Before and After

Here are the long awaited pics from all that we have accomplished in our house. I know that you were all just dying to see them.
Anyway, here they are. As you can see the new flooring is in and the walls have been de-wallpapered (Is that a word?) and painted.
Whew! We are so glad to have crossed all of the major hurdles.
There is still stuff to be done, but they are all much smaller jobs.

Here are the Living room and hall way being prepped for painting.
This is the bedroom with the wall paper coming down.
After this experience I have decided that I loathe wall paper.

This is a view from the back door looking in with the new flooring and paint.

Here is the master bed room after it's makeover.

The living room repainted complete with a new pellet stove.

This is a view through the kitchen of the new flooring. I must add here that the lovely green paint job was completed by my wonderful friends who I miss very very much. You girls rock!
Now is the dilemma of the orange counter tops. I mean really people Orange???

I want to say a special thank you to each and every person who has helped us with this enormous project. We seriously could not have done it without you!!

Work Work Work!

As most of you may already know, we have working on our fixer upper house that we bought almost four years ago ever since we got it. We knew when we got it that it would be a lot of work, but really we had no idea how much until we dug into it.

When we made our move to Denver this past spring it really posed a problem that it was so far from finished. As that made it impossible for us to get it on the market or even rent it out in its current state.

This past week we made a trip back home and worked our legs off trying to get it ready to rent out over the winter. We got a ton accomplished, however it is going to take one more trip to get it where we need to. I will post some pictures when we have a finished product.

I find that God very much uses the physical situations in our lives to teach us valuable spiritual lessons. This house has been an ongoing project for us and very trying at times.

When we first looked at the house it was far from what I wanted, but I saw the potential of what it could be. I know when God looks at me He does not see me for all my faults, but for who He created me to be. This is an ongoing lesson that I am learning.

When we first began construction I really thought that we would get it accomplished soon and everything would be how I wanted it on my timetable. Again, not even close!

As we dug into each project more and more problems appeared. I mean major, expensive, not easy to fix problems. In the same way I know that God is constantly working on me. I am consistently becoming the girl he has called me to be, this is no quick easy job either.

As much as would love to be instant super Christian, wife, mom, fill in the blank here. This is not reality. It takes time to create a masterpiece, a real work of art. And as we walk through life, things surface that we have to deal with. Some of them are ugly, and painful. Just like all of the surprise problems we found in our home, we each have "stuff" to work out in ourselves.

I am finding that working through this stuff is not very fun, but it totally necessary if I am to become who God created me to be, and to accomplish what He has for me to do.

I am on a journey to discover all that He is and all that I can be in Him. I know that it will not be quick or easy. I only know that it will be worth it!