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."

Getting Ready for the Big Move - Thankful Thursday Blessings

 Yesterday morning we woke up to rain on the roof, but it soon cleared enough to take care of one chore that we had been planning to do to get ready for our big move.

We headed over to our "new house" bright and early...well, maybe not so bright, but early...you can still see the raindrops on the trees and a foggy haze over the pond...

And our task for the morning was to replace this poor, broken and worn mailbox post with a new post so that we can start receiving mail there next week...after our closing on Monday.

We met our carpenter son there, who came equipped with tools and ready to work... 

#1 son and hubby worked hard to replace the post, digging out the old and putting in the new.

You can tell by the dampness on my son's shirt that it was hot and humid, even though it was still early morning...but they are both still smiling...it was a fun project for father and son.

Here we are, standing beside the finished mailbox, complete with new numbers and ready to receive mail. If you would like our address, send me a private message...

 And here is a glimpse of the front of our house. We still have a ways to go...that deck will be replaced next week before we can physically move our furniture in as it has some rotten boards and will not safely hold the weight of our furniture and the movers...

Once we are fully moved in, which will take a couple of weeks because we can't schedule the big move until the following week, we will start adding some flowers and pretty the place up a bit...

 But last night we went back over to enjoy the pond in the evening after the rain.  One thing I noticed is that the maple trees along the edge of the pond are already starting to turn red!  Fall must be in the air...even though it doesn't feel like fall quite yet...but we can dream!!

I probably won't be doing much posting in the next couple of weeks as we will be quite busy with our move...but hopefully I can check in from time to time.  We have a big event coming up next weekend in the middle of all this...our 50th Anniversary!  The actual date is the 16th, but we understand there will be a "surprise" celebration on the 17th.  We don't know any real details, but the kids had to tell us there would be something that day because otherwise we would have planned to move that day!!  So, happily we will put off the big move until the following week so we can take time to celebrate such a momentous occasion!  In the meantime, we will be doing some painting and preparing the house for the move...and giving thanks to the Lord for His marvelous provision for us in so many ways.  We are blessed and thankful for 50 years of marriage and praise God for His love and protection and grace.

Psalm 95: 1-7

"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

For the Lord is the great God,

and great King above all gods.

In His hand are the deep places of the earth;

The heights of the hills are His also.

The sea is His, for He made it;

and His hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; 

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For He is our God,

and we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep of His hand."

Staking Out Our Claim

We were excited to go by our "new house" property this week and see that the surveyor had been there to stake out our property boundaries:

 Front north-east corner

 Back north-west corner

Front south-east corner

Back south-west corner

This last one, the back south-west corner, took some doing for me to get to.  This corner is down by the pond, but deep in the woodsy lot that is on the south side of our property.

It is in this section of our lot that I hope to clear out an area for the "Secret/Memorial Garden".

 The pond is on the other side of those trees above, so it will take some doing to clear an area that will give some good pond views. (Not going to remove the trees)

 This is looking toward the front (east) of the lot, toward the street.

And this above looks back toward the house. So you can see it really isn't that far from the house.

There are many tangles of vines and trees and foliage, but it is cool and shady and with some brush cleared out it will be a lovely place to sit and pray, read, and meditate on God's Word. It may also be a nice little hideaway to have a little tea party now and then with the fairies...

Many people have asked if we would have a Secret Garden and/or Memorial Garden area at this house dedicated to the memory of our son.  Yes, we will. Our son Matthew loved to fish, and in my mind, I can see him standing on the shore of this pond and fishing to his heart's content. Maybe we will get a little row boat someday to paddle around in the pond, but it is too small for anything larger than that. (And probably too many lily pads as well). I know that Matthew would be very happy for us to have this place. I wish he could have been here to enjoy it with us...but somehow I think he will be here in spirit...and certainly in our hearts.

Meanwhile, we are getting closer and closer to closing on August 12.  We won't be able to move in immediately, but we are lining up things that need to be done to prepare for our move.  Needless to say, we are getting anxious and excited.

I will close with 

some thoughts from Psalm 37

3.  "Trust in the Lord, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

4.  Delight yourself also in the Lord,

and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

5.  Commit your way to the Lord,

Trust also in Him,

and He shall bring it to pass.

6.  He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

7.  Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,

because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass."

"25.  I have been young, and now am old;

Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,

nor his descendants begging bread.

26.  He is ever merciful, and lends;

and his descendants are blessed."

Praise be to God!!

Amen!

Meanwhile, While We Wait...

Good Morning!

(I started writing this early this morning, but it's been a busy morning full of interruptions, so now it is almost lunch time and I'm still working on this...)

One of the views of our pond at our "new house"...still beckoning me to hurry up and get moved over there...

Scripture:  Isaiah 49:13

"Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth! 

For the Lord comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones."

We are in a kind of holding pattern, 

 Like this bumblebee, hovering over the flowers, looking for his best next place to light and slurp his breakfast...

waiting for the next big move.  

 (Isn't this an interesting spider face, looking so winsome as he hangs in space from his spiderweb trapeze?)  Glad I didn't walk into this spider web as we took our morning walk today...

So thankful for this time of rest and preparation. God has been so gracious to us, giving us this wonderful place to retreat, here in our church's parsonage.  I was thinking back over the years as to how many parsonages we have actually lived in over the course of almost fifty years...each one was unique in its own way, and every place had its own peculiar responsibilities calling us to service. (I counted seven actual parsonages, but there were several other houses that we either owned or rented as we served in a pastoral role). I told my husband after we moved in here that I was feeling kind of guilty that we were enjoying this lovely place without any real responsibilities...no church leaders are calling for us to "get to work" to visit the sick, preach the sermons, attend to the funerals and weddings and myriad of other needs that come with the territory of the ministry.  But we know that with church membership there are also responsibilities incumbent upon each member to perform within the scope of their own personal gifts and abilities.  Once we get settled into our own house I expect we will be getting pretty busy with the people of our congregation in one way or another.

Speaking of our church, our church yard/property is currently being reduced in size due to the construction of an additional two lanes to the highway that runs in front of our campus:

 The white building you see here is our educational building. As you can see, the new lanes of the highway will be pretty close!

We did have a front yard full of these lovely big old live oak trees, but these are all that are left now:

Thankfully, the main  part of our church facility is actually facing another street, and will not be affected by this:

It would be terrible to lose this old historical building, so we are thankful it is still safe for now:

Perhaps by having the new road come so close to our church more people will see us and want to come and visit.

They would surely be welcome with open arms.

Here is our Call to Worship from the Evening Service last night:

"With friends and strangers,

with family and neighbors, we gather:

Come among us, Healing God,

with that love which never ends.

With faith reaching out to touch,

with hearts straining to trust, we hope:

Come among us, Friend of the broken,

with Your compassion which makes us whole.

With word and wonder,

with silence and song, we wait:

Come among us, Dryer of our tears,

to lift us to our feet to follow You."

Amen.

So, back to our move in progress...we are still waiting for everything to come together so we can close on our "new house".  Closing is currently set for August 12.  Meanwhile, we are lining everything up so that once the closing happens, work will begin immediately to make necessary repairs and then we can move in.  Hopefully we will be moved in by the end of the month..."Lord willing and the creek don't rise!"  This morning we took a little ride over to the "new house", just to touch base. I like to walk around the grounds and enjoy the atmosphere. We can't get inside the house unless the realtor comes with us, and I don't want to bother her.  But we did have a "visitor" waiting for us when we arrived:

 She was resting under the front deck (one of the things that is going to be repaired/replaced), and when she saw me she found a quick route under the house and out the back to the woods on the other side near the pond:

She is a pretty kitty, but I am assuming she is feral and probably won't let us get too close...although I was surprised she stood still long enough to let me take her picture. I just hope she doesn't have a litter of kittens hiding somewhere under the house...we'll cross that bridge if we come to it...

Here is a glimpse of our back yard and woods and pond on the right.  The steps/deck you see will become a part of a much larger deck that will span the back of the house from where you see them now to all the way back towards where I am standing and will end at the utility room door.  That will give us a nice viewpoint for enjoying the pond.  Our back yard isn't very deep, but the lot is wide...where you see those trees in front of you is a wooded lot that is part of our land. That is where I plan to clear out an area to put "The Secret/Memorial Garden", overlooking the pond.

Here is the back looking from the other direction. The new deck will go from the sliding doors all the way to the utility room door, and be about 32' X 8'.  We won't be able to cover it with a porch roof at this time, but maybe sometime in the future. Yes, the house needs to be pressure-washed and freshened up on the outside.  I will keep you posted as we make progress on this...

So that is enough info for today.  Thank you for hanging in with me. I am trying to get around and visit you all more this week since things seem to have calmed down a little bit. 

(Famous last words! Ha!)

Have a blessed and wonderful week!  May God bless you with His steadfast love and kindness and mercy every day. Amen.

Closed Doors, Open Windows to our New Life

First of all, let me say a big THANK YOU to all of you who have taken a moment to read and respond to my previous post HERE.  It has been such a busy time, and there just hasn't been time for me to reply to each comment, but I have read them and cherish your thoughts and each and every one of YOU.  Likewise, I haven't been able to get around and visit everyone else as I should, so I pray you will forgive me. Once this move is completely over there should be more time to visit.  It seems my brain, like this wind spinner,  is going in too many different directions right now, and I can't seem to focus on any one thing long enough to compose my thoughts.  So bear with me. It's going to get better soon. 

This is my reminder to "Rejoice in each new day"...even when I'm bone weary tired! Just sit down in the back yard of the Parsonage and relax with a cup of tea (when it's not too hot to be outside...) and let God restore and revive my weary bones and spirit...

So here is an update on what's been happening since we last visited. We finally got all of our stuff out of the old house and got it cleaned and ready for the new owners. I wish I could say it looked as good as new...but in reality, it looked pretty sad and in need of some new carpet (or no carpet at all...which would have been my choice!) and probably some fresh paint.  I didn't take any pictures of the house after we completely emptied it...it just looked too "sad".  But I must tell you that I was not sad...just very glad...and thankful that God had finally "Closed" that door...and has now "Opened" a very lovely large window into our future, and we are extremely thankful and rejoicing in what He has done.

We did bring with us some very special things and "critters"....This beautiful bench that my sons made for me for the Secret Garden...which will soon have a new home in a new Secret Garden at our new home...

These few plants from the Memorial Garden, especially the Rose of Sharon bush that my daughter in law selected because of its purple flowers, and one of the climbing Don Juan rose bushes that my siblings gave me for the Memorial Garden. I have since cut them back and am keeping them well watered, and praying they will survive thee move.

These little bunnies look like they are kind of unsure about where they are and what's going on, but they will also soon find a new home in the new Secret Garden...

Along with Mr. Froggy_Splatt...who seems to be quite pleased right where he is. I think he will love the new pond setting at the new house...

 And of course we couldn't leave behind Bobby the Squirrel...He is making friends here in the back yard...well, maybe not...I can hear the resident squirrels in the treetops scolding him for just sitting there and not coming up the tree to play...

Yesterday was the final closing for our "old" house, and the new buyers signed their papers and paid their money, and we are now totally free from that house. I can only say to you that we feel a profound sense of relief and thanksgiving. I do pray they will love it and enjoy it and make it their own very special home.

Meanwhile, we are getting prepared for our next move into our new home. Our closing there will not be until August 12, but we have many things to take care of in the meantime. Lining up quotes for some of the repair work that we need to do to make it our own home, as well as making sure all of the paper work is done prior to closing.  This keeps my brain swimming with details, and many lists are being made.  I am so glad we have this interim time to accomplish these tasks. God certainly had it all timed perfectly.

And speaking of God...the whole purpose in making this move was because we fell in love with this community and this church and these people.  I know I haven't shared any Sermon Notes in a while. Let me say that our new pastor is doing an excellent job in preaching to us exactly what we need to hear...this past Sunday was about us being the "Temple of God"..taken from I Corinthians 3:16-17 and I Corinthians 6:19-20.  Interestingly, our Sunday School lesson was on us being the "Body of Christ"...so between these two lessons we are understanding even better just who we are in the grand plan of God...we are His Temple, where He dwells, and we are Christ's Body, and we each have a very important purpose in being here...to love one another and to encourage the other members of the Body of Christ...to share the love of Christ with the world, and to worship and honor God with all that we do....

And one more beautiful part of this is that now we are able to also attend the Sunday evening service at church. We couldn't go before because it was just too far for us to travel two times in one day, but now we are about a mile from the church and have no good excuse! So we were blessed by the evening service, filled with music and praise and prayer...I told our friends there that I felt like I had been to "Camp Meeting"...it was so refreshing and filled with joy.  We are looking forward to adding this to our Sunday worship each week. 

Now to end on a funny note...this past weekend my hubby made the mistake of throwing something up in the air and it landed in this big tree beside the house (the parsonage).  Well, it got stuck in the tree, and so he tried to find something to knock it back down. Before he was done he had brooms, pipes, rakes and even a small shovel stuck up in that tree! I kid you not!  That tree has branches that grasp anything you throw and refuses to let go! SO, last evening our kids came over to visit and brought pizza for supper! (Another reason for our being so happy here...our kids live just a couple of miles away)...and they all took their turns trying to knock all these things out of the tree...it finally took a few hits with a large plastic bottle filled with water to knock most of the items down...there is still a broom that refuses to let go, however...and so we will save that for another day...

 Here below our daughter in law is throwing a Bocce Ball into the tree to see if that would knock the items down...she had a good arm and I think she was more successful than the guys at getting things knocked down.   We had to quit because a big storm was brewing and we didn't want to get hit by lightning....which soon became quite close and frequent...

After the storm and after the kids went back home, hubby and I took a walk and enjoyed this sunset...

And thus we come to the end of another day...but a day filled with joy and promise and hope for our new life here in this new "Open Window".  It won't be long before we will be moving into our new house and will have many more new adventures to share with you.  But for now, if you don't hear from me regularly, just pray that God is giving me the strength to keep up with everything each day. I know He will...but it's nice to know you are praying.

Have a blessed and glorious day wherever you are and in whatever adventures God is calling you to do.  Remember, God is with you wherever you go...He will never leave you nor forsake you...just trust in Him and He will guide you and keep you safe in the palm of His loving hands. 

"Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." 

Isaiah 41:10