MUDDING

 We've always had a lot of MUD around here.  

Especially in between winter and spring, the season of MUD!  But, this year tops them all.  

We have ponds of MUD, mountains of MUD, trails of MUD, which all adds up to 

Rugs of MUD, Carpets of MUD, and Kitchen floors of MUD!!!

I would like to add to this a bathroom of POO!

We have been experiencing some major septic problems. I will not go into detail here.

I will just say; we have experienced a trial and hopefully have learned patience 

and humility and an appreciation for our ancestors who had to use an outhouse

or worse before indoor plumbing was invented.

 The LP Siding has begun to be installed, our columns are covered, and will be painted later.

 MUDDING has begun IN our house as well.

 Texture

DRYWALL

 We can no longer be ghosts, walking through the walls.

 Pulled the plastic off, we can see the house again!  Yay!

Mr. Crazy Eyes!

 Valentine boxes:  Adi made a replica of our little cottage.   She won 2nd place in her class.  Coulson made a prey vs. predators box.  In the top box he had his toy animals that were set up in a fighting position.  The kids in the class were to determine who would win by putting their Valentine in the side they wanted to win.  At the end he counted the valentines in each side and announced it to the class...The predators won. And he won first place. The best part is I did not help make the boxes, except for looking up a paper mache recipe and some clean up.

Insulation and Inspiration

 Before we started to build our house I knew we were going to do this, 

so we have been thinking of inspirational quotes and scriptures that are meaningful to us to make our house even more a part of US 

and special to us. In Celebration of passing our 

4-way inspection (and before the insulation installation) we pulled out the pens and Sharpies and went to work.  

I had so much fun reading what the kids came up with.  

Although there are a lot of pictures on the blog today it is only a small sampling of what is written on our framework.  

I love that they all enjoyed participating and "leaving their mark."

 Under the plastic that is covering half the house

 

 I have this disorder where no matter what is going on a tune pops in my head to accompany the activity.  The day of insulation I had these words; "In-su-lation time, Come On!" to the tune of "Celebrate!" STUCK IN MY HEAD!

4-way Inspection and Brick Part 2

 We still have plastic covering the other 2 sides of our house, but here is a little peek at the brick.  It looks so great!!!  Our Mason assures me it will look even better once it has been power washed.

We experienced our first 4-way inspection this week as well(Framing, Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC).  To be totally honest this past week has been the hardest week so far since the start of building our house.  I was so full of self-doubt and I was really giving up on myself. But, the Lord has helped me be strong.  I still don't know everything about building a house but "It's Gonna Be Okay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pBjopDymts

We went to The Piano Guys concert on Friday night it was "AWESOME" (from the mouth of my kiddos). This might seem weird but it also helped me feel loved and as if I could do everything the Lord needs me to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOO5qRjVFLw

 

 We have been taking care of the items that didn't pass inspection, 

installing a wood stove pipe and framing it in, 

finishing the ducting for our AC,  

bracing the basement load-bearing walls, 

getting a plumbing test, 

and dealing with the issue of the kid bedroom windows being too high off the ground.