I love being in the volunteer state!!

It will be six months on October 2nd. The hype with the flood is definitely gone. You would think it would be hard to find help. However, being in the volunteer state it isn't hard to find someone looking for a place to help out. As the stress level goes up from trying to get everything to come together at the end we have had so many people volunteer their time. We have had people from our life group (LifeChurch.tv bible study), friends, and complete strangers show up. Within the last month they have painted, stained, cleaned, and install hardwood floors.

We are hoping for mom and Caleb to be back in their house in a week. I have already had a church contact us about bringing out a group on Saturday. God has definitely shown us he will take care of us. Everyone that has came out to help has been a light for God. So many times it has looked as if there was no way things were going to work out and God has put someone in place to make sure everything would work out. One example is we have come to the end of funds and not sure how we would get everything finished. I knew I could at least get some rooms painted and it would start looking like a home again. A friend of a friend showed up to help. By the end of the day he had offered to head up a day for volunteering to install the floors. He leaves in a week to go to New Orleans to volunteer for the 23rd time. What an amazing person God put in our lives!

So why on Earth would we even worry how things will work out when our awesome God is in control.

Wood Floors

We have a wonderful stranger, Alan Pickirel, donating his time Saturday to put in as much of the wood floors as possible. He is a friend of someone I work with. He showed up about three weeks ago to help paint. We have spread the word and hoping we get a group tomorrow to help. Alan said he can use anyone, no matter the experience.

We have come to the end of the funds and trying to get the last of the house done on our on. Besides the floors we have painting, cleaning, all trim work, doors, fireplace, and a few more things we know we have to do. Trim is the one thing we are not knowledgeable about.

Hopefully I will have pictures soon.

Painting!!!!

This weekend we will start painting the entire house. Since it is new dry wall we will have to prime first. We will start at 9am on Saturday and noon on Sunday. We could use all the help we can get. The more people we get, the faster it will go. You can call me for the address and directions. 615-400-7687

Getting Closer

It is beginning to look like a home again. The floor plan was changed a little to what mom has always wanted to do to the house. If she ever wanted changes to the house then now was the time to do it. We opened the kitchen, dining, living, and den to one huge room. Also, she has a utility room now with a pantry. The last thing was changing the porch to a sun room. God has taken something horrible and made my mom a safer, more cost efficient house. The old electric was the wiring with paper around it, insulation was bad, and a/c had gone out several times. To get hot water you had to go into the garage and flip a switch. Now the electric has been reran. New insulation and drywall are up. Also, the walls are now textured. The duct work and new a/c unit are installed. I am hoping we will be painting in a week. Then the floors, cabinets, tile, etc. will be put in. After that hopefully we can get the furniture delivered that is being purchased by donations from her AA friends.

We had a lot of rain this past week and the roof leaked. It leaked around the fireplace and into some new light fixtures. That might put us a little back, but will find out this week. We are praying it will be an easy fix.

If you are looking for ways to help we might need volunteers for for a few things. We are talking with someone about the possibility of having them spray the paint on the walls. However if that doesn't work out we will have to prime and paint the entire house. Also, once the house is complete we will be taking what we salvaged from the flood and moving it back to the house. We could use help moving and cleaning everything. The things we saved are currently being stored in a unit that was donated, and we are thinking everything will need another good cleaning before being used again. I will post when we are getting close to needing help. The painting hopefully will be in about a week and the moving will be maybe in a few weeks.

The anticipation is building. God is good!!

Let the Shopping Begin

The floor joists are finished and sub flooring is in! I think mom has decided on the floor plan and final changes are being made. This coming week the tub and showers are going to be installed. Mom took me with her to Lowe's and showed me the appliances she wants for the house. We had some fun taking pictures while we were there. I was told I couldn't post the picture of her in the toilet section of the store but I will hold on to it for future bribery.

quick update

Hopefully by the end of this coming week we will be done with floor joists and the building process will go quicker. We were at a stand still this week waiting on insurance. Everything has worked out and it should be a go on Monday. We had someone jump the front gate again and open two gates. The barn was a mess but it is possible Cole did that part.

I smell fresh wood...hmmmm...smells good!!

Mom and I worked today at the house cleaning up the yard. We scooped up the left over trash from the piles of stuff. Davidson County Sheriff's department came out again this week to get the last pile of debris. There were swarms of flies all over. It was pretty nasty. What was worse was the ac ducts were piled in the yard. When they were brought out of the house they were full of...well...bile to put in nicely. We also picked up tile from the yard that had been removed from the bathroom. It is kind of funny that the entire house is gutted except for the guest bathroom in the middle of the house. To get to it you have to walk carefully along the beams, but it does work. Mom also cleaned the bathroom today. The front porch is swept and the barn is clean now. That should last for about a week.

We currently have a crew in the house during the week rebuilding. Right now they are replacing floor joist. Hopefully when they are finished with those it will go a little faster. It is nice to smell fresh wood!

This week we apparently had our first looters. On Wednesday morning my dad said two of our gates were open. Someone hopped the entrance gate and made there way through our yard leaving two gates open. They took the halters off of the three horses. They are about $20 a piece, and we had just bought them after the flood. They didn't get into the house, and we aren't sure if anything is missing in the barn. We really aren't sure what is where at the moment. Things are being stored in various locations. So it is hard to know what is gone unless we are looking for it to use. The halters were easy to notice they were missing because mom leaves them on the horses. It is really sad that someone knowingly steals from someone who has lost almost all their possessions. Hopefully that will be all the looting we get through this process. I am sure if that is the only thing taken then we are doing better than most who have dealt with looting. It was still frustrating.