Plumbing Showroom

The highlight of the week ;-) - we are going to a plumbing showroom tomorrow night to choose all the plumbing fixtures for the house.  I know the kids are going to say "Oh, is this date night?".  As delighted as Laurie will be to wonder through all the showroom with all the chrome and brass shining and glittering, I don't think it quite qualifies as a date night.  We had done a lot of research on what we wanted, but apparently some of the choices won't work together well (ie that faucet set requires a different set of holes than the sink we selected allows for). Plus, as always, David had some good suggestions that we want to incorporate.

And I can't sign off without a pun riddled statement. So don't let your heart sink or your emotions plumb the depths as I end this missive - its too draining and will leave you flush. I will shower you with more entertaining words tubmorrow which is all vanity anyway. Reading too many blogs can be a trap, but I'm always at your disposal.

Jack & Jill Shower

We hosted the Jack & Jill Shower for Aaron and Gen yesterday.  We had about 60 folks come out (some of the guys were reluctant to attend a "shower" even though there were lots of guys and families there).  Gen and Aaron were really blessed by everyone coming out and all the generous gifts.  I had the opportunity to use my new grill (sorry Mick, no charcoal) and my new camera (lots of blurry photos).  I can't help but be grateful to God for all the years of friendships represented by those in attendance.  What a privilege it is to walk out our Christian lives among such a wonderful group of believers.

Gen and Aaron chill'n in the sun room before the guests started to arrive.

The lawn at the summer house!

Stucco and Furnaces

We had some great progress on the house this week.  They finished all the prep work for the stucco and actually put a coating of stucco on the two ends of the house.  The photos don't do it justice, but it's so nice to see the progress.

Another point of progress is the heating/cooling unit in the attic. This will service the second floor.  No need to have fans blowing in the bedrooms to circulate the air :-).

What a thing of beauty!

One of the neighbors

I just splurged on a new camera.  I had borrowed Sarah's recently and loved it so much that I had to get a new one for myself. It's not typically my style to spontaneously buy things, but the fire has forced me, at times, to make quicker decisions and not belabor the research. At least that's the excuse I'm sticking with.

So I've been keeping the camera with me since I swing by the house almost every day.  I want to capture all the steps being taken to restore it.  With all that said, I was driving out of the estate to run an errand today.  I saw Michael, our neighbor, sitting out in the middle of a field on his industrial mower - just sitting there. Well that's odd. I wondered if he was broken down, but he just gave a friendly wave and kept sitting there. Just as I pulled out onto the street Michael calls me on my cell phone and says that the reason he is stopped there is because there's a hawk sitting in the field right in front of him and "he just had to share it with someone". I immediately turned around, since I had my camera with me, to get a photo. I had been hoping to get a photo of this hawk ever since I almost ran into it on the way to work one morning.

Girl's Night

I would really like to post an updated picture of the house, but I didn't have the time to go over this evening.  Instead, I picked up Chinese for Sarah's Girl's/Anime Night.  Unbelievable how loud ten girls can be.  Sarah can't comment any more on how loud our Community Group is!  The real purpose of this post is to check to see if Sarah is really reading it regularly. I know she'll have to post a comment after this. Pfftt Sarah :-P

Sunday is the Jack & Jill Shower for Aaron and Gen.  I'm looking forward to having family and friends over to the summer house.

The whole family went up to Aaron and Gen's house to help with cleaning and repairs Thursday night.  What a blessing to start out their married life owning a home. They have a lot to do before they move it, but they're making great progress.

Tyvek

We are making a lot of progress this week. I say "We", but I'm not doing any work.  The photo below is from Wednesday evening and I know more was accomplished today on the outside.  Most of the house has been wrapped in Tyvek and most of the stucco mesh has been installed.  I'm looking forward to swinging by tomorrow night after work to get more photos.  I wasn't able to get over there today.

The heater/cooling  unit has been installed in the attic for the second floor. Electrical work is supposed to start on Monday.  

**

Now Close the Windows 
by Robert Lee Frost


Now close the windows and hush all the fields:
If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.

It will be long ere the marshes resume,
I will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.

*********************

Take a look at the photo below. We now have windows and doors.  It's starting to look like a regular house.

All the windows and doors arrived Thursday morning.  They were installed yesterday and today along with all the trim.  Now we can begin the stucco installation which actually is supposed to start on Monday.  The HVAC has also begun as well.  We are so blessed by David Bard and his crew. They are doing a fantastic job and making wonderful progress.

Thanks David!

Back from Youth Camp - Can you say exhausted?

We got back last night from Youth Camp.  What a tremendous time with the youth of our church and having God move among them.

We had 4 great days of games (Noodle Sockey, modified kickball, Stand), endless tug-of-wars, catapult building, using the catapults to launch tomatoes at the camp commanders, raft building and races.  The teaching theme was on Nicodemus.  Friday night ended with God moving on everyone's hearts to the point of having about 30 kids committing their lives to the Lord and an amazing time of ministry.  Once again God was faithful to meet us.

Youth Camp is a highlight for me each year.  I love being able to participate and watch God build the next generation into Himself and into his church. What a wonderful God we serve.

Off to Youth Camp

Every year our church (www.covfel.org) holds a Youth Camp (http://www.covfel.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=51731) for grades 8-12 for four days.  It's usually around the second full week of summer and held at camp Ladore (http://www.ladore.org/) in the Pocono mountains.  The admin staff usually arrives at camp Tuesday night (I have the great privilege to lead the admin staff) and the campers, team leaders (mostly college students) and parents arrive Wednesday morning and it lasts until mid afternoon on Saturday.  It's a great week of activities, games and fun. But it's mostly about hearing God's word taught, worship and seeing the youth being touched by the Lord and having their lives impacted by the Gospel.

This week will be tremendously tiring, a ton of work, present a boat load (literally) of problems to be solved and I'll come home completely exhausted. But I wouldn't be anywhere else this week.  One year I had to stay home from Youth Camp because of vacation schedules at work.  It was the hardest Youth Camp I ever experienced.

I'm looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us this year! 

The Summer House

A lot of folks have asked about our temporary housing situation and how it's going.  I affectionately call it "The Summer House".  It's got lots of space, is set in a very quiet woodsy setting and the house has a ton of "turn of the century" charm.  I was able to get a post-card photo album from the 1900-1930 time frame which has a number of photos of the property during that time period.  Below is a scan of a photo showing the original Italian gardens which are right out in front of our house (completely overgrown now, but the outlines are still there).  The house in the background of this photo is the house we are in.  A garage with an apartment and a sun porch were added to it sometime in the 40's or 50's.  You can see those in the present day photo.

We have a Portico!

I never thought I would say that.  I never even knew what portico meant. But we have one now.

Years ago Laurie said to me during a family trip "There are a lot of Suburbans aren't there?".  That initiated a family game where we always counted Suburbans.  Have you noticed that when you count Suburbans you tend to see more of them! Over the years the items have changed that we count - motorcycles, Ranger pickups (because I have one), Pontiac Vibes (because we are thinking about getting one).

Now we look at houses. What colors are they using? How does that match the shingles (we never noticed shingle colors before)? What color stone faces do we like best? And what's the best looking portico? We actually were driving around looking at them. I never noticed how many there are.  And I found that having a really good digital camera with powerful zoom (thanks Sarah) comes in real handy to avoid folks thinking we are stalking their homes.  Next thing you know we'll be looking at garage doors. Oh my word!

Updates on the house, as you can see, are starting to get more spaced out.  We're still making progress, but it's not so visible.  We met with the HVAC installer this week and went over the equipment and installation options.  We'll be going with a dual system which provides greater efficiency and greater comfort.  And we won't need to run box fans throughout the house.

The windows and doors will be here in about 10 days.  Once they are installed then the stucco and stone work can begin.  It's still really odd thinking that anyone can just walk into the house.

Driving Me Bats

Well, Laurie now has a context to say that things are driving her bats.  The kids came down the stairs screaming the other day to say that there was a bat upstairs in their room.  Apparently it had crawled in under their play tent in Erik's room and then the kids had trampled it while playing in the tent.  It was obviously hurt when they discovered it.  Before completing the immensely gross job of disposing of it Laurie took this photo.

Reminds me of when I was growing up on the farm when I had a number of bat experiences.

Wedding Shower

This is to let everyone know that we'll be hosting a Jack and Jill wedding shower for Aaron and Gen on Sunday, August 29th at 4:00 pm.  It will be here at the "Summer House" and we'll be BBQing and will have volley ball and other fun things to do. E-vites will be going out, but it's open to all our friends.