight, so I won't be upset.

It is very warm in here. Since we have had really cold weather ever since we moved in, that has been a blessing. (Cold for Texas that is). And, I don't have to spend much time cleaning. I do have to wash dishes, though...no dishwasher. Storage is limited. There are a set of bunk beds in an alcove. I have my clothes and toiletries on the bottom bunk. Les' things are on the top one, along with paper goods.  I put my vitamins and few medicines in the refrigerator. We have all our food items sitting on top of the stove, which is ok until I decide to cook. My favorite area is the bedroom, which is basically big enough for the bed, not really enough room to walk around it. We literally crawl into bed from the living area.i think it is cute, like playing tent with the kids.

It is very quite...no tv. The only Internet is the data on the iPad, ok, but limited. We read and rest more. I even sleep more!

I'm not naive or silly. I know we will get tired of this, but for now, I am very content. Our friends the Goldsmiths lived in a camper for three months, and the Trinkles for 10. And both of them had 2 sons. If they can do that, we can do this for a month or two.

Marriage Advice Tid Bits

I have a few small tid bits to share. Our daughter, Katy, is an administrative assistant at Gateway Church, to Pastor Alan Smith . Alan is a facebook friend of mine. Over the past few days, he has posted some great little gems on marriage on facebook. I asked him if I could collect them and put them together for a blog post, because they were sooooo good. After all, we are married, so have an interest in any really good marriage tips. So, here are some words of wisdom from Alan Smith.

Wives - Submission does not mean that he gets to control you. It does mean that you've surrendered your need to control him.

Wives - Submission flows from knowing who you are and Whose you are. God must be your source, not your husband.

Wives-Submission isn't about doing what you're told. That's abusive. It is about being unguarded enough for him to truly serve you.

Wives - Submission does not mean that you cannot confront him.

Husband is a synonym for gardener. Your success is measured by who and what she becomes, not what you become

Husbands - Intimacy includes offering vulnerability, letting her see your struggle, letting her know your need.

Husbands-When you want to withdraw because you're mad-move closer, get lower, put your hand on hers and make eye contact.

Husbands-In a disagreement, your goal is not to be right. It is to protect, restore and deepen connection.

Husbands-Your goal in marriage is to love her in such a way that she is free to fully become the person she was created to be.

Husbands - Romance is about adjusting your life in order to value what she values and give what she needs.

Husbands-Romance is demonstrating to your wife that you see and receive her beauty, strength, calling and destiny.

What can you do that will communicate to your spouse that you want to really see them and will never reject them? That's romance.

Husbands-Romance is demonstrating to your wife that you see and receive her beauty, strength, calling and destiny.

Intimacy is vulnerable fearless vision. Romance is the pursuit of intimacy that intentionally builds a safe relational context.