Getting Back to Business

Brad called just a few minutes ago to let me know that we're back in business at the 909 House. The plumber, HVAC guy and I think a foundation guy (so technical, I know) were at the house today with our contractor to look it over before they begin another round of work tomorrow. (The weather is suppose to be great for most of the day too!) Plus, the house next door, which burnt down a few months back, was "officially" bulldozed and the construction crew will come to pick up the pile of rubble tomorrow.

One problem that we were dealing with was trying to figure out how we could economically dig out the scattered pavement and stone in the backyard without having to pay $1500 to get it hauled away (including the dump charge as well). Since the demolition next door and our next round of work will be happening on the same day, our contractor is going to try to pay the construction crew next door to haul it away with their rubble!!! Cross your fingers and pray that this works out. It'll save us a lot of money and trouble later on!! (It's amazing how God works things out like this!)

For those of you that haven't been following our house sauga off-line, here's a quick run-down: Not too long after initial demolition, we felt that God was leading us to change the scope of the house project and take the addition we had planned to add on to the back of the house out of the project -- giving us a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house instead of 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and an extra living space in the back. Typing this out makes the previous plan sound excessive, but the plan was to have this house be a long-term place for us, where we'd have room for guests and additional kids down the road. Now, our new plan doesn't change that hope too much, it just forces us to get a little more creative and ultimately trust that the Lord knows what's best for us. The process of changing this plan was tough. It took us going back to the bank, the contractor and the architect and pleading our case. (All of the paperwork had already been submitted for loans, contracts, etc.) But to make a long story short, God was good! He gave us favor with all of the parties involved, and although we still have a long way to go before we can have a final product and see how God worked everything out, we know that He will provide for us ... regardless of what that looks like. And through it all, God has strengthened our faith and our dependence on Him and has grown our marriage like never before.

Even though growing hurts, we're thankful that we've been able to go through this process. We hope that this will be the last road block in the completion of the house, but if it's not, we'll get through it and just trust God.

We'll look forward to keeping you posted on the house.