It All Happens So Fast

God love you Cheryl E.! We'll miss you on Sat. mornings don't be a stranger ;-)

Oh man I don't even know where to start! This past week of work and progress made up for a lot of weeks where things seemed to drag on and on forever. That's not to say that I wasn't' still rushing at the last minute to finish things.

-NOTE TO READERS - Exact days may be off as my brain can hold only so much stuff before getting completely confused.

Let's start with Monday, just me, myself and I starting off the evening with the usual #5 from Jimmy Johns. Cranked away on some plumbing issues and just did small things, Then cam Tuesday night. I was supposed to go to small group but as I was leaving to go, people just kept showing up! I ended up with five helpers, a no-show at small group and a ton of framing, wires pulled and the master bath plumbing completely repaired! Man what a huge night and thank you to Dan J. Elisha, Ryan V., Jane M, & Ryan J for the unexpected help, it was ginormuous! Moving to Wednesday night I had Shana D, Matt B, and Elisha and Ryan again. Again jamming on more bulk heads and running wires and moving can lights for the designers. Then on Thursday we made a huge push to get things doe for the drywallers on Friday morning. Every night was a let night and took everything out of me. I was completely exhausted by Saturday morning, but I still had Friday to go!

It's all a blur until I hit Friday morning and the first of the crew arrived to HANG DRYWALL! I made it, I actually made it to the point that I'm closing the walls and there is no more changing, no more running wires, no more late nights of picking 100-year old grime out of the cracks and putting in new. This is it, I'm actually going to see this house as a solid house soon. Man, I can't tell you the giddiness that I felt that morning. I also felt very nervous. With the drywall comes the understanding that everything is final, no turning back, no what-ifs. All of the wires better be where they need to be, all of the measurements are in place for the next hundred years. Needless to say I didn't sleep much Thursday or Friday nights. I couldn't stop thinking of the last minute things that still needed to be completed before that drywall was hung. The extra stress was also that the crews were large enough that they started on every floor all at the same time instead of working top down. So the time I thought I had to complete the basement box-ins was not existent. I busted hump on Saturday morning trying fervently to get those made before the crews left. I also had ONE MORE wire that needed to be run to the 3-season porch before those wails were installed. I was sweating it a bit and didn't finish until I have put in another 14 hour Saturday. It was worth it in the end, but it left me exhausted. On Saturday I also had the help of Gma and Gpa Vande Ree and Mary who cleaned out the scraps of drywall. That was a dirty and large job that saved me about $2500. THANK YOU. I wish I could go back and put a $$ amount on the help that everyone has given, just for my own knowledge really. I'd have to thinking it's near the $50-60K range easily. That's just ball-parking it in my head, I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting. That of course doesn't include the materials that have been donated or discounted to this point. I bet close to another $60-$70K there.

Installers in the sunroom on the 1st floor

First floor guys measure to be sure

Basement guys in the utility room/3rd Floor master bedroom crew

2nd Floor crew leader cuts ceiling pieces/3rd Floor installers

Grandma & Grandpa VR clean up/Ellie is helping out too!

Ellie learns plumber butt from the best/Then servers the weary


Outside the house I received help from an old friend with the irrigation system. Mike M and his two brothers showed up Friday night (again after coming Tuesday night) and put in the front yard heads and connector box. Most of the heads are now installed and all of the pipe is laid in the ground. Now if the rain would ever stop long enough to dry things out, we'll seed. The only worry I have is that I'm missing the last good weather to do so and it's going to turn too cold before I can do that. Frustrating. It's tough to try and keep so many balls in the air and I can work only so fast, thankfully I have great friends and family that help everyday, every night, every Saturday, I don't know where I'd be without them. Mike and his brothers are perfect examples of how others have kept me on track. He has called around his contacts to make sure things are still able to be planted, the best seed to plant, if any of his friends could do the seeding, etc. I'm telling you he has done so much that when I'm sitting on that mower next spring mowing, I'm not sure if I'll be praising him or cursing him for helping create a gorgeous yard! ;-)

Mike digs the connection/He & Nathan dig together

Brother Andrew digs in control boxes in the front


Also, while he was installing the irrigation lines, I went out with an old girlfriend, her husband and another great friend from high school for dinner to catch up as she was passing through DSM on a 6-week U.S. tour/vacation. Sara Day(Campau and her husband Peter had emailed me months ago asking if I'd be around if they came through. Of course I wasn't going anywhere so I said I'd have a place for them to stay by the time they were planning on driving through. Well as life would have it, I opnly had my great company and good looks to offer them so Deb P. our great friend, put them up for the two nights as they were looking at the remodeled city and Sara relived some old memories. It was fantastic to touch base with her and see where life has taken her over the last 8 years since I last saw her at her wedding at Iowa in Iowa City and they whisked off to Portland. She was my first honest girlfriend that set the bar so high that only a God-given angel named Leslie could surpass it. She has a great family that is finally learning to slow down. Her father was the one that first put the fear of God into me as I showed up in his living room to take out his little girl. Sound familiar Russ? ;-) It was great to see her and catch up and hopefully it won't be another eight years before we cross paths again.

The gang, Me, Peter, Sara, Deb



Cute story for everyone... On Sunday, or 'Daddy Day' as we call them, Ellie and I went to the house to look at her new room. Not that her reaction was really any different than before that she gets excited to know where things are and can point to 'Daddy's room and Ellie's Room'. The really cute part is that when I saw how many scraps were made by the crew after the Saturday folks had left, I needed to pick a few up so the finishers today wouldn't be tripping on them. Well, Ellie starting picking up the small one s too. It was great that she'd pick up a 18"x 9" piece and say "heeeavy Daddy" and carry it over to the window. Try to throw it down the chute and ask for help. Then repeat. The best part is that not only did she have a great time helping me, but she was completely oblivious to how utterly dirty she was getting by pressing the drywall against her tummy as she carried it. She had no idea that messy was messy. She just knew that helping Daddy was important and she was 'big enough' to help. It warmed my heart. That will stay with me for a while.

As I said, the finishers are in the house this week and the process is moving quickly. It seems like we're almost home but I know otherwise. I'm trying to temper my excitement but am having troubles doing so. I'm wondering if that old saying is true "Hang the drywall and you're half way there." Holy crap, if that's true I'm gonna fall over. In that spirit, please keep Ellie and I in your prayers as getting into the house before the holidays is still the goal, but it's going to take more than my recent number of helpers to get there and every time that I've really been down the Lord has provided.

This is a great corner that we have turned and I thank you all and praise the Lord for everyone's generosity, for the safety that have had and for the great love and care that has been given to Ellie and me. Have a great week all, we'll see you soon!