Flatwork finally happened!

Slowly, oh so slowly, we are seeing progress on the house. Today our concrete was poured for the basement floor. Now it really looks like a house!

The bad news is that the lumber got dropped off too early (my mistake), and it's blocking pretty much the whole front of the house, so the framers are going to have to start without all the backfill done. I hope it all works out! Seems like there's always a problem to solve with general contracting. Sheesh. Not my dream job, but it'll get us a house anyway.

Grace is such a sweetheart. Tonight Luke was doing a funny dance, and she burst into laughter! It was uncontrollable giggling...SO precious! We videotaped it, so if you ever want to see it, of course we'll show you!

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow for New Baby. It should be really routine. Grace will be with me, but Luke won't, because he has a real job now.

Yes, a real job! He started Monday as a true blue Steelcase employee! We're very proud of him. He's been there for over four years, and finally they've hired him. He'll be doing the same job, just with a salary and benefits instead of hourly pay. It's a HUGE blessing from the Lord. He's been good to us!

-{lkr}

Goose egg

Before


After

We just happened to take pictures of Grace today, before she whapped her head on the coffee table. Isn't she pretty? Yeah, then she hit her head, and ended up with a huge goose egg that was purple and blue. (Matched her outfit really nicely.) If you can't see it very well in the picture, it's a line above her left eye. (We didn't take the "after" picture until about 5 hours later, so it's not nearly as scary as when it first happened.)

On top of all that, the three of us have all come down with some sort of cold/sinus thing. Yuck!

-{lkr}

10 Months Old!

Guess who's 10 months old today!? That's right, it's our very own baby Grace. It's gone by SO very fast!

Also, she took a step by herself yesterday. True, if we weren't there with our hands out to catch her, she would've fallen on her nose. But she still did it! She's amazing! She's going to be a wonderful big sister.

-{lkr}

It's a basement!

The foundation walls are stripped, and now they look like real walls in our real basement! Yay! This one's a picture from the back walkout. The room with the door is a cold cellar-type space under our future porch.


And this one's of our beautiful future garage, where Luke will have a little extra space in the back for a workshop area.

We're SO excited for our future home. It's actually starting to look like a real house! Yesterday the underground plumbing was done. Today our wonderful, flexible excavator is backfilling our trenches. Tomorrow will be stone and tile (a drainage thing), and then on Thursday we'll get our concrete slabs (floors), so it'll really look like a house! YAY!

-{lkr}

Surprise!

Yep, that's right. Grace's shirt is true...She's going to be a big sister! Surprise! Baby Rumley is due March 23, which means we're just 12-1/2 weeks along. The Lord has blessed our family again. Praise Him!

On another note, I'm 23 years old today. When I think that I'll soon be the mother of two, I feel SO OLD! But Luke assures me that I'm still young. After all, he is 24. Old man!

Welp, more updates on the house to come this week, including underground plumbing, some excavation, stone and tile, and more!

We went to Celebration on the Grand on Friday night, and stayed for the fireworks. We got to see Emily and her roommates, which was nice. But here's my complaint for the day: smokers. I understand that some people are addicted to the nasty habit of inhaling tar and nicotine into their lungs, but they need to understand that it's really rude to smoke in a huge crowd. We sat down on the bridge to watch the show, and these 4 teenagers came and sat right by us and lit up their cigarettes. YUCK. Not to mention that Grace was with us - babies don't need to be inhaling their nasty smoke. And the one guy was blowing his smoke right into her stroller...Luke took Grace for a walk while I sat there and was mad...Anyway, if you smoke, try to be considerate of those of us who like healthy lungs.

Okay, let's end with a happy thought...Our pretty sister Erin is way cool, and she won her first volleyball game of the year this weekend. Go Erin!

-{lkr}

Construction update

Concrete walls were poured today, after an emergency morning meeting at the job site. I (Luke) was called at 6:50 this morning, which if you know me, is my favorite time of day (to be SLEEPING!).

The concrete crew wanted to meet at the land to discuss why the walkout basement was dug incorrectly, which caused the footings to be poured incorrectly as well. It all worked out though: the excavator came out and fixed the trench, and the concrete guys fixed the footings and poured the walls.

Here are the pictures of the progress (don't worry, the forms come off tomorrow):


View of the garage entrance


Side view of the concrete jungle and our neighbors' house


The walkout portion of the basement

Forms come off tomorrow; underground plumbing, waterproofing, and concrete slab coming soon; framing should start in the middle of the month. Woo-hoo!

Work is actually in progress!

We finally broke ground on our house! Here are some photos of the hole, and the footings that were poured yesterday.


It was a beautiful day when we arrived at the land! Most of our weeds are gone...woo-hoo!


The is the front porch (left) and footings to support the center beam (right).


A view from the back of what will become the walkout basement.

We are a little confused right now about how the final product is going to look / work, but we are trusting that the experts know what they are doing. We should have some concrete walls to look at next week, after the holiday. Have a good one,

--
Luke

Today's the day!

Well, I just spoke with our excavator, and our land is no longer just a bunch of weeds growing taller and taller...He said they stripped it yesterday, and they'll dig the hole today! YAY! We're super excited!

On a different note, Grace's 9-month check-up was yesterday, and they told me she's too skinny. She's 29-1/4 inches tall, which is the 90th percentile, but she only weighs 17lb, 14oz, which is the 25th percentile. I chalk it up to genetics - her dad sure is tall and skinny! But the doctor wants us to start supplementing with formula. Blah. It's expensive, and breastmilk is the best, but apparently it's not working for us...Darn. I'm thinking about weaning her and just switching to formula, but I'm not sure yet.

Tonight is our "Concert of Prayer" at church. It's usually Home Prayer Groups on Wednesdays, but tonight all the groups are meeting at the church. We're going to pray and have Scripture readings and sing relevant songs. Luke is leading worship on the acoustic, and I might play flute or pennywhistle. We'll see. Either way, I think it'll be fun.

Well, have a great day everyone!

-{lkr}

I accept!

I accepted the job offer from Steelcase today (my first real job!), and I am feeling pretty good about that. 'Bout time, I'd say. I even got up the courage to wrangle a little more salary out of them. That gave me the opportunity to go to Spectrum medical center, get a haircut (drug screening), and watch about 30 minutes of the destruction being wreaked on the gulf coast on CNN. Yikes.

Lacey is doing a great job of general contracting and setting up our schedule with the first few sub-contractors, and it looks like we will be starting framing by the middle of September (woo-hoo!).

Later,


--
Luke

8630

We had our first construction meeting with the excavator, the concrete contractor, and our construction consultants this past Friday. We are finally going to start our house this coming Tuesday or Wendesday, and we will post pictures of our hole in the ground, once we have it.

Our address sign and building permit are posted out on our land now.

Grace tried on my new basketball shoes and made us laugh. Here she is...

Later all...

Jobs and houseses!

Wow, today's a big day in the Rumley household!

First, Luke has a meeting with HR (that's human resources) today at 1pm. They're offering him a job! May I say, he's so amazing! I'm SO excited for him. I know they love him there at Steelcase and will treat him well, so I'm excited that he's (probably) going to be a "real" employee finally! After a whole 3 years! Yay for Luke!

Then, at 4:30, we have a meeting at the land with a bunch of people: two consultants from UBI, our excavator, and our foundation guy. Should be a hootin', hollerin' good time. No, really, we're so excited to get a start on this house! Oh, and we have a start date! Our excavator will break ground next Wednesday, August 31! YAY! I've been saying that I won't believe it's going to happen until there's a big hole in the ground, so let's get digging!

Oooooh, there's even more to our day, but I'll write about it later. Maybe tomorrow.

-{lkr}

Ahhh...debt.

Well, we closed on our construction loan on Friday. We still can't believe anyone would be willing to give us this much money, but then again, we are promising to be their indentured servants for the next 30 years. Not a bad trade.

The house has been staked out for a couple weeks. We should hear from the building inspector on Monday about the building permit, then get the excavator digging the basement as soon as he is available! Woo-hoo!

Grace is out of control cute these days: crawling around, pulling herself up on furniture, waving and smiling, etc. We like her. That is all from GR. Later,


-Luke

Happy Monday

Well, we're just about recovered from a good, busy, tiring, fun weekend. We went down to Indiana with Emily on Friday night, to see the family and meet our new "sister." It was great to spend time with everyone, and see Erin and Betsey before they go their separate ways (Terre Haute and Winona Lake, respectively). And our new sister is an exchange student named Hyo-Sun who will be living with Mom and Dad Rumley for the school year! Wow! She's an amazing Korean girl...She can speak and understand English SO well, and she is just a fun, respectful, God-fearing young lady. She's only 16, but there are so many things I could learn from her. I'm excited to have her around this year.

So, our house stuff is stalled again. Surprise. We were supposed to close on the loan last week, now maybe this week. We'll see. I'm not going to believe that the house is really going to happen until there's a big hole in the ground. Anywho, maybe we'll close on the loan this week and get underway soon. Sure would be nice!

Wow, seems like everyone's either getting married or having a baby. Must be the time of life. I just found out last week that my friend Grace is getting married in December. I wish I could go, but it's in Casper, Wyoming. Kinda far away! I wish I could be there, but maybe I'll get to see pictures of it. How exciting!

Well, gotta go eat some brownies and ice cream with my hubby. We're so in love.

-{lkr}

New pics posted!

We've finally posted some new pics on our website! Okay, they're not actually that recent, but they're new to the site. Hope y'all enjoy them! Maybe we'll actually put some recent ones up there sometime! (Don't hold your breath, though.)

On a different note, Rob Bell's new book is striking up some heated reviews on Amazon. I haven't read the book, but I've read the 50-some reviews. It's enough to make me not want to read it, that's for sure...But here are a couple of thoughts that may or may not be related to the book.

1. My faith does not need to change to be relevant to the culture. If my beliefs have to change to stay "relevant" and attract "seekers," then something is wrong. Call me a "brick" if you want to, but I will use what I learned at college and apply my UNCHANGING Biblical principles to the ever-changing world.

2. My faith isn't necessarily supposed to be attractive to everyone. Yes, I need to love others. Yes, it would be great if others saw something different in me. However, Christianity is and has always been offensive. Jesus didn't concede doctrines to please people so that they'd accept Him. And I'm not willing to do that either.

3. Homosexuality is wrong. When did Christians start making up the lie that it's okay? Have they read those parts of the Bible that deal with homosexuality? It sickens God. (And me, for that matter.)...That probably isn't in the book, but I've run across some Christian websites/blogs saying that homosexuality is not a sin. Crazy!

4. Remember that passage in the Bible (1 Corinthians 1:10-13) where Paul says, "One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas'; still another, 'I follow Christ.'"? He's talking about divisions in the church. But also, he says "Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?" Sometimes--and this is an outsider's point of view--I feel like asking "Was Rob Bell crucified for you?" Because SO MANY of the Mars attenders I know just gush about Rob. When I was in college, so often I heard, "Rob was so amazing today..." Rob this, Rob that...And I can tell you, although I enjoy the messages at my church, I do NOT go there simply to follow my pastor. I go there to fellowship, to serve, to grow, to be a part of the church, to follow CHRIST...


Well, I'm sure I've offended enough people to stop writing now. The topic has just been on my mind a lot lately with the controversy of the book coming out...I'd be curious to hear what my dad-in-law would have to say about it if he read it...Let me know your thoughts if you read it, Dad Rumley. (Velvet Elvis : Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell)

Welp, gotta go. Grace is waking up from her nap. Gotta go be a mommy!

-{lkr}

P.S. I got down to 155 lb today. That means I've lost about 50 lb since last November! Yay!

Unless the Lord builds the house...

Psalm 127:1a - "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain."

Well, last Thursday, we found out the house was going to cost $15,000 too much to build. We prayed all week about what to do, met with our pastor on Tuesday night, had our church praying for wisdom for us, and sent some possible changes to our building consultants that should have lowered the quote by about $7000.

Then yesterday (Wednesday), we went to review the new numbers. Without losing very many features at all, the numbers had lowered $15,000!! Why do we even try to make things work on our own?!? God is amazing!

We are working on final loan approvals and some final details before the construction phase begins, but we are super excited to build and raise our family in a house that meets our needs. That is all for now, we will keep you up to date as things progress.


-Luke

We need wise counsel.

We had our meeting yesterday. Not so good news. We got the quotes and final budget number back. It was about $15,000 higher than what we were hoping. That's a lot of money. If someone could just give us $15,000, that would be great.

We have reviewed the numbers and can shave some off that cost. But what is wise for us to do? Should we streeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch our budget because it's a good investment? Or should we try to build a different house, again? Or should we scrap it, sell the land, and buy an existing house? (What I'd like to hear is #1, but be honest.)

Another thing to mention is that there will be about 25% equity in the house once it's done. That's not bad.

Okay, give us your opinions. We're ready.

-{lkr}

P.S. On another note, my mom, sisters, and nephew were here today. I loved seeing them! Kade is getting SO big! What a cutie! I'll get to see them again this weekend, at my cousin's baby shower in Cadillac. Fun fun!

We're back!

Yay! We're finally back in touch with the world. Our DSL connection is working again!

Well, the last week or two have been hectic. Lots of appointments with people about the house, and lots of packing, moving, and unpacking. Fun fun. I'm tired!

We're getting settled into our new apartment. "New" is kinda a funny word to use to describe this one, though. I think the appliances have been here since 1980. They're yellow-ish on the outside, and the dinosaur of a dishwasher has a powder blue rack inside! Hehe. Really, we're doing okay. Definitely adjusting. It was hard for me (the sentimental one) to leave the apartment we brought our baby girl home to, but I know it's temporary. Hopefully the construction process will be a good, quick one.

Speaking of the house, it's staked out now! It seems huge! Of course, it's hard to tell, since the 2-foot-tall stakes are stuck in the ground amidst 5-foot-tall weeds. Anyway, it's one step closer to building our dream home. Yay! Now, PLEASE just pray that the quotes come back lower than expected, so we can afford it. Our next meeting is July 21 to find out what the numbers are. We hope it's good news!

Well, our girl Grace is getting big! Her third tooth poked out a couple of days ago! Yep, she's toothy. AND I swear she's saying "baby" when she says "bahbah." She says it every time she sees herself (in the mirror) or other kids. She said it today when we went to see Erik and Amy's little baby Grace. I think she's smart!

Speaking of the other Grace, what a cutie! Our Grace was never that small. (She was 7lb when she was born 5 days ago.) And she's long! (20 in.) Anyway, it was so fun to hang out with the Buskards tonight, and to see Erik and Amy being parents. I think they like it!

Well, it's late (as usual). Better go. We have the last two appointments of the week tomorrow. Both are for flooring. Hope they go well! We've been pretty good at being decisive so far, so that's great! (If you know us, you know that that's not our strong point!) Anyway, we would love your prayers, to get through this busy time and for the house to get on its way. It's been a LONG process, and we'd love to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Have a good day, everyone!

-{lkr}

P.S. Tomorrow is July 15. Luke and I started dating 4 years ago tomorrow. Wow!

I need a new butt hole...

So, I misspoke yesterday, and it made me giggle. My family came down to visit, and we spent the afternoon at Millenium Park, on the beach. Well, I'd been lying on one side for a long time, so I switched positions, and said, "I need a new butt hole." I meant that I needed to made a new spot in the sand for my rear, but it didn't come out that way! And my dad replied, "Usually one is enough." Hahaha...Oops.

So, we had a great day with my mom, dad, and Alonna. We had church, then a potluck communion meal after church, and then we spent the day at the beach/park. There was a bratty little kid beside us at the beach who was feeding the seagulls potato chips. And there were hundreds of seagulls flying over and flocking around our spot. THEN, a seagull POOPED on my leg! EWWWW! Stupid little kids.

Oh, happy Independence Day! We don't have any plans today, besides fireworks in Forest Hills this evening. Other than that, we'll probably pack some more and maybe go downtown for the "Family Festival." Hope you all have a great red, white, and blue day!

-{lkr}

As for me and my house...

Wow! Our meeting yesterday was LONG, about 3-3/4 hours. It made our heads hurt. Thankfully, Grace was with the Burrs (our pastor's family), so we didn't have to entertain her the whole time. (Thanks for being willing to come up to watch her, Mom Rumley. Maybe next time!)

The meeting went well. We made decisions about our entire house, from the type of floor joists to the pattern of doors. Lots of people know that we're not really good decision-makers. Or, at least, we're not fast decision-makers. Anyway, it went well, and UBI will send out bids for us on Tuesday or Wednesday. Our next meeting is July 21 to find out the quoted costs of everything. Until then, we have plenty to do! We have to make appointments and visit almost 20 different businesses to pick out specific windows, flooring, siding, etc! And all in the next couple of weeks! Yikes! We got our first appointment finished today, though, with a window company.

Not only do we have all that house stuff to do, but we also have to pack to move to our new apartment! We've barely begun to pack, and we're moving in one week. Yikes again! I think we're going to be busy bees this month.

Aren't these pictures of Graceful cute? In one, she's reading her favorite book (Five Litte Monkeys Jumping on the Bed). I tell ya, a 7-month-old reading a book? What a smarty! Then, in the other one, I just thought she was pretty dang cute in her sunhat! That's all! Just wanted you all to see my precious daughter!

Hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend.

-{lkr}

Dunk!

Even though the sun stopped shining, it was still 86 degrees outside, so we went to the pool today. It was nice. The water was pretty warm, and all three of us went in. (Sometimes Luke doesn't want get in because the water's too cold. Today it was warm enough!) And we decided to try to get Grace even more used to the water by doing something that our friend Angie did with her son Nathan. We blew in her face so that she'd hold her breath, and then dunked her under the water. She was a little scared, but we actually did it twice, and she did so great! I hope she always feels comfortable in the water.

Luke and I are playing music at church tomorrow. Yep, both of us! Luke will play electric guitar, and I'll play flute. Besides having to be at church at 8:30am, I'm excited! I think it'll be fun!

Well, it's definitely a great day. Grace slept in until 9:30 this morning! That hasn't happened in a while, so it was absolutely WONDERFUL for us. Then my amazing husband made us the yummiest, fattiest breakfast ever. (Eggs with bacon, onion, and cheese; plain bacon; and hash browns fried in bacon grease. MMMM.) Yum.

Now we're watching a cool car movie on TV and I think I'm going to eat some popcorn.

-{lkr}