Pictures

This morning I went outside to take some pictures of our new basement.  When I loaded them onto my computer I found some I had taken of Leah about a month ago.  This was taken before church.  I like it so much I think I will have it made into "school" pictures.  Certainly I will have an 8 x 10 made for my wall.

And I found some pictures of our dog, Elly, and Whitney's puppy, Jade, chewing on their bones.  Jade is now as big as Elly and stockier.  They both are half black lab.  Elly's other half is boxer, Jade's is red heeler.

That white stuff on the ground is snow.  It snowed briefly this morning and melted almost immediately.  This is the west side of our house with our new steps.  Right now this is our main entry.

This is one of our new basement windows.  We have eight.  Tim and Whitney worked last Friday and got four window wells installed.  Whitney dug all the holes so Tim was able to install three more wells before he had to leave for work today.  He only has one more to do as well as fill the holes of the ones he did today with rock.

This is the south side.  It needs the most work yet.  When the workers come they will put a ground level entry door on the left side of the entry.  It will be somewhat like a split level in that we will either be able to go down into the basement or go up into the entry.  Where the door is on the right we will have a bay window.  Then that little section will get new siding.  The picture window on the far left will become a patio door.  Once the ground has settled in a few years we will put in a patio.  It's a work in progress.

This is what it looks like going down from the landing.  The wall on the right will be taken out as well as the one between the kitchen and entry.  That will make the kitchen bigger.  We plan to add cabinets on the east wall of the entry, too.  As you can see we will have to do some wall repair on the left of the stairs and forward as well.

These are the new steps.  The area to the left is where the old cistern used to be.  If you scroll down on older posts you can see what an improvement these stairs are!

This is the west wall.  Our old basement only went up to the red pole.  I am pleased with all the extra space I have now.

This last picture is the north east corner where I will have my "fruit room."  I had an aunt who called her room where she kept her canned goods a fruit room.  I like to call it that too.

Yesterday I spent part of my day organizing my canned goods, that I had had boxed for months, onto my shelves.  It was an enjoyable activity for me.  In the future we will make walls to keep out the light as well as add a few more shelves .  Then it will really be a room.

Leah looked at these pictures and commented that the ceiling looked so ugly.  Tim and I feel the same way.    We plan to put up a dropped ceiling to hide all those wires and pipes.  But it probably won't be this year.

As you can see from the pictures there is still much work to be done.  The yard around the house is all clay.  Next spring it will need to be filled in with black dirt and planted with grass seed or landscaped in another way.  The installers need to put in the new windows in the upstairs and main floor that we ordered.  The back entry needs to be cleaned out of all its stuff so we can make it into a second bathroom.  I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the picture. 

I am feeling the stress of it all and would appreciate any prayers you feel led to pray for us.