The house

For those of you who don't know, we are building our house.

If you didn't know this, I wonder how you could have missed it?

You see, I have a tendency to "think" about things... out loud. Over and over. And by "thinking" I mean talking.

And what's worse is that I am NOT a good decision maker so I change my mind ...a lot and then want to talk about my new idea. Wes calls it indecisive and annoying.

I like to think I am just being cautious and methodical!

Either way, I have decided to start including our house projects on this blog for those of you who WANT to know what we are working on.

There are two good reasons for doing this:

One~ I want to give you a "bird's eye" view into our lives. Just in case you ever thought about having 5 children and trying to educate them at home all while building your own house. This blog will forever change your mind and save you a world of trouble.

Two~ I am HOPING this will stop the question that we get every day... ARE YOU FINISHED WITH YOUR HOUSE???? Maybe you will see the pictures and know not to ask for at least 10 years!

Soooo, here is a little history of this adventure thus far...

We bought a little cabin on some property in Coldspring. It was a tiny one bedroom house that we knew we would have to add on to. But we had VISION... We figured we would add on a huge bedroom for the kids and live in it for a year while we decided how we wanted to add on.



We knew we would have to get new flooring and do some "sprucing up" of the place before we moved in. Wes was off for the summer so he went up to get started while the kids and I stayed home.


Wasn't he being so neat and clean with the trash. Don't mind that stove laying out in the yard. Obviously, we were not planning on using that!

I wondered why Wes always wanted to go alone. He said it was too dangerous for the kids but we insisted on going up to see the progress.


"Ummmmm, Honey? There is a HUGE hole in the house. Are you going to fix that?"

Now I knew why he didn't want us coming up there!

Ok, it looks like we are going to do a little more work then we originally thought. Doesn't it always work out that way? Well, maybe we can save the door at least!


Well, let's make that a lot more work then we thought. "Honey? Are you sure we can fix THIS?" Maybe it's just me but in this picture doesn't the roof look a little un-level.

Hey, watch out for my door!!

The floor ended up being rotted out and the electrical was put in by Moses so it needed to be redone. And the plumbing, and the sheetrock and, and, and... So it looks like we are starting over. A fresh slate! (trying to be positive here!)

We went to Home Depot, had lumber delivered and got to work... Wes claimed we would be in by late August. 2 months? Maybe it was possible. Maybe?? I can still hear my brother laughing hysterically when he came down to visit.


We hired some great workers. They worked cheap, all they asked for was Whataburger or McDonald's on the way to work!

Finally, we had what was beginning to look like a house. We missed our August deadline by a LONG shot!

The work never stops. Here we are putting up the Hardy plank. The house is really tall and I don't like heights but when you are trying to save money there is nothing I am not willing to do. Well, except for the time Wes fell off the roof and I saved him from plummeting to his death. Thank God I was holding that rope. There was no way he was leaving me here to finish the house AND raise the children! But that is a story for another day! We did decide to hire a roofer after that. So, I guess we do have some limits!

We moved into the house in March of 2009. It was unfinished. By unfinished I mean, we could walk through the walls. The kids loved it. They felt sorry for their friends who had real walls. They didn't even have to knock on the bathroom door to see if someone was in there... they could just look!

We had all the important things that one needs to live:

We had a roof

we had sub-flooring (which is the flooring under your "nice" flooring)

we had indoor plumbing with a tub and toilets

we had doors and windows

we had electricity

we had each other

and most importantly we had a dream. To work on this house and love each other through the process.

A stove came a month later. Cooking for 7 with a crock pot, grill and an electric skillet got interesting. The first night we used the new stove Madison said, "Mom, it's a blessing to have a stove. There are people out there who never have one!" I hope if nothing else, they learn to appreciate the things that we used to take for granted!

A month after that we had our central air and heat put in. Praise God because it gets really hot in Texas!

We all slept in the downstairs bedroom for the first year. It was like a permanent sleepover. At night we would lay in our beds, all lined up on the wall, and talk. Wes would make animal shadows on the wall and we would laugh and tell stories. We sounded like the Walton's, "Goodnight Madison, Goodnight Jake, Goodnight girls... Goodnight John boy"

The house still isn't finished although we have come a long way. We still work on it (all the time) and God has blessed us tremendously. Home Depot has become our home away from home, I have become quite the nurse from all of Wes' injuries and we are still able to laugh together.

I think we have lived in the chaos for so long we don't know any other way!

I will do more updates on the house in the next few weeks.

For now, pray for us as we continue our journey of craziness.