Much has happened since my last post. We have gotten the main level bathroom fully functional again with a working shower! Definitely makes staying the weekend a little easier, especially for the people working next to me. 

I installed Cherry flooring into the bathroom (real wood!) that was salvaged from a mold remediation project that my brother, best friend and I worked on. They will be really neat once they have been sanded and finished.

We have completed laying the kitchen floor with the help of my brother, my brother-in-law, my friend and my kiddos. The process was a bit long, but the short version is this.... We found these old planks in the attic that looked like this...

Aren't they pretty? wouldn't you want that to be your floor? LOL, my wife says that I am a dreamer...certainly you can look at this and think who in their right minds would think THAT is something that you want to walk on....you just need to look past the bird poo and the 100 years of grime....so anyway, we took those boards and used a pressure washer to clean them...

...and then used a borrowed table saw to cut out the bad spots. Measured and cut and shimmed shimmed and shimmed the joists to get them close to level to get this...

So, I am really excited about the way that they turned out. I think that they will look really neat once they are sanded and finished. Of course, the floor is still going to be uneven and squeak, but that is what you call charm. I checked online for "antique" wood wide plank flooring and found out that the stuff sells for about $8.00 a square foot raw and unfinished, so for about $100 in nails and miscellaneous stuff, the 250 square feet or so that we salvaged from the attic was a great deal! 

We have also got the insulation work done (for the most part - - - have to do a bit more in the upstairs bathroom) the plumbing done and started on the drywall....

The foundation company, Indiana Foundation Services will be coming this weekend to work on the drainage issues in the basement. They have been unbelievably generous to offer to do the entire job at the cost of materials. This group of guys is so great that when the managers asked for volunteers to work, practically the whole company threw in. That's pretty neat. Even at such a great deal, the material costs were really outside of our means right now, so my wife's brother (one of the other brother-in-laws) has been generous enough to cover that cost as well. What a gift! 

I hope to get the duct work run this week that needs to be run so that we can really go to town wrapping up the drywall and lots and lots and lots of plaster work needed to cover over all of the little problems. As always, if you would like to help this weekend, or any other time, just let me know. There is a key in hiding onsite and there are materials there. We have been so blessed with the help of so many and we really do appreciate your prayers, hands, and financial support!

B