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.

There's a new theme in my life. It's very interesting. Let me start with a story:

The past few months have been escalating at the house. Tempers are flaring and the stress is taking a toll. You might even say it's been the past year. I don't know. But in any event, it has gotten worse lately. I think it's due to us not being where we expected to be this far into the project. Maybe because the hvac guy still hasn't shown up. Yeah... it's all his fault!!

So this one day was really bad, and I was crying and so sad because we just weren't getting along. I went next door to the little house on Oregon, and prayed and cried and asked for help. Then I went back to work. About 20 minutes later, a knock at the door. It opened and in popped a friend. She came to return Logan's wallet which had been dropped accidentally in her van when Logan went on a temple trip a few weeks ago. They had just found it and she had a prompting that she needed to return it to us NOW. She came in and started talking and crying all about how awesome we are and how we need to be thankful for surviving this rough trial in our lives and that we are still married. And to remember to give each other a break because it is so stressful. And yes, she understands because her husband and she just renovated the hotel in town, doing alot of the work themselves. She said more, but I can't remember all the words, just the feelings that I had as she said them.

I was so grateful! Instantly the tone in the house changed, and there was harmony again.

So back to the original intent of this post. I've been re-examining the past few months, and wow! I can see that in every hardship and trial, He sent angels to comfort and carry us through. It has been through friends and family that we have been served and administered to. I've really been thinking about how I need to be a vessel to administer to others in need. And I know this topic could go on and on, because if you want to be a vessel with which Heavenly Father can use you to serve and help His children in need, then you need to be in the right mindset to listen; a quiet place. I want to be the person who listens and answers someone's prayers! I guess, maybe I already have. I hope so.

I'm so very grateful to everyone who has answered my prayers the past few years. There have been a lot. And recently, even more. If you are reading this, then I'm sure you too have blessed our lives and helped us in some way. So, THANK YOU!!!

So, the new theme: Be the person who answers someone else's prayers.

Oh man, where is the time going? It's whizzing by me, for sure.

Phoebe had surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids last week. It's been a rough week since, and today is the first day she has seemed perky and not crying every hour. I think she is finally out of the woods. My poor little Phoebs!

We've been continuing on with drywalling the house. It's slow moving when you really only work one full day a week. We have the interior bathroom walls, the stairwell, and one laundry room wall left to drywall upstairs. Trevor has most of the switches and lights all wired up and most importantly the lights outside work now!!!!

The day after Phoebe's surgery, the guy came and replaced the window in the girls' room. That made Sami happy, because she was paranoid that another cow was going to come through the cardboard.

I'm editing up a storm and trying to stay sane keeping everyone and everything on track around here.