What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?

What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

New House Saga Update

If you follow me on Facebook, you've been keeping up with the progress on our new house.  But if not, maybe I should take a few moments to record the week's activities so far...for my own record as well as for your entertainment. ...

The good news is on this past Monday we finally closed on our "new to us" house...
Here we are with our sweet real estate agent, Miss "Libby". (She is the agent who helped us buy our house).   I've teased her several times by singing the old commercial jingle: "If it says Libby's, Libby's, Libby's on the label, label, label, you will like it, like it, like it, on your table,  table, table...It says Libby's Libby's Libby's on the label label label"...
Thankfully she has a good sense of humor and is such a sweetheart to work with. She put up with all of my "I want to see this house even if we can't buy it until we sell our house" requests over the past year...and her patience finally paid off! On Monday she was happily sitting down with us as we signed our life away and became a member of the "Thirty Year Club" again, as the Closing Agent dubbed us.   Lord willing, our new house will be paid off in the year 2049...and I'll only be 99 years old! Isn't life grand?

So immediately following the closing we began the work list of things to do to get the house ready to move into.  The list is lengthy and involves a lot of hard work (and more money), but thankfully God has provided us with some good workers who do odd jobs and are great at helping folks like us who don't have a lot of "fixer upper" type skills...and they come reasonably priced, all things considered.

I teased our #1 son when he heard the list of things we are having done that we are spending all of his inheritance now so he won't have to worry about it in the future...I think he was just as glad that we weren't asking him to do all of these jobs since he has plenty to do on his own list...(did you see that our kids' business, "Ben & Rose's Country Woodshop" got a new workshop shed last week? Here's a link to their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BenandRosesCountryWoodshop/ where you can check out their products and projects. Here's Ben with their brand new shed workshop that will greatly help them expand their business:
God is so good...and He is blessing them in so many wonderful ways! We are so proud and happy for them. And we are very thankful to the Lord for making this all possible.

So back to the house story:

I told everyone on Facebook that one of my first chores was to clean the three toilets and bathrooms and install new toilet seats on the toilets.  Yes, we have three bathrooms...two of them are in our master bedroom! I've never seen two separate bathrooms in a master bedroom before,  but this one comes that way. We have  "his and hers" bathrooms...one comes equipped with a nice shower, and the other one comes with a nice garden tub. Guess which one I picked?  If you said the garden tub, you are right, however, I will be taking a shower in the other bathroom most of the time anyway...so it really doesn't work out like it was planned... But anyway...after I worked for several hours toiling away cleaning each bathroom and installing the new seats...hubby decided to try out one of the seats...and quickly exclaimed that "this seat is too small!"   And yes, I had to agree...they were the tiny little low, round "toidies" that seem better suited for a child than a 6'3" male senior citizen...or even a 5'7" female senior citizen...and so, while our erstwhile fixer upper workers were there replacing our front deck, hubby requested that they help us replace the three little potties with three taller, longer potties that are also more water efficient...especially since we are now paying for city water instead of having our own well.  I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of my nicely cleaned tiny commodes before they were removed and thrown on the dump heap (not much market for used toilets)...but I did get pictures of the nice new ones that were installed today...wanna see?  I know, this is fully of "potty talk", but I do think it's important, don't you? I mean, this is something that everyone needs and uses sooner or later...(hopefully sooner rather than too late...Ha Ha)

 Yes, I know that all three bathrooms have the same "lovely" wall paper...remember this is a manufactured home, and they do things like that...and yes, eventually I intend to paint over this lovely wallpaper, but for now I have decided to live with it.  It's not as bad as it looks in these pictures...and with the right colors of accessories, towels, etc., it will be just fine...but don't you love my new potties?








Okay, it is time to change the subject.  I mentioned that we were replacing the front deck.  Some of the wood was still good enough to use, but that which wasn't was replaced with new pressure treated lumber that should last a long time.

It is my intention to stain or paint the deck in about 30 days, as you have to wait for pressure treated lumber to "dry out" before you can put any kind of stain or paint on it.  So here are some pictures of the work in progress and then the finished product after the whole exterior of the house was pressure washed today:



Before:


During reconstruction:

After:

 We will also be painting the new frame around the front door when it is "dried out" and will also be removing/relocating the chain link fence that is in  front of the deck. In addition we will be repainting the shutters and front door with a fresh new coat of paint that is similar in color to this, but with a little more "pop" of color to brighten it up. These shutters are faded and some of the paint is coming off in places, so they need a fresh paint job...


Meanwhile, inside, we have been busy taping, prepping and getting ready to paint the "lovely" border

that goes all the way around the living room and master bedroom...here's hubby resting after working hard to tape all around the edges, etc.:

And here's how it looks after my whole day was spent today using primer to get the walls ready for paint.  We are going to paint the bottom half of the wall (including the border) with a creamy white that will give some contrast to the upper wall and hopefully will look like wainscoting when we are done.  I think we still need another coat of primer over the border before we paint...but these two rooms took all day just doing this much, so we shall see how much more primer we will do...


Of course several people have already told me that once I get all my furniture in this house you won't be able to see the walls anyway...so why work so hard??? Well, I know what is there, and I know what I want...so we will keep on working...

So thus far this is what has been done. We hope to get the painting done this week,  and then next week we have other projects planned, but you will have to wait and see.  Meanwhile we will be taking a couple of days off from our labors to celebrate our 50th anniversary this weekend.

Here we are fifty years ago August 16, 1969   "I now introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. John Steiner"


Stay tuned for further developments in all of these activities!

Psalm 66: 1-3, 10, 12
1.  "Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
2.  Sing out the honor of His name;
Make His praise glorious.
3.  Say to God,
How awesome are Your works!"
10.  "For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined....
12.  "...but You brought us out to rich fulfillment."



18 comments:

  1. Pam, I love your new home!. It looks almost like ours except the front of ours is the reverse of yours. Even the green shutters are the same and boy do ours need painting too. Ours is a modular home on a block foundation. It was a repo and if I showed you pics of our before, you would think - "HOW Awful"! and it was. Heavy smokers owned it. EVERYthing had to be scrubbed with tsp substitute and Kilzed. It might make you feel better about all the work you are having to do. But anyway, it will be done when it gets done and not before! Have fun!

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    1. Bless your heart...we looked at one that had heavy smokers, and I could barely stand to walk through the house, so I knew I couldn't live there...I know how much work that would be to "kilz" it, so my congratulations to you that you made it through that renovation and survived to tell about it...and now it is your home and I know you are enjoying it. This one is also a repo, but thankfully it wasn't in too bad of condition all things considered. We are thankful that we have some good helpers because we are just not able to do all of that by ourselves. Painting in one thing, but construction/repairs is totally another. I am feeling the pain from painting all day tonight, and probably won't get much done tomorrow judging by how I feel tonight. Thank you for writing. I am glad you have a block foundation. I do wish ours had that, but it is what it is, and we are much to be thankful for. We are trying to decide on whether or not to put in a wheelchair ramp because so many people in our church are elderly and some have walkers, etc., and we aren't getting any younger...but gee, they are expensive...so I don't know yet. But we want people to come visit and they can't get up these steps...so we are praying about that issue. Good night. I'm sleepy.

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    2. had a few typos above...that shows how sleepy I am. LOL. good night for real.

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  2. Wow! That new deck makes a world of difference and so will the new paint on the trim and shutters! Your choices inside are perfect too. I can't wait to see the progress you are making. It is hard work, for sure. Congratulations on reaching your Golden Anniversary!! I'm sure your celebration will be wonderful!! xoxox

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  3. Pamela, you do not look like you should be celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary!! ;)
    You look fabulous and what a sweet couple you make!
    Congratulations to the both of you.

    My you have been extremely busy!
    Look at the work you have already accomplished and it's looking wonderful.
    Your new deck will be lovely to sit out on on those beautiful days and evenings.
    You know...That wallpaper isn't so bad and I agree with you, just dress the room up with accessories.

    Such a sweet looking realtor and how funny you singing to her. :-)

    Take care~

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  4. You are making fantastic progress on the new house. It is better to do the work now rather than wait til later when all your possession will be moved in. I rather like the wallpaper in the bathroom. There are many lovely colours in the pattern you can work with. Realtors need a lot of patience in my opinion. I just think of my own experience, how many places I looked and and how indecisive I was. Not only that, once I made a decision, the place I really wanted came back on the market! Quite the roller coaster it all was :-)

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  5. Beautiful wedding picture. Congratulations and best wishes on your anniversary.
    I know you are sore and tired after a day of painting/prepping. Take a day off and let your body heal. The deck will be so nice. I'm so happy Miss Libby was a big help to you both as you searched for just the right home. May God bless.

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  6. It looks like you have really gotten a lot done...and your new toilets are lovely! LOL All the hard work will be so worth it and I'm looking forward to see all the updates. And I would agree, you must have been a child bride! You certainly do not look like you have been married 50 years! Love the wedding picture...what a lovely bride you were!

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  7. What progress you've made already, Pamela! The deck is particularly impressive. Looking forward to watching your progress on the new home in the days and weeks to come.
    Happy Anniversary! (That's such a lovely photo of the two of you!)

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  8. A very Happy Anniversary to you both, honestly, Pamela, either of you haven't changed much, smiles.

    I am thoroughly enjoying this journey of you posting updates, smiles. P.S. I love that Gators sign behind you and your realtor, smiles (Life long Fl Gators fan).

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  9. Pam, you are making progress. I love the colors in the wallpaper in the bathrooms. The deck will bring you many hours of enjoyment. I wonder about the purpose for the chain link fence around the deck. I don't remember seeing it in earlier pictures. Enjoy your anniversary celebration. The others are right, you must have been a child bride. Peace and blessings.

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  10. We have that same toilet! I recognized it right away, the handle on the side, the hole in the base at the back. Yes, yes, my comment is about a toilet. Slow day!

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    1. About that toilet...This may save you some worry. If you are in the room and it's quiet you can hear what sounds like water flowing drop by drop within a pipe...if that makes sense. It's inside the toilet. We checked.

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  11. Well Pam, I must say I had a little chuckle about the toilet seat! LOL! I know that you will be proud when y'all get settled in and you can truly put your special touch on your new home. Such big changes I am sure. GIRL, you might outlive your mortgage! You never know. Your deck is going to be awesome to sit on and enjoy the mornings or afternoons. The first house we lived in we lost to a fire and then we bought a double wide home and built a deck onto the back of it. I remember it being so nice to sit there especially in the afternoons. We later put in a swimming pool and oh the deck brought so much joy and pleasure to us with having pool parties and cookouts. We later built a home within walking distance of that property and I have always MISSED that deck even though I have a front porch! I think I sat on that deck more than I have ever sit on my front porch! Maybe when the weather cools up I need to start porch sitting more! Happy Anniversary to you both. What a commitment Pam. Something so many lacks today in every area of life....commitment. Hugs and blessings to you and enjoy your anniversary. Cindy

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  12. Happy Anniversary! And congrats on the new house!

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  13. Hi Pam! Thank you for the update on your new to you new home. It does look like you have your work cut out for you. I'm chuckling about your far too small toilets. (I have my own story about something like this to share at some point.) And yes, it does get pricey when you need to hire things done--I have to do it frequently.

    Love and blessings!

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  14. Well, I wouldn't have been able to resist singing the Libby song either and I know she didn't mind because you probably sang it so sweetly! The toilet stories are funny! At least your trash is clean! Maybe Papa Bear should have tried out that chair before you went to work. But then again, maybe not. The deck is wonderful and I sure would like to update our deck. So happy for your son and his wife to have success in their business. And congratulations again for your long term commitment to each other! Happy, happy celebrating the 50 years! You both still look like fairly young whippersnappers!

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  15. I am so happy y'all found a new home. Wallpaper seems to be all the rage again. After having it in the 80s and removing so much of it, I am not about to ever put up any again, but your bathrooms don't look bad at all. You might learn to like those. The home looks so much like one we are currently selling. I think our closing is in the next two weeks. We had bought some land in north Walton county which was about a 50 minute drive from here. It just was too much to keep up with, so we are bailing out, but I loved that home. It was actually so spacious. I had it decorated pretty cute. The previous owner had left a lot and then I added some stuff. I think it helped sell the property. Anyway, I think you can make it very pretty in no time. There are some pictures of ours under farm on my labels. It looks a lot like yours.
    Enjoy the doing and redoing and congratulations on 50. IT is truly a great thing. We are about to celebrate 35 in a few weeks.

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Thank you for visiting here today. I would love for you to sign my guestbook and let me know you stopped by. I always enjoy reading your comments and words of encouragement! May you be blessed as you go on your way. Please come back and visit again soon.