Finally. But not that finally of a Finally.

Finally. After what seems like an eternity (though in reality only about 3.5 months) Sonja and I moved into our house in Ashley Oaks. It is beautiful. Sonja has done a fantastic job of picking out paints, hardwood floors and carpets, as well as light fixtures, sinks, door handles and about a million other decisions requiring someone with both a tasteful classic vision and a grasp of tight budgeting. She’s done both very well.

Glen and Helen Sarratt have spent every spare moment working with us (or without us) for the last two weeks, helping us install toilets, dryer vents, tile our laundry room, and along with the rest of the church family here in Greenville who have served in the last 4 months of cleaning, renovation, and encouragement, teaching Sonja and I the meaning of love, perseverance, and the concrete nature of a servant’s heart. We have both caught a vision for love that is expressed in action.

This past thursday, following a Saturday workday at our house where 20+ people from church came to get our house into a “move-in-able” condition, Sonja and I stayed our first night in our newly renovated (but incomplete) house! It is wonderful. It is beautiful. It is home. It is a mess!

We’ll put up some more pictures soon, as its worth seeing.

Another Finally, though one not so happy: our joy at moving into our house was tamed by our arbitration hearing, which finally happened yesterday. It went Ok, but we won’t get a ruling until the first full week in January. It was one of the longest days of my life. We spent 9 hours in a room with an arbitrator, a lawyer for us, a lawyer against us, and multiple witnesses on both sides who testified about all sorts of things.

It was very frustrating. We felt like it didn’t go as bad as it could have gone, but it also didn’t go as good as we had hope it would go. God was good though, I can honestly say we didn’t lie. And we didn’t conveniently “forget” many things like the other side did. So please keep us in your prayers. The arbitrator, who i am convinced will rule honestly, has a lot on his plate, and a lot that he must consider in order determine as to who is legally correct.

All in all, the moral of the story though is this:

1) Don't believe anything anyone tells you verbally. Get it all in writing. Clear writing. Don't just modify the contract in your own words with the basic but clear meaning you intend. Have a lawyer write it, because otherwise they can dispute basic meaning of words like "all acceptable inspections".
2) "I don't remember" is a very convenient line when you are on the witness stand. Keystone's agent said it over and over with regards to any verbal promises they made us about the condition of the house.  Remember, "I don't remember" is always the right thing to say. Remember, you don't remember.
3) Don't sign anything a lawyer hasn't gone over. A licensed real estate agent isn't enough. Get a lawyer every time. Despite the fact that both you and your real estate agent (who was wonderful, thank you Pat!) are clear about what something means, you're clearly wrong. You don't understand. Only a lawyer does. So don't sign anything. 

4) Just don't sign anything. Ever. No, not even then. Just don't. You really don't know what your are signing.
5) (and this one is serious) We are not in control. Things happen, over which we have no control. God teaches us stuff we couldn’t learn in any other way. Knowing and believing that he loves us, that his purposes are higher than our present happiness is true theology which is far easier to mentally agree with than it is to believe in your heart. Regardless of whether you believe it though, it is true. 

Though going through this legal proceeding was a big Finally, we still await the Finally of the arbiter’s judgment which will tell us whether we owe a lot of money, whether we are going to be purchasing a second house :), or whether we will be free of any further obligations to the court.  What incredible power. 

Its reminded me that we all live awaiting a Final judgment when like us in that court case, we will all be called to account for what we’ve done, said, and even the attitude in which we did these things. It was a sobering and scary thing to have to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. If it was scary to do it here where the final judgment only concerns a monetary amount (though large by our standards), how much more frightening will the day of judgment be, when we will stand before God and his Judge, Jesus Christ, as to how we have made use of our time, resources, thoughts, words, actions, even our feelings.

You can’t help but plead for mercy.
Please pray for us. Also please pray for the lady who was the primary Keystone representative (who was suing us). Despite the fact that she was out to get us, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, as she has three young children, she was recently divorced, and i wouldn’t trade my life for hers (even if we get nailed with a judgment which drives us to bankruptcy) for anything in the whole world. Sonja and i have been so blessed. We love each other. We have been saved by grace. We are being transformed. And we are promised that we will be brought safely into Christ’s kingdom.

Anyway, its been emotionally draining, so i don’t really want to write any more now. We’ll put up more in a few days along with some pics of the newly inhabited house. Praise God for bringing us this far. 

Our Floors Are Lookin Good

It's Amazing What Paint Can Do

It has been a busy and exciting couple of days. For weeks I have been looking at paint swatches and going to fabric stores and tearing out pages in magazines trying to figure out what my style is and what colors I wanted to paint my walls. This is my first house so I had never done anything like this before. Paul would say 'no pressure, just pick out colors you like and if we don't like them we can change them later.' But we were hiring people to come and paint all the rooms in the house, so I wanted to make sure I picked good colors out the first time so that I wouldn't have to re-paint the rooms that I just paid people to do. I had decided on most of my colors when Paul called me at 3:30pm on Tuesday and said 'Pedro is coming at 4pm so we can tell him what colors we want in each room. They are starting tomorrow at 8am.' I ran to the store and bought the paint I knew I wanted figuring, at least that will give them a head start. I was thinking it would take a couple of days...but these guys are so fast!

Wednesday morning I went to the house to see if they had started painting and they were still sanding the walls and ceilings. I figured I had at least another day to decide the rest of the paint colors. Two hours later a lady from our church called me. She had helped me pick out colors and had even arranged a visit to her neighbors house to see her paint choices so I could get some ideas. When she called, she said she had stopped by my house to see what they had done and she loved the colors I had picked. I couldn't believe that they had any rooms done in just two hours. I raced over to the house to see and sure enough they were done three rooms already and were asking me where the rest of the paint was for the rest of the rooms. So Paul and I went to Ace Hardware which is right down the road, to buy the rest of the paint. Because of my indecision on paint colors we were there for sometime. I apologized to the guy helping us and somehow we got into a conversation about how he was doing. Turns out his girlfriend had just broken up with him and he was pretty bummed about it. Paul asked him if he had talked to God about it and launched us into this great conversation. He asked us how he could talk to God and how to hear God. I was so excited. Ministry opportunities are everywhere. God used my inability to choose paint colors quickly to build a relationship with the paint guy and now he wants to hang out with us and 'get right with God'. His name is Kenneth and you can pray for him. Paul and I plan to visit him on Saturday at Ace Hardware and get his number so we can hang out.

By the end of Wednesday they had painted the entire house perfectly! It was done so well and I am so excited. They even repainted a room for me after they had completed the whole thing because I hated the color once it was on the wall. Pedro and his crew did a great job and I couldn't be happier.

Today the flooring guy is working on putting the hardwood floors in the upstairs and then next week will do the downstairs. We haven't picked out carpet yet for the bedrooms but we are quickly on our way to being able to move in. It's amazing how quickly it went from being a nasty house to a beautiful house that I am excited to live in. It's amazing what paint can do.

The End is Near!

 After what seems like an eternity (though in reality its only been a little over 2 months), it looks like moving in to our freshly renovated house in Ashley Oaks could be a near reality. Though have been slow to chronicle our progress, we have gotten quite a lot done over the last few weeks. 

 We have finished putting in new sub-flooring throughout the dining room, living room, and den, then removed the particle board from most of upstairs, and finally replaced a few weak spots on the second floor which could have made for a rapid decent through the first floor ceiling. We have removed the fixtures from the downstairs bathroom. We tore out some cabinets in the kitchen. We had recessed lighting installed in the kitchen (as well as two recessed lights in the den for the built-in bookshelves).  Sonja removed all the linoleum from the kitchen (three nasty layers of toilsome labor). Paul removed the appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, and range) from the kitchen to the garage. Sonja taped all the windows up with plastic in order to prepare for priming the trim. Camille, as well as some other church youth groupers came over and helped do various small but crucial prep items to help us get the house ready for painting. Sonja and I also purchased a washer and dryer in great condition for $225.

  Last week, we had someone sand down all the ceilings, mud and sand all the walls, spray a coat of primer over all the molding, cabinets, and trim, and paint all our newly smoothed ceilings a beautiful coat of white. The house is beginning to look and smell amazing. Its no longer reeks of cat, dog, and smoke, but of paint and drywall dust, which is quite wonderful. Sonja has been working hard, coordinating colors, and trying to decide what fabrics and paint colors will be used to decorate the windows and walls of our home-to-be. 

Today, Sonja worked in nailing down paint colors for all the rooms, and I unloaded 1.5 tons (3000 lbs) of hardwood flooring into our house! Woohoo! Glad that is done. 

If all goes well, in about two weeks, our house will be ready to move in. We are so ready and so excited. Thanks to all who have helped, encouraged, and prayed. The end is near. A new beginning is hopefully right around the corner. We'll have more pictures up soon. 

Wow

Well, its official, the Phillies just won the World Series. Despite starting out with another up and down season, they proved themselves in the post-season by not only getting to the world series, but eliminating the Tampa Bay Rays in 5 games. Though I don't watch a ton of baseball, it has been really good to be able to watch the Phillies in SC. Thanks for going all the way Phillies. 

What is the world coming to?

The Phillies are in the world series. Nothing more need be said. Except that that is incredibly good!

Dog Walking, Dump Runs and Other Assorted Things

The days have finally cooled off here in South Carolina. Typically we have had sunny days in the 80's or high 70's. I have been enjoying my days by walking around the neighborhood with my new friend Lady Bug (the Reader's dog). Lady Bug and I have enjoyed many days walking and sniffing the scenery.

Paul and I have also taken up the sport tennis. My work in PA had given me a gift card as a good bye gift, so a couple of weeks ago we went and bought some rackets and tennis balls. We are not that good, but we are having a lot of fun learning together. Paul even managed to give himself a black eye. I have to say I had never seen a tennis move quite like it. We have not had any more injuries since then and we are getting so we can hit it over a couple of times back and forth.

Today we made our 5th and 6th dump run. This has been our regular weekend "date" activity for the last month. Although this does not sound very romantic, we believe everything is what you make it, and we have had a lot of fun. Today we invited Paul's sister Camille (who is turning 13 next Friday and is counting down the days until she is an official teenager) to go with us to the dump. She came along reluctantly but by the end she was begging us to let her come with us next time saying she had no idea going to the dump could be so much fun. We had lots of fun throwing things into tractor trailer size dumpsters and yelling out our frustrations we had about life and middle school and acting really tough. It was a successful day and I think we might be done with the dump runs! YEA!

Continue to pray for us about the lawsuit. Paul and I are meeting with our lawyer again this Monday to discuss the case and are planning on going to Arbitration in either November or December. We believe God is good regardless of the outcome but we are praying that there will be justice done. We would appreciate your continued prayers in this matter.