We ordered cabinets for the kitchen today. I'm holding the receipt. Need I say more?
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Lotsa Concrete
The floor of the crawl space under the addition was poured today. More large trucks in the back yard, more big muddy ruts in the lawn.
We spent a few hours on Saturday moving the dirt from the big piles on the lawn into the hole beside the new foundation wall. One shovel-full at a time. Abigail even helped for a while. She had a small trenching shovel, and every scoop of dirt she would hold up high and say, "Look, Daddy! Look how big THIS load is!" Not only was I moving my own loads of dirt, I was inspecting and acknowledging every load of dirt that Abigail was moving. Helping out was her idea, however, and she willingly moved dirt with the rest of us.
Today the floor was poured, so at least that part has a finished look about it. Now, with the weather becoming frosty at night, the hole in the house is becoming a problem...
We spent a few hours on Saturday moving the dirt from the big piles on the lawn into the hole beside the new foundation wall. One shovel-full at a time. Abigail even helped for a while. She had a small trenching shovel, and every scoop of dirt she would hold up high and say, "Look, Daddy! Look how big THIS load is!" Not only was I moving my own loads of dirt, I was inspecting and acknowledging every load of dirt that Abigail was moving. Helping out was her idea, however, and she willingly moved dirt with the rest of us.
Today the floor was poured, so at least that part has a finished look about it. Now, with the weather becoming frosty at night, the hole in the house is becoming a problem...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Foundation Wall Up
Some of us were barely out of bed this morning when the block crew arrived. It was nearly dark. I suppose we could have stayed in bed and just watched them, since we have been sleeping on the 3-season porch right next to the addition. A whole swarm of guys arrived with all their equipment and had the wall finished by noon.
Next up is to pour the floor.
Next up is to pour the floor.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
A House Full of Holes
If we weren't committed yesterday, then we are really committed today. I had a guy come out and cut a large hole in the foundation wall of our house, and we took out a large section of the 10-inch thick concrete to make an access hole into the eventual crawl space under the addition. Now I just have to move some of the plumbing that is directly in front of the hole (visible in the picture).
Why, oh why, does every job eventually involve plumbing??
Why, oh why, does every job eventually involve plumbing??
Monday, September 27, 2010
The Big Dig
I guess we're committed now. There's a big hole in the back yard and the place is a mess. I took a day off work because there were some things to keep track of so I got to document the whole process in pictures:
Kerkstra Septic Tank Cleaning was there within a half hour, and a half hour after that, the tank was empty and the sides had been collapsed in.
Progress once again. Here the hole is almost complete.
By now all the trucks and equipment had made mincemeat out of the lawn.
The footing guys came a short while later and poured the footings.
End of Day 1. Progress.
Starting Out. First thing that came up was the buried power, phone and Ethernet cables running to the barn.
Oops. We knew the old septic system was here somewhere, but after over 25 years of non-use, we figured the tank would be pretty much dry. It wasn't. When we broke through the lid, it was full within a foot of the top.
Kerkstra Septic Tank Cleaning was there within a half hour, and a half hour after that, the tank was empty and the sides had been collapsed in.
Progress once again. Here the hole is almost complete.
By now all the trucks and equipment had made mincemeat out of the lawn.
The footing guys came a short while later and poured the footings.
End of Day 1. Progress.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Home Improvement
When we bought our house 19 years ago, the one feature that Deb wasn't crazy about was the kitchen. The location of the house was great, it had great "bone structure" (although the wall and floor coverings were badly in need of updating), and it fit our family well. The galley kitchen was passable as long as there was only one cook. And for a long time there was only one cook.
So we've lived with this non-ideal kitchen for all these years, making several cosmetic updates. When dinner guests come over, the arrangement of the house naturally causes all the incoming guests to congregate in the kitchen, which makes for extreme congestion, just when the meal comes out of the oven.
We now have two cooks. Abigail, now that she has acquired the language and has become more comfortable in our family, has gravitated to the kitchen as one of the places she likes to be. She likes to cook. She loves "cook's privilege" (the cook gets to lick out the bowl). So we finally decided that the kitchen was in need of a more extreme makeover. After a few months of planning, we're moving ahead with the project. The kitchen is going to grow.
Along with the kitchen, the adjoining half bath is moving, and we're adding a room onto the back of the house, a sort-of homeschool room or sitting room that adjoins the kitchen and shares open space with the kitchen. In the picture below, the wall area between the two red lines will be removed and extended out about 19 feet into the back yard.
The permits are in place, the plans are drawn up, and excavation begins on Monday, September 27. We'll post pictures as this progresses.
So we've lived with this non-ideal kitchen for all these years, making several cosmetic updates. When dinner guests come over, the arrangement of the house naturally causes all the incoming guests to congregate in the kitchen, which makes for extreme congestion, just when the meal comes out of the oven.
We now have two cooks. Abigail, now that she has acquired the language and has become more comfortable in our family, has gravitated to the kitchen as one of the places she likes to be. She likes to cook. She loves "cook's privilege" (the cook gets to lick out the bowl). So we finally decided that the kitchen was in need of a more extreme makeover. After a few months of planning, we're moving ahead with the project. The kitchen is going to grow.
Along with the kitchen, the adjoining half bath is moving, and we're adding a room onto the back of the house, a sort-of homeschool room or sitting room that adjoins the kitchen and shares open space with the kitchen. In the picture below, the wall area between the two red lines will be removed and extended out about 19 feet into the back yard.
The permits are in place, the plans are drawn up, and excavation begins on Monday, September 27. We'll post pictures as this progresses.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Tales from the Front Pew, Chapter 11
Abigail has a new friend.
LeiAnna, who is nine years old, was adopted a month ago by close friends of ours. LeiAnna is busy adapting to a completely new culture, language, and family, and they are going through what we went through about a year and a half ago. Lots of adjustments and you never know what is going to happen.
One of those adjustments is sitting through church services. Orphanage children generally do not sit through church services, so this is a new adjustment for them. One of the big things is just keeping the child from being too distracting to others while a stranger stands in front and speaks for a half hour or more in a language that she doesn't understand.
This past Sunday evening, Abigail was delighted when LeiAnna was seated right next to her. They became friends almost instantly when LeiAnna came home from China and they are always excited to see each other.
The two girls held hands through much of the church service. During the prayer, I was distracted by Abigail's hand hitting my leg. Abigail is an inquisitive child, with lots of questions, so she taps me regularly with a question. But this was not her usual soft tap. It was a full backhand slap. I was about to ask her what was wrong when I saw LeiAnna grab Abigail's hand and wind up for another swing at my leg. I quickly grabbed Abigail's hand, which seemed to satisfy LeiAnna. LeiAnna was holding Abigail's other hand as well as her dad's hand, who was seated next to her. Apparently, in LeiAnna's household, they hold hands during prayer, so LeiAnna thought everyone held hands during prayer. Seeing that Abigail and I were not holding hands, she sought to rectify the situation.
We have been observing the adjustments that have been happening in that family for the last month with interest, not because we enjoy seeing them go through difficult adjustments but because we have been there and can sympathize with them, and also because it confirms for us that what we went through over a year ago was actually sort of normal when adopting an older child. We really weren't such a nutty family as we appeared to be.
So getting slugged during prayer in church was not all that abnormal after all.
LeiAnna, who is nine years old, was adopted a month ago by close friends of ours. LeiAnna is busy adapting to a completely new culture, language, and family, and they are going through what we went through about a year and a half ago. Lots of adjustments and you never know what is going to happen.
One of those adjustments is sitting through church services. Orphanage children generally do not sit through church services, so this is a new adjustment for them. One of the big things is just keeping the child from being too distracting to others while a stranger stands in front and speaks for a half hour or more in a language that she doesn't understand.
This past Sunday evening, Abigail was delighted when LeiAnna was seated right next to her. They became friends almost instantly when LeiAnna came home from China and they are always excited to see each other.
The two girls held hands through much of the church service. During the prayer, I was distracted by Abigail's hand hitting my leg. Abigail is an inquisitive child, with lots of questions, so she taps me regularly with a question. But this was not her usual soft tap. It was a full backhand slap. I was about to ask her what was wrong when I saw LeiAnna grab Abigail's hand and wind up for another swing at my leg. I quickly grabbed Abigail's hand, which seemed to satisfy LeiAnna. LeiAnna was holding Abigail's other hand as well as her dad's hand, who was seated next to her. Apparently, in LeiAnna's household, they hold hands during prayer, so LeiAnna thought everyone held hands during prayer. Seeing that Abigail and I were not holding hands, she sought to rectify the situation.
We have been observing the adjustments that have been happening in that family for the last month with interest, not because we enjoy seeing them go through difficult adjustments but because we have been there and can sympathize with them, and also because it confirms for us that what we went through over a year ago was actually sort of normal when adopting an older child. We really weren't such a nutty family as we appeared to be.
So getting slugged during prayer in church was not all that abnormal after all.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Project Completion
It's done. Finished. Completed. Culminated. Ended. Mopped Up. Finalized. Wrapped Up.
After about eight months of work, the house we have been rehabbing in downtown Grand Rapids is complete. The last thing to be done was a re-build of the chimney (I hired that job out). Our work included painting entire exterior and most of the interior, gutting and redoing two bathrooms, refinishing hardwood floors, rebuilding the concrete steps on the front porch, replacing most of the wiring and most of the plumbing, installing four new windows and several doors, new heating system, new water heaters, tearing off six layers of shingles and putting a new roof on (hired out), and a list of other tasks that would probably fill a good sized book.
About halfway through the project, I started to maintain a list of tasks to be done. As the project progressed, that list grew as we thought of more tasks. There came a time when the list started to get smaller. About two months ago, the list could be printed on a single page. At that point, it seemed we were "almost done". We also discovered that "almost done" can last a long time. It seems that the list doesn't seem to get any shorter, the details on the list just get smaller. For example, list items like "install tub surround", and "rebuild kitchen cabinets" gave way to "trim the bedroom door so it actually closes", and "caulk the bathtub", which gave way to "trim the strings on the blinds" and "replace dining room window lock". And then we kept finding new things that needed to be done. Many of them were little things, but new things nonetheless. Loose outlet plates, missing shoe moulding, slow running hot water (those plumbing details will drive ya nuts!), coat hangers, and a zillion other things all cospired to extend the time from our original September estimate to February.
Part of the problem was that the labor pool shrank dramatically. First, Josh started college, and then David ended up having enough homework to where he was often unavailable. And Abigail was usually able to con Grandma into taking her to Grandma's house on the days when we worked. And then she wondered why she wasn't making any money.
So it came down to Deb and I, with occasional help from David. It was the two of us that would don the old paint-spattered clothing after supper on a Tuesday night, throw a few supplies in the car, and drive downtown to spend a couple more hours working at the Joe (as we called the property). On Saturdays, I would go early and Deb and David would join me later on in the day. We would get home in time for our traditional Saturday home-made pizza meal.
These sorts of projects tend to take on a life of their own. Part of that life is to prevent many other tasks from happening. Our vegetable garden this past summer was a mass of weeds because many spare moments were spent with paintbrush or hammer in hand. Perhaps the hardest hit was the barn, which became sort of a dumping ground for anything that needed to be stored indoors, as well as many "deal-with-it-later" items. Now that it's later, I'm having to deal with it. I have spent the last couple of weeks sorting through the piles of stuff on the table and the floor. I've started remodeling the interior of the barn at the same time, so the mess is still there. But it's a good kind of mess now, a mess that means progress.
One of the effects of finishing a big project like this is that David's income has suddenly dropped to zero. He is now having to look for a job. It was very convenient for him (and us) to be working for me, as we could be very flexible. We took time off in the summer to spend on family vacations. There were several evenings where we just didn't feel like working, so we stayed home. There was always plenty to do, but we could ignore it if we felt like it, or if the calendar had other activities listed. (This was another reason for our February instead of September completion date.)
That was nice, but it's not gonna happen again real soon. It's time for a real McJob.
As a reminder of our neglect of many things at home, on the day we officially declared the project done, our microwave oven died. Time to catch up on the home front...
The Finished Product
The boys spent many hours refinishing the floors in this picture and the next picture
After about eight months of work, the house we have been rehabbing in downtown Grand Rapids is complete. The last thing to be done was a re-build of the chimney (I hired that job out). Our work included painting entire exterior and most of the interior, gutting and redoing two bathrooms, refinishing hardwood floors, rebuilding the concrete steps on the front porch, replacing most of the wiring and most of the plumbing, installing four new windows and several doors, new heating system, new water heaters, tearing off six layers of shingles and putting a new roof on (hired out), and a list of other tasks that would probably fill a good sized book.
About halfway through the project, I started to maintain a list of tasks to be done. As the project progressed, that list grew as we thought of more tasks. There came a time when the list started to get smaller. About two months ago, the list could be printed on a single page. At that point, it seemed we were "almost done". We also discovered that "almost done" can last a long time. It seems that the list doesn't seem to get any shorter, the details on the list just get smaller. For example, list items like "install tub surround", and "rebuild kitchen cabinets" gave way to "trim the bedroom door so it actually closes", and "caulk the bathtub", which gave way to "trim the strings on the blinds" and "replace dining room window lock". And then we kept finding new things that needed to be done. Many of them were little things, but new things nonetheless. Loose outlet plates, missing shoe moulding, slow running hot water (those plumbing details will drive ya nuts!), coat hangers, and a zillion other things all cospired to extend the time from our original September estimate to February.
Part of the problem was that the labor pool shrank dramatically. First, Josh started college, and then David ended up having enough homework to where he was often unavailable. And Abigail was usually able to con Grandma into taking her to Grandma's house on the days when we worked. And then she wondered why she wasn't making any money.
So it came down to Deb and I, with occasional help from David. It was the two of us that would don the old paint-spattered clothing after supper on a Tuesday night, throw a few supplies in the car, and drive downtown to spend a couple more hours working at the Joe (as we called the property). On Saturdays, I would go early and Deb and David would join me later on in the day. We would get home in time for our traditional Saturday home-made pizza meal.
These sorts of projects tend to take on a life of their own. Part of that life is to prevent many other tasks from happening. Our vegetable garden this past summer was a mass of weeds because many spare moments were spent with paintbrush or hammer in hand. Perhaps the hardest hit was the barn, which became sort of a dumping ground for anything that needed to be stored indoors, as well as many "deal-with-it-later" items. Now that it's later, I'm having to deal with it. I have spent the last couple of weeks sorting through the piles of stuff on the table and the floor. I've started remodeling the interior of the barn at the same time, so the mess is still there. But it's a good kind of mess now, a mess that means progress.
One of the effects of finishing a big project like this is that David's income has suddenly dropped to zero. He is now having to look for a job. It was very convenient for him (and us) to be working for me, as we could be very flexible. We took time off in the summer to spend on family vacations. There were several evenings where we just didn't feel like working, so we stayed home. There was always plenty to do, but we could ignore it if we felt like it, or if the calendar had other activities listed. (This was another reason for our February instead of September completion date.)
That was nice, but it's not gonna happen again real soon. It's time for a real McJob.
As a reminder of our neglect of many things at home, on the day we officially declared the project done, our microwave oven died. Time to catch up on the home front...
The Finished Product
The boys spent many hours refinishing the floors in this picture and the next picture
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Joyful Noise
A year ago, Abigail could not speak the language. Life for her at that time was a blur, in fact she remembers very little of the month after we returned from China. A year later (yesterday evening), she was singing a solo in front of a large church. She loved it. She wants to do it again.
God is good.
Pictures and a video clip below...
Abigail is the one with the pink shirt and big smile (circled):
In the following video clip, Abigail is the first to sing...
God is good.
Pictures and a video clip below...
Abigail is the one with the pink shirt and big smile (circled):
In the following video clip, Abigail is the first to sing...
Friday, December 4, 2009
The Strong-Willed Child
It is said that some children are strong-willed. We have one of those. If there were a way to measure the strength of a child's will, Abigail would be way at the top of the scale. Some children have strong wills, her will is made of high strength steel. While this can result in some tensions within the family, particularly with other strong-willed family members, it can also result in some rather humorous situations.
She has been learning the concept of obedience, and of one's role in the family--particularly, children being obedient to their parents. Some of this she has been learning the hard way, through the consequences that occur from disobedience. Those are some hard lessons, but she is making progress. To put it in simpler language for her, Dad and Mom are the "boss", and the boss is to be obeyed.
Knowing now what she is like, it really came as no surprise to us when she announced at dinnertime yesterday, "I wanna be the BOSS." She just blurted it out to the whole family. She has never been accused of being subtle, so this was right in line with her character. She wants to be in charge, and will let everyone know about it. I think she knew that she wasn't going to get far with this little request, since we all burst out laughing, but I think that she was only half joking.
This resulted in an animated discussion of what being the "boss" was like. This was backed up a little later when the topic on our Advent calendar was Jesus the Servant King. The "boss" serves his family. The "boss" is the one who gets up earlier than everyone else to clear the snow off the driveway. The "boss" takes responsibility to provide for those that he is responsible for, putting his own desires aside.
I told her that she could be the boss. I would go to Chinese class once a week, and practice the piano for a half hour a day, and sleep in until 9:30, and wash the dishes, and work on math problems. She could then pay the bills and go to work and make sure there's food on the table every day and keep the cars on the road and heat in the house.
She was not dissuaded.
She still wants to be the "boss".
She has been learning the concept of obedience, and of one's role in the family--particularly, children being obedient to their parents. Some of this she has been learning the hard way, through the consequences that occur from disobedience. Those are some hard lessons, but she is making progress. To put it in simpler language for her, Dad and Mom are the "boss", and the boss is to be obeyed.
Knowing now what she is like, it really came as no surprise to us when she announced at dinnertime yesterday, "I wanna be the BOSS." She just blurted it out to the whole family. She has never been accused of being subtle, so this was right in line with her character. She wants to be in charge, and will let everyone know about it. I think she knew that she wasn't going to get far with this little request, since we all burst out laughing, but I think that she was only half joking.
This resulted in an animated discussion of what being the "boss" was like. This was backed up a little later when the topic on our Advent calendar was Jesus the Servant King. The "boss" serves his family. The "boss" is the one who gets up earlier than everyone else to clear the snow off the driveway. The "boss" takes responsibility to provide for those that he is responsible for, putting his own desires aside.
I told her that she could be the boss. I would go to Chinese class once a week, and practice the piano for a half hour a day, and sleep in until 9:30, and wash the dishes, and work on math problems. She could then pay the bills and go to work and make sure there's food on the table every day and keep the cars on the road and heat in the house.
She was not dissuaded.
She still wants to be the "boss".
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