Merrillee Whren's Blog, page 9

Progress

Today I have photos of the new cabinets without doors, but you can see the color. We also have some of the wood flooring installed. They also did the templates for the granite counter tops yesterday. So we are getting closer to the end. Now the anticipation builds.

We’re eagerly awaiting the final product. The cabinet doors and drawer fronts will go on after the granite is installed in about three weeks. In the meantime, when the floor is finished, I can start putting my house back together. Our biggest problem now is finding things because of the chaos.

What do you think?

It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

Have you ever been in a situation where things kept getting worse? That’s where we find ourselves today in our remodeling process. As you’ve seen from previous posts, we’ve been painting ahead of the cabinet and flooring installs. Today the cabinets arrived. That meant removing the bathroom cabinets, which means we’ll be down to the pedestal sink in the half bath. They will even have to take out the sink in the kitchen. I will have no counter tops because it will take a couple of weeks after they make the counter top template for the granite to be installed. Here’s what we’re looking at now.

 The old baseboard coming off upstairs

The mess from room to room

Here is the first cabinet to go in. It’s in the upstairs bathroom. Since they removed the mirror, it looks like I have a little more painting to do. How do you like that purple color, which was the original color of this room?

The remodeling process reminds me of this verse from 1 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

My Bible

We are in a lull in the remodeling process. New photos will be coming next week. In the meantime, I thought I would talk about how the advance of e-books has changed my Bible-reading habits. Below is a photo of the Bible I have had for years. You can probably see some of the verses I have underlined.

But today I often don’t even know where this Bible is in our house, although right now it is sitting next to my desk. Since I started posting scripture verses on Facebook every day, I’ve been doing my daily Bible reading on my computer using biblegateway.com. I have also started using the Bible app on my Touch when I attend church. The Touch fits nicely in my purse, and I just start it up when it’s time for the sermon. The only thing I miss about using a digital Bible is the underlining. I know I can mark verses in the digital program, but I haven’t quite conquered that skill yet.

Here is my Touch.

What do you think about using a Bible app?

 

Watching Paint Dry

The remodeling project is moving along but very slowly. We’ve probably all heard the expression, “watching paint dry.” That’s what we’ve been doing. We tested at least eight different samples of paint. Finally we came up with one, but as it was going on, I wasn’t sure I liked it. Once it was all done I decided that I did. It’s amazing how the same paint can look completely different in two different room or on two different walls in the same room. It all depends on the lighting. Here’s a reprise of one of my earlier photos to remind you what we had a few days ago.

Here’s what we have today after some drywall repair and paint.

Waiting for the paint to dry during our project reminds me of God’s patience with us. We read about it in 2 Peter 3:9. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

God is patient with us. In what kind of situations do you find it hard to have patience?

Hidden Things

The remodeling project continues very slowly at this point. While we are waiting for the cabinets, there is a lot of other work to do. The electrician came and moved the exposed wires so they won’t interfere with the installation of the cabinets. Here are before and after photos.

Before.

After.

The wires that were very visible in the first photo are now safely tucked away out of sight. In the same way when we are following Christ, we are hidden in Him, as it says in Colossians 3:2-4 (NIV). “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Everything about a remodeling project says renewal. When we take Jesus as our Savior, God takes us and makes us new. We will see the finished project in heaven. What do you look forward to in heaven?

 

More Demolitian

Do you remember this photo?

After today’s work on our remodeling project, it looks like this.

Now I really can’t use my kitchen. Up until today, I have been able to cook because the stove, microwave and sink were all functional. Not anymore! From now on, if I can cook it in a toaster oven, I’ve got it made. Any toaster oven recipes out there? The photo below shows what we’ve done with the old cabinets. The ones in the garage aren’t completely installed, but they will give us a lot of storage out there when the project is complete.

We added a couple of cabinets to the laundry room where there was only a shelf before. We had to use the short cabinets because of the vents on the right side. Do you see some painting in my future? Any color suggestions?

The following two photo show some other views of the kitchen.

Can you envision the final results—tall 42 inch cabinets in dark cherry, stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops?

 

Tearing Out Tile

We’re getting rid of the old floor in order to make way for the new one. Here is the before photo of parts of our family room and kitchen.

Early this morning we started covering all the furniture with sheets and plastic. The prep work is similar to the prep work done before a painting job. Here’s what we’re looking at for the next few days. Lots of plastic. The photo below is the loft.

Here’s our some of the bigger pieces of furniture clustered in the living room.

Finally, you can see what the family room looks like now with most of the tile removed.

This is part of the kitchen tile that needs to come up.

All this remodeling reminds me of how God takes our lives and remodels them. We get rid of the old life and put on the new life. This is what is says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-18. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:”

Do you think I’m going to be in a mess for a while?

 

The Remodeling Has Begun

As I stated in a previous post, we are doing some remodeling. We are putting in a new kitchen and replacing most of the tile floors on the lower level with wood. Yesterday the work began. First, we emptied all the cabinets.

The folks who are going to tear out the tile will be here on Tuesday of this week. So before they start, we had to remove the old cabinets, especially the lower cabinets. My husband, with the help of our son-in-law and one of his friends, removed most of the cabinets. Here’s what my kitchen looks like now.

Where did we put everything that used to be in the kitchen? Have a look at our bedroom.

Thankfully, my husband was smart enough to have saved some of our moving boxes for this project.

 Now if I can just remember which box contains the things I need.

Finally, we put the old cabinets in our garage. Eventually, we plan to put some of them in the garage and some of them in our laundry room. The garage work will probably have to wait until the temperatures cool here in Arizona.

Have you ever done any remodeling? How did you deal with the mess?

 

Fun at RWA

This past week I attend the Romance Writers of America Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference was held at the Marriott Marquis. It is a lovely hotel with a fabulous staff. It is the friendliest hotel I have ever stayed in. That was my experience this year and also on my previous stay when the conference was held there a few years ago. Of course, the conference is the time to attend numerous workshops and listen to fabulous speakers tell us about how to make the most of our writing careers. It is also the time to reconnect with writing friends from across the country.

Here is a photo of some of the ladies who were Golden Heart finalists with me in 2003. This was our 1oth anniversary, and we had a chance to catch up on what has been happening in our lives over the past ten years.

 

 I also had the opportunity to see many of my chapter mates from First Coast Romance Writers. Since I have moved to Arizona, FCRW is now my long-distance chapter. Here we are sharing some food and laughs after the awards ceremony on Saturday night.

 In addition to getting together with these writer friends, I met with my agent, had lunch with some fellow Love Inspired authors and one of the Love Inspired editors, Melissa Endlich, and met with a non-writing friend who lives in the area.

Now it’s back to work, writing and revising and submitting. The RWA Conference gives me a boost.

What kind of events get you motivated?

Here We Go Again!

You may be wondering why I have posted this photo. These are Omega 3 supplements. They contain fish oil, flaxseed oil, safflower oil, soybean oil and olive oil. Supposedly these oils are good for heart and cardiovascular health. I have a history of heart disease in my family, so I’m very conscious of trying to do the right things to keep my heart healthy.

Recently I convinced my husband that he should take the Omega 3 supplements, too. Now we find out that a study shows that Omega 3s may result in a higher risk of prostate cancer. So what should a person do?

I’m a small woman and more prone to osteoporosis, so I’ve been taking calcium supplements to strengthen my bones. Now I hear that too much calcium can be bad for your heart. I cut back to 1 table a day versus 2 tablets, which is the recommended daily dose. This kind of stuff seems to happen all too frequently these days. First, coffee is bad for you. Now it’s okay. Eggs were bad. Now they are good. Talk about junk science. Who are we to believe?

What do you think about these studies?