Aaron, one of my brothers from the "Second Batch", stayed with us for half the week and was a HUGE help! (I refer to my younger 5 siblings as the "second batch" due to the 7 year gap between #3 and #4 (of 8) )
My birthday was Monday, and on Sunday we gathered at my parents for the noon meal. Most of us were there. I was short one sister, cooking at camp, and one brother, out on drill for the National Guard. My mom let me pick the meal and made my cake. I didn't even have to bring anything, or help with dishes!!!
Birthday roses from Don
Monday night a super sweet girl from our church took the kids to the pool, and Aaron and I joined Don working at the property. I am bummed I failed to take a picture of the trench we finished digging Saturday, it took HOURS!! But long story short, one week later this is what it looks like all covered up.
The pictures don't do justice to all the work we put into the plumbing!!! Just imagine a trench down the whole length of the house. You have to keep everything sloping at 2 1/2" per 10' of pipe, so the area dug out for the pipes got deeper and deeper as we went along. There were hours spent with the survey equipment making sure the slope was right. (poop doesn't flow up) We got to recheck the slope Monday due to the pipe floating during a severe thunderstorm Saturday night. It was pretty much still okay, but I had to re dig a 4' section to get it headed down again.
Due to Aaron being here to help with the kids, I again accompanied Don on Tuesday night. My job all week has pretty much been moving dirt/ sand. Now that the plumbing is done, our focus is one getting enough sand brought into the basement to get it leveled out. Here is Jesse modeling my job...
Once that is accomplished we will lay down foam insulation, then the PEX. PEX is what is used for our in floor heat. It will be easy to lay down the insulation, the PEX, not so much! We need to mark on the foam where the loops in each room will be, then secure the PEX to the foam. We hope to have this accomplished by the first week of August. Once this is done we can get the concrete poured, install windows and a door, then head upstairs to work.
Getting over the "basement hump" will be a thrill to us! Once upstairs we will have electrical, plumbing, drywall, doors,and flooring to do. But it will be soooooo exciting to be working on the part we get to move into ASAP!
There has been a lot going undone out at the property due to all work going into the basement. Monday Aaron did a BUNCH of weed whipping, which really helped make the place look tamer. Don's pole barn was the first structure (partially) erected on our land. The plan was to have it enclosed and wired before last winter so that he could work inside during the winter months. As so often happens it didn't turn out that way. Now as you drive North toward our place you can see from the road a framed, partially sided and roofed pole building. Again, we would love to have that buttoned up, but the work time is needed else where. BUT tonight God sent us a couple of angles in the form of farmers from our church. They are brothers, and one was driving their backhoe and doing some dirt moving we need done to get the well dug and water to the house. The other ended up helping Don get some sheeting on the roof of the pole barn. They were placing the last piece on the South side of the roof when I left 2 hours ago. Don is not home yet, who knows what all they accomplished!!
This family has been used to greatly ease the burden of various machines necessary for our undertaking. Being able to just buy the fuel, and not having to rent the machinery has blessed us beyond measure.
These are some of the AWESOME answers to prayer God has blessed us with. We were convicted recently that we keep going to God and asking Him to bless what we already have planned out. We are trying now to commit our way to Him and follow where He leads.
Wednesday night was a night off, but we picked back up last night and tonight. We had the kids with us the last 2 nights. They are pretty good for the most part, especially when we bring movies. Here they are breaking in the Family Room.
It helps both Don and I VERY much to have us both out there working. Progress is always nice!This is my nephew Samuel. We got to have him over Wednesday night. It was his first overnight with us. It was great!! I wish all my nephews lived close by!
I am off to bed. We will be finishing up leveling out the basement floor tomorrow. Please pray the kids do well and are safe while we work!
2 comments:
Praying for you as ya'll work SO HARD!
You are going to have HOT sculpted arms! Wow.
The flowers are gorgeous! So Yay Don!
It was fun to be able to see a pic of Samuel! I haven't seen a picture since he was a tiny baby! Looks like Stephen. :)
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