Two Week's of Building (Sept 20-30)

 We have reached what I'm calling the midway point. It's the point where the guys are finding things they can do to keep busy until the windows arrive. The windows are expected in "early October" but time will tell what that really means. 

The back door is installed. I'm loving the look of a proper back porch.

There is a tub in the new bathroom.

Tuesday morning they took down the front porch ceiling.

When Jeremy and I looked at it on Tuesday evening we wanted to keep it with the vaulted ceiling. It made the porch feel so spacious. Brian and Ryan came over to look at it and it was an easy YES for them. Today they started putting the soffit on the ceiling. I am outrageously excited about the front porch right now.

 In between a decent amount of work has been done on fascia and soffit on the old house. Where it has been done, it looks really really good. This house is not going to be recognizable when we are finished. 

Last weekend I started the construction scrapbook with our first round of blueprints from 2008. It was good therapy to look back at where we started and where we are now. We could have gotten so much more for the price in 2008, but looking back we know that is was the protection of God that we could not move forward at that time. It definitely doesn't make sense that it all worked out for us when lumber added 30K to our project, but I suspect, that in so many years we will look back and know that this was the right timing.

This Week's Building Recap (Sept. 13-17)

 The beginning of the week was spent leveling the house and replacing several floor joists.

 Plumbing/HVAC and electric were here also. I now have a kitchen sink which has made life SO much easier. A water source downstairs has been a game changer. I'm so thankful!

The laundry room was gutted and the new back door framed in.

AND the new bathroom is framed in!

It's progress! Almost every evening, after everyone has left for the day, Jeremy and I take a walk to see what has been done. We get excited about the smallest of details.

This Week's Building Recap (September 7-10)

 It was a busy week with a lot of visible progress!

Tuesday: The kitchen cabinets were removed and a chimney was discovered in the kitchen to the right of where the sink was. After some investigation it was concluded that the top of the chimney must have been removed when the upstairs addition was added years ago.

That evening it was our family project to remove the chimney. The inside of the chimney was filled with brick from the top.

Isaiah could not figure out what job he could do and it was slowing everyone else down so we set him up with a computer with the one outlet in the addition that works.

Aliza, Josiah and Anna worked hard with the best of attitudes. They made the job enjoyable!

Masks came in handy! The dust was awful.

Jeremy broke through the middle and the top half fell down. That was a very satisfying moment that we got on video.

Josiah helped knock down the bottom half.

The soot was sticky and thick. Everyone was covered head to toe when we came in at 9:30.

Jeremy got it all cleaned up and ready for the Straight Edge Construction crew.

Wednesday: Continued to gut the kitchen. Plaster is a mess! Even with plywood over the doorways there was a layer of dust over the whole downstairs.

Thursday: It was a very rainy day and the work van got stuck in the mud. The children enjoyed watching Ryan pull it out at the end of the day.

And now we can see the floor system in the kitchen.

Friday:  It was determined that there is a 2.5 inch difference in elevation from the outside wall to the inside corner of the kitchen. A lot of the morning was spent figuring out how that problem would be solved.

We have felt so thankful for the guys who have been working here. This week's work was dirty and labor intensive but they showed up every day and worked hard.
 

This Week's Building Recap (September 1-6)

 This week's progress was our responsibility. The time has come for us to move out of the kitchen, laundry room and half bathroom. I had packed all of the "extras" before Jeremy and I left for NY because I knew we were getting close and wasn't sure how much time I would have to move out when we got back. 

The laundry room emptied pretty easily. We saved the cabinets to use in the new laundry room. I had forgotten about the old wallboard pattern. Anna really likes it. lol.

Moving out of the kitchen and setting up the dining room to function as a kitchen was our Labor Day project. While I packed boxes, the boys emptied the pantry and the girls organized the shelves in the dining room.

Josiah enjoyed breaking the pantry when it was empty.

The refrigerator is in the dining room.

We took the middle board out of the table and used it to make a countertop. There was a small desk in the garage that works to hold the countertop and gives me a couple drawers.

A friend of mine completely surprised me with a toaster oven. I couldn't believe it when she put the box in my car. She said I HAD to have a way to cook nuggets and bake cookies.

That first night Isaiah pulled up a chair and said, "I need to just observe. This is sooooo interesting." So he sat there a bit taking it all in. I think all of us feel that way to some degree. We need a moment to take all this in.

It was 8pm when I took the last box out of the kitchen. And I choked up a bit. I'm pretty sure everyone who reads my blog also follows me on either facebook or instagram so you've seen my kitchen post. If not, go find it. 

Currently, we are at the one week mark in the dining room kitchen. I've used every appliance I kept out. Everything takes a bit more effort and patience. We are washing dishes in the bathtub and using paper plates and plastic utensils whenever we can. I keep pitchers full of water to drink. Several of the children are still not sure about drinking water from the bathtub. And we are finding out how busy the downstairs half bathroom was!

 

It's working though. We are going to appreciate the new so much more after living "uncomfortably" for a while (or a long time) depending on how things go.

Joy Dare::August

 8325. My mom gave a good sermon
8326. Lovely Sabbath day
8327. McDonald's coupons
8328. Olympics on the porch

8329. New systems of organization
8330. Cousins make pretty great friends

8331. The kids and I sat and talked for a long time
8332. Windows open
8333. Consciously pacing myself
8334. Jeremy quietly does things for me that I find out about later
8335. Organizing school
8336. Did something I'm not very comfortable doing
8337. It was a good afternoon for iced chai
8338. Make a quick supper plan
8339. Ice cream with Grandma and Grandpa
8340. The kids complete silliness on the way home
8341. Morning workout with Aliza
8342. Girls choreographing dance---boys adventuring
8343. Isaiah convinced his Daddy to start a fire for s'mores
8344. The sweetest surprise in the mail
8345. Small waves and shallow water
8346. Everyone very excited about lunch
8347. Slowly starting school and it's going well
8348. Having friends for supper and the evening
8349. Isaiah's knee improved as the day went on
8350. Evening at the stream
8351. The sun came out
8352. Kayaks
8353. Everyone had a really fun day
8354. Boys in the car with me, girls with Dad in his car
8355. Safely home
8356. Cool mountain air
8357. First full day of school for everyone--feels like an accomplishment
8358. Didn't know how much I needed Bible study
8359. Commission check surprised me
8360. Nails that coordinate with my mug

8361. Reading evening
8362. Electric switch was quick
8363. Encouraging evening
8364. Reminding myself to "enjoy the journey"
8365. A really sweet gift
8366. The rain held off while we were at the beach
8367. Having Bea and Andy with us
8368. Evening tea with Mom, Janell and Bea
8369. Plan A worked all day
8370. Daddy and his boy

8371. Two beach afternoons in a row
8372. Chatting with my sisters in law
8373. First boxes packed
8374. Josiah and Jeremy worked hard together
8375. Aliza pitches in to help in so many ways
8376. Grace to do the shopping twice
8377. When the schedule seemed impossible, it worked out
8378. Isaiah had a great school doay
8379. Work done so we can play
8380. Beautiful evening on the beach
8381. Hugging my husband and staying close to him all evening
8382. A phone conversation I needed
8383. Grandparents to take care of our children
8384. Time with Jeremy
8385. A long hike that I really enjoyed
8386. A comfy place to stay
8387. Mountains, water, ice cream, Mexican = a pretty great day
8388. New adventures
8389. A long nap
8390. The river at night
8391. Choosing to follow my husband's lead
8392. More mountain news
8393. Lovely dinner
8394. Time together
8395. The best sets of grandparents
8396. Mom sent home leftovers for supper
8397. Tucking everyone in at home
 

Together--Part 3

 Every local we talked to said we needed to hike Storm King Mountain. So we did. It was on the other side of the Hudson River. We figured after our first day hike we could handle a 3.2 mile with a 630 ft elevation gain. Somehow we missed the rock scrambling in the description. 

There were blue skies that day! Every time we got to a lookout the views made all the rock climbing worth it.

Our car is parked down there! And the road we drove in on.

 

Rock trails to the top.

From the top!

Then we circled to the other side of the mountain to go down.

It was not long after we left that top that Jeremy stepped too close to this guy without seeing it. It didn't even move but my legs were jelly and I was jumpy the rest of the hike.

I was saying to Jeremy, "Is it worth me coming up there?!" He said yes.

Lots of forest walking on the way back down. And at the VERY end there was one more steep climb back to the trail head. We didn't have enough water with us and it was warmer than the other days. I wasn't feeling too great at the end.

That night we had dinner at a local Italian restaurant. The food was excellent and we were together. Together is the theme of our trip. We were just happy to be together. It didn't really matter what we were doing or not doing, whether we were talking or not talking. It was just refreshing to BE together--alone!

 

Together--Part 2

 Our hosts arranged for us to take a boat with a friend of theirs to a restaurant on the Hudson River. Once again it was a gray day, but no rain.

It was fun to see the mountains from the river. So pretty. We docked at the restaurant and enjoyed a lobster roll while looking at the river. The guy who owned the boat was completely out of our social class. It was almost comical. We did nothing the rest of the day and it was lovely.

On our last day before coming home, we decided to do two more hikes. The first one was a short walk from where we were staying and was relatively flat and easy. It was the Old Forge Trail Loop, 1.8 miles thought an old iron works industrial area.

We almost took a short cut, but we would have missed the waterfall that we didn't know was there.

Of course, we figured out a way to get to the top of the waterfall. 

And then we went directly to our last hike which turned out to be far more intense than we had planned on!