5/30 Update

Hello! We are still here and making progress. Dad went home on Sunday and as soon as he left we took a nap!! That man is a machine when it comes to working. Much was accomplished with his help. The biggest task was probably the electric. I won't even pretend to sound like I know what all they did but they spent several days on it. I do know they wired a 3 way switch for a series of pass through lights. That was a big task. The above photo is of one of the switches involved. They wired new outlets, moved several outlets to better locations, added light switches, and a added a bunch of wires waiting to be put to use after the cabinets go in. Here is a shot of Dad and Greg next to their handywork.


Remember I told you how the boys and I spent several hours chiseling up the tile floor? I honestly thought that was the hard part of tearing out the floor. Boy was I mistaken!! Underneath was plywood with screws about every 2 inches in every direction, then some lovely gold specked vinyl and then fiberboard. In all the floor had about an inch of material on it. The cement from the tile covered most of the screw heads. I removed as many as I could but it seemed I hardly made a dent. It took Greg 3 days to completely get everything torn up. Crow bar, hammer, saw, and lots of sweat. At the end of the day he could barely lift a pencil! Not the kinda job a pastor is used to that is for sure, lol!
On Wednesday we ordered the cabinets and countertops. They said it would be 3 to 4 weeks so our schedule is set for moving forward. I imagine in 6 weeks or so I should have photos of our new kitchen.
We are off to the movies to see the new Indiana Jones flick.
More later...

Progress

Each day more gets done but we are definitely in the "it gets worse before it gets better" stage! Dad and Greg have spent a lot of time in the attic shoring up beams, moving the access door, and prepping electric. Josh, Kaleb and I spent the night chiseling up all of the floor tile. Boy what a job. I hit my finger with the hammer no less than a dozen times! Josh stopped counting how many times he hit himself. We finally got the last tile up about 10pm.

Pastor Bill came over for a couple of hours and helped out prepping a few areas for drywall.

The last 3 days we have been blessed with someone bringing in our dinner. That has been such a huge help.

Today Greg and I are going to talk to the kitchen guy again. We still probably aren't at the point of placing an order yet, hopefully next week.
Back to work!

Sound the Horn!!

It's FINALLY time to do the kitchen! Greg took the week off of work and Dad has come to help. And he is not one to sit around so work got underway quickly. So quick in fact, I hadn't even taken one last picture of the kitchen in the "before" state. Here is Josh helping to take off some of the cabinet hardware. Dad had already removed some of the doors. The wall that Josh is standing in front of is the wall that is coming down, just to give you perspective. Don't mind our mess....we're remodeling ;).
Mom came for the day and helped me to clear out the contents of the kitchen and take it down to the basement. Say goodbye to all that wood paneling.
I had a stamping engagement in Rochester yesterday so I returned mom back to her house and spent the day running errands before my class. When I came home at 11pm, this is what I found....WOW!! These guys mean business. I didn't think walls would be down so soon! The cabinets, the appliances, the walls....no more! The space opens up so nicely. In a couple of days we will have the cabinet guy come back to measure and offer final words of advice before we place our order. It will take the cabinets 4-6 weeks to come in. In the mean time there are lots of electrical things to do, dust to clean, dry wall to patch, dust to clean, tile to rip up, dust to clean, wallpaper to remove, dust to clean, carpet to remove.... But there is no turning back now!
Stay tuned for more.

Tree Down!

What have we been up to?? At the moment, a big tree is messing up our yard and clean up is a long and hard task. I wish I had taken a before picture of the massive willow tree in our back yard. In many ways it was a beautiful tree and it was sad to cut it down. Greg figures it may have been 75' tall and the diameter of the trunk is probably 5'. Unfortunately, it was near our septic system and willows have lots of far reaching, invasive roots. We are hoping it hasn't already done damage. This was a case of sellers leaving a problem to the next guy. And we are next guy #4! The man who installed the septic system in 2001 told us he had advised the home owners to take down the tree then but they were moving so why bother?? Arghhhh!! We couldn't afford to have the tree completely taken care of so we just had someone come cut it down. As it was, we knew a guy at church who was willing to give us a break. Now we are working on cutting it all up and hauling the limbs and wood away. And then we still have the problem of what to do with the massive truck still left. Some of the suggested ideas include building a tree house on it, blowing it up, praying it will fall over on its own and some other equally unhelpful ideas. Greg and the boys made as much fun out of the work as they could. This was day one of clean up. They rigged a tarp to pull all the limbs up to the front of the yard. On the way back, they got to ride the tarp. I bet we could make a new rural sport out of this one, lol! The boys love getting to drive around the lawn too. This past week Pastor Bill came over with his chain saw and large trailer and we got a lot done. But there is much left yet.
I will be back in a few days with a special report!
Blessings and hugs to you!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today marks 14 years for Greg and I. Where did that time go? So much has happened in that time. Here is a short recap...

--Got married May 7th, 1994

--moved into our first apartment

--Greg was working for Wegmans, I was managing a group home for mentally ill adults.

--volunteered for Young Life

--moved into a 2 bedroom apartment

--Greg got his bachelors degree

--temporarily moved in with Mom and Dad Harp while we decided about a job

--had a baby, named him Joshua (June 8, 1996)

--moved to Ft Lauderdale to work with the youth at First Christian Church

--had a baby, named him Kaleb (April 14, 1998)

--moved back to Rochester to work at Parkminster Pres. Church

--Greg started working on a Masters in Divinity at Northeastern Seminary

--Greg took a Youth Pastor position at Pearce Memorial Church

--Sept. 11, 2001 happened

--we moved 5 miles down the road to North Chili to live in one of the church owned properties

--Greg graduated from seminary

--We bought our first home and moved a mile down the road

--Greg was ordained into the Free Methodist Church

--got "reorganized" out of a job and spent a year in turmoil (how is that for positive spin??,lol)

--Greg was called to be the associate pastor at Ransomville Free Methodist Church

--moved again, of course. Bought and sold a house in the process

Whew!! And those are just some of the highlights. In between there are missions trips, friends, raising kids, trips, brothers getting married and having kids, part time jobs, hobbies...Can't imagine what the next 14 years will hold.

Through it all , God is good and God is faithful!!