TA DA!

Here's the newest pic with the siding on the front mostly done. I still need to put trim on the corners and some stuff like that... LOOKS LIKE A HOUSE!!!

Big stuff and little stuff....But mostly big stuff

Ok, so I've done some big stuff on the addition since last posting... This includes:

• Repaired a major leak in the drain line of our washing machine and at the same time, since I had the floors all torn out, ran new water line and replaced the back door.
• Spent lots of time in our NASTY old crawlspace fixing plumbing (see pic)
• Crawled around in our new crawlspace with a chemical respirator, goggles, rubber gloves on spraying for mold that grew during our Missouri-like deluge of rain a few months ago.
  
• Plumbing rough-in (drain lines, supply lines, moved water heater from inside to garage, put shower unit in)
• Furnace and air conditioner were moved to the garage
• Windows and exterior doors are installed
• Tyvek house wrap is on
• Most of the soffits are covered
• Drilled for wiring and hung most of the boxes for electrical
  

In essence, this means we're ALMOST all sealed up air tight and will be completely air tight once I finish the soffit material. The next couple of days are scheduled to be my siding days.

Also of note is the TREMENDOUS fun involved in moving the furnace... it was a bit cold out and we were without heat for a couple of days. Corey stayed with her folks while I stayed at home with no heat and, coincidentally, no water (the water heater was in transit as well)!

Throughout this process I've also made about 15 trips to the local plumbing store.... seriously. Maybe more like 20 trips.... You know you've been there too much when they say "Hi Josh" when you walk in the door... again, I'm being serious. On the left is a pic of our nasty old crawlspace and our nasty old drainpipe which I was working on for a bit...


The only bummer about all this is that there aren't many pics. Pictures of pipes and water heaters aren't very exciting and I'm not very diligent about taking those pictures. I plan to get a pic of the doors and windows soon though. For now, I'm including a pic of the new back door by our washer. The old door was a beat up old steel door with no windows.

Shingler on the Roof

Well the hard work paid off. I busted my tail for the last few weeks and, with MAJOR help from a few buddies in our church, I got the roof tied together and covered. You can see the pics before and after and see that the roof project was a significant undertaking. Now it's covered and I can move on to the next item on the list: finishing framing and getting inspected. Then comes siding....














Our roof before....



















Our roof during...













Our roof after...

Still Going....

Yes. I'm still framing. Really though the framing is very fun... it's a good chance to get away from my computer for a bit. Unfortunately it's taking longer than I thought, but that's pretty much what I thought...I think. Enjoy the lumber....

Of Concrete and Church Conferences....

In the history of weird topics, this has to be right up there. I am, due to my infrequent blogging, going to attempt to combine my recent trip to San Diego for a church conference with an update on the status of our house addition. So here goes nothin.
August 12th through 14th saw me in San Diego for the Total Church Conference. This conference was created to talk about the "Gospel Centered Church" which is a concept popularized, and really created, by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester. These two blokes are from the UK and run a church planting network called "The Crowded House". In essence they believe that the most effective apologetic for the gospel is the Christian community. Living out everyday life with gospel intentionality in a community of Believers. This really just means that we should be involving unbelievers in our lives... it means being consistent, and living like a Christian whether we're around unbelievers or believers. I got to see this practiced, lived out, in San Diego and it's AWESOME. It's just a very comfortable, natural way to live the gospel in front of unbelievers. I think I'd sum it up with these principles:

1) Live everyday life with gospel intentionality - This just means that no matter what you're doing, whether working, playing, eating or watching TV you should be doing it with the gospel in mind. (Think Deut. 6 here) This means constantly being around other people (believers and unbelievers) and speaking truth when you're around them. This leads us to the next principle....
2) Live consistently, not compartmentalized - This means that you shouldn't be one person around believers and a different person around unbelievers. I know this isn't a new concept, but I also know it's easier said than done. The key to this one is that it's also easier done in community. It's easier to be consistent when you have the support of other believers. Which, again, leads to the next principle....
3) Live in community - This means that we should constantly be hanging out with other believers... but not just hanging out. Really it means hanging out with, you guessed it, gospel intentionality. So, you go to public places with Christians so that unbelievers see you interract and they see your love for one another. You have BBQ parties with Christians and you invite unbelievers. This kind of community is the only way for the "one anothers" you see in the New Testament (love one another, bear one anothers burdens, etc) to happen.

So, that's the basics... there's much more, but that's the Josh Report version. I'll add more as it comes to me.... If you want to know more I'd suggest either A) Email me. B) Read "The Gospel Centered Church" or "Total Church" both written by the aforementioned blokes.

As for our addition, well, we poured the foundation. And here's the pics to prove it. This first one is a pic of where our new bedroom, bath and closet will be. You can also see in the foreground where our nasty old porch used to be... that will be concrete very soon too.... The second pic is of the garage. Don't worry, it'll have a concrete floor... the dirt is temporary.

Gas lines and holes in the ground...

So we decided to go ahead and start our addition. We got a loan. We got our permits. Next on the schedule was to start excavating. So then, this is a picture of a patched gas line. Why, you might ask, is it patched? Well, that would be due to the fact that as I was digging to expose the gas line so that our excavator could start digging I got a little too aggressive with the dig-bar. Next thing I know I've got natural gas shooting into the air and I'm sprinting inside yelling "Call the gas company!" to Corey.
The gas company came out pretty quickly and fixed my stupidity, or at least the product of my stupidity, and the guy that fixed it was so cool that he didn't even charge me! (a rarity from what I hear) So, once that was squared away, our excavator started work and put a nice large hole in the ground. This was, hopefully, not anindicator of things to come because in the span of 1 day he managed to hit our phone line (several times), the power to our well pump and our main water line from the well. Don't get me wrong though, this was in NO WAY his fault. These things aren't marked by the dig line folks and so you have no way of knowing where they are until you tear them out of the ground in nice 'S' shaped wads. (You can actually see the mangled remains of our water lines laying on the ground near the middle of the picture)
So, we quickly patched the wiring, repaired the water lines and we're back in business. I'll be using my Saturday to fix the phone line.
Overall it really is exciting and a nice change from sitting at my desk all day. I'll try to keep the page updated with some pics....

What I'm reading....

I just finished a good book called "War of Words". It was written by Paul David Tripp and is a discussion of how our words impact those around us and what the goal of our words should be. It focuses heavily on our selfishness and self-idolatry vs. our focus on God and on building others up in order to bring Him glory.... I might follow up on this with a little more detail soon...but probably not. It was a good read, I'd highly recommend it, although the first chapter was less than impressive... it got progressively better after that.

So I finished that and now am reading "The story of Christianity" which is a sort of history book about the church. It is two volumes, both thick, and covers the early church (Acts) all the way to modern day... or at least fairly modern day. This book has been really encouraging which I know may sound goofy for a history book! But really it's bringing to light many of the things you miss in the Bible and their significance because of cultural shifts from then to now. It's easy to read in Acts that the hellenistic Jews didn't get along with the rest of the Jews... but to see why, and how that impacted everything the church did at that time is very interesting.

I'm also re-reading "The gospel centered church" in preparation for leading some talks at our family camp. I'll let you know how this goes...

Blog ahoy!

Okay.... so I caved in. I swore I wouldn't blog and yet here I am blogging. As Corey and I were talking about how hard it is to keep people, especially far away people, updated on my life. Corey's solution to all this is for me to keep a blog as a kind of journal in which people can see what I'm learning and what my thoughts are just as if they were local and spending time with me on a regular basis.

Now one point worth mentioning: Don't expect anything spectacular. Instead, expect my random thoughts; expect me to forget to update it for weeks (maybe even months) at a time; expect it to be simple and lacking eloquence. I really don't want this to turn into something like my church newsletter that I type and re-type and have Corey proofread. This will be much simpler and much more prone to typos and nonsensical sentences.

So... here goes nothin'.