Week 18: Imperfect Action

Hi Friend!

Long time, no see! Six weeks actually. Has anything progressed? Yes. As fast as I would like? NO! So between frustration and exhaustion and demoralization, the blog was put on the back burner.

But we just got back from our triannual Lifeonaire retreat, where someone said, "Imperfect action trumps perfect inaction." I knew this was my cue to get back on the horse. Someone else said that the last 10% is always the hardest, which makes perfect sense seeing as we're at the 90% done mark, and it does feel so ... much ... harder ... to do. I also got some encouragement to keep posting on here from some kids at St. John's College on our recent visit. So here goes the imperfect action!

On the personal side: We celebrated 5 birthdays within 5 weeks. Hosted a few visitors. Listed our rental house for sale. Visited Lake Placid. Kicked off the Holistic Moms Network monthly meetings. Attended our 6th beautiful wedding this year (3 of our girls were bridesmaids). Took kids to the county fair three times. Kids went back to college and started school programs. Drove down to Annapolis, Md., Lake Hartwell, S.C., and Atlanta, Ga. and back. Hosted many AirBnB guests in our guest house. Life has been plenty busy.

So, what's been done on the new house?

Plumbing: The plumbers finished all the rough plumbing and installed the propane boiler. I have all plumbing fixtures on-site ready to be installed.

Water Service: The town water main we had to tie into is 500 feet away from the house and across a bridge. We dug the trench for the pipe as far as we could and then hired a directional drilling company to drill beneath our road bridge to get the rest of the way. Done!

Electrical and Data: Mickey and Judah been working on electrical rough-in and are 75% done. We finalized the plan to get electrical to the house with the utility company and will have an electrician tie it in. This might take a couple of months to complete. The cable company is even longer at 4-8 months to bring new service, but we are in the queue. We will figure something out for temporary data. I've bought almost all of the light fixtures and smoke detectors that we'll need.

Gas: Our propane tanks are set, piping installed underground and connected to the house. Plumbers need to complete the final tie-in.

Carpentry: Judah finished sheathing several more walls. Carlos (our weekend carpenter) trimmed the exterior windows and installed interior doors. Kitchen cabinets were delivered, ready to get installed next time Carlos comes around.

Paint: Some of the exterior trim needs to be primed and painted, I started priming the kitchen and sitting room.

The windows have exterior trim that still needs priming and painting.

I overcame some feelings of powerlessness by priming.

Mickey's been running wire after finishing his day job.

Judah dug a trench to the house for the water line.

The Ditch Witch directional drill saved us from digging up many, many feet of road to connect to town water. The rod (by the flowers in front) is going underground 4 feet or so.

The long road to the water main. The drill fed the water line under the road.

Okay, now that we're pretty much caught up, I hope to continue with our imperfect action of finishing the house and sharing the journey. Questions, comments, and encouragement all help! :)

Until next time,

xo

P.S. What got you out of a rut when you were feeling demoralized?

P.P.S. When Judah wasn't working on the house or working on other projects, he was practicing his new hobby of juggling. Here he is practicing juggling knives:

Next post: Week 19: Photo Update