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!