It just needs a little love: Christmas and more

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas. It's not always easy to make it through the Holidays. There is usually someone you're missing, somewhere else you'd rather be, sicknesses getting in the way of family time, an ache or longing for something or someone more, crabby kids due to lots of parties and too many late nights and missed naps...you name it. Thankfully, as Christians, we have the hope of eternal life with Jesus. That is what we remember at Christmas. We have the Good News of Great Joy.

This Christmas was undoubtedly strange for us. Last year, we didn't have the slightest idea that it would be our last Christmas in Zeeland. It hit me this summer shortly after we were under verbal contract on the Farmhouse. We were vacationing at Big Star Lake and Ben and I were able to make it to the Chapel that Sunday morning. The soloist that morning sang "Christmas Offering" by Casting Crowns. It totally hit me that we had spent our last Christmas in our home where we had brought our puppy and our babies home to. I lost it, and Ben thought I was crazy. I later re-told the story to my friend and former neighbor, Candace. Before I could explain why it made me so emotional she said "you had your last Christmas here and you didn't even know it!" Exactly. Mommies unite.

We had originally assumed that we would be in the Farmhouse by Christmas, so while it was sad to end the era of Yuletide celebrations in Zeeland, it was exciting to think about the memories to come. Well, Christmas has now come and gone and we are still in limbo. And we are at peace with that. I am starting to get anxious to be in our own house again and to start making memories there. But it is so easy to look ahead for the next best thing, it's not uncommon to miss the wonder happening right in front of you.

So yesterday, after we lost power, we trekked over to the Farmhouse, made a fire, and roasted some marshmallows on a sunny 45 degree Christmas Day in Michigan. Memories made. My brother Matt and his flock of girls randomly stopped over when we were there and they got an updated tour. I kid about the girl thing, but really it is funny watching him pile out of his van with his wife, first grade daughter, kindergarten daughter, college freshman daughter, and high school freshman daughter (oldest two are international students and blessed additions to our family). Ben taught Ricky how to use a drill, and Ellis showed her how to bang a hammer. Memories made. This was the most hilarious Christmas to date. And it really hits home the fact that Christmas is not about a place or a house...it's about the ones you love.

House updates. It's incredibly hard to keep up with everything. Since the last post, the addition is completely framed in and roofed. It's basically water tight now, though we are still missing a few doors and don't have a garage door yet. We did finally decide on a garage door. That turned out to be more of a hassle than I ever thought it could be. Took some convincing but Ben finally said "I trust you" which is code for "if it looks bad I blame you." All of the new windows for the addition are installed and a few of the old windows have been replaced. I went through with a marker a few weeks ago so the guys know what windows to try to save for us for future use. We'll see how they come out. We are also saving old joists and 2x4s for various other projects. I'm pretty sure we are keeping an old "ship lap" style wall from the original structure in the mudroom and just adding drywall where needed. The shower is installed in the new master bath and all of the other pluming is roughed in. The plumbers also added runs to the garage so we can have a utility sink with hot water in there. The plan is to have hot water outside too for a shower. Don't worry, neighbors...this is mostly for feet, the dog, and the boys. Ben won't be out there, I don't think.

terrifying.

View from the backyard

View from new upstairs family room into new hallway/old bedroom closet

View from new family room into new master suite

Kitchen. North wall opening goes into the mudroom. East wall opening will be a pantry.

The kitchen is completely gutted now, and to our surprise, we uncovered maple floors throughout. We knew there were areas of wood flooring in the kitchen, but we didn't expect what we found. Plan is to rent a sander and see what we are dealing with. It will require some patch work, but Greg said it wouldn't be a problem to find the wood we need. We didn't think it would be...where there's a will there's a way. How's this for irony? We ripped up the kitchen flooring together. On our 8th wedding anniversary. After I threatened the "D" word if Ben did that exact thing a month ago. I've come around, and we got the go-ahead from the bank to do what we needed to do. Once I explained to our draw specialist what we were looking at with the kitchen she agreed it needed to be addressed correctly. That made me feel 100% better. Someone's got to follow the rules and it isn't going to be Ben. I digress. Nothing creates a bonding experience like pulling 50 year old linoleum flooring staples with vice grips for four and a half hours in the damp, poorly lit kitchen. Nobody said this was going to be glamorous.

Kitchen after anniversary demo/staple pulling day

Maple floors we didn't know were there! Crossing our fingers we can do something cool with these.

We've decided on a new kitchen layout, picked out the appliances we want, and had picked out some flooring. That's obviously on hold for now until we know what the maple looks like. Fortunately (I hope) we are going with white cabinets for (what we consider) the classic farmhouse look so whatever happens with the floor should work with the cabinets. I'll be accepting donations of magic erasers and am slightly nervous about it, but nothing else was catching my eye at all. Maybe we're crazy for going with white. Oh wait, of course we are crazy but not just because of white cabinetry. We're renovating a farmhouse that's 130 years old with two small boys in tow.

We had a walk through with the electricians the other day to decide where outlets and fixtures are going in the addition. This process was exactly why I said I could never build...too many detailed decisions all at once. We were originally supposed to meet with them at 8:30 Wednesday morning and we had daycare all lined up. I'm usually home on Wednesdays with the boys, but we were able to flex our schedule because of the holiday week. That plan went to crap after the boys came home sick from daycare on Tuesday. Not terribly ill, just enough to need to keep them home Wednesday too. So the backup plan was Ben's sister Gina. She wasn't concerned with colds, so I was going to drop the boys at her house for the morning to play with their cousins while we talked details at the Farmhouse. THAT went to crap when Ellis was up puking all night Tuesday. So we decided to have Ben do the walk through and I would just have to trust him with the lighting plans. THAT went to crap when Greg texted at 8:00 Wednesday morning to let me know the meeting moved to 11:00. I seriously wonder why I even try to plan ahead sometimes! This ended up working out great, because it gave Ben a chance to sleep in. He was a gem and took the nighttime puke shift. Once he was awake at 1:00 am there was no going back to sleep for him anyways, thanks to his day (night) job. I moved to the couch after Ellis finally crashed with Ben in our bed around 2:30. They both woke up at 10:30 and Ellis was like a new kid.

Precious. This is two sheets and four pairs of pj's later.

We decided to take the boys along so we could both be at the house. Good thing, really. Turns out we have some opposing ideas for lighting. It was chaotic, yes. The boys both ended up covered in mud. And I mean covered. Like tripped and landed in the puddles. Like boots got stuck and one of Greg's guys had to help me get one of Ellis' back. It sure takes a village.

Oh Colter...I don't even know what to say.

He sure is happy, and Ben is clearly amused.

Solving the world's problems. I mean the Farmhouse electrical problems.

Even though I'm sure we missed some details, I do have the peace of mind knowing that Ben can add an outlet at the drop of a hat. At least he used to be able to before there were hundreds of competing priorities. I remember one time in Zeeland I mentioned that it would be nice to have an outlet in one corner of the basement. Before I knew it, he had delivered. Ben, my electrical genie. Don't worry, he was trained by his dad, a true electrical engineer.

It's starting to come together. We really need to make work of deciding on light fixtures, flooring, and paint colors. We have a lot of tiling to do, a ton of painting to do, and we can't do any of it very well until we have some heat. Hopefully HVAC guys are coming back next week. Please pray with us for a wise decision here. The existing house runs on a boiler system which currently works, but obviously nobody knows for how long. The addition will be fueled by a new furnace and AC unit. This AC unit will apparently work for the other bedrooms as well, and right now we are not worried about keeping the downstairs cool. Greg told us on Wednesday that he's getting a quote for new HVAC service throughout. It likely makes sense to just bite the bullet and replace everything now while the house is in a state of disaster anyways. This would provide peace of mind and more efficient heat, while also allowing us to pull out all of the old radiators which, I'm not going to lie, would be an aesthetic bonus. However, it comes at a steep cost, so we just want to make sure we ultimately make the best choice for the house, our family, and our emergency fund. Actually, it would probably come out of Ben's tractor fund.