Cabinet Trim and Painting

Last Saturday, Andrew and I took the day off. We had intended to work the whole day, but Andrew hadn't had a day off since before the Blitz and we all needed to spend some time together as a family. We slept in and then actually did go over to the construction site because it was the construction supervisor's last day and we had a little gift for him. Mike had been filling in for Joe for the last two weeks while Joe was on vacation and we had gotten to know Mike pretty well over those two weeks. We made him a little framed picture of our family that said Thank You. Even though we didn't work that day, we wanted to go over and give him that gift. He was very touched by the gift and we were glad we gave it to him.

The next work day was Tuesday, and Joe was back. When I arrived, I saw what had been accomplished on Saturday, the day we took off. Volunteers had built our gate and fence so our yard is now enclosed! Its feeling more and more done!

I worked all day with a volunteer named Rob, who's a handy man. He helped me trim my cabinets. There was a lot of unfinished wood showing around the edges and we added corner trim, toe kick and scribe moulding to make everything look finished. Here is a before and after picture.

Before...you can see the raw wood underneath

After....no more raw wood, and there is scribe moulding around the wall to make it look finished

I also put in a tiny bit of base board that was missing in a small corner near the kitchen pantry. I didn't take a picture, but figuring out the angle to cut that was a challenge. Rob helped me figure it out though.

Today, I was going to work in the morning with Andrew, but he woke up with a migraine, so I went to the construction site by myself. I spent the whole day painting my kitchen/dining room ceiling. I noticed a line between the kitchen and the dining room and I thought that the dining room just needed another coat of paint, but I found out that the line was just the difference between the semi-gloss they used in the kitchen and a flat paint they used in the dining room. Several people told me that that was standard....really? Do people really have lines down the middle of their ceiling like that? I couldn't live with it, so I painted the whole thing all the same paint. I actually used white instead of the off white that it was and that the walls are. I think it will look nice once I take down the plastic and the blue painters tape. I left it up in case I need to do another coat on Friday.

All done

I'm glad tomorrow is a day off. I'm tired. We are getting closer with our hours. Only 51 left. We have to take a home buyers education class on September 10th and we'll get credit for 16 hours that day, so we really only have 35 hours left. We'll be done by next week! Now we're just waiting to hear if they'll start escrow for us so we can hurry up and move in! We are so ready!!

Ephesians 3:20 List

Throughout my life, the Lord has spoken to my heart through Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us". In all the big turning points in my life, my Lord has done exceedingly abundantly above all I could have asked or even thought of for myself. He brought me my husband, who is so wonderful and perfect for me, from a place I never would have been looking, nor would I have thought to look. He gave us a perfect baby girl and fulfilled my deep desire to be a mommy, and He has given me the blessing of getting to stay home with her and enjoy her to the fullest. Now, He has given us a house. We've been living in my 720 sq. ft. apartment that I leased before Andrew and I were even engaged. We've struggled financially since we were married and we haven't been able to move out of this small apartment. When Bobbie was born, we got even more cramped in the space and just didn't know how we would get out of here into something big enough for us, that we could afford. We didn't dream very much bigger than a 2 bedroom apartment in Escondido (since Esco seems to have the cheapest rent around here) and I spent weeks calling around and putting our name on many low income housing waiting lists, only to hear over and over again, that their lists were all at least 2 years long. All we could do was put our name on the list in faith and pray we would be called soon. We have a little dog, Coda, who we love and as we were searching for subsidized housing, we realized that a lot of the properties don't allow pets in the low income apartments. We considered giving our dog away, but we just felt like that wasn't the right move and we just needed to wait. Also, when I was looking at apartments, Andrew really wanted us to find one that had washers and dryers in the units. I've been carrying all of our laundry down to the laundry room in our complex 2 or 3 times a week spending at least $20 a week in quarters and its just hard. Its heavy and annoying, and also expensive, but finding an apartment with washers and dryers isn't easy around here and even when I did find one, the rent was too expensive for us.

So my wish list for a home was 2 bedroom apartment, downstairs (so maybe there would be a bigger patio area the dog could go out and enjoy) with a washer and dryer in the unit, and not more than $1000 per month. We were taking a step of faith to even pay that if we would have found something at that price. I searched Craigslist weekly and prayed the Lord would have our name come up on some list. We had found an apartment complex with all of our wish list items in San Marcos very close to Andrew's work. We were on their waiting list and I called them every month to see if they had a unit available. I always got the same answer, no.

Finding out about the house possibility through Habitat for Humanity was the first of a very long list of "exceeding abundant" parts of God's blessing on our family. As we have gone through this process over the last 2 months or so, we have seen so many of those "exceeding abundant" details and feel continuously blessed and know that our God is doing so much more than we could have asked or even thought.

I am going to start a list of these blessings. I'm going to call it my Ephesians 3:20 list. I'll make it on the left side of my blog. Every once in a while glance at it and see if there are any new ones. :) I know the Lord will never finish pouring out blessings.

To God be the glory!

Nearing the end

Tuesday

We've been working every day that we possibly can for the last couple of weeks. Last week I put in about 35 hours just myself. This week should be the same. We hope to finish by next week and then begin escrow. I found out today that our house still needs to pass a few final inspections....landscape, plans, and even roads....I guess someone has to come out and make sure the road to our house is fine. I was hoping we'd be able to move in around Labor Day weekend....but I doubt everything can move that quickly. We can pray though! There is a process and a sequence to things so I just need to have patience :)

Yesterday, Andrew and I put in 10 hours together. When we got there in the morning, we started to build a lattice privacy panel over the back ledge of our large, upstairs balcony. Its very easy to see right into our next door neighbor's windows from our balcony, so we built these beautiful panels that I plan on growing some viney flowery plant. It took 2 or 3 hours to build them and we didn't have time to install them before Andrew had to leave for work.

Andrew using the nail gun to make the frame

Cutting the lattice with a jig saw

I got to use the hack saw

These are the completed panels ready for install tomorrow

After Andrew left, I did a couple of different jobs. I had to change the gas pipe from behind the range from a long, straight piece to an elbow shaped piece so that the range would fit better in its little space. I learned about sealing the pipes with yellow tape and also with a special jelly substance. I probably didn't have to use both, but its good measure so there won't be a gas leak. Once I got the pipe done, we (the superintendent and I) slid the range back into place and there was still a 2 or more inch gap from the wall. We figured out that the anti-tip bracket that Andrew had spent so much time installing was too far away from the wall. It wasn't Andrew's fault. He followed the directions correctly, they were just written so the range is that far from the wall, which I didn't like. 

I felt so badly, though, that Andrew would have to move that thing again....it took him a few hours to put it in because he already had to move it once.....

So I decided to move it myself. I started by unscrewing it and then the superintendent brought me the hammer drill. Its a drill that hammers while its drilling....its used for drilling into concrete or cement. He got me all set up with the right sized drill bit and everything and I tried my hand at using the hammer drill. Well, its basically like a jack hammer. Totally shook my whole body while I was trying to aim and drill the hole in the right spot. After using all my body weight on the drill and seeing that the drill bit wasn't even penetrating the tile, I went back to the super to see what I was doing wrong. It turns out the drill bit was cheap and had dulled. That explains why, when Andrew installed it in the first place, it took him so long. Sometimes it pays to spend more money on quality equipment.....

Anyway, once the better quality drill bit was on the drill, the super asked me if I wanted to try again. I told him, I actually would rather if he just did it for me.....it was so hard to do myself.....anyway, he started drilling and it was as if the tile and concrete foundation were butter! It was so easy for him! It was probably because of the new drill bit though :)

Once the holes were drilled, it was easy to install the bracket and once it was in place, we slid the range back into place and it fit so much better! I love it!! 

But, we had to pull the range out one more time, because I decided I wanted to grout the seams around the cabinets behind the range. I know it will never show, but its just one more little crack that critters can get it.

This is what the seam looked like before I grouted

mixing the grout in a plastic cup

Another before picture...with the anti-tip bracket in place :)

My first grout job!

All done!

At the end of the day, we'd completed 10 more hours, bringing our grand total to 416.25.

Wednesday

Today, we started the day by installing the lattice panels. It took awhile, but we got them in and they are beautiful!!!

You can still kind of see into the neighboring house, but I plan of planting some kind of climbing flowery plant. It should end up being beautiful.

After that was done, we started hanging our vertical blinds. We started with the blinds for the downstairs slider. Andrew got the brackets in place before he had to leave for work. After he left, I clipped the railing into place and hung the slats. I also had to trim them all so they wouldn't drag on the ground.

You can hardly see them in the picture, but they're there

After those were in place, I finished the grout behind the range area and in another little place near the pantry. Both of those places were very hard to get to and to push grout into the space. I got it all grouted, but it isn't very pretty. Thankfully, neither one of those places will show :) its just meant to keep critters out.

This picture should be the other direction....I just can't figure out how to rotate pictures on my blog....

Once the grout was done, I finished one more job and that was clamping the plumbing lines (water and drain) from the dishwasher. The hoses run through one of the cabinets to get to the other wall where the water and drain is, and I wanted to screw them into the side of the inside cabinet wall so they would be more out of the way. It was kind of hard, just because of the awkwardness of being inside the cabinet on my side, reaching at an odd angle. It was also super hot in there. I was sweating on my face....but the hoses are clamped in place now.

At the end of today, we had worked another 10.5 hours bringing our total to 426.75. We are very close!! 

Tomorrow is a day off which I'm glad of because I need to get caught up on my chores at home and pack some more boxes!

We passed 400!!!

Today we passed 400 hours!!! Less than 100 to go. The end is in sight!
We worked on a bunch of little things today. Andrew finished installing the anti-tip bracket for the stove, I stained my vent cover over the kitchen cabinet, Andrew put waterproof caulk around the tubs, showers, and kitchen sink. I used the same caulk to cover up cracks in the grout on the counter tops, I installed a plate to cover the sewer hole in the laundry area, I scraped excess caulk off of some door rails, I cleaned off overspray....There are still lots of little things to do.We spent some time talking with our new neighbors too and getting to know them and also things about the houses on our street.
I also was given an informative lecture on the sewer system of our house. I now know where the sewer lines run, and where someone would access them if they ever got clogged or backed up. I also learned that on the cement, out by the street on the sidewalk (its probably like this at your house too) you'll see an "S" or a "W" etched into the cement. The "S" stands for sewer and the "W" stands for water. If you look onto your property from where those letters are, you'll see the holes for those two lines. :) Huh! Who would've thunk? Well, maybe you all already knew all that.....I'm pretty ignorant, but very glad that I'm learning!!!

Work Day, Friday

This morning I went to work on our house early. I arrived at 8:15 and checked out the grout. Everything dried very nicely and the sealer did a great job with only 1 coat. I don't need to do any other coats. I know because when I try to do another coat, it just beads up and nothing will absorb into the grout. That's good! A blessing that I don't need to do another coat! I did do another coat on the counter tops though, for good measure. Since its so white, I want it to stay as white as can be. :)
I needed to change out the doorknobs in the bedrooms today. Apparently, its required that all bedrooms have privacy (locking) doorknobs and the builders put passage (non-locking) doorknobs on. I put in 3 hours this morning bringing our running total to 394 hours. Tomorrow Andrew and I are going to both work and get at least 12 hours together.....which means.....we will have more than 400 hours by the end of the week!!! We met our weekly goal!!! It was hard, but we did it. Moving day is getting closer and closer!!!

Sealed ALL my grout

Today, I took Bobbie with me to our house to do some work on my day off. :) Thursdays the construction site is closed, but I have a key to our house, and was given permission to come work today. I wanted to start on sealing our grout.
We have mostly tile floors on the bottom floor and none of the grout had been sealed, nor had the grout on my white tile counter tops. Since yesterday had taken me 6 hours to caulk all the baseboards, I thought the grout sealing would take forever as well, so I wanted to start today, on the day off.
Bobbie and I got to our house at about 1:30 and she was ready for a nap. I set up her pack n play in the bedroom and put her down for her nap. She slept while I worked and I got ALL the grout done in 2 1/2 hours! And just as I was done with the last counter top, Bobbie woke up from her nap!! Praise the Lord. I'm so glad that is all done. I won't worry about my grout getting dirty or dingy now! Plus, I knocked out another 2 1/2 hours of our sweat equity! I got sore knees, but I'm so glad its done!!!

Work Day, Wednesday

I am T.I.R.E.D. I worked the whole day today (8-3:15) and Andrew worked the morning shift since he had to work tonight. My hubby is probably way more tired, since he had to go to work and I just got to come home afterwards. I'm married to such a hard worker who is definitely committed to his family! I love him!
Anyway....We both got to work on our house this morning. We have such a big check list of things that need to be done to finish the house that I know we will be working on our own house from now on.
I tackled a big job today. I had to caulk all the baseboards between the baseboard and the tile floor. I did that for a few reasons.... 1) so little critters can't crawl in from under the baseboards, 2) so it looks better....before I did it, there was an uneven shadow all along the floor and it was very apparent, and 3) so that when I mop the floors, water doesn't settle in there. (that was my mom's imput. Good call, Mom!)

"Before" shot. See the shadow?

"After" shot. No more shadow!

It took me 6 hours to caulk all of the floors. The majority of the downstairs is tile, so I did most of the work down there. I only had the bathroom upstairs to do. It was a huge job, but I'm really glad its done and my baseboards are sealed.....now I need to seal my floors...the grout. The tile guys didn't seal any of our grout so my next huge project is to seal all of the floor grout. I'm hoping to do that either tomorrow or Friday.
Today, Andrew installed the latch locks on the screen doors, upstairs and downstairs. He also started installing the anti-tip device for the stove.....don't know what that is?? Well, its a bracket that is screwed into the floor and then the stove is slipped into the bracket so that when the oven door is open, and something heavy is placed on the door, the stove won't rock or tip forward.
That task proved to be a lot harder than it looked and he'll have to finish it on Saturday.

That silver U-shaped bracket is the anti-tip device. 

Today we completed 11 hours together. We're chipping away at our remaining sweat equity hours. I have a feeling though that we'll finish our hours and still have things to finish. Its ok though. We just want to move into our house! These long work day away from Bobbie are waring on me and on her. Please pray for us. We are really hoping to finish our hours in a few weeks. Once we're moved in, Bobbie will be so much happier, not having to be away from Mommy so much. And Mommy will be happier too :)

I do love all of the things I'm learning. I see it as very valuable and I don't want to complain. I know its all worth it in the end.

Work Day, Tuesday

Today, Andrew and I worked a full day. We arrived at 8:15 a.m. After the morning meeting, we started working on Lot 3. Andrew was nailing 16 penny (really thick, heavy) nails into studs and shear walls. I tried that, but the nails are very hard to nail in, so I was reassigned the task of nailing nail plates into studs, which was much easier. Nail plates go into the studs wherever there is wiring or plumbing going through the stud. It protects against someone driving a nail right through and puncturing the wires or pipes or whatever. 

This is the stud with the wire going through it

and now it has a nail plate to protect the wire. 

Andrew was learning how to read the plans of the house so he would know where to put all those heavy nails

After we finished with the nailing, we did a walk-through of our house with the construction superintendent and made a check list of things that need to be finished on our house. I already had seen 4 or 5 things, but after the walk through, there were about 50 things! I'm glad he walked through with us because he knew what to look for! I know we'll be finishing the remainder of our sweat equity hours on our own house now!! I'm really excited about that!! 

We went to lunch, and when we came back we started working on our house. We tightened all the cabinet doors and then Andrew turned two of the kitchen cabinet door around so they opened the other way. I helped him by measuring :)

Meanwhile, over on Lot 1, they started framing the walls. I captured a picture of the first wall going up! Pretty awesome. It took everyone holding it up!

Whoo hoo! Its great to see the progress! It will be nice to have all the houses on the street at least started and no more concrete slabs just sitting and waiting.

At the end of the day we had completed 15.5 hours for a total of 378 hours! By the end of the week, we should be passed 400 hours. I know the last 100 hours will fly by. Move in time is so close!!!

Work Day, Saturday

Yesterday, Andrew and I arrived at the construction site around 8:00 am. The volunteer group for the day was an alumni group from Cal Poly. They were a great group of people!
We were asked to continue framing the garage that we had started the day before. We worked on it, but didn't finish still because Andrew left a little before the lunch break. I didn't feel comfortable or able to finish that job by myself, so I joined an all female team putting siding on the back of the house. We were all working on Lot 3 yesterday, except a few people who were laying out the marks for where the walls will go on Lot 1 (Explanation of Lot numbers in previous blog post, "We are Lot 4")

This is what siding is. We had to cut the pieces to fit, lengthwise and then put them exactly in the right place on top of the piece below it with 1/8th of an inch gap on each side, making sure it was straight and level. Then drill the holes and nail it into the wall. There were three people working together on each wall. It was actually pretty easy, and fun, although we had a very easy wall to do. The other wall had a lot of piping, or water spouts, or other things jutting out of the wall that they had to cut pieces out of the siding for it to fit into place. I'm glad I learned on an easy wall. :)

This is the siding cutter. It looks like it would cut the pieces like a table saw, but it actually snips the piece. Its very quiet and cuts with a quick little "snip." Pretty cool! I should mention, the siding is not wood, its actually more like cement board. Its texturized to look like wood on the outside, but it isn't really wood.

After lunch, we continued the siding and had to set up scaffolding to reach. By the end of the work day, the siding, on our wall, was completed all the way up to the bottom of the second story. I assume when work begins again on Tuesday, the scaffolding will need to be extended so the next crew can continue the siding up to the roof line. 

Siding is a pretty fun job. I'm glad to have learning it! I may be doing more of it soon! :)

Less than 140 hours left!!! It would be awesome if we got 40 hours in this week and had less than 100 left by next weekend.....we'll see how the week goes!

We are Lot 4

Today, Andrew and I worked 3.5 hours in the morning. We were asked to take down the security camera and wiring that was set up for the Blitz. It took us a couple of hours to get all that done, then we were asked to start on the framing of the garage on Lot 3.
Here's a explanation of the lot numbers/homes in Libby Village: In 2008, Habitat began the Libby Village build. They started from scratch....I mean there wasn't even a street called Libby Village Way before they came in. They began building homes at the beginning of the street, then paved the street and added the cul-de-sac and common area at the end of the street. However, they numbered the lots from the end of the street (the cul-de-sac). There are 20 homes on our street and the build began in 2008 with Lot 20 and on down.
Today, there are 15 homes completed and owned and lived in by families like us. They are all living in Lots 6-20. The final 5 homes (Lots 1-5) are what are in the construction site area. Lot 6 is about 3 feet away from the construction site....separated only by a chain link fence that locks at the end of a work day.

The home on Lot 5 is mostly completed, but no family has been chosen for that house. Its a three bedroom, two bath house with a one car garage. Our house is on Lot 4, a three bedroom, two bath house with a two car, tandem garage. Lot 3 has been framed and has house wrap around the outside. (the blue paper that goes under the siding or the stucco) It is about ready to be insulated on the inside and then drywalled. This is the house Andrew and I worked on today, framing the garage door opening.  It is a four bedroom, two bath house with a two car, tandem garage. No family has been chosen for that house yet. Lot 2 was the other house built in the Blitz and the family for that house has been chosen. They are the Presley family and we've worked along side them for a few weeks, getting to know them. Their house is a four bedroom, two bath house with a two car, tandem garage. Lot 1 still looks like a slab of cement, although lumber arrived today for the framing to begin on that house. There is currently no family for that home either. That house will be a four bedroom, two bath house with a two car, tandem garage.

All the houses on Libby Village Way are on the same side of the street, all facing west. The other side of the street is parallel parking spots. As I've said, the end of the street is a cul-de-sac with a nice common area. There will be a basket ball hoop with a few picnic tables. There is a large grassy area and a very large covered area that may turn into a BBQ/picnic area down the road. Since the building project started at the beginning of the street and has worked its way down, the common area is inside the construction area and therefore not usable by the residents that already live on Libby Village Way. They are all anxious for the build to be completed so that they can use the area. There is already a block party being planned for September when the whole street can get together and get to know us, the new residents in the cul-de-sac. The construction will probably not be done, but they will be allowed to use the area.

We've been told that if we finish our hours, close escrow and are given our certificate of occupancy before the final phase of construction is completed, they will move the construction site area down so that it will only include Lots 1-3. In that case, we would be the house 3 feet away from the construction site only separated by a chain link fence. We don't mind though. They won't disturb us!

The finished product

Today I put in 3.5 sweat equity hours. It was the first day back for everyone today, even the superintendent, so a lot of "stuff" was left from last week's Blitz that needed to be finished as far as cleanup. We spent the morning cleaning and organizing to get the job site back to its normal working order. I did take some time to take pictures of the mostly final product of our house. I think you'll enjoy them!

366 Libby Village Way - Our complete home!

Our front entry with our lime tree in the foreground

Front entry from the living room

Living Room looking into the kitchen

My Kitchen

My large pantry I keep talking about :)

Upstairs Bathroom

Upstairs Bedroom with balcony

My laundry area....no more laundramat for me!!!!

Downstairs Bathroom

Bobbie's Bedroom

Our Bedroom

We already feel like this is home. Its hard to come back to our apartment. We are hoping to finish all of our sweat equity hours in the next 4 weeks and move in around the same time. We'll see if we can speed things us that much. It felt good to be back to the job site today. I plan to be there everyday its open and maybe some other days as well. I just want to be in my house! I love it so much and am so very grateful everyday for what the Lord has given us! To God be the glory!!