The New Roof Is Going On!

As I sit in upstairs in my office, it sounds like there's a herd of elephants rampaging overhead! A herd of elephants that use drills and tools and power equipment of various sizes and shapes. There's a lot of banging and driving of screws and moving around up there. The construction crew is blazing away on the roof installation as I type. They're making great progress while the sun is shining as it's supposed to get wet and windy overnight and through tomorrow.

It's exciting to have the project coming so close to completion. Lord willing we'll be able to use our front hangar again by the end of next week.

Rolls of insulation ready to be taken topside.

Additional rolls of insulation inside Hangar A. How's that new door looking on the left of the frame?

Removing the old roof panels.

The crew chief takes care of the edge-work.

There's a whole lot of sunshine spilling in!

A workman tapes off the crossbeams before laying a roll of insulation in place.

Thanks for your gifts and prayers that have made this project possible!

The New Hangar Door is IN!

The new hangar door has been installed on Hangar A! It's been a challenging week or so of wet, rainy, windy weather for the construction crew but the door is up, the insulation is in, and the aluminum siding is on!

The construction crew disassembles and removes the old four-panel steel doors. This was the last good weather the crew was going to see for a while.

With the door removed and weather tarps in place, the crew removes the final structure.

The crew positions the lighter, single-panel door structure.

The new insulation and new exterior panels are secured in place.

Here's a picture of the door nearly completed.

It's really exciting to see the project finally come together in the most literal sense. Thank you for your gifts toward the Raise The Roof campaign which made this all, and more, possible. Lord willing we'll soon conduct a door swing test to finalize the installation.

The construction crew is currently overhead working hard and fast at replacing the roof! The sun is out the sky is blue, the old roof is coming off and the new roof is going on.

Thanks for your prayers.

Library/Guestroom Pictures

Scrapbook design made with Smilebox

A Worthy Week

It was so nice to able to take last week as a vacation week. I headed off on a personal retreat while Karen's sister, Brenda, came out from Virginia to help Karen redo our "library" (the tiny guestroom with all our books in it as opposed to our small guestroom without books in it). The walls were painted in a color very close to Navy blue and had been that way since we moved in 8 1/2 years ago.

Needless to say, with Karen and Brenda on the job, the guestroom turned out GREAT! Thanks, for helping, Brenda! Karen may post some pictures of the room in a future blog but the room's so tiny it's difficult to take pictures in it. Karen's currently in the basement working on some custom curtains to allow the windows to become more of a room feature than they'd been in the past. The fabric is from sheets she bought on clearance sale, the details are from things she has in her craft box, and the curtain "rods" are actually promotional yard sticks from a local company that we regularly patronize. She's amazing. Karen knows how to stretch a Kingdom dollar to make it look like a million bucks!

There's still some small touches to attend to: a reading lamp, two small braided rugs, a small plant stand, and the books need to be reorganized but it already looks like a completely different room and is much more warm looking and inviting to spend time in.

As far as my retreat, I have twenty pages of journal to transcribe and contemplate! I am so thankful to Karen for encouraging me to go. Here are a couple snapshots.

Here I am resting Monday afternoon.

Here's a shot Tuesday morning's sunrise.

Later that day, I made the more-challenging-than-expected hike up to a cross on top of a hill on the retreat center's extensive property.

Finally at the top.

Looking across the valley back at the retreat center.

I had a special time of communion with God on that hilltop, all alone but for the cool breeze and the soaring hawks, reading and reflecting on 1 Kings 19.

The retreat provided time to rest, to think, to read, to pray, to write, and to worship.

Here's another view of Tuesday's sunrise from behind a cross on a low knoll at the retreat center. This shot makes me think of Easter...it was a glorious morning. A fresh beginning for me in many ways.

Thank you for prayers as Karen and I seek to grow in God's will.