Remodeling

I'm going to do two separate posts to catch upon on the past couple of months for our family. The first will be our remodeling project and the other will be family happenings.

A little explanation on our remodeling. I took a couple of weeks of vacation time this past fall in order to work on the house. We had decided not to go anywhere, but to spend our time doing some much needed work to the house.

I spent the first week working in the garage on some of the things that I had never finished when I built the garage last fall. I still haven't finished everything, but did make some good headway. I also needed to organize my tools; I had spent the last several months of last year and the first few of this year building the garage and then had spent most of this year working on the church addition. So, I had tools scattered at the church, in my house, in my garage, in my shed, and in my van.

I hung some shelves in the back of the garage just for storage.

I also moved my work bench from the shed and mounted it in the garage. Carol's aunt and uncle had given me a large cabinet and counter top on which I put casters for a rolling work bench.


Here, I had not put in a big enough entry into the attic, so I reinforced the truss and then moved the header back so that we can go up and down without hitting our heads. (The original opening was only a little over 4 feet high; it is now well over 6 and 1/2. Josiah asked me why I was moving the header; I told him it was so that we didn't hit our head any more. He replied, "I don't hit my head on it!)



For the first year in the garage, I had just had the kids carry stuff up into the attic for storage. It is amazing how a big storage area begins to look small when it is disorganized. I spent one afternoon just organizing everything that we had been putting in the garage attic for the last year.

I also worked on getting more of the electrical wiring done in the garage. While doing some of the wiring, I came across a spider that had just caught an insect in its web and he was wrapping it up very quickly. I took a video of it for education (and entertainment) purposes for the kids. It isn't often that one comes across the activities of nature like this.



The second week, I remodeled the living room. I first tore out the wall separating the little front room and the living room to enlarge the living area. The next step was to tear out the carpet (we just couldn't get it clean any more) and linoleum that had been in those two areas. After that I put in a picture window to replace the small window that had been in the front room. Finally, I put in new laminate wood flooring in the living room. By taking out the smaller room, I lengthened the living room from 16 to 21 feet.

Here is the "before" picture (I had already taken out the book shelves that had been on the wall and all of the furniture).


The video is of me tearing out the wall the next day. It scares me that our kids love destruction! (Listen to the excitement as the wall comes down.)



The next photos are just showing a progression.

Here we are putting in the picture window.


Ken Massey stopped by just in time (providentially) to help me install the new window. It is 64X53 and I would have tried to put it in with Joel's help - but who knows what the result would have been . . . ?

I replaced the window and got all the siding back on in one LONG day.

This is a short while later (several days) once the new sheetrock was in and the living room was painted - still hadn't put in the new floor.

Finally getting to the floor. Laura stayed up late with me one night (it was a Tuesday so her day to do some special things); she though it was neat to get a "ground level" picture.

Here are several of the finished floor. I know you can see light under the front door; no new threshold yet.

Now, life with a living room is getting back to normal. The furniture and pictures (as well as toys) are back in place and Carol has her piano back in the house after having it sit in the garage for a couple of weeks!




In other news, I have the fixtures and and supplies to put the bathroom back in upstairs; now just need the time to do it. Also, we have a dishwasher ready to be installed in the kitchen and a few plans in mind for making some cabinet and shelving changes. In a family of 9, a second bathroom and a dishwasher (mechanical, not human) will be more than a relief.

Well, that is all for tonight! I'll do another post with "family happenings" tomorrow.

Church Building Project Update

There has been too much happen in the last two months between home and church to put them both on the same post, so I'll update one and then the other. I'll start with the church building project.

The last post concluded with the finished nursery and the trusses on the new addition.

On the outside of the building, the metal roof has been placed, the exterior doors are on, and we are working on the siding.




On the inside, we have connected to the old building by taking out the block wall between the buildings. We had to level the concrete floor some in preparation for the interior walls and the flooring. The interior walls have been built and are in the process of having plumbing, electrical and hvac installed before we put in the insulation and then the sheetrock.

The video of the concrete chainsaw is several minutes long, so you may not want to watch the whole thing - later on, there are some shots of the kids watching the job taking place. (I have since told Laura that 30-45 seconds is about the limit of video that we can post on the blog).



This video is a little shorter; here "the wall came tumbling down." Notice the scrap insulation and 2X12 laid down to protect our new floor - the 2X12 split when the wall landed on it.



This grinder wears down the operator as much as the floor.



These pictures are either from the addition into the existing building or the other way around.

I thought I had more pictures of the interior of the building (they may be on another camera), but this one is all for now. Ken Massey built the interior walls while I was taking vacation time to work on my house.


Special thanks to Ken Massey, Donnie Wright and Dave Cook for help on all of these most recent advancements.

Life continues . . .

Just a brief post this evening - I hope.

We sold our Dodge van. We had it for a little more than 5 and 1/2 years. It served us well, but with our new(er) van, the other was simply extraneous. I used it more as a truck than a van; once I sold it, I took some of the money and had a hitch put on the Ford van (a long story).

We have been given sweet corn a couple of times this summer. I don't know exactly how much we have had (not as much as in previous years, but we are thankful for what we have gotten as dry summer has affected most gardens and crops); I think we froze about 50 lbs. Laura, Grant and John, did the first batch; Carol, Joel and Laura did the second batch a couple of weeks later.


We are making headway on our church building project. In the last post, we had just finished the concrete (August 16th I think). We have pulled the forms and back-filled the pad; the exterior walls are up and today we had about a dozen people set the trusses and put on the roof sheeting. We were a couple of pieces short and had to stop a little early, but with the heat at 95, I didn't hear anyone complaining that we were going home when we did.

I'm not very good at getting pictures of the work in progress or of the people who are doing it; I often get pictures of what we have accomplished at the end of the day. Today was not different, but I am very thankful from all the help from all the men who were there today - John, Josh, Jeremiah Houston, Allan & Caleb Stilley, Lowell Mest, Darin Kennelly, Donnie Wright (has been there almost every day that I have been), Larry Hayes, Ken Massey, Joel Deatrick - I hope I didn't miss anyone . . .

We also had Bro. Steve Wynn, a missionary to Brazil with us a week ago; he helped for several days while staying in our prophet's chamber. I missed getting any pictures of him too.

But, here is what has happened since the 16th of August.


Where the window is in the existing building we will take it out and knock out the block and make it a hallway between the old building and the new addition.


Thank the LORD for His provision and safety!

Well, I'm sitting in the recliner listening to Joel practicing through the hymnal - after a good nap this afternoon;. Joel and I were at the church this morning by 6 am; our first concrete truck arrived at 7:30 and we finished 24 and 1/2 yards by around 2 pm.

I'll try to get a lot up here this evening.

The building project is moving along. Much of the nursery work is completed, though there are still a few little "finishing touches" that are waiting for more time. It won't actually be used as the nursery until the restrooms are finished.

Here are some pictures of it.

From the outside of the nursery before the carpet was installed . . .


Inside the new nursery:


Looking out the door of the new nursery:


Before I post any pictures of the rear of the building showing the addition, here is one of the West side which faces the road. A couple of our men have painted it (if you remember from previous pictures of when we bought it last summer, it used to be kind of a purple with windows painted on the side) a sandstone color to match the siding. We've also put a sign on the building. (The final coats of paint where not on yet if you notice the different colors).



I took a time out from the blog; had supper and now Carol is playing the piano while Joel and Laura do the dishes. . .

Back to the building project . . . starting with digging the footers. The only pictures that I've put up so far have been one where we were taking off the siding and of the painted marks showing where the addition would be placed.

You'll see a lot of change in the next several pictures.

The day we broke ground - I guess we forgot to have a ceremony . . . :-)


Ken Massey did most of the digging with the excavator.


Joel got to drive the excavator a little bit . . .

We still had to do quite a bit of hand shoveling . . . corners against the building, around plumbing lines, water lines, gas lines . . . we found an old septic tank . . . many people did much work.

Lowell Mest and Darin Kennelly.


Allan and Mark Stilley; Allan is using the jack-hammer to knock out the corner of the old septic tank that was right on the corner of where the new addition would sit . . . we never knew it was there until we started digging.


Joel took this one "for mom."


Even the younger boys helped some. They filled the wheelbarrow with loose dirt that had been shoveled out of the trenches. (I think they like playing on the dirt piles more.)


They would have rather used the back hoe than shovels, but I don't think that would have been acceptable at this point . . . but they did at least get to have their picture taken with it. (John's head is by Joel's left hip.)


Jump ahead a couple of weeks . . . the forms are finished, the plumbing is in, gravel is packed and the rebar is laid . . . ready for concrete!


Today we poured the concrete . . . (Right to left) Dave Cook, Les Young, John Houston, me - eating a hamburger . . . :-) - Also present, Joel Deatrick, Donnie Wright, Cale Fleming, Jeremiah Houston. He wasn't here today, but Josh Young (Les' son) helped do a lot of the forms.


Finished product - not a professional finish, but sufficient for what we will be doing. I'm very thankful for the help of everyone who was there and for the advice or prayer of those who weren't able to make it! I took this picture as we were driving away much earlier in the day than I anticipated . . . (otherwise I wouldn't have had time to do this blog post).

This completes the stage of the building that has concerned all of us the most. That's not to say that we still don't have more to figure out, but all of us are far more comfortable with the actual building of the addition. . . however, as is true Biblically and in all of life - you ought to have a good foundation before you build.

I'm going to stop, read the Bible and pray with the children, and then update you on a few things with our family.

I'm back to finish this post.

Some things that have happened in the last two months:

- John turned 6 on July 7th. He was born the day before we moved to Illinois, so that also marks our 6th anniversary here in Paxton. John has a very healthy respect (fear) of fire. When we were purchasing candles, he specifically requested to have the numeral "6" instead of six candles, because that would be less flame (it wasn't because he thought it would be easier to blow out that way :-). I think he looks strikingly like my youngest brother Michael at this age (see previous post from June).


I have now officially made it to middle age - 35. "Middle age" is a relative term. I told my wife that I really don't feel that old. A couple of reasons for my personal assessment: 1) I feel like the first 20 to 25 years of my life were all preparation for what God had designed for my life. I've only been ministering as a pastor for 8 years and so when comparing that with the prospect of another 35 years of pastoring, I feel like I'm just getting started. 2) I think I'm in the best physical condition that I've been in since I've been married (I did have an elbow issue last fall), so quite simply, I just don't feel like I'm getting older.

Things that make me recognize that I'm aging are things like seeing Joel drive an excavator and a Bobcat or the fact that he is nearly as tall as his mother. Or that Laura is not a little girl anymore. Speaking of, Laura just got glasses. She had been complaining of headaches for a while, she was not able to read the eye chart at the Science Center in Rockford with Grandpa this summer, and - she asked me at one of Joel's ball games this summer, "daddy, how do you know the score?" I said, "it's out there on the scoreboard." She replied, "there are numbers on it?"


Her eyesight is unique. She is farsighted in one eye and nearsighted in the other; this is no doubt the cause of her headaches as her eyes were actually working against each other. The eye doctor told me that often this condition leads to one eye turning in or having a lazy eye.

(The kids are in bed, quieted down, and I'm now eating a bowl of bugles.)

Other news:

Carol's brother and family visited us for several days early in July. We only get to see them once every couple of years. It was good fellowship and of course busy with a combined 12 children between us. Carol's Dad & Mom and Aunt & Uncle joined us one of those days for lunch and we had 20 at our house for a meal. We also spent an evening at a park with some friends from church who have 5 children - 17 children that time (although several of the older ones hardly classify as "children" any more). Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of the Bumgardner bunch?

Gardner turned 1 in June and he skipped the walking stage and went to running . . . as one of the ladies at church has observed, "he has one speed - go!"

Joel and Laura were able to experience "flying" for the first time in July. There is an association that gives free rides to young people between the ages of 8 and 17. The Paxton municipal airport had a "fly in" (open house in airport terms) and there were several pilots who brought their Cessna's and Piper's to give out rides. Joel and Laura were both able to go up in a little Piper with a pilot named Dr. Snell who made their weekend (and more). I took several videos, but not many pictures. Sorry the video is a little long, it is of their plane landing and then them running up to tell me all about it . . . you may want to skip to about the 3:30 mark on the video.




Well, I'd better go for now. My evening project has caught me up on this for a while . . . though there is much more that has happened this summer. It has been a busy summer, but a good one, though most of it has revolved around the building project at the church (baseball seems like ancient history). Quickly, the kids are well: Joel has been a big help in our projects and is constantly demonstrating that he is maturing as a Christian. Likewise, Laura is growing in grace; she also is a big help with Kara and Gardner - she'll have much experience by the time she has children of her own. Grant has also professed Christ and is being given more responsibilities as his capabilities increase. Carol has worked with John to help him learn to read this summer; he, with the others, is delighted with their bi-monthly trip to the library. Josiah is getting tall and more independent, though he still does not like change. He is asserting himself with the others more and more to make it quite obvious that he is not a little boy anymore. Kara is . . . Kara . . . she has the ability to light up a room and she does everything with all of her energy. Gardner - as mentioned before - has one speed, GO!

One final picture - I have a wonderful mate . . . keeps so much of our life together in order; kids, meals, laundry, house, me, etc . . .