Wednesday, September 25, 2019

September 25, 2019

Today's blog is dedicated to two of my favorite people.  Sharon Cheek and Leah Turner.

Sharon Cheek is appropriately listed on Eastern Randolph High School's website as "Support Staff,"  as I think she is here to support the whole world.  She is a gift to us all.  She has such a positive attitude, that I can't help but hug her every time I see her and hope some of her positivity will rub off.  She is that one in a million angel that has served as a guide and support to foster too many students to success than I can name,  without thinking of herself.  Thank you Lord for Sharon Cheek., and please know that we need her in this world for a long time to come.    Sharon is watching the updates on this house and I am updating today because of her request.  However, I wouldn't be surprised if she asked to see them just because she is supporting me and helping me continue to maintain a positive attitude as we are trying to help my daughter and her husband in their quest for affordable housing.  I hope she knows how much we all love her.

Leah Turner is my daughter for whom we are working on this house for her and her husband, Jake.  She is such a feisty, independent and hard working person.  Just yesterday, on her due date, she was priming the walls of her soon to be master bedroom that Jake had helped to sand.  She is tracking everything spent on this house so she can pay it back and is quite up front with telling us when she thinks something is not necessary.  She told me to stop spending when we reached the budget limit, which happened yesterday.  Crossing fingers that we can find "just enough" to get things finished and get the inspections completed so she can start enjoying her house.  Passing the final electrical inspection yesterday led the charge.  Leah was happy to go shopping for light bulbs and call the power company, although she doesn't like the money spending part.  Now on to the plumbing, mechanical and building final inspections.

Today was quite busy and we got a lot done.  First of all, I went to the house this morning determined to follow the saying "Life is short, eat dessert first."  So I spent my morning painting a Star Wars mural on the nursery wall as Star Wars is their chosen theme.  Leah and Jake arrived and brought me my forgotten phone AND food!  What would I do without them to take care of me?

Then, Duke Energy arrived.  Wow!!!!  We have been working on getting electricity for three months!  So glad they gave us a wire to the house and turned it on.  It is so nice to be able to turn on the lights!

Leah was so busy today.  First, she finished priming the master bedroom walls, she also sanded the floors in the baby's room, and she put up a saying on the wall which will be above the crib.  Go Leah!







John arrived after work, and he and I finished the back siding.  John mostly worked on the roof of the bathroom and I was down cutting the pieces and turning my fingers into swiss cheese as the pieces were all cut to a slant leaving sharp points.    John finished putting in the last piece by headlight.  So glad that is done!

Last but certainly not least.  While driving by the pond, I caught in the corner of my eye that the spider lillies my mom gave me were finally blooming!  John made the comment that he had been too busy this summer for them to get lawn mower disease. . .



Wednesday, September 11, 2019

September 11, 2019

What a busy month!  We finished framing in the closet and the last of the framing and passed our framing rough-in with the help of Paul and Linda Turner.





We passed all of our plumbing rough-in inspection as we held pressure, didn't leak and the inspector liked the looks of our pipe configuration (FINALLY!!!!!,  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! ) Thanks so much to Ed and Amy for coming to help and inspire us.  We also had put in our hot water heater.  And Leah and I passed our mechanical inspection by putting in the dryer vent, the bathroom vent and the mini split.

Leah and I got in the wall insulation and passed the insulation inspection (John has had to go back to work as school is in!)



As we are running out of time, we hired a company to put in insulation in the roof and crawl space (honestly, it was cheaper than we could buy the insulation), and we got our neighbors to put in the dry wall, since neither John, nor I, nor Leah is extremely talented in this area.  Thanks Don and Sean!







Leah and I figured out a tile pattern and laid them while John was cutting tiles.  The tiles Leah and Jake picked out are beautiful!  Then we grouted them.



Now we are working on putting in beadboard, toilet and sink, as well as the upper back siding on the house.

We are also working on furniture.  We bought six shield back chairs for $50, repaired, painted and reupholstered them with $12 worth of fabric.  What a difference sanding and two coats of paint make!








I finished the bathroom vanity light fixture.  We are not sure what we might want to do about the glass globes in the future, but in the meantime and did a royal blue marble effect on the inside of the globes.

Jake and Leah put together the crib, and Leah painted the crib and changing table.  It looks so much better in black!  I can't wait to show you the plans Leah has for the baby nursery!  Can't wait!



Homesteading, you ask?  Well time and money can only be spent once I guess.  I did manage to make some fig preserves out of some figs my husband managed to find the time to pick. . .