Kitchen Cabinets, and Prayer Requests

Hello blog world!  We are still here, though we've been down with the flu (as in influenza - upper/lower respiratory infections, ear infections, fatigue, aches, high fever and general nastiness), so forgive our bloggy absence.  We've wanted to keep you all up to date, but have literally not had time or energy for the last 2 weeks to do so.

Kitchen cabinets on the back porch for now

Brian has continued to work both his job and on the Quincy house, except for one day when the flu took over and he was delirious in bed with fever.  The next day he was up and off to pick up our FREE KITCHEN CABINETS - for which we are SO very grateful!  Thank you to Elizabeth who knew of our need and to her sister and brother-in-law who were so very generous in giving us their beautiful white cabinets.  It is still unbelievable.  Brian was really hoping for WHITE cabinets, and as someone recently said to me, God is in the details.

Please continue to pray for us.  Things seem to have slowed down quite a bit as far as finances and manpower.  While everyone else's life picks up speed as the year progresses, it seems we are still in somewhat of a time warp.  We have been given more time from the Sheriff's office, telling us the sale may be as late as mid June now (sale = eviction).  It's kind of a double-edged sword - being given more time.  More time means we have more time - it means the pressure of getting it all done is eased a little bit, however!! -  However, it means that the end of this LONG trial is dragged out a little longer, and our family continues in this limbo world of not really having a home.  One house in demo and unlivable condition, the other in boxes for the last 5 months.  We have moved around the boxes, gone without certain things we thought we wouldn't need in January when we packed because we thought we'd have to be out in February.  We had packed school things, thinking it would just be a month without them, and since have had to unpack several (unlabeled) boxes to find things we cannot continue without.  It is in all honesty, chaos.  

The Lord brought to my mind this morning, "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." Galations 6:9  Please pray for us - the temptation to grow weary is great.  Our children are fighting the temptation.  The older ones are becoming weary.  It is very unsettling for them.  We have tried so hard to keep it steady for them, to focus on joy in trials.  They have endured so much and have really done so well.  Please pray for the Lord to give us wings to fly through this last bit, as it is becoming hard to even walk.  Please pray for helpers to be many, for us to find more resources that are needed, for supernatural strength of mind, heart and body for Brian and the rest of us, and for us to get over this nasty virus that has taken our time and energy.  

Thank you for your prayers and for all the help you have given to this point.  We are so grateful.

Drywall, Finishings and Mud, Mud, Mud

Since our last blog update, we have been working pretty hard on getting all of the drywall work and plaster repair done. As you can imagine, this is always easier said than done. But it is coming along. The stairwell leading up from the side entrance door was a bit of a challenge, (pictured below) as there were so many pieces of wall coming together in one area. At the top of the stairs to the left in this picture (right) we installed a bit of new wall to house the switches for the lights in the area.












The area over the fireplace was covered in firewall drywall (5/8 inch thick) and then the plaster that had been present was blended into the drywall with lots of plaster. I have used about 50lbs of plaster to fill in holes and help with the gaps. There are a lot of areas where the wall has anywhere from 1-2 inches difference in thickness from one end to the other, so reverting back to plaster for at least some of it seems to work well. The problem is, of course, if you don't get it on the wall fast enough, it turns into a solid mass!

We will be getting a donated set of used kitchen cabinets this week! This is a huge answer to prayer and we are very excited and grateful. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures of those in the near future. Lindsay's uncle found a vanity and counter top for the upstairs bathroom from a neighbor of his. It is really nice, and we are so thankful.  It's too large to fit into the upstairs bathroom, though, so I am working on ways that I can make it work in the downstairs bath and then move the cabinet from down there upstairs. 

We ran out of money again this week with nothing left in the kitty for drywall mud, etc... I made it home praying about the next thing to do only to find a check for another $100.00. Another answered prayer. The Lord is good and faithful! 

Someone came out to look at the windows and the roof this week.  The roof estimate was $14K, and the windows were $300/window (several need replacing).  We will keep working on estimates there as the prices given are outside of what we can come up with in the foreseeable future. 

If you have done any work with plastering, mudding or hanging drywall, window replacement or just cleaning, let me know if you can help. We would really appreciate it, time is closing in and there is still more than enough to do. 

We have been overwhelmed with the support that we have been given and want to say thank you to everyone who has donated money, time and prayers toward our efforts! 

See you soon. 

Thank you, Indiana Foundation Service!!

As Lindsay pointed out in her last post, we want to give a special thank you to Indiana Foundation Service.  Having been in the restoration and remediation field for as long as I have, I have certainly encountered these folks before and have always been impressed with their work. They can handle any foundation issue, whether on a basement or crawlspace and have the right tools and materials to solve any water problem. Above is a picture of the volunteer crew that showed up on a Saturday. Another group of guys came out the previous day to get things started. There are 11 volunteers in the picture, and the 12th man taking the photo is the General Manager, John, who got the whole ball rolling on our behalf. My father-in-law and I are the two on the right in the front row. 

The drainage system that was installed was the Water Guard Below-Floor French Drain System. A portion of the basement floor is cut out around the perimeter and the drainage system is installed underneath - pictured here. Click above link to learn more.

The volunteers were so many that we actually carried too many buckets of gravel into the basement before realizing it. We ended up hauling some out. The "left-over" gravel was thrown in the "driveway", much to my delight as we are a little shy on gravel!

The drainage system collects water from the perimeter and takes it to the newly installed sump pump. The sump pump system that was installed is a wonderful system that IFS offers. It's their TripleSafe Sump Pump System which has two primary sump pumps and a battery backup with an alarm. The main pump and the backup pump have independent lines leading outside. It's a pretty sweet set up. It looks like this:

Several areas of the basement had no concrete when we bought the house. The guys were nice enough to fill in a lot of these gaps with a layer of concrete, which makes things a lot less messy. Really a top notch group of people! Thank you so much Indiana Foundation Services! We really appreciate you guys!

I also want to say thanks to my brother-in-law, Luke, for purchasing the materials to do the job - what a gift!

Stay tuned for another update soon. We had lots of fun this past week installing ducts, exhaust fans and hanging more drywall. Thank you to all who have been so generous to help. As Lindsay stated in her last post, it's hard not to see the Lord using people to help us out. It is amazing what He can do!

-Brian

A Moment to Reflect on God's Provision - by Lindsay

God provides.  It is wonderful to know from the Bible, and from the accounts of others.  And it is something entirely different to experience.  God does indeed prompt His people to give, to help others, and when His people follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit, the result can be something indescribable. Life in this fallen world is often hard, but God is good to us, and over the last several years we have been in awe that as life has gotten harder and harder, His goodness became greater and greater.

This past month, we came to the end of our funds for the house.  Between December and February we'd been given some money and gift cards to be designated for use in fixing up the Quincy house.  Those funds were very helpful in making the many improvements we've made so far.  But a couple weeks ago, we ran out.  Brian prayed to the Lord, "We need about $5-600 more to complete the plumbing, duct-work and a few other things that are currently under way.  What now Lord?"  And you know what?!  Within the next week, we received another $450 in gift cards to Lowes!!   The people who gave those gifts had no idea the immediate need they were meeting.

This brings to my mind many examples of "random acts of kindness" we've experienced in the last year.  Not to minimize the on-going acts of love and support we've had from friends and family who knew what we were going through.  There have been many gifts of money, time, blood-sweat-tears, and prayer for our family, which have really helped meet many tangible needs.  We continue to be amazed at the way our friends and family have helped and continue to help us during this challenging time.  

I believe the Lord knows the depth of our needs and that our families cannot be burdened in helping us with everything (I don't mean that they view helping us as a burden - not at all!).  In addition to the ways our loved ones have supported us, we've also been given help and support from perfect strangers.  The most recent example being Indiana Foundation Services donating two days worth of labor to fix our basement/foundation.  (I know many are looking forward to seeing photos and hearing about all they did, we are working on that post!  So, stay tuned!)  And my brother, Luke, (not being random or a stranger, but I can't mention this example without mentioning him) contributing the cost of the materials for that work to be completed.  These were amazing acts of love, generosity and kindness to our family.  (Okay, I know I use the word "amazing" a lot, but you'll just have to deal with the redundancy, because in this case, there just is no better word!) :)

If I could, I'd like to share a few other examples of "random acts of kindness" we've experienced during the challenging year we've had recently.  

~ As you know, have 6 children and live in a neighborhood where our house is driven by most of the neighborhood traffic because we are on the main entrance road.  People in the neighborhood know we have lots of kids, as our kids like to play outdoors a lot.  Last summer, in the midst of struggling through major financial crises, a neighbor I'd never met before knocked on our door.  She explained that she had a daughter that had a lot of clothes she'd outgrown, and she knew I had a lot of kids, didn't know how many...5?  I smiled.  6.    She said she thought I might be able to use them.  A huge garbage bag full of clothes, plus another of shoes.  And yes, 2 of our daughters were younger than hers and could use those clothes.  This was such a blessing as I had not been able to buy many clothes or shoes for about a year before that, but she didn't know that.  She had no idea!

~ Now, I know that Christmas is not a "need", per se, but this still is a beautiful example of someones generosity toward another person she barely knew.  In the fall I had been attending a weekly meeting at a local church for about a month and a half when a woman that I barely knew approached me and asked if she could help with our Christmas for the kids.  This was the second year in a row that we couldn't give our kids anything for Christmas, which I hadn't actually told anyone, but they all knew we were really struggling, losing our home, in bankruptcy, Brian's wages were being garnished at the time for a business debt he owed which they sued him personally for, etc.  Humbly, gratefully, I said - sure, of course, thank you.  Well, the week before Christmas she met me with 6 copy paper case boxes full of gifts, plus 2 other larger boxes, plus a box of canned goods.  OH. MY. Goodness.  Here we were at rock bottom financially, and my kids got more presents than they had ever received before!  And they were not expecting it, I kept it a surprise until Christmas morning.  They were perfectly happy and content knowing we were just going to have pancakes and watch Mary Poppins (from the library) for Christmas morning.  What a morning we had!  Wow.  Turns out she works at a school and had the kids she works with all contribute to the boxes for our kids.  We were in awe.

One more...
~ This past December was an exceptionally difficult month because the garnishment had been going on for about 7 weeks and I knew we weren't going to be able to make it the last 2 weeks without something changing.  The garnishment was supposed to have been stopped the minute we filed bankruptcy (which was 12/6/12), but turns out the lawyer didn't tell us all the details and it actually took much longer for that to stop.  SO...about halfway through December I opened the mailbox to find a card from a friend I volunteer with.  Opened the card to find gift cards to stores we use for groceries and gas, enough to pay for groceries and gas the rest of the month!!!  Her note explained they were from her employer, who had asked my friend if she knew of a family that needed help during the holidays.  She told them about us.  I cried, completely overwhelmed by the love, generosity, joy.  She had no idea things were even more bleak than usual.  Certainly her employer didn't know.  

These things and more have been experiences in the last year that have shown the Lord's love to us in such tangible ways it is undeniable.  We are continually humbled and grateful, and I pray that these stories touch your hearts as much as these things have touched ours.  Because they do.  They get us right at the heart. There are so many hurting, needy people in our world, all around us. May we all open our eyes to see how we can give and love and spread God's goodness to others.

"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.  As it is written:

“He has dispersed abroad,

He has given to the poor;

His righteousness endures forever.”

Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.” 2 Corinthians 9: 8-11

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

Water Heater, Bathroom and Wood

Thanks for looking in, sorry for not posting for awhile!

We have had lots of help, thank you to everyone who has donated time, materials or money. Certainly prayers have been felt as God has answered many needs through the help of his people. Pretty neat how the Holy Spirit works in conjunction with people to accomplish things.

Since my last post, we were able to acquire a water heater. Someone (unnamed donor - you know who you are!) offered us $100 towards a water heater. I found an older "hydrostone" 100 gallon water heater. This thing is a beast!! Weighing in at about 575 pounds empty, it was quite the harrowing experience to get it into the basement. With the help o three STRONG volunteers, it is now sitting comfortably in a corner!

My brother and I did a job last month where an older gentleman was placed into a retirement home. His kids didn't want the 4 tons of black walnut, cherry, oak and pine that was in his basement. A they say, one mans trash is another mans treasure, so we hauled it all out to the house. The cherry is now installed in the bathroom as flooring and I have high hopes of using the other wood throughout the house.

This past weekend we installed flooring in the bathroom as mentioned, reset all the fixtures and I almost have a working bathroom again! Just need to plumb in the tub. Hopefully will have that and some shelling built by this coming weekend an then move to the kitchen.

Have a great day!

One Step Closer

Thanks! to everyone that has been able to come out and help! We really do appreciate it. This week we were blessed with help from family and friends. We were able to get our concrete foundation "footers" poured for our main support beam that we installed last week. We were able to reinforce and mostly rebuild the stairs to the basement. They had pretty much rotted away! We were able to get the kitchen joists lifted to "level" and the bathroom is "level".(Big thanks to A and M! for coming from NC to help!)

We mopped the upstairs multiple times with bleach/water and soap (Thanks uncle D!) trying to kill the obnoxious cat urine odor, tore out the bathroom tile (as part of the lifting project, Thanks P!). We were able to reroute, and plan some wiring fixes (Thanks Dad!)

I was HORRIBLE about taking pictures this weekend as I spent most of the time on the back in the mud under the stairs! or on my knees in the mud on the concrete, or, well you get the idea, it was muddy!

We have had GENEROUS gifts for building supplies, and I know that a lot of people are still looking. We REALLY appreciate all of those supplies. Possibly will have someone willing to help out on the water heater, which would be a huge blessing.

The "girls" all stayed home this weekend (except #2 who wanted to hang out at the new place) and packed. #2 boy was the little man of the house and apparently had a good time playing with his nieces. I am so blessed to have a family that has helped through this "crisis". I am so thankful that things have turned out the way that they have. We are growing closer, developing stronger relationships and learning to trust. It's fun. Thanks again to all! What a blessing you have been to us!

For those that asked....

Update on the chimney/fireplace. Looks like it's going to be big bucks to get the fireplace up to "snuff". More money than we want to spend on it at this time. The point of fixing it was to help heat the house this winter. Of course, being strapped for funds, and having received an estimate that is way outside of our ability to pay, I started the DIY research on chimneys, fireplaces, etc. Apparently, and had I just thought about it sooner it makes sense, the fireplace is net heat LOSER and not what we need anyway. So, the focus has changed to a wood stove insert which which actually help to heat the house, and still be within reach if I can find a used one that work and ran the liner up the old chimney myself. Know anyone has one setting in their barn or garage? :)

Update and Thanks

To all of you following the blog, sorry that I haven't posted recently. We were very busy last weekend, and this week has proven to be busy as well which I am very thankful for, we needed the work. We worked on adding in the structural support that the house needs this past weekend. We were blessed with help from friends and family that made the work a lot easier, and fun! 






As you may recall, there was a foundation issue that I took a picture of, you can see it again here to the right. This was caused by the removal of a wall on the main level of the home at the stairwell. This is pictured to the left. All that extra weight forced the floors down in the center of the home with no foundation to support it.




SO.... We jacked and jacked and jacked the house until we were able to get three 2 by 8s placed between two foundation walls in the basement. We still have another 3/4 of an inch or so before we are level, but we hope to work towards that this weekend. I'm going to need to dig three holes in the concrete/dirt floor and set three small footers for support posts for these columns. Hoping to get that done this weekend with some help.




We were also able to remove the remaining plaster from upstairs that needed to come out, remove the remainder of the mouse-urine-soaked baseboards and get some clean-up done. Thanks to everyone who came out to help! It was so appreciated.

We are starting to work out the wiring in the house and move some boxes around and correct small problems. Fortunately, most of the wiring seems sound, and it is at least updated and modern.  We might have found a good source of stone for the fireplace repair, will know more on that on Friday.

If you'd like to come out this weekend and help, please let us know. We will be out on Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday. We will try to leave a key for anyone that would like to do something when we are not there.

Brian

Materials Needed

People have asked what materials we need.  This list is a pretty good idea.  Not included is other things that would be very helpful but are more costly, like windows, soffets, etc.  Estimated funds needed for these things is ~ $2000 (this does not include the needed windows, etc, just what is on the list below).

• -15 sheets of 1/2" drywall
•  -3 sheets of 5/8" fire rated drywall
•  -2 sheets of 1/4" drywall-large bucket (5 gallon?) joint compound
•  -4 rolls repair drywall tape
•  - lots of corner metal for drywall (100 feet?)
•  - drywall tape knife(s)
•  -1 bucket drywall screws
•  -2 bags plaster
•  - texture brush for ceiling
•  - sanding sheets
•  - sanding sponge 
• -30 feet square galvanized duct for wall interior
•  -3 8 inch diameter to square converter galvanized duct junctions
•  -3 90 degree galvanized duct junctions ---square to square
•  - 60 8" square glass blocks (for basement windows 
• -20 concrete blocks 
• - 2 bags white mortar 
• - 2 bags Portland cement 
• -2 rolls R-19 insulation - faced
•  -30 bags (bricks) of cellulose blown insulation
•  -6 cans spray foam insulation.
•  -2 rolls 1/2 inch Pex plumbing line
•  - pex tools (borrow)
•  - kitchen counter tops 
• cabinets - may already have from friends?
•  - 3 16' 2x8's 
• - 4 basement support posts 7' tall
•  -bucket of framing nails 3"
•  - roll of 4 mil plastic 
• - various windows - will update
•  - 200 feet 6 inch baseboard trim
•  - 200 feet 3 1/2 inch trim
•  - 2 five gallon buckets primer (paint)
•  - paint rollers/poles/trays
•  - floor sander(rent) ~ floor polyurethane
•  - propane water heater

More demo - solving problems.

As is often the case, when tearing things out you get to find the mistakes that other people made. Like this one...