Building Update

The renovation is done! ...for the most part.

November was spent rebuilding what we had torn apart in October. The first weekend in November the whole family flew out to Michigan so that Josh could go to a conference and the rest of us could reconnect with friends (yea!). Back here in Oregon, our launch team spent the week and weekend installing cabinets, dusting, mopping, prepping floors, walls, painting, etc. There were several text message exchanges over the course of our 'vacation' as we were getting updates and questions about stuff going on with the building. It was fun to get back and see the progress they had made while we were gone. 

That following week, I spent much of my time helping out a professional painter that had learned what we were doing and came to help. He was planning on simply blessing us with his skills, but of course when we learned he was between jobs, we were more than happy to hire him to keep him coming back! Had God not orchestrated this help with the painting, I probably would have lost my mind and we'd STILL be painting to this day!

Once the paint was done it was time for the carpet to be installed. Amazing!! The rooms suddenly felt 'home-y.'

Another 'God-story' was in our stress with the counter tops in the coffee area. The pattern we chose somehow disappeared from the region in the time between measuring and picking up. Strange. Our second option turned out looking horrid, and the third option not only ended up looking better than our first option, but also we were able to get a good price on it due to great relationships developed over the course of the process. In our stress, God was still working in our life and the lives of those we worked with.

Putting a building back together is an anxiety-ridden process on its own when it's not your strong-suit - we're a ministry family not a construction family! Combine this with the timeline pressure that we needed the building functional by Thanksgiving, and you've created a pressure cooker!! We had carpet and counter tops being installed the afternoon before Thanksgiving when we had a 10 a.m. free brunch advertised for the community! We literally finished in the knick of time! (How many more exclamation points can a paragraph hold?! Do you sense the pressure and thrill of accomplishment??!)

The final touches of baseboard trim was finished this past week by our neighbor who got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday so that we could have a 'finished' building for our preview service this past Sunday. (He walked out not five minutes before I walked in to begin setup.) Talk about icing on the cake! Thank you, Austin!

So this is the building, but it's just a means to an end. We now have the charge of using this facility to glorify God and bless others through it. 

BEFORE...

AFTER