Balance...

Spent two more hours with LuAnn this afternoon discussing the kitchen - so many choices...we don't want to make a mistake because this may very well be our final house/kitchen/etc - only God knows...roofers nearly done...exterior doors should be delivered Friday...new subfloor in the school room (no more brick - well, it's under the plywood)...the framers leveled out the floors for the hardwood floor guy...there are soooo many details!  We're pretty weary of all the decisions and are ready to move in and get some REST (what's that??!!), but we have learned A LOT through this process and have gained tremendous respect for construction workers!  Such a balance between trying to be responsible and make good decisions vs. knowing that all of this is temporary and will burn one day (2 Peter 3:10-15)...we read the verses today that our citizenship is in heaven, not on this earth...profound...We want our focus to be on eternal things and yet there are so many decisions to be made... Balance.  Grace.  Lots of inquiring of the Lord.

"...Their mind is on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven. 

And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ..." 
~ Philippians 3:19-20

"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going...like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents..For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God."  ~ Hebrews 11:8-10

Black roof!

"For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything." 
~ Hebrews 3:4

New subfloor in the school room...

I love gardening and like to take photos of the new plants
so we can see just how much everything grows.





New roof going on!



We were so excited to see the roofers out today!  They removed the old brown shingles and put on the new charcoal gray ones on 2/3 of the roof!  Lots of progress today!  In fact, we'll probably have Earl's crew do the siding also!



Framers are almost done...lots of mulch...three heaping loads of demo material to the dump...standing in awe...

WEEDS!!!

15 cu yds of mulch...We are never bored around here!

The framers removed the wall between the master bedroom and dining room so they can rebuild the closets into some of the dining room space.  We were planning to do a larger walk-in closet, but I struggled with making the dining room smaller, so Scott and I compromised and only took about 30 inches (instead of 64 inches+) from the dining room for smaller closets.  We don't need so many clothes anyways!

Framers took down the last bit of yellow aluminum siding...
can't wait to see the new siding and roof!

Looks much better - Scott cut the weeds really short,
then we put down cardboard and landscaping fabric, then mulch...

Here are our two new closets for the master bedroom...
we'll install double-hanging rods here for efficiency...

Counter/barstool area between the kitchen and family room...

Walk-in closet in Hannah's room...
with a 3/4 door for easier access to some attic space...

Aunt Shannie helping with the grass-cutting duties...Praising God that Scott was able to find a new belt for the riding lawn mower and that he figured out how to replace it.  It's working great again!  We even had to remove the entire deck from under the mower.  After 2 hours of working on it Thursday night, the mower is back in action!  Grateful!  I will be more careful when I'm cutting thick grass and I'll try to remember to turn off the mower if it starts smoking again!  ;-)

Look at this!  Taking time to "smell the roses"...So beautiful and complex...only God could imagine something so intricate and detailed......quite a "wrap job"...packaged so carefully...Our God is amazing!  Reminds me of Louie Giglio's Good Friday teaching on "Symphony" (also the name of one of Chris Tomlin's new songs - I love the unity within the Passion team!) - how all of creation sings praises to God...the reminder that Jesus, the Son of God who suffered, died for our sins, and rose again, is also the Creator of all things...Louie had an iPad with the sounds of two stars (who knew stars made sounds??!!) and whales "talking".  The Passion team mixed them and played this incredible symphony - a symphony that only the Creator usually gets to hear!

*******
"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."  ~ Romans 1:20

*******
Symphony
(Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Jason Ingram, Louie Giglio, Matt Maher)

Verse 1
Shining wonders, fields of splendor
How they sing Your symphony
The deepest oceans, rising mountains
How they sing Your symphony

Chorus 1
Let the earth fear the Lord
And all the people of the world
Stand in awe, stand in awe

Verse 2
My heart's ovation, Yours forever
I will sing, sing Your praise
Let every nation under heaven
Shout Your name, sing Your praise

Chorus 2
In symphony with all created things
Sing the song that we were made to sing
We stand in awe, we stand in awe

Bridge
All the angels, all the heavens
Every people, every nation
Crying out to You

In the skies and in the oceans
Everything that's living, breathing
A symphony to You

There will be no greater song
In the heights above or the earth below
Jesus, all for You

Our first fire (courtesy of my dad, ie, Poppy)...part of our vision for this place...
fellowshipping around a bonfire...

*******

"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain..." 

~ Psalm 127:1

School room rebuilt...

I must confess that Scott and I were extremely disappointed and concerned yesterday when we went out to the house to check on progress (see the last two photos posted for this day).  We were in Atlanta Friday through Sunday, so the guys had 2 days of work that we were excited to see.  What we found is that they tore off the entire school room - all of it was removed except for the problematic brick floor (maybe we should rip that out too - it has issues!)!  Richard said that once they got into it, they found that the "sunroom" had been poorly constructed and he was "surprised it hadn't blown down".  So they tore it completely off and rebuilt it.  All we see are dollar signs! 

Today was much better - thank you, Jesus!  Just two more windows to install...the higher ceiling in the school room looks great...oh yeah, and I broke Little Green's (our riding lawn mower) belt this evening while cutting some tall, thick grass...just what we need - another project...how do you replace a lawn mower belt?  I also cut my finger on a nail...time to go home...




New school room - front new windows installed -
love the taller ceiling (the only room we could raise)...




Looking from the school room into the laundry room...we've decided to
close this opening to allow for more bookshelves (imagine that!)...




The original drywall ceiling for the family room/kitchen collapsed
overnight - no idea why...thankful it didn't happen after we
moved furniture in and no one got hurt...




Larger area for the kitchen table...




Oh my - lots of demo material and lots of trips for Big Red...




Back of the house with the larger kitchen table area (bottom right)...
Thankful the guys at least got the house wrapped - probably another
week before the new siding goes up...




Drywall ceiling collapsed...what a mess...




Yea!  The new windows are installed and the lower roofline is complete -
much simpler than it was...The lower roof will be metal due to the shallow
slope, but will be installed near the end, so the workers don't step all over it!



Pretty irises blooming...




Hannah feeding Ty (he's wearing his "fly blanket")...



The kids enjoy taking turns on Cherry...They are going to be so sad
when it's time for the horses to go back to their home...




Daniel's first pony ride!



I think he likes it!  Ms. Monica is so patient!




This photo is out of order - should be first for today but I can't figure out how to
reshuffle photos once uploaded onto the blog.  Anyways, this is looking through
the school room closet to....NOTHINGNESS....The school room is gone! 
Not too happy about this...this was NOT planned!



Also out of order....school room is GONE.  We were horrified to see this....
In the end (and now that we have calmed down!), this was probably better. 
We know Richard does quality work...



He is Risen!

"My chains are gone...I've been set free...My God My Savior has ransomed me..."

So powerful...Grateful...Whirlwind trip to Alpharetta, GA to
celebrate the cross and resurrection of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ with Passion City Church!  In fact, it was so powerful,
I think it might have been a "dress rehearsal" for the real thing!  ;-)

Lots of windows installed today...

Kitchen table "bump out" (small addition) - looks funny now...
the framers haven't cut the board yet, but the window area
is framed out behind it...it's bigger than this hole...



We ordered the windows slightly too small...oh well, what do
you expect for a couple of rookies?!  The framers were very kind -
they said, "It's better to be on the smaller side, than bigger..."  ;-)

  


The guys moved the shower inside - it's pretty heavy!

 


Yea - third window upstairs is added to balance out the top floor...




Ty has been eating too much, so his owner puts
on this basket to slow down his intake...



Connor standing in his room in front of that new third window...
we wouldn't normally have placed it in the middle of a wall,
but it has to go where it looks right outside...




Hannah and Daniel in front of the aluminum recycle pile...




Looking up at the front porch...




Daniel - don't lose the plans!  Those are the house drawings for the contractors...




This is the only side with siding still on...





Connor and Ashley walking through the kitchen table "bump"
before it was framed out (this pic is out of order)...