God is so good!!

I'm back. We have been having trouble with internet, but its back and I feel like I'm back in the real world now. A lot has happened in these few days. We were eating lunch in the truck the other day and saw an indio bunting, beautiful bright solid blue plus the pair of blue birds are back around the bird house. I thought how wonderful it was that the Lord gave us such beautiful birds to watch on a day that was somwhat mundane. There were cardinals, pink and yellow finches and the usual nutIhach and titmice and sparrows---all in one day. What else can we ask for, just to watch God's beauty in the birds. Today we didn't get home till 8 P.M. We went to Lowes to buy all the lumber for the porch, plus the 4x8 for the floors inside and it was too heavy for the trailer so we had to take one load home and then go back to pick up the rest. We have water, electric at the R/V site and our septic tank is in so that means we probably will be able to move out there this week-end. If we move out, you might not hear from me for awhile. We probably will have to go DSL. I will call them tomorrow and get all the info we need. This week our goal is to build the porch so they can put the roof on next week. Things are beginning to happen. Here in TN people are not in a hurry, just in case you have not been aware of that!!! I't 9:30, the dishes are in the sink, house is a mess, but I'm tired and plan to hit the sack. Tomorrow is another big, busy day. I wonder whose idea of remodeling this house was. Certainly, it couldn't have been me. My dream, to fix up a house, but at age 73. You got to be kidding. It is fun, but very tiring. Good night SMG

A good day

Today was a very busy and good day. NO SNAKE!!!! I'm the one who spied him in the kit traveling into the living room. Needless to say, I hollered for Carl and he had to chase him around the living room wall, under all the kit cabinets and then out the door. He then ran him around the house alittle and picked him up and slung him into the woods. It seemed he was trying to get back into the house. Dad put vents into the crawl space in 2 of the blocks, but one vent didn't have the hardware with it so we have to take it back to Lowes. I think he came in the crawl space through the opening and didn't like the plastic so he crawled into the kit through the open floor. This was one hour after the fellow finished the plastic in the crawl space. If he would have seen him I'm sure he wouldn't have finished the job. The Lord protected us there. Ray, the pump man came out this afternoon and things are looking brighter. The well is 90 feet deep. What a mess it was. Holes in the casing top, also in the pipe going down and a few holes in the pipe leading into the kit. The pump is fairly new, but instead of doing thing right they just spliced at different places and even cut the ground wire. All this if fixable. Alleluia!! He hooked up a temp line and the water presser is great,and recovery is about 10 minutes. Tomorrow before going over to Carla and Bills we have to go over and run the water for 1/2 hour and twice on Sunday, before he hooks it up. Dad took about 1/2 of the porch down so we can start building the porch next week. I have all the doors for the kit cabinets all sanded and filled in with wood putty. They will be ready for their primer paint. Why should I be surprised at how the Lord works. We were told we would have to have a temp. electric pole put in, but the electrician hooked us up to 4 outlets we can use till he puts the final electric in. We did have a prayer time with the Lord concerning this as a temp pole cost 400. plus dollars. Thank you Lord. There must be a nest of birds in the eves as one little bird fell out and was still alive, so Dad took it out and killed it. Poor thing! Still no blue birds, but I am sure they will be back. It will be good to have one day where we can relax and visit with C & B . Love to each and every one. SMG

I've Had It!!

Today was the end!! We had an unexpected visitor IN OUR HOUSE! You guessed it, a 5 ft black snake. This guy is determined!!!!! When Bryans were here he threw the critter out in the woods twice and he keeps coming back!!!! Twice Dad found him and threw him real far in the wood and he is back AGAIN. I don't think I am going to go back over there and work. I'm through!!!!! I't one thing to remodel but an all together story if you find a black snake in your house. Don't you agree? Our blue birds aren't there any more. wouldn't surprise me if Mr. Blackie was up there disturbing them as well. Lets just hope I never see him again or he's a deader!!

The blessings as well as the strife

Hello to each one of you,
What a blessing it is to watch all of our birds that we are seeing. We put up a blue bird house and already have a pair building a nest in it, just after about 3 days. They are just beautiful to watch. Today we saw a pink strange new sparrow that came to the feeder along with dozens of yellow finches. Also the hummers are coming to the feeder as well and I was standing quite close to the feeder and one came and ate and just ignored me. After we get the new roof on I plan to put one closer to the house. I also saw a phoebe on the phone line this morning. I am enjoying the beauty of God creation. Today I started sanding all the kit cupboard doors. Most of them are sanding up very well and the wood isn't too bad looking, but I do plan to paint them and then put molding around the edge of all the cupboard doors. Don't know what color I will paint them. Thought I will paint the molding white and inside very light beige or off white, two tone effect. Any suggestions from the gallery? By the way, Bill, we have thought about you. Didn't you see on my last blog the foundation that we already have started for you and we are making sure it is facing east. Will that foundation be big enough? Chrystal, You are welcome anytime to come up and we will let you experience all the remolding you will need to know when you start your new home. I will try and take some new pictures tomorrow of the bearty of the birds. We will start the new porch next week. On Friday we plan to go and pick up all the lumber. God is so good. We are prayingthat we don't have to put up a temporary electruc pole. Keep praying with us on this. Love you all. SMG

big day

Hello family and friends, today was a very busy and tiring day. They were out here at 8 o'clock and had our septic in, our pad all in with gravel and were gone by 3:30. We have the line in for the R.V. as well. Dad and Bryan worked hard and scabed in all the joists in the back bedroom which showed a little rotton on the ends of the joist where they rested on the walls. Carolyn and I tried to keep everything clean and I think all the nails are out of all the studs. Everything is looking up. Tomorrow the pump man is to be out to get the w/h, pump and everything hooked up for water at the r/v site. I am very tired so i will make this short and send some pictures. The last picture is of the old septic, gross. Love to you all. SMG

Days to rest

Yesterday and today was days of much need rest. Sat Carla and Bill came over from Dayton and we went over to show them what we have done to the house and then we went to Gongola Rest and had a good pizza and salad bar, then came home and made coffee and had dessert we picked up at a discount bread store. On the way home I saw a used RIDDINIG lawn mower for sale so we stopped to see that. Bryan is going to look at it tomorrow morning to see if it is worth the 475 they are asking. I want a riding mower so I can mow around the house while Carl is mowing the field. If we keep the grass mowed down, it helps to keep the ticks from being so thick. Didn't sleep good that night, so we didn't go with Bryan and Carolyn down to Pikeville to church and then to eat at the barbeque rest with Carla and Bill. We did visit a church in Crossville, then came home and had left overs and did our washing. I make up some necter and took over to the house and filled the humming bird feeder and there were lots of birds at our feeder. Finches, nuthatches, blue jays and more. This is going to be a bird paridise. I can just see me sitting on my easy chair watching all of God's beautiful creations. How wonderful our Lord is. He sent us a good general contractor to help us with all these things we are uncertain about. It will be interesting to see how thing will progress. I love each one of you and read each and every comment and blog, so please keep it up. Love SMG

more surprises

Oh, the surprises we are finding. First we found a Wal mart credit card in between the wall. Of course we found out there was a zero balance on it. Shuchs!! Second we found our first black snake, or should I say 2. Ycch!! Needless to say this is mating season and so I'm sure there will be more around this summer. Black snakes and I don't mix, but they do keep the mice and rats and copperheads away somewhat, and Bryan and Carolyn feel they should be around, so I left them at their pleasure. They were out in the yard about 1/2 way towards the woods. Third, we discovered that 5 joist in the kit and 5 in the bath area were rotton and has to be repaired. Today was a weary day. We found a great contractor and his crew of 3 men came in to fix the area and they did work!!!! They broke up all the tile with sledge hammers and took up all of the particle board all the way back to the support beams in the kit and scabbed 5 boards to the ones that were damaged and then cut the damaged ones out. They also had to replace the 2x4 under the supporting beam without damaging the floor in the living room. Because of the damaged beams there was a slight sag in the supporting beam and they got that fixed. They also took off the front porch roof so dad and I can start building a new porch before they start the roof in 2 week. They finished all this in one day. We were very pleased, but it did make for a busy and more stressful day. We put our bird feeders out and We already have hummers feeding at their feeder. Again, I forgot my camera, but Carolyn is taking lots of pictures so I will add some of them when I get theirs. Our most interesting ingenuity is our bathroom facilities. I will let you all guess on that one. I do enjoy reading all your blogs, but believe it or not most evenings I am too tired to respond. I don't know if we are working harder to take advantage of Bryan here helping us and he has been a BIG help in getting so much of this done. We still are hoping to get out rig over there sometime in May.Keep us all informed and one of these days we will slow down. Love you all SMG

more pictures

Kilikina's Blog: A £1000 Day

Christina, What an adventure your branching into. I'd love to be there when you make your first batch of fudge. Eat some choc. for me,will you? Can you get macadamaia nuts. Macadamaia nut fudge sounds good too. I will be praying for you while you boil all that chocolate. When will you start making it? Let us know and we will send up many prayers for that particular day. I hope Gwyn has off that day, just in case you need him to pick up that big kettle. Love you and I admire your adventureson spirit. I just know you had it in you. Love Grandma

more surprises

Hello One and All,
Another days work done and we are all tired. Today Dad and Bryan got all the bathroom floor up. What a job and a surprise. 5 of the joists are rotten and in about 5' and have to be shored up or replaced. The floor is about 16" from the dirt under the house, so Dad is going to put the plumbing in from above before putting the sub flooring down. They had to take one wall down because the flooring was rotten underneith the wall. All the furring strips are off from the rafters. Don't know why they put these up and they were about 18" apart. Things look much cleaner. Carolyn pulled up all the staples from the L.R. I took down the furring strips in one room and then took out all the nails. The furring strips are good wood. Bryan got a new mower and it really does mow the lawn and field like a mower, so he mowed around the house and even mowed some of the field. Tomorrow the A/C guys are coming out to put in all the duct work and air handler and A/C and then will come out later and hook it up. I put a pork roast and sourkraut in the crock pot this morning so we had mashed pot, carrots, kraut and pork for supper. Here are a few of our pic we took today. As you can see I have my own tool belt!! We are having fun and it is great having another 2 hands to help with some of the hard work.I love you all so keep writing and keeping in touch. Love SMG

Tired, but grateful

Isn't God good to us? I just thank the Lord for each one of my children. Today was an interesting day. We actually had snow and sleet. Tiny little beads bouncing around and it was quite cold after that. Bryan and Carolyn arrived here Mon. On sunday afternoon we went over to Carla and Bills and had a wonderful time of eating, and fellowship. Bill grilled hambergers on the grill and they were so good. Today, Monday we all worked hard. Bryan and Carolyn dug the ditch for the electric and water line to the rig and the line from the well. I cut down all the shrubbery out front and weed eated the lawn at the side of the house. Dad(grandpa or Carl) and Bryan ripped out the tub and the floor in the bathroom is very bad. Dad took down some walls and was studying how to fix the floor. The insulating company came out at noon and blew insulation down all the holes in the block wall. Dad also took down 2 rooms of furrng strips in the ceiling. Why they put up furring strips we don't know, but they are coming down. I made soup in the morning and took my slow cooker over to keep it warm. Hot soup tasted good on a cold day, but we had to eat in the quonset hut. we couldn't eat in the house because of the insulation and it was too cold to eat outside. Tomorrow it is to be alittle warmer. That will be good. I forgot my camera again, but will take it tomorrow and publish some pictures of what we are doing. Enjoying reading all your blogs. Chrystal and Stacy, where are yours. Keep us informed. I'm about ready for bed, so goodnight everyone and God Bless each and everyone. Love SMG

Storms trials

Hello, everyone. Today was a very interesting day. First, I had to go in for blood work before my Dr. Appt. next week and Dad got a tetnus shot. He felt working with such dirty stuff and it has been over 10 yrs, he thought that would be better. Went and got groceries and got home about noon. Put groc. away and started over to the house when Marilyn came over to tell us we were unter a tornado watch. We decided to go over, but the wind really started blowing hard. Hard decision, do we stay or go back to the trailer. We could go to the Laundry room. I told Carl, I would much rather stay in the house than go to the laundry room. This house is built STRONG. It took Dad 1/2 hour to take out a 2x4 out of the closet floor, since we had to move it to put in the air handlier. He tried to pound it into another place and couldn't get a spike through the wook so he thought he would use a screw. would you believe he couldn't get that all the way in with his drill. Needless to say, we are wondering how we are going to put the dry wall up!!! This wood is there to stay and is ROCK HARD. Dad say it is as strong as steel. We're going to move 2 walls. Hope we can get that accomplished. What fun we will have. I am trying to get all the nails out of the floor from carpeting, and that is a slow teadious job. If anyone wants to see our project, we can find all kinds of work for you to do. Tomorrow Bill and Carla are coming up for breakfast. That will be a great break for us. Looking forwart to seeing them and Bryan & Carolyn on Monday. Love you all SMG

Looking up!!!

Hello Family, Another day, another dollar spent. Today the A/c man came back and gave us a good price on heat and air pump. Richard, who is the Christian pastor really worked with us trying to get the price within our range. It's alittle higher, but I know we will be very happy with everything they will be doing. They will start Monday and put in the duct work. Can you believe that? Carl has to run some outlet wiring into 2 outlets on the brick back walls and then the insulation man will add insulation into the cavitities of the brick. Later he will add the insulation in the attic. Another fellow Randy came in and he is a licensed contractor and he is giving us a price on the electrial stuff. We do have to have a new 200 amp box put in and Carl doesn't feel comfortable in doing that. The wire through out the house is fairly new so we will be able to use all that wire. There is one rafter that has to be reinforced as it has water damage and one 2x6 that has warped, but this is all fixable. Also the front half of the sheathing looks good. The back half has suffered a lot of water damage so all of that will have to be replaced. We decided to go with shingles instead of metal. $1000. less and we don't have to close up all those little holes in a metal roof. They have to be closed in so wasps don't go in and build nests. This picture is some of the insulation we took down. I have really loved to hear from all my family and have laughed so hard. Bryan as much as you like computors you will have to get yourself a blog page also. Not as hard as you think. Carla and Bill are coming up Sat for breakfast and then we might go to Troyers if they want to. Looking forward to seeing everyone next week. I'm sure we will all get togother sometime. Perry if you read this, I'm sure you will be jealous your not here. To all the grandkid. Keep writing!!! I love to keep up with everything you are doing. Love you all SMG

Oh! What a relief it is!!!!!!

A true relief to have all the wall board down on all the wall and ceiling. Poor dad had to pull all that insulation down from the ceiling. It sounded as tho it was raining when all that _______ hit the floor. I really felt sorry for him, because he was under it sometimes. There was evidence of larger animals than rats and mice were in the attic. I can't imagine anyone living in that kind of filth. NO LIVE CRITTERS, but 1 dead one. Now we can start thinking of our next step in fixing this place up. From here on it has to go better, maybe not for the pocket book, but we can now focus on positive renevation. Today a Mennonite man came out and gave us a price on insulation. Had a nice talk with him. His price was reasonable, so first he will blow insulation down into the holes of the concrete block walls. We will have insulation blown in (later on) instead of fiberglass rolled in. Much easier and price the same and much faster. I hardly know how dad could get up there to roll in insulation any way. We forgot the camera today, but most of the insulation was black. I'm sure now most of the mildew smell is gone. Next big job is fixing the floor. Hopefully Bryan can help some with that. Our dumpster is more than full and about another dumpster on the ground outside to be put in when they bring it back tomorrow. A good shower, a hair cut I gave myself, makes me feel like a new person. How I appreciate hot soapy water. I just let it run. Did you ever think how it might have been like back my mother was little when they took a bath once a week. Don't we have a lot to be thankful for? I laughted at Cindy's responce till my side was hurting. This is so exciting to hear from everyone often. Christina, I have enjoyed yours as well, especially telling us a little more of you little village. Tell Gwyn to write once in a while. Keep writing. Love SMG (Shirley,Mom Grandm)

What fun I'm having!!!

Hello everyone, What fun I am having. First, to learn how I can blog, get pictures and let everyone know what we are doing and to think it is free!!! This is so interesting! Second, yes we are having fun remodeling this house. It is so rewarding and exciting to know you can take something so dispicable and disgusting and make it into something beautiful. You can decide how you want it to look, plan where you want your table, couch, T-V and everything that goes into making a house a home. Designing your own home and watch it being renewed every day into something you are proud of is very rewarding. Today Carl (grandpa) took down the ceiling and insulation in 2 bedrooms. How gross!! Dirty, rat and mice dirt galore, mildew, stinky and everyother adjective you can think of to describe the filth!!! We have not encountered any live critters yet, thank goodness. We thought we were going to have to replace the whole roof, but looking at the rafters on the bedroom, it is very sturdy. We think we will just have to put down new sheathing on the whole roof. Halallua! This will probably save 8 grand which sound good to me. Thanks for all the compliments you gave me, but remember this, growing old is a matter of the mind. Yes, I feel much older and can't do what I used to do and it is much better than sittiing around feeling sorry for yourself and watching T-V all day. Here are 2 more pictures of some of the work we are doing. I love you all. Shirley(Grandma)

A call for HELP!!!!

As you can see, I am trying to learn how to manage a BLOG. This is so all my friends and family can know what we are doing with out lives and to sympathize with us in trying to undertake such a big task as remodeling this house. Do I hear any sympathic person out there that can give us bits of wisdom and encourgement?

HELP!! What have we committed ourselves to?

Holes in the floor, mildew all around and gobs of work!!!! We have worked one week on our little home and have accomplished a lot and have worked very hard. It is amazing what a person can get done when we put our hearts to it. We have removed all the paneling, all the wall board, taken up all the smelling carpet, removed the kit cupboards and bathroom cupboards. We discovered 3 big holes in the floor under the kit sink, bathroom sink and where they had the washer and dryer. The studs are sawed, yellow pine 2 1/8 x 3 5/8 and as hard as a rock. Much work to be done, but I know the end results will be great.