1st Work Weekend

We started are the morning off with elections.  John was elected President.  Deena was elected secretary.  Debbie was elected safety officer.  Brandon was elected Treasure.  After we finished our meeting, we started to string our property lines.

Fences was added behind Debbie's house.

Stringing the property.

Pulling the string tight.

Cutting rebar for the corners of the property and the houses.

Checking the property line.

Adding the stake at the front of the property.

Marking out the 1st house.

 

Marking out the second home.

House 1 chalked out and ready for the footings to  be dug.

Measuring.

Deena's property chalked out.

We began our 2nd day with a safety meeting.  Then we started marking out two more houses.  We were really excited to mark out our house.  The excitement was gone after working on it for 4 hours.  So excited when finally got it right.  Only to have to move it 5 inches.

Finishing up digging the footings near a tree.

Brandon and Patricia's house.

 

Deena measuring my house for the 100th time.

Debbie and Deena working together to correct the 2" that we were off.

John measuring our house.  We lost track of how many times we measured our  house.

Chalking our house.  Deena is on our front porch.

Our house finished from the front door side.



Our house from the drive way.

Deena holding her chalk bucket.

Deena modeling her tool belt with pink hammer.

More measuring.

Jacob hammering in a stake.



And more measuring.

By the end of the weekend, we had chalked out 9 houses, 2 house almost finished, and one shed moved.  We worked hard.

Loan Documents Signing

We all signed are final loan documents tonight.  It took about two hours to get through all the forms and answer all the questions.  If we are recorded on Friday, we will start on Saturday.  We get to wait again to see if we get a phone call. No phone call means it was recorded and we can start on Saturday.  It does not seem real that we will own land on Friday and be building a home on Saturday.  Praise God for this wonderful gift of a home! 

Debbie signing her loan documents.

Some of the rest of the families signing the documents.

John signing.

Tricia signing.

When we were signing the documents, we had to pick a date to be finished by.  We all agreed June 1, 2013. So June 1st is our goal date.  It is going to be a crazy, exciting, and busy year.  I can not wait to see how and what God provided for us. We would appreciate your prayers over the next year. I will enclose prayer requests at the end of each posts.

Philippians 4:19

¹⁹ And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

 

Philippians 4:13

¹³ I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

 

 

Prayer requests:

1) ecsrow closes on Friday.

2) that everyone will get along and there will be no drama.

3) strength and energy for the people that will work fulltime and do this on the weekends.

Thank you for your prayers.

 

 

Pre-start Workday

We did a lot today in 5 1/2 hours.  We started with a quick meeting to sign in and sign forms for the volunteers.

 Then we divided into different projects.  The majority of us cleared the weeds from the properties, so we can start to marking out the house next weekend (We are hoping).

 Deena clearing and being silly.

 Lupe and Leticia clearing Lupe's lot.

Jacob, Michael, Ian, and David clearing Deena's lot.

 Another project that some of the men did was to get power down where we are building.  Jeffery and Lupe's helper (I will learn everyone name soon) worked hard digging down to the power line.

While we were working today there was a crew working on putting in the back fences on two sides.

Another crew (Deena, Maria, and Tricia) worked on painting signs for each lot.  This sounds easy, but it was a lot of work.  We had to paint each board white, which took 2+ coats.  Then we had to mark out were everything would be stenciled onto the sign.  Then we had to hand paint each sign staying inside of the lines, which was harder than it sound.  We were very grateful that other people came over to help us get the signs painted.   It took most of the 5 and 1/2 hours to complete the signs.

 Deena stenciling the lot number, address, and plan number on each sign.

 John still raking the weeds.

Yes, there was still more to rake.  Michael raking.

 Here they are putting the power up at the end of the street.

 Here is the power in the middle of the block.

 Deena by her lot sign.

 Debbie by her lot sign..

Brandon and Carlos installed the lot signs on each property.

 John and Tricia by their lot sign. (Posing in our version of American Gothic.)

The fence that was put in today.

 The lots all cleared and ready to go.

Finally Starting and Pray Requests

 We are finally starting.  We are signing our final loan documents Wednesday, July 11th.  If everyone signs Wednesday night, we are starting on Saturday, July 14th.  YEAH!!! 
We are excited to see the houses that God has given us. Please pray for us as we begin this adventure.

Prayer requests:
1) Energy:  John, Deena, and Debbie will be working their jobs during the week and working 20 hours every weekend to build our homes. 
2) Our children safety (physicall and spiritual):  Friends and family will be taking our kids places and watching our children for us.
3)The building site:  Everyone safety, relationships, and volunteers to help us build our homes.
4) That we glorify God while we work with our neighbors to build these homes.
5) We will have peace for the speed that the houses are built at.We were told that our houses will take 12-18 months to build.  We would like to get done in less than a year.
6) That we will continually seek God and trust Him to help us through out this year.

Philippians 4:4-15

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. ⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. ⁹ The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.