2016 - One Day At A Time

The kitchen arrived on Wednesday and I'll admit, it is rather daunting to see all of those boxes! We decided to save on kitchen costs by doing the installation ourselves. That should be interesting. We now have everything here that we need to get us to the finishing stage which is also an overwhelming thought! Now, we just need time! We knew from the start that we would pay in either time or money. We chose to save the money knowing full well it would take much longer to finish. But the finish line is slowly coming into view. We know what needs to be done and we just need time to do it.

 One day at a time. 

This is the library/reading area. Nice and bright, right? Worth all of the fuss of the extra windows and skylight? Well, I think so!

A snowy view out of the windows.

This is our room. The fixtures on the ceiling are for overhead reading lights. This arrangement might not work for someone who likes to rearrange their furniture often but I like to leave mine where it is when I find a spot that works.

The door to the right is the closet and to the left is the bathroom.

Master bathroom.

This is looking from the library area. You can see down the stairs, our room to the right, two bedroom doors to the left and the storage area straight ahead. It's a lot darker with the walls up but it's not that dark. I was having issues with the flash on the camera.

Looking down the stairs.

Basement bathroom.

The basement will be unfinished for now.

Apparently we need a better system for stacking the firewood but with an unfinished floor, this works for now.

Basement entrance.

Back upstairs, this is from the kitchen looking toward the laundry room...

 ...and from the laundry room looking back toward the kitchen.

Ugh! Drywall mess! Thankfully they are coming back to deal with this.

But not before the kitchen arrived. We had to make a path around it.

It's hard to believe it's all in there!

We took it right down to the basement to give the drywallers room to finish upstairs.

Now, we just need to fit all of this...

...in here...

...and here.

Except for this. The drywallers will have to work around it. It's the large pantry cupboard for the kitchen and this was as far as anyone wanted to move it! Actually, now that I think of it, the bathroom vanities and laundry room cupboards are in that stack of boxes too. It will be like putting a giant jig-saw puzzle together. Sound like fun? Maybe. I'll let you know.

Snow, snow and more snow. Well, it is winter after all!

So, the drywallers aren't finished. They need to come back to tape, mud and sand. I'm not sure when they will be done so we will work around them. We still have a few jobs to finish as well. You would just never believe how many "little" jobs there are to do. So. Many. Details. We keep getting asked the question that everyone, including us, is wondering. "When are we moving in?" Well, the short answer is, we don't know and I think I'm done with guessing dates. There are just too many variables. I thought Phil was trying to make me crazy last year when he said spring 2016 but now I see he was being realistic. I mean, we really do hope to be in before spring but with everything that still needs to be done, I can see now that it could take that long. A lot of it, of course, depends on how much time Phil and the boys actually have. If they were working on it full time, obviously it would take less time so we are just taking it day by day and trying not stress too much about the time line. It is what it is. 

Thank you to each of you that have been following along with us for over a year now on this journey and for those who continue to pray for us. We are so thankful for each of you and we continue to covet your prayers. We know better than to think that this is possible on our own strength. Especially at this point when it is easy to feel weary. We also do not presume to know what the future holds but as we begin this New Year in 2016, as with every other year, we know Who holds the future. With that said, we carry on. With His strength.

One day at a time. 

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 

Isaiah 40:28-29