The B-I-B-L-E

That is the song that keeps going through my mind...

The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes, that's the Book for me.
I stand alone
On the Word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E.

Why, you ask?

Because that is what we are doing.

Standing on the Word of God.

Well, kind of.

We did this in our first house.

Except we didn't have children at that time. Well, one was in utero, but he didn't participate.

What am I talking about?

Verses.

We chose and wrote verses (specific to that room)  on the floor before the new flooring went down.

I am guessing unless the current homeowner of that house has done any foundation work, our words are still there.

So I wanted to do it again.

We have a lot of exposed floor, both upstairs (that still sounds strange to say!) and down.

We are getting close to the new flooring stage.

It was time.

And today was a perfect day to do it. No church.  Sleet. Thundersleet, no less.

So we grabbed some Sharpies (and then swiftly changed to pencils and ink pens because Sharpies don't work well in thick dust) and our Bibles (whether the actual book or an on-line version) and got to work.

This time was a much different experience compared to last time.

For one thing, there were six of us writing, not two.

Child 4 chose mainly verses in Exodus, particularly the 10 Commandments. That was what he knew the most. :)

Child 3 chose several verses from "Revolutions". :) (Her word, not mine)

Child 2 chose favorite verses.

And Child 1 was a little more like Hubby and me. Choosing specific verses for each room.

Would you like to wager a guess as to which of my verses goes with which room? The choices are living room, office, landing, common area, bathroom, Child 2's bedroom, and Child 4's bedroom...

Forgive the writing. It really was a challenge writing on dusty floor.  It was also a challenge staying clean while doing that. I was wearing a fuzzy red robe. BIG mistake. :)

I should interject that there is nothing magical about what we did.  We don't think special blessings will be bestowed upon us for doing this. Nor do we think the words will just magically "be absorbed" into our children through osmosis.

This was just for us. A focus. Being intentional. Thinking about the purpose of each room.  Thinking about our God and His commands. And in some ways, offering a prayer for our children as they grow.

More soon,
Reba

Moving On Up...

Still kicking over here.

It has been a crazy time with the house, with the family, with life...

 I hope to get on here and truly write.

But it won't be tonight. I am fighting to stay awake. But I do want to update. And an easy update is a photo update. So, here is our progress as we move on up with our renovation.

January 15

We have "floor"!

 January 18...

We have walls!  Well, wall frames anyway.

Here is a bedroom.

 And another one...

And a bathroom

A corner of the "common area"

 

And a cute little dog exploring the scraps. She loves exploring up there.

We also came home to find our hallway entrance had changed which altered the door to what is now the girls' room and soon will be child 4's room.  Apparently this kind of stuff isn't as easy as just knocking a hole in the ceiling and building upstairs. All of that affects the downstairs too. 

January 21...

A hole cut in the roof.  And the framing of a future "dormer" window.

 We also came home that day to find a large hole in our hallway. Apparently the plumber had been working on tying the plumbing from downstairs to the plumbing for upstairs. A little sledgehammering was involved.

 Here is the window from the inside.  Unfortunately for us, about this time, the beautiful January weather we have had turned ugly and cold.  Nothing like a hole in the roof to add to the already "no heat" cold we were dealing with.  That plastic is nice but it doesn't keep out all of the cold.

 Oh, and a bathtub. Not in place yet but it is there and ready.

January 22.

The hallway hole (this is DOWNSTAIRS) is now fixed. Unfortunately my chore for the evening was to keep little feet out of the wet cement.

 And I managed for the most part. Except somehow (and I still don't know how) this little furry pup slipped past me and got one pawprint in.  I would love to have seen how she did it. I had it barricaded!

 Upstairs, the bath/shower was now in place.

 And the window area is more framed out. I think this was the night that we had FIERCE winds.  We woke up the next morning (still no heat) to find that the house was freezing. It was 39 degrees in the kitchen. I could see my breath as I made breakfast. We ended up eating curled up by the heater in our bedroom which was hovering around 50.

 This is in the common area. It started off to be a closet but we have since decided it will make a great seating area for the girls and their friends. So we are going to build it all the way down.

January 23.

And we have windows!  Woohoo!  Windows make a HUGE difference in house temperature, even without heat.  We just love the transformation on the back of our house.  (From the front, you would never know anything was going on except for the huge dumpster and port-a-potty in my driveway.

 Here is a window from the inside. We were very pleased with how it turned out. Really opens up the room.

We came home last Friday to find roofers. Our new windows are now "roofed".

 And the framing is mostly done. Here is a view of the common area. It isn't huge but it is more than we have right now. On the left side you can see the platform we plan on extending for a seating area.  The dark part in the back is the actual part of the attic we actually use. That is a door to get to it.  I am excited about that.

 Here is a view of Child 2's room.  That is her closet to the left.

 A view of the bathroom. It is actually larger than the one they have to all share downstairs.

 Here is one silly boy playing with ducts.

 Here is Child 3's room. Her closet is over to the side but you can't see it. It isn't quite as big as the other room's closet but we are going to add a little to it to help make that up.

 A look up to the common area from the landing...

 A look up to the landing from our front entrance.

 Here is the remainder of child 4's room. It will now be a small office.

 And here is the view from our living room.  To the left is the landing for the stairs. Under that is our storage closet.  Even the little part under the bottom steps will be storage. Woohoo!  To the right we will have some built in cabinets to hold our t.v.

That about catches me up on the progress thus far.  Sadly, since the framing is done, the fun stuff is also done. We won't see as many of the major changes now except for drywall.

But...

We have heat (as of tonight!).  Not very efficient yet because they aren't all the way done with it. But heat nonetheless.

And the work continues...

More soon,
Reba

Lessons Learned

Here is a house update along with a few things I have learned this past week.

January 12, 2014:  Child 2 looking at her new digs...

January 13, 2014:  We came home to find a "landing" for our stairs (which includes storage underneath).

Every night we pop upstairs to check out the progress.  This night it wasn't so obvious upstairs (very obvious downstairs), except for...

this. This is looking down at the "floor" upstairs. They are beginning to run wires!  Because of that, we had a night of NO lights (and very little power). But this is still another step to the finish line!

One other change we found was our coat closet was demolished. Because of the position of the stairwell, we will have to shorten our coat closet. And that is okay.  Other than the entire contents of my closet were on my bed.  We are running out of places to distribute displaced items...

January 14, 2014  We came home to find STAIRS!  No more skinny ladder in the garage to climb. We have stairs!  And we have light now!  Well, most rooms. Still without power in much of the house. But it is wonderful to have lights again...

Which leads me to this post.

I have learned a BUNCH of things through this whole week of renovation experience (only three or so more months to go... :).

So I thought I would share a few with you.

• Expect the worst.  I would say "Hope for the best" but really, I will just stop with "expect the worst". I am not saying this has been horrible. I just realize I was terribly naive. I really thought this would involve Child 4's room and then the attic. I didn't ever dream that the living room would be confined to half of what it is normally. Or that we would be without power for a while (heat I expected). Or that I would find dust and insulation in every room of the house...
• Keep life normal.  As normal as possible.  I come in daily and sweep the floor (as much as is possible). I try to straighten up the main rooms though it isn't easy since so many things are out of place. I am cooking, assigning chores, doing laundry, etc, as usual.  Yes, Child 4 is sleeping on a mattress in his brother's room.  He is reduced to one dresser. His toys are scattered here and there. But as much as I can, I am trying to keep it "normal" for him.  And for everyone else.
• Expect dust. LOTS of dust.  Layers of dust.  I wasn't really prepared for that. Yes, I would have covered the furniture had I known. But I didn't.  One sweet child said, "You really need to dust, Mom."  I just laughed.  
• Make the most of it.  We had no lights in our house yesterday. None. We had a few lamps/extension cords but we also have to use those for heaters since we have no heat.  So we ate dinner by candlelight.  
• Laugh often.  It will keep you from crying.
• Adjust your expectations.  Not every plan or want is going to happen. And usually there is a good reason why (like support walls...apparently they keep the house from falling in so any hope of removing them is dashed).
• Let it go.  Ironically, this is a favorite song from the movie Frozen.  I am learning to let it go.  "It" meaning all sorts of things.  I am learning to let go the fact that my house looks like it was hit by a tornado. I am learning to let go of the fact that workers will be on your doorstep at 7 a.m.  Learn to let go when you come home and find out that your power is off.
• Talk. Talk to your husband. Talk to your builder.  Explain why you need your power in the kitchen (that was an easy fix) or why you want your arch doorway to stay.  You may not get everything you want but some wishes might be granted.  Open lines of communication are essential to keep from having a breakdown. :)
•  Compliment. Be thankful.  One worker brings me my newspaper in the mornings.  I came home one day to find the electrician working like crazy to restore some of our power.  Thank them.  And let the builder know.
• Throw aside pride. Yes, I have a large trash dumpster in my driveway.  And a port-a-potty.  They are needed for the job. It isn't how I want the front of my house to look but it is temporary and needed.
• Know that unless someone has been through this, they will NEVER fathom what your life is like.  I count it as a win if we get to school on time each day somewhat with matching clothes on.  One morning we were in a child's room with a candle trying to find an outfit to wear. Life is different. But unless someone has been there, they will have NO idea.  
• Keep the end in mind.  We are living in chaos right now but it is for a reason.  And that is what helps me get through every day!

More to come,
Reba