Celebrating

We are having a thanksgiving celebration tomorrow!
We decided to take a day each year to celebrate the amazing things that the Lord did to our house these last three years!

The way He did it, still boggles our minds. "God has done great things for us and we are glad!!!" Really glad!


This is what happened:
In 2004, we refinanced our house so that we could put an addition on to our little 800+ sq. foot, fifty year old house, which had only one bathroom and two bedrooms. We really couldn't afford to move and we loved our little house, our yard, and our neighbors. ~We REALLY loved our tiny mortgage payment. We planned to add on a large bedroom and a bathroom for our three boys (that would give our daughter her own room, finally) and to close in our carport for a family room.

Since we didn't want to go into any debt to do this major project, we used the refinancing money for all the building supplies


and decided to do the work ourselves. It was by faith, that a painter, without any construction skills, determined to take on this project. : )
We knew it would be slow going since he could only work on it on the weekends.
~We figured it would only take my hubby every weekend until Jesus comes!


But then God more than met us and had miracles in mind!!!


By the time we had the permit, it was 2005.
Then on the second of February, my hubby's best friend Carlos, said that he was between jobs and would work on our addition for us during the week. Without pay!!! (the only thing he would accept were home cooked meals!!!!) : )

Carlos gave up 10 months of his life to work on our house that year! He was here 6 days a week and sometimes 7. That verse that says "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend" will forever remind me of what he did for us.


I love this picture. He was totally afraid of heights. So, when he worked on the roof, we knew that it was because "perfect love casts out fear." : )

Did I mention that he's a mechanic by trade and didn't know a whole lot more than my painter? : ) He did have a little bathroom remodeling and tile laying experience but that was about it. He told us later that he just acted confident so that we would feel better. (what a friend!)

He read books and prayed when he didn't know how to go about the next phase. There were several tricky things that he had no clue about how to do and God showed him how in dreams! Seriously! It was amazing!

He did everything to perfection!!! He was meticulous about details. What a blessing. Everything he works on always turns out beautifully. We would've been happy with so much less, but he always gave us perfection. It was very humbling.

It was an awesome learning experience for our oldest son who was his right hand man. He learned so much that year! It was one big family project since the other three kiddos and I helped by being the clean up crew.

The addition was finished just before my father-in-law came to visit from CO for Thanksgiving that year!!! It was incredible and so much sooner than we ever dared to hope for.

Then the 'fun' continued in 2006 when Carlos helped us remodel the other two bedrooms. Then he decided that it wasn't 'right' that the boys had a nicer bathroom than we did and he GAVE our bathroom an extreme makeover! It is gorgeous! I love it so much! I was always saying that I didn't know why I was getting a little piece of heaven, early. But, that's what it felt and still does, feel like.

We thought we were all done with construction after the bathroom and boy, was I ever glad. It isn't easy to home school with a nail gone banging in the next room or a compressor going that is so loud you feel like you have to yell to be heard.

But in the summer of 2007 Carlos wanted us 'to let him' remodel our kitchen. (Is he one amazing friend or what?!) He didn't like the fact that the rest of the house was perfect and that the tile WE really did lay ourselves 6 yrs. before, was... um, crooked! We don't possess tiling skills!
And then he and my hubby got to thinking and wondering ..... Before I knew it, it wasn't just a new floor they were talking about. It was knocking down a wall here and a wall there! (and I actually shed some tears over the thought of more demo and construction)

My sweet hubby talked me into it. They said it would only take a month and that didn't sound so bad. But it actually took three (all summer) and it was harder on me than the other projects put together. : )

But IT WAS SO TOTALLY WORTH IT!

It was an interesting time:

~Having it look like a bomb hit our house

~Having a toaster in the laundry room which got crumbs in the clean laundry.

~Having to boil water to do the dishes several times a day.

~ And many other things that sound really whiny now that its all over. ; )

Thankfully, all my appliances were in the new family room which was a blessing because we couldn't have eaten out for 3 months!!! Although, I don't think I would've minded that a bit. ha ha

Here a before picture:

And these are during:

And these are after:

It was one amazing gift!!!!!

That sums up that last 3 years of our lives!!! And it doesn't sum up all that Carlos did during that time or all that he means to our lives!

So, tomorrow is our big celebration and we are going to give 'honor where honor is due' and bless and thank our dear friend. Although, I don't think we can ever thank him enough.

May God richly bless him!!!!!!!

~Becky