Durango Palmers: November 2010

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Thankful Thursday because I seriously owe you....

I'm thankful for you sticking with me! And very thankful to God for working everything out!

So my week went by quickly. I've been trying to at least post once a week so to not leave you completely hanging (although I've successfully left you hanging...a ton) and then I realize it's been a week AND a day. Man! Just when I thought I was able to start catching up. And just so you know, there are dirty dishes filling up my sink, 4 loads of laundry to fold, toys to be picked up, a floor to be swept and a dresser to move before my parents and sister, Meghan, arrive but because I love you all so much I'm not doing any of that (for the moment) so I can post pictures. Frankly so I can post ANYTHING! You can thank me later....

So here's what I'm doing. You are going to get the full before and after effect of the bathroom as well as a few bonus pictures. As well as an update on our engineer/refinance/stupid-trench process. It's amazing news. Really an only my God kind of story.

I'll start there. After last week's frustrating news about having to dig a trench around our house as well as building a wall I was done. I wish I could say I was super strong and never wavering in my trust in God but that would be lying and I hate lying. The truth is I was mad, then sad, then confused, then questioning the whole situation, then praying, then realizing that God is in control, always has been, and He knew this would happen. Just cause I didn't know doesn't make it unfix-able. Make sense? So then I had peace. God was going to make all things work together for my good (no matter the outcome!). And He did.

Through a friend we met another engineer and on Monday he came out to our little abode to do his inspection. In the end he told us that we need to build 6 or 8 supports in key areas under the house out of concrete blocks (no cement necessary) and take pictures. That's it. Seriously. That's it. I asked him why his requirements were so different. He basically said he didn't think it was necessary. Hallelujah!

So hopefully sometime this weekend Mark and I will be under the house stacking cinder blocks and taking pictures. And hopefully sometime in the next couple weeks we will be done with refinancing!!! After 4 long months....Can I get an amen? Amen!

And here's the pictures of the newly finished bathroom (like we just finished last night kind of newly finished...) I won't waste your time, or mine, labeling the before and after. It's quite! obvious. And yes we did live in that bathroom for 9 years. Please don't ask me how. You do what you have to do ya know?

We went down to one sink (and couldn't care less -- I love the drawer space!) and removed the tub so we have just a walk-in shower. Love it! Feels like a grown up shower now!

Here's a picture out our back sliding glass door. I wanted to show you what the back railing looks like. Pete made it out of wire cables so we could keep the view. Love it!

Also here's a bit of what Kale has been up to (totally not school related - this is pure hobby). My brother and sis-in-law are divers and they have tons of diving magazines. I asked them if we could have their old ones and they happily gave us a ton! So Kale spent a couple days thumbing through them and cutting out shark pictures. Then he carefully glued them to blue and green paper (ya know the color of water) and then, with my help, we stuck them on his wall over his bed. He's in shark heaven! I know they're hard to see but you can at least see the great white's huge mouth on the top right. How he doesn't have nightmares I don't know but Jack does look at the wall and say "scary!"

And finally - for now - we went to a friend's house for lunch yesterday and when we got home we found this ton of fun set up in our front yard! Mark about peed his pants. Not even kidding. You think I just made a typo but I didn't. The kids were excited yes, but Mark....well he's wanted a trampoline since he was little. He was actually bummed that it was dark when he got home from work. But never fear. That's what headlamps and coats are for. Jumping on the tramp at night! Brrrr!

A super sweet family, whose kids are grown, blessed us with this wonderful treasure. How amazing is that?! Another reason to be thankful. Thankful for friends and their generosity. My kids have never had so much fun outside and for that I am beyond thankful. Now they have a place to jump off some energy!

Ok the laundry is calling - loudly - and I think I am close to overloading you. I mean a week with nothing to a super long post just won't do! So how about a kinda long post?

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

more catching up

It's been a long and, at times, emotional week.

To bring you up to speed, our remodel was completed (meaning the awesome worker men were done) on Friday. They finished up our back door and the trim and really did an amazing job on everything. We were very pleased with their work.

We had an engineer visit us on Friday morning to inspect our foundation for the loan. His news wasn't so thrilling. He told us that in order for us to get the loan we need to dig a 18inch deep by 6inch wide trench around the perimeter of our house, fill it in with cinder blocks and concrete, build a pony wall and add insulated foam. Seriously? It has nothing to do with the structure of our house. Our house has a permanent foundation and everything there is fine. The "wall" they are requiring is a frost wall. Something we were planning to do - although on a much easier scale - next summer. We're not sure why all the extra hoops to jump through. The lady we've been dealing with at the bank said we are "this close" to finishing this process. We just have to finish this and the money is ours.

Another reason it is frustrating is because apparently these rules were put in place back in 1995 - long before we bought this place. Unfortunately for us, both our mortgage company and our insurance company, did not understand what they were loaning us money for or insuring so they both did it incorrectly. They probably took each others words for it and both were wrong. We did nothing to deceive anyone and didn't even know it wasn't right. But here we are now, having to do things that should've been done before we ever would've gotten a loan 9 years ago. *sigh* And we are quickly running out of money and time.

Pete is heading back to CA to be with his family (understandably) so we are without our awesome worker man. And trying to find someone who can do this for the price we can afford before the ground freezes is a bit stressful. We might have another week or so at most. Snow is in the forecast this week. The urgency is that our appraisal (that we've already paid for) will not be good after 90 days so the whole process will have to be started over if the appraisal runs out. Grr! All the time, money, work and hoop jumping will have to be done all over again. Reeeealy don't want to go there. At. All.

So we are praying for favor with the engineer, the mortgage company and the contractor who will eventually do the work (although we don't know who that is yet - we are still on the hunt). If you think of it will you pray with us? I'd really like this all to be done. Like yesterday....

Saturday I went to a beautiful baby shower and Mark hung out with our good friend, Seth, who was in town. That night Mark and I had an intense prayer time. God had brought stuff out that we needed to deal with. It was really wonderful but emotionally exhausting.

Sunday was busy...and sad. I woke up to the news that our dear family friend - who has been battling stage 4 brain cancer for the last 5 months - had passed away. Not the news, at all, that we had been praying for.

Sunday was also my due date. I thought it would be just another day - and for the most part it was - but I could tell that I was a bit more emotional as I thought about the fact that had I not lost number 4 I would have had a brand new baby in my arms. Sad yes. But I knew without a doubt that God was comforting me that whole day. While there were tears there was still peace. In the midst of the stress and the emotion of the weekend I still felt His love for me and His grace poured over me. I was so thankful for that.

We had 2 more meetings at church that day. It's not the usual Sunday but everything happened at the same time. That's how it tends to be. Feast or famine.

This weekend brings more little projects in hopes of finishing up the work that Mark and I need to do and then I will post pictures. I can't wait to show you how the bathroom started out and ended up. It's amazing!

I know I still have much more to update but at this season in my life I can barely keep up with my day to day life :) It will happen though. I promise.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

One of those days!

I know everyone has had one of those days. The ones where you can't believe all that's gone on? Well I'm having one right now and even though the day is barely half over I have to document this.

It started off with me in the shower after my workout this morning. It was 10 to 7 and I knew it'd have to be a quick one. I'm shampooing my hair when I hear the door open and two loud little boys barreling in. The youngest loud one was yelling for a snack, toast and a nana (banana). I'm thinking - where's Mark?! Help!

I send them out, hurry and finish, jump out and block the door. Which makes them start pounding on it of course. After I'm dressed and ready to get them breakfast Mark makes his appearance. I almost laughed. Almost.

The morning goes on. I talk to Pete (awesome carpenter man) about the leaky sink and the crazy light issue in our bathroom, cut Kale's hair, we did some schoolwork and played out on the front deck (the weather is stinkin amazing! It feels like spring not fall!). Then my dad calls. I spend a bit talking with him about the remodel. Of course I always get a bit distracted when I'm on the phone. All of a sudden I realize Jack used the Vis-a-Vis marker on my off-white couch. On 3 different cushions! Stinkin stuff does NOT come off easily! I've tried many things and thanks to some facebook friends I have many more ideas of how to do this. Wow. Fun times.

Then I discover, later, that Jack also moved his chair over to the counter (his favorite thing to do lately...he insists on helping...) and pulled the top of the candle wick off and wiped the soot stuff all over the counter like paint. Lovely.

He also used the marker to mark up a chair and part of the table. Seriously I need more eyes! My 2 are definitely not enough!

After putting the 2 littles down for naps (whew!) Kale and I finished up school. Then Pete comes in. He tells me that our neighbor who lives behind us (you might remember her from a post a while ago about how she locked our dog in the garage) rode her horse onto our property to tell him that she wasn't pleased with our new back deck lights that are now shining in her house. She didn't stop to tell me. No she just wanted Pete to know. Little does she know that Pete likes us! He suggested to me that we get brighter bulbs....I am seriously considering that...

Then as I'm doing laundry Kate comes out of her room to inform me that she threw up. Thankfully it wasn't a my-tummy-isn't-well kind of throwing up. More of a coughing-so-hard-I-gagged-myself throwing up. Much easier to deal with.

So. Here I am. It's like 3:00 and I'm in awe of my day. See why?

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Alrighty then!

I have a couple minutes to sit down and breathe now that my house is picked up. The appraiser guy is supposed to be here any minute (or hour I suppose) to recheck our house. The last time he was here the windows were not finished so the mortgage company wanted him to come recheck and make sure the windows and trim and dining room floor were completed. OK? Well they are but the now the master bathroom is under construction and the new back door is sitting right next to the old one but it's not installed yet...Wonder if that will matter?

Speaking of the remodel (as you will usually find me doing these days since it somewhat consumes me at this time), we are done with the shower and they are installing the vanity as I speak - I mean type. Windows are almost completed (on the inside). There's a little drywall and painting to do but overall the windows are doing what they were meant to do. They are also working on our cable railing on our back deck. I prayed a couple weeks ago for nice weather so Pete could work and not have to be gone from his family any longer than necessary and I believe God has answered my prayer. It's like 62 degrees today! Very nice! I remember it snowing on Halloween before. Not this year thankyouverymuch. Woohoo!

So the awesome construction guys are busy beavers and very creative too I might add. Ya see when you update a modular home it isn't just take something out and install something else. Oh no. If only it was that simple. Nothing is made standard size in here. So plumbing, electricity and other things have to be custom worked. The vanity took an extra couple days because they had to rearrange the plumbing. Nothing short of frustrating for our very patient Pete I'm sure (although he hasn't complained one stinkin bit). Which is amazing since my children have walked away with no less than 2 plastic thingys that he's needed and they thought were either trash or new toys....*sigh* which meant another couple trips to Home Depot (our 2nd home for the last few weeks...I think they're starting to know us now....).

Anywho, I have realized that since the remodel I've neglected updating you on many other important happenings in our family. I am very sorry about that. I will get on that asap I promise.

Like the fact that we went to our awesome dentist's office to get cleanings and Kale is having his first 2 cavities/deep grooves filled on Thursday. And at this moment he's still counting down the days till he gets to go back to the dentist (not kidding he loves the dentist!). Hopefully he'll love the NO2 enough to still love the dentist after Thursday.

Also it's election day and by golly you can bet that I voted. I love the mail-in ballots! So much easier then dragging my children to any polling place, standing in line, then voting. Amen to whoever made that part of my life easier. So thankful that I have the right and privilege to vote. It also gives me the right to disagree with the way things are going and work to make a change. Love that (sorry if you disagree with my politics but I promise I won't go overboard - this time - in sharing my view with you)!

That's about all I have time for at this moment. My moment is up. Thank you for waiting (patiently?) for over a week for the latest Palmer news :)

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