Joseph's Bedroom

Joseph's bedroom is the smallest in the house, 8'x8'. Making his room livable has taken many years of hard work. First, we had to take down the dark wood paneling which made the room gloomy and depressing. Next, we closed the bathroom off from the bathroom. (We used to have to go through his room to get to the bathroom. When we remodeled the bathroom we had to tear out the walls. We found that a door frame already existed for a living room connection, but it had been sealed off for some reason.)

The next project had to be the window in his room. There was only one window which was mostly filled with a huge swamp cooler. We wanted more light in the room and although we weren't thrilled about losing the swamp cooler, events soon came to light that made us change our tune. Both of our children are allergic to mosquitoes and somehow we kept getting them in the house. The children were getting more upset and paranoid as time went on because their reactions to the bites were so painful. We searched and searched for the source of the pests but couldn't find it. There had been a lot of mosquitoes in our yard since we moved into the house as well, but we couldn't find any water source from our yard they were using.

One night we saw a moth fly into the house through the swamp cooler. In an effort to avoid getting anymore critters we taped a screen around the opening for the swamp cooler in Joseph's room. We went back the next day and were disgusted by what we found. Pushed up against the screen were some 100 dead mosquitoes. The mother bear in me awoke. Although it took some time to prepare, I knew what had to be done.

Mario and I began tearing everything out. As I pulled off the screen I felt ill. There were thousands upon thousands of dead mosquitoes against the screen now and I had to use a vacuum to clean it all up. We removed the swamp cooler and tore out the window. Mario and I worked late into the night to install the new window. Even though we only had a hand saw, we cut 2x4's and prepped the surface according to code. We were proud of what we had accomplished when the window was complete. It took us another good long while to get the rest of the room done, but at least there were no mosquitoes coming in his room. (Since then we have also noticed that there are hardly any mosquitoes in the neighborhood. I think we might have been providing the local supply, Oops!)

The next stage in Joseph's room was to repair the walls. We had really hoped to do a patch job but soon realized how impossible this was. There were so many holes and cracks the only option was to tear out 2 1/2 walls. This was a hard blow to Mario as he had spent 6 months + scraping wallpaper off of the walls. (We took advantage of the blank canvas and insulated the exterior wall as we had done in the bathroom and we had the room rewired.) Tearing out the walls was a difficult feat as I had to do most of it myself. On a whim I decided to ask Joseph if I could use his baseball helmet while knocking out the walls and ceiling because I was having to make some powerful swings with a rather ominous crowbar. This turned out to be wisdom on my part. Not 5 minutes after putting the helmet on, I hit a piece of plaster that hit back. The crowbar rebounded and hit me square in the side of the head near my temple. I am convinced I would have been seriously injured if the helmet hadn't taken the majority of the hit. After the clean up we were ready to hang the drywall.

Looking back at Joseph's room adventure, I could really only think of one tragically humorous moment. It was when Mario and I were hanging the drywall. The walls were difficult, but nothing compared to the ceiling! We bought 8'x4' pieces of drywall (looking back, we should have bought smaller pieces). Mario was standing on a card chair and I was on the latter. We lifted the huge pieces (which soon felt like slabs of concrete to our trembling arms) over our head and tried to take turns placing screws. The idea sounded easy enough when we were on the ground but the application was a bit more of a struggle.

With arms shaking so bad the board wobbled and heads aching from bearing the weight we scrambled to hand each other screws and the drill. When Mario suggested to me how and where to put the screws in, I had flashbacks to when I was in labor with Andrea and Mario told me I wasn't breathing right. I may have snapped at him both times, but I was and am grateful for his help. When we finished the ceiling we were exhausted and headed to bed.

The room sat empty for a couple of months because school and other drama crept into our life. In the middle of my fall semester Dad and Mom Cyr announced they were coming to town. I knew it was an answer to my prayers when they arrived and Mom helped paint and texture and Dad cleaned up the yard and helped with the woodwork and door for Joseph's room.

The room only has a few more touches left before it is complete. It is so peaceful when we go in there. It is the warmest room in the house with all of its insulation and its new window. Joseph is sleeping peacefully and he feels loved and safe in his new room.

We are relieved to have this age long project out of the way so we can focus on the next project. We will continue to survive this house one room at a time.

P.S. We have installed a wardrobe into Joseph's room now, so it is officially a three bedroom.

2013 and Still Dreaming

What an adventure this house has been.  I have often wondered why we needed to go through this experience.  I believe I might know the answer now.  My heart's greatest desire has been to help other people. I believe I needed a time of humility. A time where I had to swallow my pride and ask for the help of others because my body wouldn't let me do the work I needed to. I believe we had to pass through these trials so that we could empathize with other people who are struggling.

I have felt so much sadness and pain as the years in this house have progressed. I have also found a great treasure.  I believe I now know what real and abiding joy feels like. In the midst of the trials, moments have come when I know that God is watching over us. I have learned to appreciate the children's laughter and noise more. I appreciate every precious moment I get to spend with Mario and the children. They are golden.

I do feel discouraged at times because I have a dream of so many better things for my family. I dream that my children can be in the country. I dream that we can run a farm together and they can play outside unrestrained. I dream that Mario can focus on his work and not have to worry about a house falling apart while he is away. I know he worries about how to pay for all the fixing this house needs.

I dream that Andrea will stop getting pneumonia from a drafty room (second time in two months). I dream that we have a house that I can have space to pray and read my scriptures, exercise and sew, without waking my family from their sleep. I dream of the children sleeping in real beds instead of beat up mattresses on the floor. I dream of the day that the air ducts will be clean so Joseph's asthma won't flare up. I dream of peace and comfort for my family. I dream that I will be able to have a beautiful garden to tend to and time and space to write my books. But most of all, I dream that I can feel my family is secure so that I can go about doing God's work. I want to lift up the heads that hang and comfort the weary. I want to use the skills I have to help build houses for other people in need. To everything there is a season and a purpose under heaven.

All of these dreams may seem far away but I believe that our season will soon change. I am so grateful to God for all of his blessings and his lessons. I will continue to hope and dream. I know that this life will never be without stress and sorrow. I also know, that God wants His children to have happiness and peace. When the time is right, and not before, we will be able to move forward in our lives.

The trees are GONE!

 When we first moved into this house, I thought, what beautiful trees!  My affection quickly changed for the Colorado Blue Spruce as we started using the sidewalk on the side of the house. Every time, never failing, a branch, riddled with needles, would smack us in the face. Not even the children were spared. (The tree seemed to be reserving a few wicked branches for them.)

In desperation to defend our home we began to take drastic measures. We went to the store and bought pruning shears. Little by little Mario wittled away at the tree. By the time our arborist came he couldn't help but notice that our tree looked a little like a PacMan. (I had been so busy that I hadn't really noticed how much Mario had removed.) We had been trying to save up money for the tree removal since we moved in, but this year we both felt it was critical. That summer the tree produced its first pinecones (which is a sign of stress). That combined with our newly found knowledge about this type of tree's tendency to suddenly fall over we called the tree removal company.

The tree felling was a huge project and was done in the winter. Our tree tech was actually recovering from a major surgery, but he insisted on being there the entire time to oversee the work. I will admit to you that I cried as that blue spruce fell. The nature lover in me couldn't stand to see a tree felled. The tree tech was a true professional and felled the tree in just the right spot. When it fell, however, a family of quail managed to escape. This made the situation even harder as I didn't want them to lose their home.

The second tree to go was an Ash. Again my heart ached. It wasn't the trees fault that someone had planted it too close to the house. We couldn't trim it back from the roof without cutting half the tree branches off. I knew that would have caused even greater damage.

The project was finished in good time. Again I feel blessed. I said in my last posting that I knew God would provide for our needs. As evidence of this, Mario was given a bonus from work that year that just covered the cost of the tree removal. There was not a penny to spare. I knew that we could have used that money for other things in the house or for the children's clothes, etc. I also knew that God provided the money to us for the purpose of removing the trees.

Update: We have been really grateful the trees were removed when they were. There have been several major storms since then where we have been sure that spruce would have come down on our home.