House Update

Here are a few more pictures of the house. Enjoy, we are!


The pavestone walkway is done.


A look at the finished product (except for landscaping - where to start?)


Josh and I put together the new BBQ. Five burners, plus the infrared rotisserie burner. It will cook a lot of burgers and dogs (along with the really good stuff). We've already used it several times (We grill year around, rain or shine at our house). It really cooks well!


My nephew (and buddy) Kameron (I can't believe how fast he's growing up!) had to help clean-up when he saw trash. I wish he would come over and take care of the trash all the time!

New House Pictures

Here's a few house update pictures:
What's hotter than a girl who can use power tools! I love my wife!
Here's the beast! 73" DLP. I can't wait for MNF! NASCAR is great to watch on it!
I didn't think we could fill a 48" fridge. I was wrong!
Here's the new driveway. The walkway is now done and I'll have pics on the next update.
How cool is that! No, not that we got all four cars in the garage, but that everyone was at home at the same time! It doesn't happen much any more.

House Update

Well, we've been in for over a week now and there's still plenty of boxes. I haven't even made it into the office yet!

The epoxy coating we put on the garage floors will be finished Thursday, so we can get cabinets put up in there and get the household stuff out of the shop. I already have several projects that I need to get going on, so it will be nice to get in there.

The big TV is in and the sound system is hooked up (partially). I have no clue how to get this going! I'm hoping that when the DTV guy comes on Thursday he will be able to help me get it figured out (It was supposed to be Monday, but that's a whole different story).

We still don't have any idea when we will have a phone or internet access, so if you need to reach us, call our cell phones, or call me at the Palm Valley Church office. If you send me an email, it may take a day or two to respond (for Paige it will be a little longer).

I got the reverse osmosis system working as well as it's going to work. Tonight I will put in the whole house filtration system. I'll put in the water softener this weekend.

Steve and I tried digging holes for the mail boxes and basketball hoop, but found rocks in every hole we tried to dig. I'm not sure how we're going to address the problem!

I'm alone at home tonight for dinner and for the evening, so hopefully I can get a lot done (I need to get some reading done too).

Yesterday afternoon we had our first major dust storm hit. Afterward, we had to go retrieve one of the patio table chairs from down the road (the rest we were able to pull inside before the blew too far away). It will be nice when there are other homes and landscaping to minimize the amount of dust and dirt.

Update

OK. Here's an update on, well, everything!

Devotions: I'm going through Isaiah right now. Just read about his calling to be a prophet. I love the passage (Isaiah 6:1-8). The one thing, ok more than one thing, but stay with me on this, that I don't understand is the smoke mentioned in verse 4. What's the smoke from, and what is it's purpose? Hmmm

Health: We tried a local restaurant and about an hour later my body went into rebellion. I was wishing for God to take me most of the day. I was "up" to an upset stomach on Sunday, and pretty well over it on Monday. In general, I have felt surprizingly well, even with the move (though I have been mostly good and not been lifting things). The fatigue is still the toughest part.

I know that I need to lose weight, so I am praying about this. Not whether I need to or not, but how to do it. It's hard for me to work out consistently because of my health. Diets are hard because I either feel like I am starving, or I hate the food. I'm sure that God will guide me on this. My goal is to be down twenty pounds by Christmas.

Church: PVC rocks! We have had so many visitors at our "low" time of year, and people keep coming to Christ and lives are being changed, even when the message isn't "evangelistic". Greg is back (sort of, he's gone again this week), and sounds rested.

The nursery was crazy full this week with about 36 kids. I'm not sure who's idea it was, but a few staff members that were available went and helped. It was great, but I couldn't do it every week without a direct intervention from God. We need more men to serve in the nursery! Nothing against the women, they do an awesome job! I say this because the boys that they were having trouble keeping happy perked right up as soon as I sat with them and started making car and airplane sounds with them. It's a guy thing! It's amazing that we just seem to be wired that way.

We had 5 at the Fresh Start Class. I need to add a class in August because several coudn't come who wanted to, and so many lives are being changed right now.

House: We're in!!! I'll have pics soon. I hired movers to move about 95% of our stuff. Wise choice! It is so cool, but it will be even better once we get window coverings.

Random Thoughts

Since it's been a little while since my last entry, I thought I would share some random thoughts.

House:
It can be so frustrating! We are scheduled to move in this Friday. There is so much to do (but it's looking great!) Paige is doing such a great job with all of the packing. She is such an amazing woman, and I am so blessed that she is my best friend and my wife!

Vacation:
We had a great time in Sedona. We didn't do much, which was the whole point. It was hot during the day, but cooled off at night. There's something wrong with going to where it's 109 to cool off!

We discovered that we could watch fireworks from three locations from our pool at the Palm Valley House. We're going to miss the pool and living on the golf course!

Church:
It was great to have Greg back speaking this week. It was great! There were a lot of visitors and a lot of changed lives!!! The Fresh Start Team is awesome!

Video scripts for Connecting Point are done! Discussion guides will be done soon. I hope that we can begin shooting video soon. It has taken me much longer than I wanted to get this far. A number of factors have contributed to that. I can only work hard and trust in God's timing.

Personal:
I had some shots in my foot this last week to try easing some pain. I'm not sure what hurt worse! I am extra tired right now, I think a combination of things.

Sometimes I still struggle with how much I am able to accomplish during a day. I used to be such a workaholic (it's good that I have overcome that part), but I still wish I could put out more effort some times. I'm only 47 and hope I'm not past my prime. The battle rages to completely trust God every moment of each day, vs. trying to do more than He has me doing right now. I am learning to be content in another area of my life, but it's hard. There is so much I want to do, but physically can't. I have to learn that innability to do things I used to do, while on the surface look like less effort, is becoming different effort.

I do know that I won't build a house again! It has taken too much energy away from what I really love which is ministry. My energy is limited and I hate that in the past three months especially it has been divided. Fortunately, I have still been able to dream and hear from God about where ministry needs to grow.

I'm studying through Isaiah right now. I wonder how much he and other prophets understood about what they were writing?!

I'm also studying the book "Good to Great" with our staff. It's a great book. It challenges most of what I learned in business. I'm really looking at how it applies to me personally and to the church.

I know it's been random, but I needed to get some thoughts down.

House Update

Here's the latest. The driveway/basketball court slab is poured as are the shed slab and the pull through slab. The wood floor is done. The tile is nearly done. Plumbing is done. We should have electricity this week. The boys started putting their closet shelves in. There is still a lot of detail work to be done. I realize you can't see it well in the picture, but I am pointing at a cross that is in a knot in the new front door. How cool is that!

We do have a move in target date of July 7th!

House update

We have a tentative move in date of July 5th! By the way, the address is 22612 W. Desert Lane, Buckeye, AZ 85326 (even though we are in county land, we have a buckeye address. They had to put us somewhere!)

The granite is in and looks great. The tilework is nearly done, and the wood will be completed today. Final plumbing work began today. The well is up, and Steve and Terri have water! We'll probably get water tomorrow as soon as all the faucets are finished. Friday we meet with the blind lady (Paige thought I was talking about someone who couldn't see, not someone who sells window coverings), the landscaper (for the walkway and circle-drive), and the cabinet guy. We decided to get a quote on the hall and laundryroom cabinets (but I am still planning to make the cabinet for the powder room). We also purchased the last of the appliances (except for the BBQ). Here's some pictures, enjoy:

House Update

Here's the latest on the house. Paige and I went this afternoon to select our granite slabs. We should have counters in about 1 to 1 1/2 weeks.

They've started putting in the wood floors. Mudding has begun for the tile in the showers.

The stonework is nearly finished, and exterior painting will begin tomorrow.

I still have more ceiling fans to put up. We swapped out a couple from the current house that we want to take with us. I'm only able to work on it a little each day, and I needed some down-time this weekend. Hopefully, I'll be up to making some good progress this week.

House Update

Things are happening crazy fast right now. We decided on interior and exterior paint colors. The interior has been painted. Doors are in (including all 5 garage doors [one's in the back] and openers, though we have a temporary front door until ours comes in. Cabinets are nearly all in. There was a problem with the cabinets for the island, but that will be fixed soon. The septic system is being installed today. Power lines are up and we should have power soon. The propane tank will be installed tomorrow. The electrical will be done next week. We ordered all of our flooring and tile today. It will be installed beginning Monday. Last night we ordered the last of the lighting and the kitchen faucets on-line. The stonework will begin any time. As soon as the roofers put trim on the exterior will be painted.

The next decision is the garbage disposal. I also need to lay out the cabinet for the powder room so that we know what size the granite needs to be cut and where the sink drain hole needs to go. As soon as the island is done they make the template for the counter tops to get started on those.

We are getting quotes on the circle driveway and walk. We think we are going to have the walkway done with flagstone instead of the pavers that we had originally planned. It will go better with the stonework and the flagstone by the viga poles.

New House Pics

Fireplace with place for 42" Plasma above it in the master bedroom.
This shot looks from the living room across the entryway into the dining room. The arch leads to the kitchen and family room, along with the "East Wing"
This is the back patio.













Here's a view from the front. Hard to see much in a pic this size, but that's the main garage on the left, the front porch in the middle, then the living room on the right. The porch is bigger than we visualized, almost 20' wide. We aren't going to do the walk that wide! Now we have more landscaping to figure out.


We didn't get to put paint samples on the walls yet, they were still texturing. We stopped by a couple more flooring places. I'm still working on quotes on lighting fixtures. For example, we need 21, 4' X 4 bulb flourescent fixtures, and 31 can light bulbs!

I can't wait to throw a huge party when we move in, and Michael, you can always bring the Barros!

House Update

We just picked up the sound system for the family room. Here's what we got to go with the TV (Mitsubishi 73"DLP):
Yamaha HTR-6090 7.1 Channel Receiver
Klipsch RF-62 2-Way Floor Standing Speakers - 2
Klipsch RC-52 2-Way Center Channel
Klipsch RPW-10 10” Powered Subwoofer
Klipsch CDT-5650-C In-ceiling Speakers – 4

We got a fantastic deal, so if you look up what this stuff costs, we paid a lot less!

We are now looking for the in-ceiling speakers for throughout the house.

This week the low voltage wiring will go in, and the insulation will start going in.

We need to order the garage doors and interior doors this week and choose trim.

Hopefully we'll have new pictures soon, but a roll got lost at the developer. Yes I still use 35mm film. I put off getting the digital camera I want because of higher priorities.

House Update

Well, I had pictures, but the lab seems to have misplaced them. I hope that they find them soon!

For now, here's what's happening. The windows are in and look great. I especially love the 8' picture window that looks out at the White Tanks Mountains.

The topout blumbing is finished and electrical rough in is nearly complete.

We got a great deal on sinks on-line. We have ordered the cabinets.

The roof tiles are sitting in stacks on the roof for framing inspection.

The insulation guy came by today and we are goin to add insulation to the walls between the bedrooms for a little more sound deadening.

We need to meet with the door and trim guy next.

We are working toward choosing paint, tile, and granite (no small challenges!)

House update

The house looks great. The three a/c systems are nearly complete. The framing changes have been done and the next phase of the plumbing is nearly complete. The framing for the masterbedroom fireplace and tv is done. We got the tv today (It wasn't the plan, but we stumbled onto a deal that saved us about $600, so we went ahead and picked it up). It should come in handy during March Madness!

We'll meet again with the cabinet guy this week to make changes. We'll also meet with the electrician so that he can get going as well. The first picture is of the front porch and the living room. The second is of the workshop and garage. Yes, there are five garage doors.

House Update - Framing

We have a house! Not really, but wow, what a difference a week makes! In one week we went from raw slab to fully framed and skinned and ready for top out plumbing.

Saturday morning was cool. We got to watch them put the trusses up. Half way through the crane broke and they had to wait for another one. Paige was like a little girl she was so excited to watch the house go up! There are few sights as beautiful as she looked with her smile trying to express her joy.

They were short one viga pole so they had to wait on that. It's now in, and so are the 1'X1' beams in the dining room. They look really great!

Steve and Terry's house is coming along as well. There electrical is in, windows and columns are installed, and they are working on the exterior insulation and wrap.

This week will be busy as we make final decisions on framing adjustments, order cabinets, and work through plumbing and electrical plans.

One thing I would recommend is a storage container. Because of some materials in the garage (bath tubs), we had to park the Tahoe in the driveway. Saturday night someone decided they wanted to see what we kept in the glove box (nothing). They also broke into Caleb's car (He's home for spring break) and took all of his music, iPod, stereo faceplate, and his tools (don't ask why these were all in his car, I don't know either).

Tuesday's House update

This will be a really short post, since nothing happened this week! We got a couple of days of rain.

Steve and Terri's house made progress. They finished praming, installed the HVAC and fireplaces. The next stage of plumbing was put in and electrical is started. They met with the cabinet guy (Who happens to be a christian who is a prayer warrior).

Hopefully, we'll start framing early next week!

Tuesday's Post - Thursday

I'm finally getting to Tuesday's post updating the construction on our house.

The foundation is done, but we are waiting to begin framing until I get back from the C3 conference at Fellowship Church in Irving, Texas (Dallas area). Kind of a bummer, but I am sure I'll be glad they are waiting. I don't want to be out of state when there is a decision I have to make. The framers had another job in between the two houses anyway, so it all works out.

Steve and Terri's house is moving along well. They are done with framing, plumbing is going in, and they delivered the roof tiles yesterday. They also started on the A/C ductwork. I haven't been out all week, so when I see it tomorrow I'm sure it will be exciting!

We purchased the cast iron tub for the guest bath and the shower faucets and valves for the master bath and guest bath so that they can be installed during framing. The tub we got from Lowe's who matched another quote we received, and the faucets and valves we got on line and at Home Depot (those were actually closeouts so we got a good deal).

Sorry about the day on the post, but its been a wild week. Nothing bad, but I decided Tuesday night after Bible study to leave the computer off, and again last night I spent time with my valentine instead of being on the computer.

House update

This week the footings have been poured and the stem walls are going up. We almost had a huge problem that Steve caught on one of his trips out to the land. They forgot to set up for the rear garage door and entry door on the workshop garage. Fortunately, it was before the concrete was poured, so it was an easy fix.

We're meeting with the plumber today to review the rough plumbing so that I can get going on that this next week.

We got the quote on the windows. We decided to go with Low "E" vinyl, dual pane, argon filled. The extra cost should pay off in lower energy costs.

I was working on getting a garage door quote yesterday. We should get a pretty good deal since we are getting 5 for our house and 2 for Steve's. We got a great deal on openers when Lowe's was closing out some and dumped the price to $22.50 each. My neighbor was there at the time and bought a lot of them. They're exactly the type of opener I want. They sell for $225 each normally. He was selling them for 150 but I got them for 100 each (he found the deal, and I have no problem with him making some money off of them, I'm still getting a great deal).

Home update

The foundation trenches are ready for inspection, which is scheduled for today, and we will get the electrical permit for the power to the well today as well.

We met with the window guy on Friday. We had already decided on our windows when we met with him for 2 hours over 6 months ago, or so we thought! We spent over 1 1/2 hours with him and made a few changes. Nothings as easy as it looks!

I spent some time this weekend doing layouts for the pantry and kitchen and began trying to solidify information for the plumbing rough in like 1 valve or 2 on the showers.

Choosing a sink is a pain in the neck! They range in price from $90 - $3,000. I'm sure we will be toward the bottom of that scale! We decided to go with stainless steel, undermount, double, with one side extra deep for pots. That narrowed the selection down to a few hundred!

I put a small Bible in the truck so that when they are ready to poor concrete we can put the bible under the foundation. It will symbolize that the house is literally built on God's Word. It's my sister-in-law Terri's idea and I think it's great!