Scripture Versus

"As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."  Joshua 24:15

Since before we had even decided to build a house we knew, if we ever had a chance, we wanted to write scripture verses on the door frames, walls, and foundation of our home.  Today, October 19, 2014, we did just that.  We picked out some of our favorite verses. Ones that meant a lot to us or that we had been praying over our house. Ones for those just stopping by, and ones for our future kiddos. We ended up with a list of a dozen or so passages and/or versus of scripture. They were all written within the walls of our home. Although they will be hidden, and most people will never know they are there, we pray that they will bless anyone who enters our home and those who will live in it after us.  We tried to place each one in a specific spot that it was related to. For instance the one in the picture below is above our entryway. 

Here is a list of some of the passages/versus we included and where we wrote them:

ABOVE FIREPLACE

Jeremiah 29:11

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

DOORFRAMES

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

ENTRYWAYS

Deuteronomy 28:3-9

³ You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
⁴ The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
⁵ Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
⁶ You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
⁷ The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

⁸ The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

⁹ The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him.

Joshua 24:15

¹⁵ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Hebrews 13:2

² Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

Psalm 121

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Numbers 6:24-26

²⁴ “The Lord bless you
and keep you;
²⁵ the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
²⁶ the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”

KITCHEN & DINING ROOM

Proverbs 30:8-9

⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

1 Corinthians 6:19

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

Proverbs 15:15

¹⁵ The cheerful heart has a continual feast.

OFFICE

Colossians 3:23

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

FAMILY ROOM/LOFT/GAMEROOM

Psalm 133:1

¹ How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!

Psalm 34:3

³ Glorify the Lord with me;
let us exalt his name together.

Proverbs 24:3-4

³ By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
⁴ through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.

FOUNDATION/BEAMS THAT SUPPORT THE WEIGHT OF THE HOME

Psalm 127:1

¹ Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.

Psalm 122:7

⁷ May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels.”

Psalm 91:9-16

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

CHILDREN'S BEDROOMS (for if we are blessed with kids…)

1 Timothy 4:12

¹² Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

CLOSETS

Colossians 3:14

¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

BATHROOMS

Psalm 51:7

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

OUR BEDROOM

Philippians 4:6-8

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Matthew 11:28

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

1Corinthians 13:13

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

We also added the passages of scripture from our wedding day on the framing behind where our bed will be. 1 Corinthians13:1-13 and Genesis 2:18-24

LAUNDRY ROOM

Philippians 2:14

¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or arguing,

Framing and Rough Grade

We had a little setback when we had to make some changes to our grading to accommodate our walkout basement.  We didn't want our walkout to be in a low bowl shaped area that would collect water, and we also would have had a steep "u" shape to our driveway in order to allow for water to run away from the house.  Brant, our field manager, suggested we raise the house, fill in front yard with dirt, fill the garage with rock, and bring in more dirt to make a slope for water to drain away from the house.  We weren't happy with how much it all cost, but we were happy Brant caught the problem.  We will be much happier with things the way they are now.  Update: What was most frustrating about this was that our original field manager did not notice this problem when he measured and brought out his laser to "survey" how the house would sit.  Then he quit, we were assigned a new field manager, he noticed that our walk out would be sitting way low, forming a bowl for water to collect, not what you want for your only basement exit, and now we had to pay a LOT more money to get EXACTLY what we thought we'd be getting all along.   

Over 130 tons of dirt later, about 30 tri-axels worth, and thousands of unanticipated dollars of rock fill for the garage, we were finally ready to frame the house.  It's amazing how quickly things are moving now.  The guys started framing on Monday morning, and they were finished by Friday 10/17/14!  It looks like a house!  Check it out!

T

Ta-Da!!!

Footers then Foundation

We've made some progress since my last post, so I figured it's time to post some new pictures.  The footers were poured two weeks ago, and this morning they started on our foundation.  It's starting to look like something, maybe not quite a house, but something.  Take a look!

Update: Our field manager Brant called us with some disappointing news.  I guess the angle of our house is a few degrees off.  One of he Amish men noticed this before they began the framing.  The Amish did not pour the footers.  We had the choice to have them start all over, but that could take a very long time and set us way back.  Ultimately we gave Wayne Homes the greenlight to continue with build.  We aren't too bothered that our house faces slightly crooked, but it would have been nice if Wayne Homes had compensated us for their mistake. 

Dig Day Success!!

Dig day was a success!  I'm including lots of pictures of the progress.  I know, I know, basically I took a dozen pictures of a big ditch, but it's OUR DITCH!!!  We're so excited!!!  With a little imagination you can see where our driveway is going to be, our living room, kitchen, walk out basement, sun room...  It's the most beautiful hole in the ground I've ever laid eyes upon.

Dig Day Eve

We've been busy since our last post.  We sold our townhouse, rented a moving van, packed everything we own into storage, and moved in with our parents.  Since then we've been back and forth between both of our families.  Fun!  Fun!  Fun!!!

We closed on our land on August 7th.  Here are a few pictures.

 We were so excited when we closed on the land that we contemplated camping out and pitching a tent on the site of our future home, but then it dawned on us that the only running water, or "facilities" was the stream in the back, so we nixed that idea.  Instead, we spent an afternoon mowing and weed-wacking over an acre and using our shiny new chainsaw to chop down about a dozen trees.  After getting the chainsaw stuck in the trunk of one tree, almost downing an electric line, and getting covered in poison ivy, we decided that our day as lumberjacks was over and that we shouldn't quit our day jobs.

I had to include the sold sign.  We made it ourselves.  For sale by owner signs aren't quite as exciting as the fancy realtor ones, and we were just so excited, we had to do something.  It's simple, but I think it gets the point across.     

We've been busy at the lot clearing trees, putting in the construction driveway, removing the topsoil, and setting up the temporary electric.  We applied for all of our permits, and got everything done pretty quickly.  We were really pleased when Wayne Homes told us they were bumping up our dig date to August 29th!!!  We might be in our new home by the end of the year!  Here are some of the most recent pictures of our lot.  you can see where the house and driveway will be.

 Our temporary electric should be up and running within the week. 

 And here is a big ol' mound of topsoil.  (They had to put all that dirt somewhere.) 

Tomorrow morning we're headed to our lot bright and early because it's our DIG DAY!!!!!  I'll be sure to take some pictures and post them over the long Labor Day weekend. 

Pre Construction Meeting

Our pre-construction meeting was at the Portage, Ohio office on June 20, 2014.  Coincidentally, that was also our four year anniversary of our very first date!  Pretty cool!!!

We spent the entire day 10:00-4:30 (minus a 30 minute lunch break) going over every little detail of our home.  Turns out, our lot is perfect for a walk-out basement!  Whoop!  Whoop!!!  We confirmed all of our color choices and selections.  Some of the upgrades we felt worth the money were rough-ins for a future full bathroom with shower in the basement, upgraded cabinets and flooring, double hung windows, dimensional shingles, a stone fireplace with hearth, and extending our garage two feet in both directions.  Wayne homes was so open to all of our ideas for changes and they made a ton and didn't charge us a penny!  For example, we completely switched the location of our formal living room and put it off of the kitchen to make it a dining room instead.  We also moved our garage to the other side of the house so we could enter from our garage to our foyer, and now our laundry room has a lot more space.  We also completely redesigned our master bathroom.  We created his and hers walk-in closets and upgraded our tub to a HUGE tub/shower.  That did cost us more money for the tub, but everything else was included.  Wayne homes really does CUSTOM BUILD.  We also took all of our sub-contractor quotes with us to help get a more accurate estimate for our PMI's, that's the name Wayne Homes gives for the parts of the building process that are estimates and won't know for sure exactly what it'll cost until you get there. 

We also thought about how really the back of our house has this amazing view, but not the front of our house, so we got rid of the family elevation with the front porch and instead went with the designer sun room extension off the back with lots of windows!  Update- this is by far the BEST upgrade we made.  I can't imagine our house without the sunroom.  Best money spent!  We also added a ledger board for future wrap around deck.  Everything went really well, and best of all- WE HAVE A TENTATIVE DIG DATE!!!
Drum roll please...

September 1, 2014 = Dig Day!!!

Wayne homes told us that the only ones to delay that would be us, and so I'm determined to make sure we don't drop the ball!  If we move faster than expected, they'll bump us up- it's all on a first come-first served basis.  Maybe we can do an August dig if we're really on the ball.  Assuming we break ground September 1st, and Wayne homes guarantees 120 days until completion, that would take us to December 30th to move in!!!  We might be in by the end of the year!!! Update- we weren't in that quickly.  Wayne Homes did give us $500 for going over on the timeline.  We moved in February, 2015.

We have to do a few things between now and dig day:

1. Take our final numbers to our lender and apply for our loan.
2. Get temporary electric installed on the lot.
3. Have our construction driveway and access drive installed.
4. Apply for all of our permits.

I hope we've got this under control.  It's a little overwhelming, but Wayne homes really makes it very clear what we need to do.  So far there have been no surprises.

Today we took the girls (our dogs, Bella and Katie) out to see the lot for the first time.  They loved it!  They won't know what to do with over an acre of land with a small stream to boot!!!

Lot Inspection

So we've made some progress since my last post...

1. We put our townhouse on the market FSBO and accepted an offer!  Since then it's been inspected, and someone is coming to assess it in a few days.  We put a hold on a storage facility in Zelienople, and we're anticipating closing on the townhouse mid to late July.  Then it'll be living with the in-laws until our new house is completed.  Fortunately things are moving right along with Wayne, too.

2. We've done quite a bit of work since the last time I posted.  We've been busy getting quotes for an excavator, well digger, and surveyor.  I love that we can pick who we want!  Some people might find this to be a lot of work that they'd rather their builder do, but not me; I love shopping around, price comparing, and checking out sub-contractors' ratings and references before choosing who to go with.  We are thrilled with who we chose!

Well: Haefner Drilling (724) 935-2888 They do cable tool drilling which costs a little more upfront, but is the best quality well you can dig.  It is more likely to find water at lower depths, and it's easier to maintain down the road.  Added bonus- Chuck Haefner's dad came out to our lot with a divining rod to locate the best spot for our well.  So cool! Update- They did an AMAZING job and great customer service!  Updating this one year after we moved in and absolutely NO problems with our water whatsoever!

Survey: Survey Tech (724) 432-3007 They are the most fairly priced in the area by far!

 Excavator: Walsh & Knox (724) 538-4951 They are fairly priced and very experienced with this type of work.  Also, I work with the owner's wife, so I trust them completely! Update- Don't trust someone just because you work with their wife.  We ended up spending over $25,000 on excavator.

3. We also had Penn Power come out during our lot inspection so that everyone is on the same page as far as where the electricity line will run.  We have already applied for temporary and permanent electric, so hopefully things will move right along.  We don't want anything on our part to slow down the process.