Update on the New House Saga

Good Evening everyone! It has been such a busy week already, and it's only Tuesday! Praying I can survive until Saturday, when we officially move into our "new to us" home, "Lord willing and the creek don't rise"...Keep praying for no rain! Thank you!

My Facebook friends already saw our back deck pictures last night, but since many of you are not on Facebook, here you go:

Here we are, our first "selfie" from the new back deck overlooking the pond:

Some of view from the deck:

Our kids stopped by and took our picture:

And then we took their picture!  The beautiful thing about our new home is that it is only about one mile from our kids! What a blessing that is already proving to be!!

So here is the deck as the workers are finishing it up today:

Yes, it is big enough to have a party! Can't wait to have a barbeque on the deck!

And then, to top off all the great news of this week, something else new has arrived:

 Since our house does not have a garage or any other kind of outdoor storage or even an attic, we knew we would need a shed to store our tools and other outside equipment...Hubby is quite excited and ready to start filling it up with all his stuff...no, this will not be a "she-shed"...(I wish), but I have been promised some space to store some things like Christmas decorations, etc., provided he doesn't do a lot of woodworking in there creating lots of sawdust, etc.  So we shall see how this works out...

So here's our selfie in front of the shed:

I am wearing my painting clothes as I was busily painting inside the house when the shed arrived...but I was very happy to take this little break for all the excitement!

This picture below is when the shed was being placed and leveled.  So exciting!

So little by little our home is coming together. I still have some painting to do outside and inside...the door and shutters will get a fresh coat of paint soon, but that will have to wait until after we've moved in now. I think I need to concentrate on getting the inside settled so we can live in it first. Unless there are some volunteers who would like to donate some time to do some painting???

I was so pleased yesterday that one of our neighbors came over to meet us while we were there working. She is also new to the neighborhood, and I think she was just checking us out to see what kind of neighbors we were going to be. Of course, I was in my oldest paint covered clothes and looked a fright, but we had a wonderful conversation and I think we will enjoy being neighbors.  A couple of days before that I met another lovely lady across the street, and found out we have mutual acquaintances in the community and church.  She also seemed delighted that we were moving into the neighborhood. Our house has been vacant for a long time, and it seems that we are quite the curiosity to everyone passing by as they are watching our progress on the house and hopefully they are happy to see that an empty house that was becoming a temptation for vandals is now becoming a lively hub of happy activity.  We pray that God will bless our home and that we will be a lighthouse along the shore for those who may need some hope and encouragement.

Speaking of prayer...many of us in blogland know our dear friend Sylvia at A Grandma's Blessings.  Early this morning Sylvia's husband Curtis passed away after a long battle with respiratory issues.  Please lift up Sylvia and her family in prayer, and perhaps send words of love and encouragement her way as you can.  She has been one of our sweetest friends here, and I know she would appreciate our thoughts and prayers.

Psalm 86:6-12

"Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;

and attend to the voice of my supplications.

In the day of my trouble I will call upon You,

For You will answer me.

Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;

Nor are there any works like Your works.

All nations whom You have made 

shall come and worship before You, O Lord,

And shall glorify Your name.

For You are great, and do wondrous things;

You alone are God.

Teach me Your way, O Lord;

I will walk in Your truth;

Unite my heart to fear Your name.

I will praise You, O Lord my God,

with all my heart.

And I will glorify Your name forevermore."

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."

Sunday Morning Meditation

Isaiah 43:15-19

15.  "I am the Lord, your Holy One,

The Creator of Israel, your King.

16.  Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea,

and a path through the mighty waters,

17.  Who brings forth the chariot and horse,

The army and the power 

(They shall lie down together,

they shall not rise;

They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):

18.  Do not remember the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

19.  Behold, I will do a new thing.

Now it shall spring forth;

Shall you not know it?

I will even make a road in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert."

Have a blessed Sunday!

Such A Perfect Beginning...

I know many of you are waiting to see some pictures from our son's wedding yesterday.  I couldn't wait to see them myself!  Here is just a sampling of some of my favorite moments from the last couple of days:

I'll start with the picture you've been waiting for the most:  May we present to you Mr. and Mrs. Steiner:

Now I'll go back a couple of days and show some other favorite moments:

Here is our handsome, TALL 6'4" grandson and his sweet mama arriving the day before in their fancy rental car. They look like a couple of celebrities...which they are to us.  They flew in from Maine for this special occasion:

After their arrival, we had to get our grandson fitted into his outfit for the wedding. Here Grandpa is helping with his necktie. We had an anxious moment when we discovered that he had already grown out of the pants we had purchased for him to wear (per earlier measurements), and so some last minute changes had to be made in a big hurry.  We were glad that we had made a decision early on not to try and fit him with a suit for the occasion, because it would not have fit...

 Proud Grandson and Grandpa...I never thought one of our grandchildren would get taller than my hubby, who was 6'3" in his prime, but this young man has reached heights we never dreamed of!  And at age 18 we are not sure that he has finished his growing streak...

So later that evening our two lovebirds came together for the rehearsal of their nuptuals:

The bride's father and other family members arrived safely from Minnesota earlier in the week for the big occasion. Here below the bride "Rose" is with her dad, practicing that long walk down the aisle.  I like this picture not only for the two people in it, but also the sign behind them which reads:

"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you..." Matthew 6:33

A fitting verse for the way God has brought our son and his bride together...and a wonderful verse upon which to build their marriage.

 And here is the bride and groom, on their wedding day, listening to the pastor exhorting them to live holy lives before the Lord...I love the way the bride is "glowing" in this picture...

"You may kiss the bride:"

Here is our family together after the service, our daughter in law and grandson from Maine, the Groom and Bride, yours truly, my hubby, and our youngest son

 Now this was a very sweet and perfect moment...our grandson, the Best Man, was offering a toast to the Bride and Groom...off the cuff, not rehearsed, and extremely well done. We were all amazed and pleased at the gracious words that he offered in his toast to his Uncle and new Aunt.  I am still hoping that someone was recording it and will share it with us, because I neglected to do so...

By the way, the cupcake wedding cake you see behind them was a joint effort of the bride and groom.  The groom built the tiered tower for the cupcakes in his workshop, and the bride baked and decorated all the cupcakes herself.  It was really beautifully done.

So here they are cutting the cake...

And here they are so sweetly feeding each other...

And sharing a sweet cake filled kiss

There were so many happy moments throughout the day, but I won't bore you with everything. This next picture is one of my favorites;;;I think my son is singing "I'm forever blowing bubbles"  as they make their escape for their honeymoon...

My sister captured these next two pictures of me hugging first the Groom, and then his Bride. We were pretending to cry as we said good-bye, but it was truly a happy, happy moment...(and a little funny too, as I "cried", "Oh, my baby, my baby!!! Good bye to my baby!" and his bride was getting a good laugh at us...

So happy to embrace our new "daughter in love"...

And away they go!!!

See? I really was smiling...

My sister Doris had picked these two beautiful roses in her garden before they left to come to the wedding. She intended to give them to "Rose", the bride, but forgot...and so she gave them to me after the newlyweds left for their honeymoon.  I brought them home and put them on the kitchen windowsill to remind me to pray for them each new day of their lives...

 And so, this is the end of a perfect beginning...This story it to be continued....