Two Weeks in Review

So much has happened in the past two weeks that I’m not sure where to start. It was two weeks packed with MANY things to do, little sleep, lots of deadlines, pressure, crazy meal times, challenges, uncertainty and just not enough time! At times I thought everything would come together, but at other times I really did not think it would.

A week and a half before our move in date Andrew and I were working on the house when we noticed water seeping out the downstairs wall. We had a driving south rain and after much investigation found out that the upstairs window was leaking down the wall, through the floor, and down through the insulation to the downstairs floor. I had to pull off several panels of insulation so they would dry; some had to be replaced, but we were thankful it happened before the drywall was installed. Andrew was thoroughly disgusted that it happened after the insulation was in. A little window tape fixed that problem….but that was only the first water leak before we moved in.

  The Saturday before we moved we had a work day with our church. The barn, rails to the stairs and dry walling the upstairs bathroom was started; also the water line was put in the house.      

We also trucked in gravel…after sinking in the mud onceJ

Andrew’s new set of chicks came in….at all times!

Our “shop” till we build one this fall/winter was delivered. I think it’s a cute addition to our little homestead.

We put some sod on the north side of the house.

Lines for the water and electric were dug.

Banister was put in.

A week before moving in I was able to start working on the walls. When a friend heard not even half, of everything I had to do in a week she offered to help. We had so much fun priming, painting, mudding, and texturing walls together! That’s more then I can say when I do it alone…all of those are such boring jobs; though texturing; particularly ceilings, is the worse :). Add another person and you get someone to talk too; for hours, tease, and make some memories with.

Hannah actually braved standing on this very wobbly spool of wire to reach the top :)

Wednesday; two days before moving day, we had a problem arise. I was thinking/excited that everything was going to come together; surprisingly. It was all lining up for a smooth move into our new house, our entire “to do” list would be completely done by Saturday night and nothing would have to be pushed off to early Monday morning or skipped! On Wednesday Andrew was all excited to finally try out his plumbing. Due to the time crunch the last week we would work into the wee hours of the morning, go home catch a few hours of sleep, and then come back. Turning on the water for the first time ended up happening late at night. For ten minutes everything was fine and nothing was leaking in the house but then we heard some gurgling noises in the little downstairs bathroom. Next thing we knew, water was pouring out from under the foundation. We thought it had just poured out into the laundry room, under the stairs, and working into the dining room when I happened to look in the master bedroom. Just about the whole thing along with the bathroom and closet were flooded. I had never dealt with such a mess; we could not believe how much water came pouring out by the time Andrew got it turned off. As Dad made the run to wal-mart for a bigger shop vac, and we stayed up till the very wee hours of the morning cleaning up, we imagined all sorts of things that would have to be done to fix it; like having to break up part of the back porch and/or foundation. We hoped it was something simple, but in the middle of the night two days before moving in with half the down stairs flooded nothing looks simple. Moving in on Saturday just wasn’t looking like it was going to happen; so much for everything lining up! Thankfully the problem was just under the master tub and only part of the cement had to be cut out; the one bad thing was Andrew lost almost a whole day fixing the problem; when we already didn’t have enough time.

Little downstairs bathroom. The hole by the wall was where it all started. Since it was the pressure line leaking, it forced all sorts of mud and sand up from under the foundation.

Master closet after cleaning over three quarters of it. Along with our original shop vac…way to small for such a mess!

This sight about gave all of us a heart-attack :) It's not a good feeling to see a large swath of water racing toward a couple hundred dollars worth of drywall. We praise God that nothing was damaged during all of this, we always "happened" to get things up or moved in the nick of time.

In the process of being fixed

Thursday evening things were pretty disheartening, there was so much to do and there was only a day left! And now after getting just about the whole house clean for move in, there was a nice mess left over from the leak. Which flooded the little bathroom again when the guys plus Steve Shetler were fixing it Thursday; by then Andrew wouldn’t leave the water on without us there. Thursday was not a fun day, especially working out our “old” house and seeing everything that had to be done and knowing the state the “new” house was in. Late Thursday night I came to the “new” house to start cleaning again, little knowing that God was about to remind me that in spite of what everything looked like He was still in control. I no sooner got there when a little girl from our church came with her dad; with her was a bunch of wildflowers she had picked for me. It reminded me of the passage in the bible of God taking care of everything we need. After that little reminder things seemed to fall into place.

Friends of ours came up early Friday afternoon from Duncan to help; that was such a blessing to us. They actually dared to stay with Young family while they moved; that was pretty brave. Some of them went right to work on the house and I gained another mom. Not only was that a big help as she help me with the “old” house, but it also was someone else to make sure I was taking care of myself…truly I did need two moms for a few days. And my own mother spent almost the whole afternoon Friday at Lowes getting the umpteen things the guys would call her for. She was patiently our runner for everything; even I needed her to get me more boxes, and packing materials.

Friday evening began the moving. A lot of guys from our church came to move all our outside things and everything in the shops. That was such a huge relief to have done! But even more so was Tuesday getting both shops packed with a lady from our church; that actually only took a morning and it was a huge job done!

Some of the guys lined up and twisted the hooks off, it was a rather amusing sight; not to mention their comments about it :)

So there’s a bit of a review of the past two weeks, future posts well show more of what we did; building the barn, pouring the back porch and moving. I’m writing this late at night and am determined that all late nights are finished. So I’m headed up to my cozy bed, in my nice big room to look up at the rafters, insulation, and collar ties (can I not wait till it’s finished!) and realize that we actually did get through the last two weeks and are finally in our new home!