Our Bathroom is Coming Along!

Before

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God's hand has been with us all the way!

Our powder room downstairs  was just so tiny....We couldn't wait to  improve it... Actually it had been a dream ever since we bought the house...  But we just didn't know how to start...We needed  more space.. We did have  a utility closet beside it  but  we felt like we needed it... Until  one day we realized it was just the two of us  and  we  realized  we had another option! More about that later!

We actually started our process  in Late May and started out with a home building store  as our contractor.. Bad mistake..  God  revealed to us  that  we we were a small fish in an ocean of  projects, and it would take months to finish our project..  For example, they said they'd call us  next week .. it was  a month! Our next attempt at contracting  went bad in two days...  After we discovered he was charging us 100% above asking on all the materials.  God  reminded me a young fellow who had done great work  a few years ago as we  were fixing my parent's home for sale..Now had his own Contracting business and  was well on his way to  being one of the best in our area! We retained him on June 29th.. and we were off!  Zoom!

 So  our project started July 2nd...The first day  the  closet was  taken and the whole  space was  demolished to the studs

Here you can see the  space we  gained .. you can see the  drain moved back  some.

In that first week the framing and plumbing and electric was  put in behind the wall and we passed our inspection!  I know God's favor was on this project!!

This week the dry wall went up, the niches were  cut into the shower wall, the shower base was established.

The decorative tile for the niches  arrived from California 3 weeks early!!On Monday we were told it could be a month.. we prayed for  His favor and it came   in 4 days!

The shower was  partially tiled..

The wall  where the closet had been was dry walled,  and soon will look as it it was never there!!!

Late this week  they  put in the granite floor, and finished the shower except for the niches..  we, unfortunately, need one more tile to  finish it.  It's on its way!

Yesterday they put the wainscoting up

Yesterday we bought the paint supplies  

The  color for the walls was  taken  from the decorative tile...  It is  gorgeous... 

 

it will go up today! It looks fabulous  up against the white wainscoting!!! I am giddy with anticipation! The flooring will  be laid today, as well.... The plumbers will come next week to set the fixtures and  the accessories will be    installed along with the shower door... I cannot believe how fast the work has progressed...  It will   finish up  under 3 weeks!

To God be the glory for guiding us and   showing us His perfect way!

The after  photos will come next week!!!

Wednesday Hodge Podge

Click here for Joyce's page.

1. What's something in your house you'd like to get rid of but can't?I would love to  reupholster the chairs in the living room  a color that would  be timeless and   seasonable  I mean it can happen  but not until  we  recoup  from this major reno!...  My sofa is  a white  brocade , but the hairs are  maroon and navy...    too heavy for summer  and  I  rally hope to find just the right  upholstery to  make it more  year round!

2. When is the last time you experienced a sense of nostalgia? Elaborate.

On the fourth of July, hubs and I had  no  special plans...  so we dined out for lunch at our local eatery  that usually specializes in homemade fare...  but for the holiday hot dogs and hamburgers were on the special menu so we  bought  some to split and  a Dr. Pepper.. Our  conversation naturally  became quite nostalgic as we shared  stories about how we had celebrated the Fourth in our heydays...For me because we lived so close we  spent the day at  an amusement part...  she talked about our favorite rides there,  I loved the flying airplanes, especially on hot days,  the caterpillar, and the Merry Mixer

but never put me on the Tilt a whirl!!!

  Nostalgia discussions always leads to  chats about our  top 40's of the 60s and 70s!!!  Loved!!!

We always tried to explain what the  heck it was all about!!!!!

3. You're only allowed three apps on your smart phone or tablet...which three do you keep?
Pandora, Youtube, Weather

4. July 11th is National Blueberry Muffin Day. Who knew? Do you like blueberry muffins? If you were going to have a muffin would blueberry be your choice? What's the last thing you baked?
I love blueberries...I made my own rendition of the Berry Blast salad  popular this summer at Wendy's and I put extra blueberries in it!!! I haven baked much at all lately..  Not on my  diet!!!

5. What's the biggest way you've changed since you were a child? In what way are you still the same?Well, unfortunately  I  gained a good portion of weight while living in Germany our first year of marriage...  nothing to do  but read and nibble.  We adopted  our daughter at my age of 35  and she has kept us young..  Even though I just turned 68  my grands are only 4 and 2  so they like me young.. and  thankfully  I've lost  a good amount of weight with  that much more to lose... So to answer how am I the same..  I am playful... I love to act silly...  I enjoy  kidding around with other couples..  never too serious  except  in spiritual matters,  but I  love to laugh!!! 

6. Insert your own random thought here.
 I cannot believe how fast  our  contractors are working on our bathroom....  this week already they have  put up all the walls..  there were none  Monday morning,  the shower pan went down and already inspected... and  now they

are tiling the shower...everything is purchased and on site, and the only thing I have left to do is choose paint colors that match my decorative tile that we picked up this morning!

Happy Homemaker Monday

Return to DOASAHM here

The weather.....

We are experiencing a gold front   with  tons of cloudy damp days with intermittent showers...  We just had one...  rather dark and  gloomy out...  but I LOVE IT!!!!

Right now I am....

I am enjoying  my fruited yogurt dear Hubs just set before me...  He is  now washing the morning dishes.  I'm one content lady!!

Thinking....I am  sort of  upset with my self for buying into a diet plan  requiring 2 whey shakes  a day for meals...and  then  other  nutritious  items through the day.. problem is  I stood the shakes for a month and then just  had to stop...  Whey  and I just do not jive!!!Problem is I have  2  unopened canisters of  shakes  that  last  for 2 months left over...  but the good news is  I have learned to cut back, eat less, and am  still losing weight...YAYAYAYA

Something fun or interesting that happened....

 I am loving my new bathroom downstairs here on the main level...well, the  shower isn't complete..  the panel  couldn't be  installed so  we still await that but  the rest of the room is  ready to go!!!!

We are so delighted!!!

On my reading pile....

Last week while  we  visited Charlottesville,  I found a used book store...  Both of our are out of business so  I  enjoyed perusing the shelves... I love   stories with a Scottish flair...  Becauseethe  tribute to the author caught my fancy, -"

In the style of Rosamund Pilcher" I took a chance of   ALexandra Raife's   book, Mountain Heather.  I love a good storyteller!!!

I also purchased a copy of James Herriot's,  The Lord God Made Them All.  

I read  a borrowed copy of this years ago  and I  decided to have my own copy would be well worth my while!!

Right now I am reading Ann Grahm Lotz's book, 

The Daniel Key: 20 Choices That Make All the Difference , a wonderful study for the summer!

On my TV.....

I  have pretty much been watching Call the Midwives  non Stop  last week..  I LOVED IT  so much!!!!  I cried with  happiness,  with nostalgia and  just share the  agony right along with  the  characters...Definitely one of my favorite shows of all time!!!

On the menu for this week....

no plans this week

On my to do list....

 laundry 

vacuum the living room and  dust

Work on 2 bedrooms

In the craft basket....Nothing at the moment.

Looking around the house....

Everything was so topsy -turvy during the renovation,  we finally got the den and dining room back in good shape,  now  for the ones mentioned  above!!!

Prayers for...

The President and his family, and  the admnistration

Pray that  all the scandals and investigations will finally  be resolved and  justice  meted out.

For the God's best person be  quickly  voted into the  Supreme Court  position

Pray that the scales  that delude so many will fall off  the  many and  that they will find peace, truth, and salvation

Pray  against division and  the hatred  that  runs rampant

Pray for the sick that they might be healed

Devotionals, Bible verses, Worth sharing....

Joy Dare, The Art of Living and Giving (819-823)

I used to follow  Ann Voskamp's Joy Dare rather regularly,,, and it kept in  a  very uplifted spirit..  I need to  find that Spirit again!  When I do the dare  activity I added  the items to my 1000 gifts  from her  book,, her first book  I ever read!

Last week   I added some to my count  so I will continue from her  Joy calendar  which now is a bit different..  the theme this month is  

"The Art of Really Living and Giving"

In an effort to pay it forward it is suggested that as a form of finding joy in our life  we consider filling out the surveys  as they come our way...my surveys come from UVA Medical Center  and I willingly do so...  UVA MC is the greatest!!

819.Ann suggested this week  one way to pay it forward  is to  be a joyful person..  So I have tried to be  very pleasant and smile every I meet and i have  do this  this week. Some Biblical truths  on smiling are:

“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”

“Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life.”

“Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don’t get so worked up about things.”

Doing this has been a great blessing to me!!!

820.  Another way to pay it forward was listed as :  to make up a couple of freezer meals    for a friend so is having a hard time.. I do- a dear friend who just lost her husband could surely  use  some freezer meals at this time... ON my to-do list tomorrow.  I cannot think of a better  form of  sacrifice  of time and love  for  our brothers and sisters!

821. Today I also intend to make it a NO-Complaint day,  and when I feel a complaint coming on,  I will turn it into a blessing!  I confess I  started out today  trying this and for me it is a hard on..  I fear  I  can be a complainer and I was  complaining about nuisance   robot phone calls  before 9am.. I think we had already had 3 of them!  I'll  try for a NO-Complaint Day next week!

I probably would if I had one!

822.  Over this weekend I intend to clean out our bedroom.. to be a GIFT to ourselves!!!!  If I get it done, I will send photos next week!

823.Next week there is a great  gift to share planned for midweek.  I have just recently  relocated my best friend from HS She lives in the next county actually in the same neighborhood where my best friend while teaching lived  so I know the area well!

The plan is to call and take her for coffee and   a scone..I pray it all works out!!

One Thousand Gifts (809-815)

I knew  retirement could be such a hectically, busy life! I've been working on this list now for some time...  Actually my last post was September, 2017.   I feel  rather ashamed not to be  recognizing the powerful work of God in our lives.  But  believe me we are  very grateful for all he has done!
809.  Thank you Lord for working out all the  details of my MOHS surgery, and reconstruction surgery last fall. Even though we live in a city of 150,000   our  lack of  great MOHs surgeons is very limited.. and I was put on  a long hold  for   removal of a squamous cell  cancer on the end of my nose...  Praise God a friend recommended a wonderful  doctor in Charlottesville who saw me in a week and  had the thing off  the next week...  He then set me up with a marvelous  reconstructive team at UVA Medical Center...  Today I am good as new and  I just love my two new  doctor friends!
810.  It has  been  a wonderful year to  see our  grand daughters  growing  so  healthy, sweet, and talented..  One 2 the other 4,  they quite amaze us with their  giftings...  What a blessing!
811.  Praise God that we were able to make  two  lovely trips to Boston since September..over Christmas and  over Easter.  Our only  child and her family live 12 hours away  and so for us  that is a two day  pretty difficult road trip... The Lord has been gracious to give us health and the means to make  that trip  a couple of dozen  times since they moved up there 10 years ago.  I confess that sometimes  I get the mulligrubs when I see my friends  spending so much precious time with their grands...I am learning to deal with it,  but sometimes it is hard!God is in control of all things!!!
812.We determined that this year would be the year we would  get our  main level three piece powder room  enlarged and  renovated. Thankfully, we had two closets to  consume into the plan.  We got started in April, went to a main, large home shopping dealer  and worked with their project  manager for a month and a half. Thankfully,  even after that long we hadn't signed a contract because  their practice of  not keeping to their schedule that we  had been told  about, even having us wait a month....  we decided they weren't for us! That put us back to square 1...  we found  what we thought was  a nice  contractor,   but  after  talking about the scope of the job we realized our money wasn't allowing us to have tiled surfaces....then we  figured out why. He had a 100 % markup on everything we had to buy..
so we  quickly said, "Adios"
Pretty skittish by this time,  but we knew a young  man who was in the business, we gave his company a call and  he said he could work us in the next week..After one week of work,  the bathroom has been  demolished back to the studs, the plumbing and electrical are  roughed in and we had the inspections yesterday... the  drywall and tile will go up next week!!!  Praise God he  has set this all in motion at exactly the right time!!!  I fully expect to have it complete by the end of the month!!!
813. I love our dear friends...  so faithful and true...
One couple lives in a beautiful home in the mountains and   they have had  2 or 3 other couples including us every year for  probably 10 years in  for a patriotic cookout  and  dining in their gorgeous  screened in porch that looks out over the  ravine beyond their  landscaped lawn.  It is  always so cool and just  the best time.  Just Wednesday Hubs asked me "so I guess  our friends didn't do  a cookout this year"...  I replied, "Well, it has been so hot!"  So we left it at that... then yesterday  my friend called and invited us for  tomorrow night..  for the  cold front arrived just in time and the evening will be  extremely pleasant.  Thank you Lord for loving us so much and to even work the weather in our favor  so  we  friends can be together..God is such a loving God.He loves the gathering together of His children!
814.  I praise God for  the Holy Spirit who is always so near,  knows the inner workings of my heart, knows how in my inner self I can deal with  imaginings and  things not  from heaven..So He is always there,  calming my spirit,  speaking truth, peace and tranquility to my spirit,  giving me hope and  freedom  from things that can cause me to despair,  and speak truth  to me  so I can allay my fears  and  walk in HIM in peace...  I love the Holy Spirit so much! 
815.  I am so thankful for my husband who is the complete opposite of me...  Thank you, Lord, for putting us together,  for without him I would be  a mess.  I do have my giftings.. I am the intuitive one... and I have been known  to get us out of scrapes  several times,  but he is the pragmatic one,,  very cool, calm,  and collected... He never  gets angry over things that  I see   that need to be taken care,  like calling people and giving them a piece of my mind  because of their  incompetence at high prices.. he  most often gives it time to work itself out giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.. drives me nuts... So I am trying to  stay calm and follow his lead...I believe that is my mother's side coming out in me,, and I realize  it isn't  pretty,    Lynn is teaching over these long years  to  just let go and let God!

Happy Homemaker Monday

Return to DOASAHM here.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

H0t! Hot! Hot!

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

Coffee, Yogurt, and milk shake this morning

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Supping my delicious coffee, and waiting for the plumber to come and finish roughing in our new bathroom..

                                                 Before              Current

 AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW
Still celebrating the Fourth of July....

It is getting super dry around here!  :(

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:

The central hallway to our home is completely taped off from ceiling to floor  That eliminates us from our  den,  the basement, and of course the bathroom!  Every room down stairs in  spilling over with   items out of place,   I spend most of time during this HOT weather upstairs....

On my TO DO list this week:
Monday~~ correspondence..card ministry
work on my closet  in the guest room

Tuesday~~  hottest day of the week...  not much!

Wednesday~~another slow day~maybe cook a hotdog  for the Fourth.. no plans

Thursday~~hoping the plumbing inspector comes this week!  

Friday~~  Laundry

Saturday~~  hopefully enjoy a bit of rainy weather!!!

CURRENTLY READING:
Ecclesiastes

                   Til There was You by Lynn Kurland          

ON THE TV :

 Call the Midwife,  Doc Martin , DR Blake Mysteries

Th BBC really does a great job I think!

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: the other half of my Chinese dinner Hubs brought me yesterday

TUESDAY:  Chef salad

WEDNESDAY: hotdogs

THURSDAY: pizza

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT

nothing.. waiting for the real fun work to commence on the bathroom..  the  decorating!

FROM THE CAMERA:

This is  taken from the bathroom door looking to the left where 2 closets were taken to enlarge the bathroom space we so dearly need!  The plumber has to deal with this vent pipe made out of  cast iron  when he comes...  it has to be moved back in the studs!  Oh, boy!

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Prayers
My dear friend who is  contemplating allowing her cancer to just take its course...  May  God please intervene!
Our church and church leaders
Our nation and our President
The abolishment of the  ungodly   state laws and  national laws 
The demonic delusion that rests on the mind of so many in our nation that  causes divisions and  hatred
The removal of those in government whose self interests and hatred cause them to curse this nation with words of destruction 
(God raises up and   takes down government leaders by His will)
Salvation and wisdom for  the peoples living in harm's way   for  natural  disaster zones
The salvation of  friends and relatives we all know   who have  heard the Good news but reject it...  
 My family's health, faith, and daily circumstance  for safety and  good will!