Where we are today...part 4

Fast forward to present day...3.5 years later.  Are we done renovating our miracle house?  NOPE.  Not by a long shot.  Is it way more work than we thought?  YES.  Does everything take days/months longer than expected?  YES.  Do we have enough money to hire out everything to be done?  NO.  Have we been paying as we go?  YES.  Have we taken time off to work on the little house (another story for a later date) we are living in temporarily?  Unfortunately, YES.

I have to say that the past 3 years have been long and difficult.  I have planned so much for this house.  I dream about it while trying to go to sleep each night.  In my dreams, I see it all complete.  I see it decorated for the holidays.  I see where the Christmas tree will go each year.  I have envisioned how I will place furniture in each of the rooms.  I have designed the kitchen layout exactly the way I want it.  I have imagined family gatherings in this house.  So each year that has gone by, each delay, or each time we have "taken a break" and not worked on it for awhile...each time that happens, the more painful it becomes for me.  I long to be in this house. The little house we are living in still feels like just a temporary dwelling place.  I am anxious for the day when we can move in, to finally feel settled.

Did I mention to you that we have the garage at the 38th Street house filled with boxes?  Boxes of things packed from our other house when we moved.  We only took the necessities with us to the little temporary house.  I have felt like my life has been put on hold until we can finally move into our "miracle" house.  I have spent many hours in prayer, asking God to grant the patience I need to get through this.  I am trying to be positive and look at this endeavor as the true blessing that it is.  So on a positive note...

This is what has been accomplished so far:

• old roof was removed and new roof built - hired
• inside of house was gutted of all plaster and wood lathe - hired 
• outside of house was striped of all old wood siding and window trim - hired
• New OSB board and Tyvek was wrapped around house - hired
• burned front porch was dismantled - hired
• new front porch built - hired
• additional front porch was added - hired
• replaced broken window and installed new windows in kitchen/mudroom 
• replaced small window in upstairs with a larger new one
• replaced all the old exterior doors with new doors - 5 doors total
• removed laminate flooring in dining room, entry hall, and upstairs bedroom
• cleaned additional plaster and debris between the wall studs
• pulled thousands of nails from every 2x4 in the house...still working on this!
• ripped up the old layers of flooring in the kitchen and pantry
• removed old wiring

And this is what the house looks like today:

Doesn't she look much better?  It looks like we removed some windows, but we did not...they are still hiding behind the Lowe's house wrap.  Notice the new side porch on the front of the house!  I think it looks so much better than it did without it.  We added a door off the dining room to access the side porch, and I imagine having my morning coffee out there or a late summer supper. *sigh*

Someday.