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Posted By Andrew on July 19, 2009

When we transferred files from our old website to the current one, we certainly didn’t guess that months would go by before we found time to blog again. I thought you might understand our long silence if I listed everything we’ve been busy with during that time, but was concerned that my computer didn’t have the memory necessary for a list of that length. I opted instead for a few pictures and brief summaries of some of the people, events and projects that have kept us hopping.

First of all, there was the year-long task of building a kitchen and dining room to better accommodate the steady stream of friends and family whom it is our privilege to entertain. We completed the basic structure fairly quickly, then took a long break to save up up the necessary funds for completing the interior.

My mother (who will be thrilled to see her painting uniform online) brought a few cousins and spent a day or two helping us paint. True to our usual form, we slipped off to the paint store a few weeks later, having changed our minds about the color on the right side of the above picture. We didn’t make a dramatic change, just chose something a little less yellow that blended better with the accessories we were finding.

 

Tom Croker patiently suffered through the process of building our hickory kitchen. The difficulty of working with such hard wood was offset by an unexpected bonus: the cabinets double quite handily as a storm or bomb shelter.

Right in the middle of all that, our widowed neighbor, Grandma S (who lived on the property adjoining ours, pictured above) contacted us to say that she could no longer live by herself and was moving in with a daughter and would we be interested in buying the property? We’ve wished for a number of years to have a little more land for our growing family, and this property seemed like the perfect way to expand. We knew that the owners kept several cats in the mobile home, and that on their front porch they fed thirty stray cats from all around the neighborhood, but reasoned that we could clean the feline contamination…ahem.

The real estate deal we agreed on let us buy the property at a steep discount, then spend the remaining balance of the agreed price in building an addition for Grandma S at her daughter’s house. Perfect. Now I had something to do in my spare time.

It was far too big a job for my spare time, so I subcontracted most of the job to capable workers like Joey, seen above.

Another factor that confirmed this was the right time to buy the property was that we had some new friends from Tampa, FL wanting to move to SC. We had been scanning all the ‘For Rent’ listings for months, and realized we could provide that new home they were seeking. They had to travel to SC around the middle of June for a medical appointment, so in order to spare them making that long drive from Tampa too many times, we arranged temporary housing for Emil and Natalie D so they could move on their next trip. I borrowed my brother’s truck and trailer, drove to FL to pick up their belongings, and brought them to their temporary home.

 

The travel trailer worked fine for sleeping quarters, but as a home, it left much to be desired. It was crunch time as we raced to finish Grandma S’s addition so she could move out of the mobile home and we could take possession and start cleaning and remodeling the home for the new tenants.

We were so busy for the next few days that I completely forgot to take pictures of the whole process, which is a shame, because what happened next bordered on the miraculous. With capable help from Emil, who is an accomplished remodeler, and many hours of help from our wonderful church family, that cat-infested, dark, filthy mobile home was transformed into a light, clean, cheerful dwelling in just four days. All the interior surfaces were transformed. Walls and ceilings were painted, floor covering was replaced throughout, sagging cabinets torn out and replaced, and everything cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned again. During the process, the mild distaste I’ve always had for cats was transformed into a deep, enduring loathing of the filthy animals. Their constant washing is a careful ploy to fool the gullible into thinking they care about cleanliness. They don’t. They’re as filthy as pigs, and they shed hair on every square inch of a house with an obnoxious generosity that has to be seen to be believed. It took countless washings, scrubbings, bleaching, and treatments with industrial strength odor-neutralizing enzymes to even reach a point where you could walk in the front door without stifling an impulse to gag. If you’re into cats…well, I can only hope that you will see the light in time to break free from their evil clutches.

Outdoors, Elizabeth took charge of restoring what had once been a beautifully maintained lawn when Grandpa S was still here to care for it. The most urgent priority was simply to tear out or cut down half the trees and shrubs so the remaining ones had a chance to thrive. Then it was time to begin watering, which exposed the fact that the well pump was failing. Emil and I spent a day replacing the pump, a day in which I grabbed every spare minute to do car shopping online, because our trusty old Honda minivan had finally failed us.

Eventually we got water flowing, found a new set of wheels, and then could turn our attention back to the neglected building project. It is now lacking only a few pieces of trim and some cabinet pulls to be completed, and we are breathing a lo-o-o-o-o-o-ng sigh of relief as life returns to some semblance of normalcy.

After years of cooking in a cramped kitchen, we are enjoying the wide open spaces in our new room. The window seat along the far wall provides lots of storage, but also provides seating when the extension table is stretched out to feed a hungry crowd.

I won’t bore you with more stories of what we’ve been doing, but we have just come through the busiest six months of our life, no question about it. We are very grateful for God’s sustaining grace in less than ideal circumstances, but are also eager to move beyond that stage of life. Elizabeth and I felt that we were long overdue for a getaway, so last Thursday we took the back seats out of our minivan, popped an air mattress and camping supplies in the back and struck out for the northwestern corner of our state. We checked a few state parks along the way, but they were all too crowded to suit us. Eventually we landed on Keowee-Toxaway State Park where every single tent site was empty. We gratefully strung up a couple of hammocks, collapsed into them, and just reveled in the peace and quiet.

After a few days of camping, hiking, kayaking, and most of all, relaxing, we returned home feeling at least ten years younger in spite of the worst case of sunburn either of us had ever seen. That secluded cove we found on Lake Jocassee provided a great opportunity to sunbathe while eating chocolate espresso beans and talking, but it cooked us to a well done state in the process. We are recovering slowly, having healed to the point of being able to wear loose clothing and walk without excruciating pain. We can’t wait to do it again, although we WILL take sunscreen along on the next adventure.

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