Garage work through the end of June

We're grateful this month for Owen's job with a roofing company, because he was able to bring home the trailer with the metal break so we could custom bend the flashing we need to go over the rigid insulation over the foundation wall! Precision bending of 10' long pieces of sheet metal is not something that goes well without the right tool!

That's me* and Matt inside the trailer...

Always fun when Owen's around to help with some of the work. He may still live with us, but we don't usually see him much during the day! (Just hear and smell when he's making Ramen at 1am!)   

Matt's at the south-east corner. That was an interesting corner to cover!

One really exciting thing about getting the metal flashing installed is that we can now 1) backfill! (which not only gets the backfilling done but also means we're working down the big pile of dirt that's been filling the part of the yard where we have our bonfires!) and 2) start putting siding onto the main garage!

First pass at backfilling - still need a good rain to help settle it in.

We designed the back deck to be flush with the ground on the north and east ends - on the north end we're going to let our raspberry bushes migrate closer so Bobbi can wheel out and pick her own berries in the summer, and the east end will be our best wheelchair access into the yard - both by the vegetable garden AND to the east yard where we have bonfires!

Rinnah's getting big enough that she can take my place for holding things. Here she and Matt are putting up the vertical board siding on the west side of the *back* part of the flat-roofed entry. Big progress today!

And here's a view down the north side, which is also over 2/3 of the way done.

*Because I'm writing these posts after the fact and back-dating them (hoping to eventually get caught up enough that I can post in real time again! But not holding my breath on that), I had debated sharing this, but since a large part of the purpose of this blog currently is to provide a bit of family history for us to look back on, and because it's in keeping with the spirit of the blog, here goes - there are actually three of us in that trailer. :) In that photo, I am ten weeks pregnant with a most delightful surprise. We know now that we did not get to keep that little one, but on that day I was still joyfully carrying someone who would have been our eleventh child. So much room for more in our hearts!

More siding and the dump trailer

First off, MIRA HAD HER SURGERY!! Fourth time scheduled, but she managed to make it without being hospitalized for illness, and we're past it! So far it seems to have been a VERY good thing.

On the garage front, the past week and a half has again shown a little progress. Owen was able to get his dump trailer from work over here, so we took the opportunity to fill it (which is how we've been getting rid of stuff instead of having to fill a huge dumpster all at once!) It was kind of fun at the end of this day to see that the only photos I had taken were of my boys carrying heavy things. First, we have Ebenezer dragging this big old part of an old swing set...

...and then Matt and Owen carrying what was left of Matt's grandparents' clothes line which had to be taken down to make room for the garage - the plug of concrete buried deep in the ground was HEAVY!! The two men were able to carry it from the side yard to the dumpster, and I was able to grab a photo before helping them lift it up and in.

Then we were back to siding. Matt and I got the east side of the front entry finished, and Owen came up from his room to the sound of the nail gun, and climbed up on the roof to help finish the part above the cantiliever, which let me and Reuben run some errands!

AND, Matt had time to finally start putting some of the old siding back onto the original house as well! 

It's not rapid progress, but every little bit gets us closer to done, and being able to do it by ourselves is WAY more cost effective than paying someone to do it!

A few weeks ago I started reading this blog out loud to the youngest four children, starting at the beginning. One of the reasons I wrote it was to communicate with all of you, but the other big reason I laid out in the beginning was so that *we* would have a record of God's faithfulness to look back on in the future. 

From Psalm 77:12-13 "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds." It's good for us to spend time reflecting on all he has done, big and small!

The youngest three were all born AFTER our first adoption and the big addition, and Evania and Gloria were both too young to remember any time before Bobbi and Mira came home, so although all of this is *their* history, they're not aware of any of it, and I'm excited to share it with them.

I was briefly mentioning this to Gavin one evening, and recounting how the blog is a story, among other things, of God's marvelous provision of what we need to do the work he has set before us, but how sometimes one way he provides is by making things take longer than we think they ought to take. He jumped on that one immediately, recognizing God's design to build patience in us as we wait on him, and we are absolutely seeing that in this building project as well. And part of patience is learning to rejoice in all of the little victories along the way! 

Graduation, family photo, and two pieces of siding

 This was not the most productive week on the garage because Leah's commencement ceremony was this weekend! Congratulations, Leah!!! Not surprisingly, she is going to the University of Minnesota Nursing School this fall, something she is very well suited for. 

Amazingly, we got the whole family to go to her commencement (Owen is almost always not in town over the weekends, and doing "family" stuff is not Bobbi's thing - especially if it's boring! but both of them made it, and Mira's not in the hospital...) so here we all are!

As usual, our standards of what constitutes a "good" family photo are pretty low. "Is everybody present and visible?" is our main criteria for the last 8+ years! 🤣 Smiling? Not so big of a deal. Even looking at the camera? Also not required. Coordinating outfits?? Ha! That was so last decade! So all in all, I'm pretty pleased with this one.

And, because doing something like going out to dinner is complicated enough with our crew (especially since two of them don't eat by mouth!), we decided to just head back home for ice cream sundaes. Grandma can doze in her chair, Krassi can get *out* of his chair, Mira can get back in her crib, Reuben can nap on the couch, and the REST of us who appreciate ice cream all crowded onto the new front porch of the addition!

Even, better, the weekend wasn't a complete wash, as Matt and I had just enough time to get the first piece of vertical siding onto the entry...

...AND to cut and install the second piece! 

So, two done, and I'm not sure I can count how many more to go!

Last bit of news worth noting is that surgery that we're hoping Mira will eventually get to have is scheduled for this coming Tuesday, and she has made it this far without ending up in the hospital again!! We might make it to the surgery date this time!!!

Gutter and front deck

After not getting anything pushed forward on the garage last weekend, *this* weekend was a little more productive. 

You'd think we planned it (but we didn't!) but the depth of the new garage just happens to be EXACTLY the same size as the width of the old garage, so the gutters are the right size to just reuse! Like, to the inch exact! So we this week picked up the better of the two old ones and stuck it up on the new garage! Yay!

Then, on Friday Matt didn't have too much of his regular work to do, so he got a head start on the rest of the front deck. Here you can see all of the boards are in, so the top surface is fully complete. The grate at the back left is for access to our well, as we are still not hooked up to city water, and every once in a while you need to get down in there! The size of the overhang is also deliberately set back from the front edge of the deck so the well truck can get its vertical clearance as well.

Then Saturday as taken up with installing the real deck boards on the steps down the front and wrapping along the side of the entry/mud room until it dies into the garage. We don't yet have the white trim that will finish the risers, but the functional part is now complete.