November progress

We asked you to pray… here are the answers:

Nothing else will go wrong with the RV (fixed a leaky skylight last week). We needed to replace one of the landing gear motors and we lost a DVD remote that needed to be replaced, but otherwise the RV left uneventfully on the first day of snow (minus the tow truck guy wrecking one of the jacks when he bottomed the RV out in the ditch when he didn’t take the turn down our driveway wide enough).

Drywall is completed on time – if not early! Drywall was completed 3 days late, but it was done very well.

Jason doesn’t burn out… that’s still on the radar.

We find our missing cat. NOPE

We finish things quickly so we don’t have be away from home for very long. We decided to move into the house anyway!

Although the answers may not be the ones we had in mind, we can count them as blessings. One thing we have come to realize this past month is that when we “feel” blessed, it is because we have received something in some way that aligns with what we wanted or hoped for. When things don’t go our way, we don’t “feel” blessed. How selfish we are. I’m learning to count my blessings whatever the outcome, because God’s way is much better than my way.

We moved into the house on November 6^th with no lights or water. Yes, no bathroom, no kitchen, no cabinets, no furniture, no nothing, except boxes of our belongings everywhere, beds, and lots and lots of heat! Our wood stove cooks us out. Plywood floors, stained with drywall mud, we wear indoor shoes all the time.

Thankfully we had three outlets for power, so we could plug in the electric coolers and the toaster oven or kettle or vacuum cleaner or the big construction light – but not all at once as the sockets were on one breaker.

I had a table set up with all of our necessities along with a small dish tub for washing dishes in and washing hands. Our toilet is in the shed across the yard. Bringing water in from the pump outside and boiling it in the kettle for washing takes up many minutes in the day.

Then, Jason brought home a fridge! I could actually buy as many refrigerated items as I wanted from the grocery store!

Next came the stove! Thank goodness for a stove top – soup, pasta, and oatmeal! Yay!

After three weeks, I now have a kitchen counter and cabinets are on the way. Yes, they are someone’s old reno’d cupboards, but I can actually prepare a meal! Soon I will be able to unpack boxes and put plates and cups away. Hopefully in another week, I will have running water in the house to wash dishes in the real sink! For now, we at least have a sink in the shed for hand washing after using the toilet - as of Sunday.

SNOW!

Where life happens everyday.

The future living room

View from my bedroom

Wood stove keeping us warm and snow pants dry. Upstairs master bedroom.

Beginnings of a kitchen, lots of boxes and hardwood boxes!

Girls' bedroom (storage room for now with hardwood boxes and tools)

Next, we’ll be getting lights and the rest of our outlets for electricity (it’s been hard living in the dark and being bound to one room for power).

I pray to have a bathroom and a showering facility in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, we hit the hotel swimming pool at least once a week to have a swim and hit the showers!

The snow arrived on the November 8^th and we’ve been living in winter wonderland up here. It has been absolutely beautiful. I have enjoyed our new snow blower and getting some good exercise walking up and down our driveway. It takes an hour to clear everything!

Although we managed to prime the walls before we moved in, I’ve been slowly working at getting color paint on the walls. I’ve managed to paint the living room, kitchen and hallways, plus one coat in the small bedroom.

On top of all that, I’ve been busy visiting my students and working hard writing report cards to meet the deadline this Friday. I’ll be so relieved when that is done.

Please pray:

We will get the rest of the electricity and lights done this week.
We will begin tiling the bathrooms next week in order to get a working bathroom in the house and running water!
We will stay safe in the snow.
We will finish the painting and begin laying hardwood in time for Christmas, so that maybe, just maybe, the girls bunkbed will no longer be in the living room and they will be sleeping in their very own bedroom (after almost 2 years) and the living room will contain a couch! What a wonderful Christmas present that would be!

Not Yet

Drywall started today! Hooray! But things don’t happen quick enough…

Prayers have been answered: we sold the RV! Not for what we wanted, but it at least we sold it. The problem is it’s leaving on November 8^th. With things being behind schedule, drywall won’t be done until the 5th of November, which would only leave us a day (as Jason works in Kelowna Monday through Wednesday) to lay the bathrooms in-floor heat, tile, paint everything, and install a toilet and vanity. Also we will be waiting for the electrician to finish things up on his end once drywall is complete. No can do… so we’ll be moving back and forth from Kelowna I suspect and getting things done on weekends until we can move in. Moving in will mean a working bathroom, water, and power… and that’s about it.

Other news:

We found a used kitchen (cabinets) that will pretty much fit our kitchen until we can afford what we want. It was a great deal and is in good condition. However, the kitchen won’t be ready until first of December.

Thankfully for mis-tints, we are painting our whole interior for $300.

We purchased our flooring for super cheap! Yay for clearance deals!

Someone gave us free blinds!

Jason recovered from a terrible cold without the girls or me catching it.

And I haven’t lost my mind. Just wait for report cards…

Please pray:

Nothing else will go wrong with the RV (fixed a leaky skylight last week).

Drywall is completed on time – if not early!

Jason doesn’t burn out.

We find our missing cat.

We finish things quickly so we don’t have be away from home for very long.

As stresses rise, may we never lose sight of the Light guiding our steps.

Grateful Mistakes

October second. Fall is here. You can taste it in the air, it is so crisp. The aspens are bright in yellows and the larch trees are sharing their soft needles. It has been a whirlwind of activity.

After a long standstill with nothing happening on the house and patience draining, we now have a roof! Jason and I spent days on a lift, suspended high in the air stapling Tyvek on the house and putting up soffit and fascia. Definitely NOT my favorite job, but we’re nearly done. Thankfully all that is left can be reached by ladder!

Plumbing is just about complete after the hot water tank gets installed this week. Electrical is well on it’s way and ducting is almost finished. Hopefully we’ll see insulation in another week or two and then drywall!

While all these things have been taking place, school has begun in full force. The girls continue to expand their skills as they learn their new lessons, as well as help out around the construction site, cleaning up behind us and the workers, picking rocks, finding lost screws and nails, and being our gofers.

They, along with me, have joined the knitting circle on the mountain! We all picked up knitting quickly and we’re helping knit squares to be made into blankets for the local women’s shelter. The older ladies, love seeing the girls’ efforts and enjoy listening to their chatter.

They continue to love playing with the neighbor kids, exploring nature, climbing trees, and torturing (aka “loving”) the cats. Those girls sure do love those furballs! As with the rabbits… well… we found out that Snowflake was actually a boy… so before we had too many rabbits to deal with, we said goodbye to them and are now preparing for chickens in the spring!

Everyday hold adventures and treasures to be found. Maybe one day we’ll become hunters and enjoy the huge grouse and wild turkeys that wander our yard. The deer are beautiful to watch, and thankfully no sightings of bears or cougars yet this year.

We continue to work hard, but try to take time for fun. We headed out to the Rock Creek fair for my birthday and took the girls to Vancouver to see their first real live concert at the Orpheum. Lindsey Stirling rocked the house! The girls just may want to take up playing the violin.

As the girls continue to lose their teeth like sharks, we are reminded how quickly time goes by and the moments we miss in the busyness of things. Although we can get stressed out and worked up, we have been learning and growing so much.

This journey to a genesis has taught me one very important thing: how much I need grace, and how much I need to give it. Everyday I mess up, make mistakes, hurt people, lose my patience, and try to do things my own selfish way. Everyday God forgives me, loves me, and gives me grace that I do not deserve, with no strings attached, with no disapproving look, and with no impatience. Everyday some worker costs us money, costs us time, makes mistakes, doesn’t show up, doesn’t care…. Everyday, I’m given the chance to see the grace given to me and to freely give it to someone else. Yes, someone has to suffer. Someone has to pay. Let it be us. Let it be me. Because really, someone has already suffered. Someone has already paid. Paid it all. For everyone.

It isn’t easy. Love is never easy. Love cost Christ his life. That couldn’t have been easy. Why should love be easy for us? But, when you choose to love, especially when it is hard, it changes hearts; it changes you.

Every headache, every heartache, and every mistake I’m grateful for, as long as I allow it to change me and draw me closer to the One who loves me.

Trials

August had its trials. Mostly our own - the lack of patience and grace for the mistakes of others. Again, this journey is for us alone. To journey toward yet another genesis. Another beginning of learning to love and give, because love was given to us first. This is hard to remember as each day reveals its obstacles. But, at least each day gives me something or someone to practice love and grace on.

The house was finally framed 4 weeks behind schedule.

Our windows arrived, only to find that they were all the wrong sizes, so framing had to be changed, and others we're still waiting for.

Our roofer never showed.

We hired a different roofer who said he wouldn’t roof the house the way it was, so we had to make changes... another week gone by.

The roofers finally came to make the roof waterproof, only for us to find that it leaked after the first rainy day, two day before our other trade workers arrive to begin working on the interior.

And we’re still waiting for windows.

Life continues. Fall is here. School starts Tuesday – yay for paychecks again! The days get shorter. We enjoy colorful sunsets and bright starry nights.

We pray:

that the snow holds off as long as it can,

that when the time comes we can sell our fifth wheel,

and that we remember to start each day choosing joy.

Progress

The house continues to change as each week goes by. Things seem to be taking a bit longer than we hoped and hiccups come up along the way; but, overall, we are still pleased with the progress and the changes we make to the house as we start to see it in real life instead of on paper.

Summer finally seemed to start today – July 24^th! The rain and cooler weather has been appreciated after last year’s fires, but it would be nice not to run the heaters at night in July… but that’s what we get living at almost 5000 ft elevation I guess, not that I’m complaining J

The summer is going by much too quickly but Jason has next week off, so it will be nice to get some things done and enjoy the weather if it stays.

And I just have to throw in a picture of our kittens!

Wishing you all a great summer!

Community

We continue to meet new neighbors and grow our relationships out here. It has been great having so many neighbors be our trade workers on the house. What an awesome neighborhood!

Trinity and Eden had their first successful market with people from our community. They even made the newspaper! Check it out on-line at http://www.osoyoostimes.com/anarchist-mountain-community-holds-successful-market-on-the-mountain/. I’ve also been attending a women’s Bible Study group on the mountain to connect with the ladies in the area and to dig deeper in my own relationship with God. It has been nice to do something for myself again.

During these cooler days the interior walls have come up and the loft flooring has begun on the house. We’re hoping to see some big changes this week!

This weekend, Jason and I even got back to the “shed” and started siding it. It’s going to look so much better once we’re done!

Three new additions have been added to our family. Dean, Joe, and Scrat joined our family Wednesday and are just hilarious to watch and play with.

The bunnies continue to grow and love the green grass and clover that the rain brings.

Grateful for God's daily blessings of this beautiful place, growing friendships, and His love.

Little by little

Floors laid, walls raised, we begin to see more changes. Rooms beginning to be defined, views seen through window holes, we continue to enjoy what each day brings.

Again, we go through making decisions, only to change them days later. The Lord guides us, teaches us, and changes us, even in this. No part of our journey is left empty of Him. He is with us, always.

Digging down before building up

Things are moving along up here on the mountain. Despite rain, snow, sleet, and hail, we have a foundation! The crew seems to be a great team, and everything is on schedule so far. After digging trenches for drainage rock and conduit (for water, electricity, media, and drainage), the property is a mess, but we look forward to having everything filled in and smoothed over this coming week.

We continue to wake each day eager to see what they day brings, while doing our own parts to help. The girls are curious of the machines and tools; they enjoy seeing the daily changes too.

Not only are their new changes happening to the property, but new changes are happening ON the property too! We welcomed three new members… Snowflake, Lulu, and Evee. They love their big home. The girls pet them and hold them everyday, in hopes they will grow up to be less timid than our other rabbits.

Another addition is the trampoline! A free gift, graciously received! Now decked out with proper pads and safety net, the girls jump and play for hours. They have been sleeping well these nights!

As part of science this term home schooling, we also enjoyed witnessing caterpillars change into butterflies right in front of our eyes! We had a fun afternoon releasing them to the wild, and still managed to spot one or two of them days later. So beautiful!

What a journey we are walking as a family. Challenging, but oh so exciting! Hand in hand we go, with one foot in front of the other. Just like a house, sometimes we have to dig down and go through challenges. But in those times of difficult lows, it is there we can choose to build a strong foundation. A solid footing, does not necessarily make for an easier build, but a much steadier house in the end.

Psalm 62:2
He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.

Luke 6:47-48
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.