Good morning, Troops!
Your sister in combat is posting this message from the front. The front of the lawn, that is. Months ago we began the battle for a new home, most recently taking our encampment from one side of the lawn to the other. Since the relocation, Bob and I have gone on vacation in Maine and returned, only to see him ship out to Canton to take care of the rabbit farm there, as he does each summer for his friend.
I thought it was about time for an update on the house, so here goes: Things feel like they are moving slowly on our end. In reality, I guess construction people are hard at work on our foundation walls and mod at this point, so that’s something to be happy about, but on our end, it feels like we’re moving in slo-mo.
We had a bit of drama over windows for the house during the last two weeks. Before vacation, our seller called, saying they could not supply the windows we had contracted for and wanted to trade them out for another brand. I was pretty uncomfortable with that suggestion and started to do some research on my own about the replacement he suggested. Windows are pretty important in the scheme of things, I think, and the brand he was suggesting had a lot of bad reviews on the internet. I thought, “What do I know of windows?” My education was about to begin.
Through a series of phone calls and persistent wranglings back and forth, our seller at last notified me that he could get us the window brand we had originally contracted for with the mod, after all. Phew! Lesson learned: Persistence may not make you popular, but it does pay off. In the end, we actually upgraded to an Energy Star window, in the hope that we would qualify for the government tax credit when we file our taxes at the end of the year. I think we’ll obtain the best energy savings we can afford with these windows, and hope it will all pay off in the end, when our fuel bills come in much lower than when we were living in the trailer.
The first ”set date” suggested for the home was Sept. 2 or 3rd. Sol (our excavator) says that is probably too ambitious, and that it will take a while longer to get the crawl space up and ready to receive the mod. He promised to work with seller on scheduling, so that everyone knows what everyone else is doing–here’s hoping.
No ground has been broken yet. I suspect with the wet summer we’ve had, Sol doesn’t want to dig a hole, only to have it fill up with water and then have to empty it out and repair water damage. Can’t blame him, but Bob is mighty anxious to see some progress made.
As of right now, we are living in the trailer across the lawn from the construction site, suffering without TV, internet, landline or good cell reception. The ONLY place I can make or receive cell calls is in the back corner of the hallway, in front of my bedroom door, facing the closed door-so if you call, leave a message and I’ll return it as soon as I stand in that exact position to check it. :/ Hey, tough times build character, right???
At present, we spend our nights working on two dressers we decided to strip and repaint before moving them in to the new digs. Can you say MULTIPLE LAYERS OF SHELLAC three times fast. Oh, my goodness, those people of old were ambitious!
We are excited to see the yard change over the next month, and will take lots of pics that we can share with you. Again, hopefully. We are invested in enormous quantities of hope these days, and know our good God will not let us down.
Weekends continue to be busy times, even as we sort through numerous packed boxes to either retrieve things we need between now and the next move, or to consolidate and throw away more unnecessary items. You accumulate a lot over 30 years of living together.
We want to say a big THANK YOU to those who came the night before the trailer was moved and gave of their time to help us get the behemoth ready. We are truly blessed to call you family and friends. You’re the BEST!
We would ask that you keep us in your prayers, going forward from today. This is a big undertaking for us and something we would not have hoped to dare to do without God’s intervention. We’ve seen His hand in many of the developments over the last few months, including the change to a new bank a long way into the process. He’s good all the time, so we do not fear. Rather, we look forward, expectantly, to the good times we will have and the financial savings we will obtain once our new home is in place and we are occupying those new rooms.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
“Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:16
Gobble, gobble.
11:38am today, I’m on lunch, but my mind is still at the office. I pull into BK’s parking lot and multi-tasking, per usual, I grab the current crazy book I’m reading in snip and snaps between life, and I exit the car, thinking the whole time that I have tons of paperwork in the back seat that has SSN’s and other private stuff on it, left over from being at the law office during closing last night. I want to protect our identity, from miscreants and especially car theives, so I want to make sure I lock the car doors, right? I do. I reach over, hit the manual lock button on the driver door, exit the car and head for the lobby of the restaurant. It isn’t until I’m half way there I think, “Oh, no, did I lock the keys in the car?”
