The Latest on the House...

On Wednesday most of the kitchen cabinets arrived. Yesterday some of them got placed and hung up.  There still should be another wall cabinet to go in on the left side and the frig cabinet is sitting on the floor where the frig goes.  I really love the finish.  Jonathan does really great work!  He's also building the cabinets for our master bathroom.

Laurie and I went picked out our Frig and Dishwasher yesterday.  They should be delivered on Wednesday this week.  The general plan is to have everything wrapped up except the flooring by Monday, 12/6.  Then starting on 12/7 the hardwood floors will be finished (that takes about 3 days).   The counter tops will be delivered and installed on Monday 12/13 as well as the carpets.

Speaking of counter tops.  We picked those out on Tuesday.  Below is a photo of what we picked.  The coloring should work really well with the cabinets.  You can't tell from the photo, but the granite we picked out has a lot of "character".  What I mean by that is there are variations in the colors and pattern that make it unique and interesting.  But did you know that "character" costs more? Yep!  We also picked out a counter top for the master bathroom.

The second furnace is now in the basement and beginning to be hooked up.

Pending any delays - the plan is...  the house should be pretty close to ready by Tuesday, 12/14. We'll begin to clean on that Tuesday and set up the new furniture that is being delivered (not moved from our rental location).  This includes dressers, couches, closet organizers, etc.  Then, hopefully on Wednesday, we'll move our stuff from the rental house.  We would really like to be in and staying there before the following weekend so that we are already in and beginning to settle before that last weekend before Christmas.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving as a family.  Everyone was in for the day including Joel and Gen and Aaron.

As we sat down to dinner (the first time) I thanked God for how good he was too us this year.  Yes, we had a house fire, lost some stuff and have had some inconvenience because of it. But there is so much to be thankful for. 

We now have a married daughter who married a wonderful man - that gave us a new son! 

We celebrated 3 graduations this year.  Sarah graduated from high school.  Joel and Everett graduated from College with Bachelors degrees.  Gen finished her courses for her 2 year degree and is just waiting for her graduation to be announced.

We are also closing in on our rebuilt home and being able to move back in.  Right now we are hoping the move in day will be December 15th.  When we move back in we'll be able to enjoy some small upgrades that we were able to include in the rebuild.  In the meantime we've been able to enjoy a very unique memory of living on the estate for these last 6 months.

But most of all - Thank you Father for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from the pit while we were yet His enemies!

What a week!

This last week was the most tiring I've had in a long time. Even worse than a week at Youth Camp.  I had a Process Excellence training at work M-F, 8-5 every day. Then a person still has to keep up with their regular work. Late Friday afternoon I was chatting with a couple of the folks from the class after we finished up. I attempted to explain how exhausted I was, but couldn't get my brain to engage my mouth to form the words.  Their comment? "Enough said!" Then we all laughed.  Thank God for Thanksgiving and a couple of days off.

The latest on the house is, well, not too much.  The second furnace has arrived on site, but is not yet installed.  We picked out carpet late last week and they came over to measure on Wednesday.  We actually ordered the carpet today so now have to wait for it to be shipped since it wasn't a stock color.  It's funny how the kids, as they grow older, begin to think they have a vote in decisions like carpet color.  Phrases like "I brought you into this world and I can take you out!" have been heard. But that doesn't really work for a couple of the kids :-).

Every time I visit the house, Erik is fansinated by the way the lights work.  "What does this switch do Dad?" Well, that switch turns on the upper outlet in all the outlets in this room so that you can turn on the lamps from the switch.  "That is so cool Dad!". He particularly likes the lights in the closets. "Lights in the closet. Happy thought indeed."

It looks like the kitchen cabinets will be started right after Thanskgiving.  We plan to visit the tile and marble place this week to pick out the countertops for the kitchen and master bathroom.  There aren't many more decisions to be made after that. Except for furnitue :-).

Color My World

For Gen's wedding we had two dances.  The obvious Bride and Groom dance and the Bride and Father of the Bride dance.  Gen was kind not to pick out an emotional song for us to dance to.  Following the two dances I had our "DJ" play Chicago's "Color My World".  As it started to play I rejoined my wife who just realized what was playing.  This was the song we danced to at our wedding almost 29 years ago.  Laurie teared up and said something to the effect "This makeup cost me a lot of money - don't make me cry!".  I just wanted her to know that given the choice, any day, any time day, I'd marry her again in a heart beat!

In keeping with the color theme - our house is now painted inside.  It's really starting to look different.  I must also add a disclaimer at this time.  I'm sure most of you have had this experience.  Choosing a color for an entire room based on a 1 inch square sample paper makes it hard to envision what they'll look like when painted on four walls.  So don't adjust your monitor screen - these are really the true colors!  Actually, we still like them a lot, but they're just a tad "brighter" than we anticipated.

Erik's Room

Hall Bathroom

 

Kitchen

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Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Sarah's Room

Emilianne's Room

The front of the house now with the shutters included.

11th PA

Many of you may know that Laurie and I belong to a Rev-War re-enacting group (www.11thpa.org).   We've been members of the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation in Ridley Creek for over 15 years.  Laurie does hearth cooking there - usually about once a month.  I can always find more important things to do around our own house rather than go play "farmer" at the plantation.  I grew up on a farm and I've spent enough time playing that part. 

But being part of the 11th allows me to play war.  Not quite as exciting as, say paintball, but it smells a lot more realistic with all the burnt blackpowder in the air and the task of powder in my mouth from tearing the tops off of cartridges.  And when you can feel the impact deep in your chest of a cannon being shot (better than any sub-woofer could ever produce) you heart starts to really pound with adrenaline.

Since the fire we have not been able to join the unit for any of the scheduled events.  We'll typically try to get out to 4 or 5 each year. Some even include camping overnight in a 1751 "bell" tent complete with wool blankets (no historical evidence has been found of them using mummy sleeping bags with Thinsulate).   We haven't been to any events since June because our clothes have been at the cleaners along with all our other clothes that got smoke damaged in the fire.  The ironic thing is that our colonial clothes ALWAYS smell of smoke because of the camp fires we cook over.

This weekend we had our first trip back into the 1700's with the 11th at Hope Lodge in Ambler, PA.  I don't believe there was actually a battle at this location, but it's a popular event.  The last two years have been frigid and clear.   We had two battles on Saturday and there were about 100 men at arms involved.  We lost the first to the British and they won the second (by design).

Here we are at Hope Lodge on 11/6.

We are members of the 11th for a couple of reasons.  First is Laurie's love for history - especially the colonial period - which has drawn the family into it as well.  We love being with the folks who share our interest in history and they're some of the dearest folks we know.  Secondly,  it provides us a great context to relate to folks outside of our church family where we can, hopefully, share the love of Christ.

Floored Part Deux

Ok, I know. You've been begging for photos and I've neglected you.  Well I won't win any contests with these, but here are a couple more.

The Hardwood floors are now completely installed in the family room, living room and dinning room.  They'll be finished in place.  Finally, Laurie has the hardwood floors she's talked about since we bought the house.

The finish will be "Golden Oak"

And here is our Master Bath almost complete.    You may think that the photo is taken with a wide-angle lens because the tub is curved.  But that's actually the shape of the tub we chose.