Get 'er done!

Sept. 2: So much has taken shape in the last four weeks. Pablo, the mason, spent two days bricking our limestone fireplace. Matt's mesquite wood log from Kingsbury, Texas, provided the mantel. A man from Conroe, Texas, came with a portable saw mill to cut the mantel. It still needs to be finished out, but we didn't have time to do it before it was mounted.

Pablo also bricked our bar face front. It looks really neat.

Sept. 14: Tran rents a trencher for us and Matt spends the weekend cutting three ditches. One for the main power line to go from pole to house. Another for the water line and the last for the septic line. It took a lot of time witching for the current water lines, digging them up by hand, trenching the ditches, and then digging out various spots by hand. And then...it rained on Sunday when we thought we would be laying the electric lines! We felt mad, defeated, then finally resigned. We covered the ditches with plastic to try to keep out the next two weeks worth of rain, but water still filled the ditches (or the plastic) and even caved in a section. So...back to more hand digging. And now we're waiting for it to dry out. Maybe this weekend we'll get the power line laid. We simply must trust God for His timing, not ours.

Matt and girls dig out the current water line.

Matt and Kalaya dig in the now muddy ditches after Sunday's rain.

Sept. 22: The ditch after two weeks of rain. We use the kids' beach buckets to bail water. Ugh!

Tran is building all the cabinets in the house. Here are the upper kitchen cabinets. They will be painted white soon. Maybe today!

Miguel is putting the crown moulding above and trim on the bottom of the cabinets. Sure gives it a much more finished look.


Yesterday, Paco put in all three bathroom vanities. They look great! It takes a lot of grinding to smooth it all out, plus he installed the undermount sinks.


We chose Golden Peacock granite. You can see the flecks of gold here. It has a slight greenish hue also. It will also be on the kitchen counters soon!


Just a few things left to complete this house. It is time to "get 'er done"!

Painted!

August 21-26: Rafael and Francisco finished painting the inside of the house!

Brigid's room is Solaria (SW 6688).

The living room is Red Cent (SW 6341).

The kitchen and office is Jersey Cream (SW 6379) same as the outside of our house.
The slate is coming along, too! Check out that floor!

The half-bath and library are Blue Peacock (SW0064). Very dark green.

The hallways are painted Decor White which turned out cream like. Looks great!

A Room With a Hue

Aug. 20: The painters move to the master bedroom and bath today. Yesterday they painted a band of Blue Peacock (SW 0064) above the crown molding. Today they did the walls in Peacock Plume (SW 0020). They also did our closet, entryway and bathroom in the same. It's amazing what color does to define the room.



Tran also brought more cabinets. I like the way he decorated the corners on my kitchen sink counter. He's a great carpenter.

Of Rainbows and Treasure Troves

Aug. 9: Jesus and son Valentino finish the tile in both bath tubs. They cut squares of what will be our slate floor and inset them into the tile. It turned out really neat!


I bought some vase beads at Wal-Mart at their suggestion and they inset them with some chopped up tile to construct a custom-made border in the kids' bath. It's sparkly and beautiful!

Jesus gave me a brief testimony of how the Lord got a hold of his heart and also his son's just in the last year. It has been my prayer that this house would also be a ministry. It was very exciting to find encouragement with another believer in Christ right in the middle of new house construction. Praise God!


Aug. 12: Miguel has worked hard to put up all the trim everywhere. He shared with me one day how God had laid it on his heart to help build houses for those who couldn't afford it. He also gave me his testimony of how he came to work for Tran last year after losing his own construction business in another state. Despite his loss, he praises God for what he has and where he is today. What a neat man!

And very talented, too! Look at the sneaky door between the two kids' bedrooms I asked him to put in the wall that the two closets share. He cut a door in half and framed it in. How cool is that!


Check out the other side of the sneaky door, this time after the painters, Francisco and Rafael, have primed and sanded the trim. They did that to ALL the wood trim and baseboards, shelves, window sills and interior doors. Then they painted them with a high-gloss, enamel white paint. What a shine! Lots of work in the heat and fumes since the windows were taped and covered and couldn't be opened. They even wore special suits and a mask while they sprayed. When they left they looked snow-dusted on their hair, faces and eyelashes.

I enjoy the painters a lot. They are very friendly and smiley and they helped me last week when Prolly got into a dog fight with a little female basset hound who wandered onto our property.




Aug. 13: Tuan Tran is building our cabinets and he brought most of them to the house to sand, prime, paint and install. He also commissioned Miguel to put up my pantry shelves. I am most proud of this storage space as I have never had a decent pantry. Thank you, Lord, for 9 foot ceilings and wall-to-wall shelving!



Aug. 19: Tran arrives with the Sherwin Williams paint today! We go over where each color will go. (I only have 8 different colors...) Francisco and Rafael begin with Sarina and Lavery's room. They actually ran out of Party Time Pink (SW 6849) and I had to buy another gallon. They had just enough Lavish Lavender (SW 6975) to finish the room. It's very girly, no? S & L were thrilled. The walls literally glow.


Just before sunset tonight, I saw this rainbow in the sky and I found my pot of gold right beneath! It's not just the house itself that is such a treasure, but the family that it will hold close for many years to come.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:21

Workin' on the Walls

The sheet rock guy, Cirino, has different crews for hanging the sheet rock, taping and floating, and texturing. Four guys came July 19 and hung all the sheet rock in one day! Wow!

July 22-24: Jose and Doro are the tape and float crew. It took them 3 days and they are masters at what they do! They were also very nice and smiley. The girls and I liked them alot. It is cool to watch Doro walk around on stilts!


July 23: Matt spends several hours installing security sensors in all the windows and doors. It's hot work!

July 25: Matt, Sarina and I spend a few hours stuffing yellow paper into all the electrical outlets on the walls and in the ceiling. We don't want the texture to get sprayed inside. Prolly even comes in the house to lay on the cool cement floor.



July 26: Cirino's last crew comes in to texture. I chose medium knock-off texture for everything. It looks great!


July 29: Tran takes Matt and I to Houston to pick out tile and granite. He is a very unique builder in that he gives us his contractor price on most things and doesn't add any cost to the materials. We choose laminate flooring for most of the house; slate for the kitchen, master bathroom, and utility room; and tile for the kids' bathroom floor and for the tub/shower walls. We buy our sinks and granite called Golden Peacock.

That night I cried. I am absolutely overwhelmed by all the upgrades! I kept telling Matt, "I don't know how to feel about all this stuff we're buying. We're linoleum people! What am I supposed to do with slate and tile?"

I have to remind myself that God has opened the doors to make this house possible. I must stay focused on Him. I must praise Him, even while it stresses me to make so many decisions about the new house.

The next day, I saw my fashion consultant--my sister Kamala. She helped me work through some color and tile issues and rediscover the excitement in building something new. It is an awesome project with an awesome husband. Thank you, God, for this opportunity!

Getting REAL

Monday, July 19, 2010: A crew of four men arrive at 9:30 a.m. to hang the sheet rock. They work until nearly 8:30 p.m. but they finish the job in one day! This photo is of the fireplace in the living room. When the girls walked into the house at the end of the day, Lavery said, "Wow! It looks like a REAL house on the inside!" They like to hide in the closets and other nooks where we can't see them now.

A Halfway House

July 13, 2010 - It's come a long way from just walls! The outside is basically finished. There are still a few things to complete. The past two months have been busy!
*Matt, his dad and his brother did the wiring themselves. This house will be well lit and have a variety of switches to flip.
*Bay City Electric is doing the A/C. As soon as they finish this week, we can start sheet rocking the inside.
*Insealation brought our woodburning fireplace this past Saturday and installed it.
*Genuine Austin Limestone was brought in and our mason Pablo did a great job on the chimney & columns. It was hot and hard work. The girls and I brought them tea when we could.
*Tran's painters did a great job with the exterior. The colors are Sherwin Williams Jersey Cream and Egret White for the trim.
*Tran's nephew Huy has done a great job on the plumbing.
*The two tubs are the only other fixtures already set in the house.

God has been very gracious with His timing. He continues to assure us that He will see this tremendous project through to its finish. We give Him praise! We're halfway to a home.

The Walls!

April 20: Tran's men begin framing the house! Three sides make it up before quitting time. They have chalked out the floor plan on the slab and it is neat to walk through the house. Matt and I were up until midnight last night measuring rooms and conferring with the blueprints. By doing away with the limestone exterior we have gained 11 inches all around in floor space. NEAT! The house is really taking shape now!

Making Our Mark in History

After spending three weeks of our lives watching the back yard morph into our new home site, the girls and I felt we needed to make our mark in the history of this house. They stamped their handprints in the wet cement the day it was poured as if to say, "We were here!" We've been here, alright! Every day we've been here watching with excitement and wonder and amazement.

I pray that we may also stamp a Christ-like imprint on all those we come in contact with throughout this project. Not so much to say, "We were here!" More importantly to say, "Christ lives here!"

A Firm Foundation

April 8 The girls and I watch Gulf Coast Ready Mix deliver 15 concrete trucks of cement! Olguin's men show up at 6:25 a.m. to prepare for their arrival. The first truck rolls in around 7:15. The girls and I scurry through the house to throw on clothes and boots and hurry out to watch the show!

It's a cool, windy day. The girls wrap up with blankets and pillows on a bench. The workers start a fire for warmth. I serve a pot of fresh coffee to them when there is a lull between trucks. By 10:30 all the trucks have gone and the foundation is smoothed out. Most of the workers head to another job. Four workers spend the rest of the day putting the final touches on our pad. Olguin himself helps to finish up. I tell him it looks good and ask him to take a picture with me and the girls. He does! They finish up and leave about 4:30.

A Time to Build

"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build..." Ecclesiastes 3:1-3

Five years ago Matt began to dream and plot and plan. I harumphed.


Three years ago he printed a floor plan. I harumphed again, but I peeked at it with interest. I made a few remarks, he made some new marks and printed again.

A year and half ago Matt took his little house plan to Grady Montgomery, an architect from Gonzales who hand drew the layout of our dream house. I didn't harumph this time. I perked up and listened and even put my two cents worth in when I could. Before my very eyes the dazzling possibility of building our own house began to unfold.

Last Easter I picked up our blueprints from Grady. It was time. Time to build!

Soon I found myself surveying our ten acres with Matt. We picked a spot and I began to believe that it really was God's will for us to build a house. And He has been so faithful to that end already!

Over the course of another year we looked for a builder and a bank. We shook hands with Tuan Tran, a local Vietnamese builder out of Bay City, back in July. Things were shaping up!

The financing was a lengthy ordeal that forced us to build up some "intestinal fortitude". We "fired" one bank very near to closing and began a happier relationship with a local bank that got us to a signing in 3 1/2 weeks! Now we're cooking!

March 19: I got the building permit from the county.

March 20: Pedro Olguin and Tran come out to shoot the elevation. Matt and I take Sarina and Lavery out to the barn to help tear down a fence. The neighbors run over to help us pull nails before a storm moves in. Too late! Just as I head to the house with the girls, dime-size hail hammers us. "Run!" I scream to Sarina as I scoop up Lavery and cover her head. Sarina cries all the way back to the house because a piece of hail hurt her finger. She manages to throw open the house door and we dive inside while hail pours in around us. I slam the door shut and lie panting on the floor with the kids. In less than 8 minutes the hail is replaced by a roaring downpour of rain and a soaked Matt appears at the door. At least he had taken cover in the barn during the hail. What a freakish way to start our project!

March 22: We break ground! McCoy's delivers the lumber and Olguin's men put up the forms for the foundation. We put on our favorite Irish music, Gaelic Storm, and do a jig with the girls in the living room!

March 23: Tran's men build an outhouse and set it up over our septic tank! It'll save us over $200 a month in port-a-potty rental fees. Plus it gives us a lot to laugh about!

March 24-25: The girls and I hoot and shout as we count 14 dump trucks spill fresh dirt on our foundation. We make it our ministry to take ice tea to the workers. Felipe, Arturo and the others thank us. They are hard workers.

March 30-31: The plumber Rosando Vargas comes and puts in stubouts. Matt goes out each night and inspects and measures and stews. Olguin's men work hard digging the ditches by hand with shovels.

While talking with Vargas today I noticed he was holding a flower. The man next to him had a bright yellow flower stuck in his button hole. I looked around and saw another worker with a purple flower hanging out of his mouth as he shoveled dirt from a two foot deep ditch. Then I saw Sarina and Lavery running from the grassy yard to the dirt covered foundation passing out wild flowers to all the workers. Some of them were grinning sheepishly. I hope the girls remember this time of building. It is affording us the opportunity to show hospitality and to minister to those who are making our dream become a reality.