One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It was a big day today, but ever since we got heat, it feels like we can accomplish so much more in a warm house. 

We mudded and taped the corners today. We ran out of mud, but still were able to get the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom done. This leaves the pantry, fridge, master bath, and closet to tape corners in. 

Grouted the tile in the bathroom finally.

And started on the door rebuild project.

Sacrifice

I had a very long post all written up, explaining about our lives, but there are some things that are really no one's business. I'm tired of feeling like I have to answer for everything here. I think it's safe to say we are doing our best with the load that each of us in my family are carrying.

I think this photo sums it all up. You will notice there are tears in Samantha's eyes as I hold her in a camping chair in the town house.

It's hard. It stinks. We are at our breaking point. We want to be done. We want to live normal, slower paced lives. We want to sleep in. We want to watch cartoons. We want to go on vacation.

This is such a hard endeavor/turned trial. There is this movie I remember from my teenage years about this girl who had bad guys after her, and she had to cross the desert to get to safety. She made it through all these obstacles only to collapse on the very last sand dune before she reached safety. She was less than a mile away.

How sad would it be for us to collapse on the last mile? We have come so far! And yes, we still have so much to do, but it really is the last mile. We can finish this. I'm so close to texturing the walls and ceilings. And then paint! And then window trim and flooring. And then floor trim. And then a kitchen. Ugh. It's so much.

Honestly, I'm not sure I can keep up the pace. So maybe I will slow it down a bit, but I won't stop. I won't.

And yeah, there is a tie-in here to some gospel principles too. I'll let you tie them in, because I'm pooped and tomorrow is a big day of work at the house. But, if you think of some good principles, comment below so we can all benefit from them.

And then there was light

.....heat.

We.

Have.

Heat.

Everyone, please say a prayer of thanks that we have heat.

I'm so grateful!

Thank you Megan and Milton for the hvac unit!

It is a beast!

It's not done.

The saga with the hvac man is not done.

He took the air conditioner coils out of the unit.

The vents are not all installed.

But we have heat!!!!!

Headway

Quick update: My dad is here to help me mud and tape. He is an amazing help and we are knocking this out. I am unfortunately sick with a really bad cold, but there is no time for resting. This cold didn't get bad until he got here, and now I'm trying to get rid of it and keep everyone else from getting it. Trevor is out of town at a work conference. My worry has woken me up every night about 3 am that I will get someone else sick. Our HVAC guy came today for a whopping 40 minutes. He was supposed to spend all day working. What. A. Fellow.

Ugh.

But you know what? It just doesn't matter. MacGyver  (my dad) is here, and he is such a huge help. I mean really huge. His knowledge about everything is amazing. I love it when he comes because I feel like I can learn so much from him. And holy cow, but for a guy his age he can really work his tail off. And yeah, there is so much to be happy about, and the hvac guy got some work done while he was here... so I'm not going to dwell on what didn't happen, but all the positives that did  instead.

Photos

Hello all! Life has been swirling out of control. We are getting things done and moving on to the next chapter of this build. The drywall upstairs is almost all done. I have a little trimming to do today, and a little bit of screwing in the ceiling, and then it will be inspected tomorrow. That means mudding, taping and texturing are coming up next! I admit, I'm tired. I think anyone in our situation would be. But, the home stretch is in sight, and now is not the time to peeter out. 

We got a bid on the doors I absolutely love and want. It was over $1000.00. Trevor watched a video about building a door from a door. I decided we should try it and see if we could do it with the style of door I like. While Trevor was at work, I found a plain door for $5 at the local thrift store. I measured it out (guessing at a lot of the measurements) and chopped it up. Then I cut up some MDF for the inside panels. There is a lot more to it than just that, but you would get bored with all that information. I finished it the next day, then painted it. I wanted to get the full effect to see how it all went and if I thought we could reproduce this 14 more times. 

The door I built is in the first photo, and then scroll down to the last photos. Here's what I learned: I need to shorten the top panel. It should be more rectangle than square. Other than that, I think we can do this! 

The HVAC man is coming this week. !!!!!!!

It's exciting, but also I'm a little hesitant to be excited. Oh dear. It's important to not lie to people and promise things you can't deliver. DON'T LIE, PEOPLE!

This will be a monumental week if everything works out. I'll believe it when I see it.