Tag Archives: construction

Alabama Rural Ministries Make a Difference Day // Photos

29 Oct

Alabama Rural Ministries Make a Difference Day // Photos

Make a Difference Day was this past Saturday which was a mission work day on several houses in the rural Alabama area.  A group of volunteers from our church sponsored work on one of the houses and everyone was blessed to be around and help a family in Hurtsboro.   According to Alabama Rural Ministries:

In all, you worked on five homes and one group helped with renovations at a site where we house work teams. You were spread out from Hurstsboro into Loachopoka. We had 55 people working for a total of 275 work hours. Pretty incredible.

Pretty incredible indeed.  For most of us, we did what we do best.  I tried to document the day through images, Josh opened his ears and intently listened to the Randolph’s life (while his son entertained), and Andi and a bunch of volunteers labored.  To read more details about the day, please jump over to Andi’s blog see see her post, Make a Difference Day. I tried to just pick one image that would tell the story but could only narrow it down to three images (see my previous rant called How to Tell a Story with a Series of Photos or Make Conclusions with a Snapshot.  Which one is your favorite?  Which one tells the story the best?

To see the entire shoot, go to the Make a Difference Day gallery.

Make a Difference Day with ARM

Make a Difference Day with ARM

Make a Difference Day with ARM

Make a Difference Day with ARM

After we left on Saturday questions started flooding my mind, especially with the title for the day.  Did we “make a difference”?, but it was more than that.  What did the Randolph’s who owned this house think about this bunch of white people (I say that as a matter of fact, yes, we are white) that invaded their home, dirtied up their house, showed up with tools from Home Depot that cost more than their car and watched a guy holding a camera the size of a bazooka snapping shots all over the place (I couldn’t imagine someone coming into my house and just shooting at will).

Was Christ represented, did His light show through us, and did we, through our Lord, make a difference in the Randolph’s life?  Did we judge them for how they live because they appear to live a different life than most of us here in Auburn?

Part of the problem and the flaw in my thinking is how I looked at the house, and the family members it represented, and that was from an earthly perspective.  What we here in this country hold dear, the material items, what can we buy to make our lives better, will fade away some day, and we will be left with the same soul we came into this world with and nothing else.  The Randolph’s were gracious, kind, and happy to be living in a quiet peaceful area of Alabama, with almost none of the things us city folks expect as part of our standard of living, and I thank them for blessing me on Saturday by inviting me into their home.

Let me know which image you think represents the day the best.  Perhaps none of them, but I really think the first image needs a caption in the comments… “ever get the feeling you are surrounded”.

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Taking the First Amature Radio Test, What a Ham

20 Jun

Taking the First Amature Radio Test, What a Ham

I took my Ham Radio license exam, Technician class, about three weeks ago and passed on the first try (thank goodness). We have been waiting for my call sign to be issued and now it is official, I can finally use on the air KI4WLR.  I installed another antenna on the house and now we are just trying to figure out the first radio to purchase so I can put this new license to good use. The house is beginning to look like a NASA station of some sort. I can’t wait until we put up the tower. That should be a blast.

Along with the antenna installation we went ahead and got an ICOM 2-meter band radio to start off with.  The range of the 2-meter with the antenna installed seems to be very good so far.  We have been able to listen to people from north Alabama over to Atlanta and into Mississippi.  The 2-meter antenna sits pretty high on our property.  Our house is one of the highest points, the roof line itself is almost at the tree line, then add a 20 foot mast and the range from here is quite astounding (to me).

Don’t know what’s next but I am looking forward to the ride.

Ham Radio Test

Scott with Ham License

Antenna

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Moving in Day Has Arrived

5 Jan

Moving in Day Has Arrived

Moving In

Moving day has come and gone without much fanfare, just how we wanted it to be. We finally got the major contractors to finish up and were able to move in just in time to entertain my parent’s for the Thanksgiving holidays and Scott’s parents for Christmas.

We actually moved in the weekend before Thanksgiving, giving us about 4 days to put up a majority of the house. Luckily, since we were moving from a 40′ x 8′ motor home we did not have a lot of collected stuff to put away. The turkeys for both Thanksgiving and Christmas turned out great, if I say so myself, and the visits were wonderful (see next post).

The bed was our only real piece of furniture and you can see below how ecstatic we were to get it out of the rent house and onto the trailer. We took turns jumping off the back of the trailer onto the bed, somewhat like jumping into a huge pile of leaves. It was a blast!!

Scott in Flight

Me

Before moving anything into the house I went through and took these photos of the finished interior. The floors were so polished and the cleaning crew did such a great job on everything throughout. The first two photos are of Scott unwrapping and unveiling the long awaited wood-burning stove.

The Unveiling

These next two photos are of the great room from the vantage point of the staircase. The door with the large window in it is the front door. We had the front porch screened in as well as the side porch and the results were fantastic. The light through the windows in the morning is fabulous.

Morning Light

Great Room

The kitchen is just the perfect size for the two of us. In fact, I don’t think I would want a kitchen any larger than this. Everything is within reach while cooking and the size makes cleanup a snap. The kitchen is to the left when you walk in the front door. When you go through the kitchen you can go right into the laundry room and then right again into the pantry that is tucked away just below the stairs. We tried to make use out of every conceivable space either for daily usage or storage.

Kitchen

The laundry room is directly across from the refrigerator. When my father in law was touring our house he promptly stopped in front of the refrigerator and surveyed the various buttons. After what seemed like a long pause, he said with a hint of sadness “oh, crushed ice!”. It seems that his refrigerator he had installed last July did not come with this option.

Crushed Ice

Laundry Room

Pantry

View of Great Room from Kitchen

The great room consists of the space from the entry door to the kitchen on the left and the staircase and hallway on the right. Entering through the front door you have the wood-burning stove to your immediate right and the staircase in front of you beginning on the right and going up and to the left to the second floor.

If you pass by the bottom of the staircase and continue through the small hallway to the right instead, you will pass a half bath on the left and end up in the master bedroom. The master bedroom has a full bath with a garden tub and stand alone shower and a walk in closet, too.

Great Room

Staircase and Hallway to Master Bedroom

View from Master Bedroom

Proceeding up the stairs you can see the front door directly under the fan and the two doors to the right (as you are looking at the photo). The door without a window goes to the garage and the door to the far right goes to the dogs’ fenced in yard. This door to the yard is just off the kitchen. There is also another door that goes from the fenced yard to the garage.

Great Room to Garage

Reaching the top of the stairs you can look over the railing into the entire great room, or turn to the right to enter the small hallway that leads to our two upstairs offices. The office on your right is Scott’s and the one on the left is mine. Going through either office you can reach the common bathroom.

Upstairs Hallway and Scott’s Office

My Office

Upstairs Bathroom

Looking Downstairs

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Certificate of Occupancy

15 Nov

The day has finally come! Today the house was inspected and we finally have our certificate that makes it possible for us to move in. There is only one glitch though, the floors have not had their final coat of polyurethane so we can’t put anything on the hardwood floors until friday afternoon. Talk about anti-climatic. We have been going out to the house everyday/night for the past 4 months or more so there really isn’t much fanfare about the move. We already feel like we have been living there, but we just want all the contractors to finish up and GET OUT!!

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House Construction Can Make You Go Insane, Quickly

9 Oct

I’ve been accused of being a very patient person…….but, my patience is wearing pretty thin these days when it comes to house construction. So, pardon me while I rant a little. This will probably be the only time you hear me complain about the house construction, but I have to let it out or explode. So here goes.

We began building this house in January, 2006. It is now mid-October and we are still waiting for it’s completion. Apparently, if you build a house out in the country the contractors don’t like to come out to work. Go figure…. At the rate at which the house is being built we will be lucky to be moved in by Christmas 2007!!

Every day we make the 30 minute drive out to the house to check on progress and every day there is one more thing done. This would generally be considered to be a good thing, however, the one thing completed is usually a lightbulb being screwed in or a cabinet (singular) being installed. If you follow the dates of the photographs you will understand what I am talking about. The following photos reflect an entire month’s progress on this house and I am photographing every thing that is being done. This is why there have been no photo updates of the house lately. I now have enough photos collected of house progress to compile into a couple of entries. Here is the first entry (September’s work) of completed work, or partial completion as is more the case these days. These photos are ones I took up to September 27, 2006.

Paint on the Walls
The entire house is painted in Sherwin Williams “Kilm Beige”, with “Extra White” for all ceilings and master bath walls. Only the downstairs powder room and the upstairs bath have walls of a different color.


Paint on walls downstairs (9-5-2006)


Cutie pie!


Paint and trim on stairs.

Cabinets Installed
In keeping with the spirit of a simple and clean style throughout the house the cabinets are all natural wood poly coated. We wanted the wood to show in the cabinets and floors so there is no stain involved in either process, just poly coating.


Kitchen Cabinets (9-7-2006)


Powder Room Cabinet (also paint color)


Master Bath Cabinet


Scott’s Built-in Bookcase


Upstairs Bath Cabinet (also paint color)


Deborah’s Built-in Bookcase

Lighting and Fans
The lighting and ceiling fans we had installed were as simplistic and unobtrusive (gaudy) as we could possibly find. The two areas in the house that we opted for some type of design was the lighting fixtures in the two full bathrooms and the ceiling fan in the great room. We both really liked this fan and thought it’s design went well with the natural theme of the house.


Great Room Ceiling Fan (isn’t it great?!)


Master Bath Laminate and Lighting (9-26-2006)


Wall Sconces on the Staircase


Fans on the Patio

What’s this? A septic system?
We arrived on 9-27-2006 to find a monster of a tractor behind the house. The septic system was being installed. Whoo-Hoo!! The septic contractor was super nice and couldn’t understand why he hadn’t been called much earlier to put in the system. Like most of the other sub-contractors we have talked to so far. Again, go figure…..


Tractor/Backhoe


Cleared Area for Septic


Tank

Tile
There must have been some kind of lull in the sub-contractors world this week because the same day the septic was installed the tile guy came out and put in the kitchen countertop tile. While he was there he also laid the tile for the hearth that is actually a pad for the woodburning stove we are installing. We designed the hearth ourselves and drew it on the floor with a pencil for him to fill in. He did a great job!


Kitchen Tile (9-27-2006)


Kitchen Tile


Natural Light in Kitchen


Kitchen Bar Tile


Hearth


Master Bath Tile


Upstairs Bath Tile

Level?
We stood at the front entry for a while after the electricians had been putting in lighting and studied the front entry lights. If you look closely, they are not level, not even close. You know how sometimes things get so frustrating that you just have to laugh or you are going to cry? Well that is how I felt when I saw those lights. We just both started shrugging our shoulders and laughing. What’s next???????

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Construction on our House Finally Continues // Sheetrock is Great

19 Aug

It has been quite a while since there has been an update on the house construction. There is a good reason for this. There has been none. The time period between the framing and any other activity has seemed like an eternity.  Every time we actually get someone out to work on the house, it is great.  They work fast, their work looks great, but then when they are done, that’s it.  Sometimes we are waiting two weeks or more between one job and the next, waiting for contractors to show up and do the next step.  We now have real walls and the first stage of the trim is done.  Now we wait on the painters to put on the first interior coat of paint, so the cabinet maker can come in, so the floor can be installed, so…….

Here are some new photos of the progress to date.  At the moment the inside looks like a mess but we were so thrilled to see walls when we got over here today, and sheet rock is a great thing to see.  This is August.  We gave our builder the plans to build the house in January.  At times I don’t feel like we are building a 1200-1600 square foot house, but a 10,000 square foot house because of how complicated everything seems to get when you try to get someone out here and actually work.

We have walls!

Window at top of stairs, unframed.

Window at top of stairs, framed.

Stairs

Stairs

View from Deborah’s office with framed windows.

View from Scott’s office with framed windows.

View from Scott’s office with framed windows.

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The Construction on the House Adds Siding

12 Jul

We now have the siding is on the house and it looks great! It seems like it has taken so long to get to this point (and it has) but the house now has something other than just insulation showing.  Now we wait for the Sheetrock to arrive….. hopefully it won’t be another month before we get walls.

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Tub and Showers Installed and Construction Continues

10 Jun

The bathtub and shower have been installed in the master bathroom and the shower is in upstairs, too. Making progress….

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Construction on the Frame Continues with Second Floor

4 May

The top floor is framed, wrapped and now has a roof. Here are some photos of what has been done in the past week and a half.


Front of the house, screened patio is on the right side.


Back of the house, screened patio is on the left side.


Front of the house again with the initial roof structure in place.


Side of the house looking into the screened porch, into the master bedroom and living room.


Front of the house with the roof on.


Back of the house with the roof on. The top right window is my office window. and the bottom left window is the master bedroom.

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House Framing for Upstairs is Now Delivered

19 Apr

The framing for the upstairs floor was delivered and installed today. The framers intend to have the walls done on the upstairs tomorrow.

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