Building our house

[benshelpmeet]

please continue to pray for us...

[carolejw]

I'm praying Sister Darlene. Keep us posted on your progress.
Carole

[George]

I'mpraying Sister Darlene. Keep us posted on your progress.

Amen! I too think it is about time for an update.

Yours in Christ,
George

[benshelpmeet]

Dear Brother George,

It's funny you should ask today! Yesterday we dug, preped, got the ok from codes inspecter, and poured and finished the footer, all in one long day they arrived ( the 2 workers) at the property around 10:00 Am and finished and left around 4:30 pm. We stayed until dark trying to wire a ele box on the pole so we can get an ele plug for the construction workers. Ben took of a half a day, he was working in a town 30 min away. Isn't the Lord good how he works things out.

The dirt was a dry peachish color and the cement was a dark greenish gray! So pretty! God is so good. The baptist brother who did the job, dug the basement, dug, preped and poured the footer for free all the parts and labor! And he is paying to have his worker put up the first row of block for us, parts and labor paid for!. That will be an extra blessing. Gods abundantly good isn't He??? He even dug me an out house by the barn...

Hopefully they will be putting up the first row of block today. Pray they will do it today because the weather is nice and they need to get that done so our ex- Mennionite,and ex- Amish brothers can go up with the house. It's getting colder here and the weather is getting iffy and we need to work fast and smart before bad weather hits here. We have very wet cold winters here. We'd like to be in before Christmas. It was going to be by Thanksgiving but we had a one month gap where nothing was done. Oh well God knows all things, I'm learning to rest in Him. Our money is streatched real tight and we need to move to free up our outgo expence on this rental property and in town storage cost. We skimp on our food bill and were doing fine so far but it is stressfull. I will be glad when things are more settled.

Well just keep this building situation in your prayers dear brethren, as I know you will and are already praying for us and we are so thankful for all of you! Yall are ''all'' precious to Ben and I.

Here is something to pray for, good weather, no hitches in the building progress, and we need someone who knows how to pour and finish a slab nicely to help us, mabye our baptist brother will volinteer to help, we'll pay for the cement, we just need someone who is knowlageable with the job, so it will be smooth and level.

God bless all of you ~ sister Darlene ~

[benshelpmeet]

update!

November 4th he ( our baptist brother) put up the first row of block. Yea!!! How exciting...It's rally begining to look like a house is being built. He told us on Sunday evening ( Nov 6th ) ( when Ben preached at their church) that he also poured the truck load of gravel needed for the slab. When Ben asked how much we owed he said we're even brother. What a great blessing! Words can not express... All this has been done at no cost to us...and... He told us that night in church that we need to get that rock spread out and he'll come back with some men and put down the 6 mil plastic and metel wire mesh and pour and finish the slab for us. Glory to God! Praise the Lord!!! God is abundantly good to His children. We are at awe to see the good hand of the Lord at work on our house.

note: Our ex- Amish brother ( he lives 2 hours away ) sent his two older teen sons to help us spread the gravel. They truely were a blessing! It was an all day job, ( Benjamin was out of town in Pa at youth bible school and couldn't be there to help ) It wasn't easy getting it level. It had to be exactly 4'' thick all the way across, the ground was not level. The boys were a blessing to our family. They worked so hard and would hardly take money for a cold drink to buy on the way home. May the Lord bless these dear boys. My adopted sons for the day.

Two years ago we had no money nothing..., but a large family ( of 10 ) and a rental house. In the begining of our christian life, we felt the call of God on our life to be in full time christian service to God, we were newely weds. Benjamin was 1 when Ben surrendered to preach. We sold everything, but what we could put in bags, plus Benjamins baby bed and his high chair. We even sold my wedding gifts, I kept the china from my mama, and the silverware from my grandmother. We we're offered a real neat deal from Bens brother ( who is a contractor, he builds beautiful homes in Fl, for rich people ), he was going to build us a nice home (3 bedroom), purchace the land (we already had a lot picked out in Fla.) and build the house and carry the loan, he said we could pay 325.00 a month until it was paid off, no intrest, no increase in payments. We had our blueprints drawn up and land picked out, when Ben came home and said he was called by God to preach the gospel ,and full time christian service. We gladly gave it all up to serve the Lord and went off to Bible collage. That was 17 1/2 years ago. Boy how time flys! We have not turned back or looked back just gone forward by faith. Ben's health broke, our family grew bigger and our need to settle down and have our own home became evedent. We had no savings, no rich realitives, nothing ( humanly speacking) but God... I love that phrase. (but God...) God is all we ever need.

Two years ago January, we felt compeled by God to start searching for a house and land, we were unable to find both. We found a nice piece of land.... We had no money, no help ...but God... We had stayed debt free for 20 years of marrage and that was a plus.

My step grandmother became very ill and had to sell her home she gave us enough money to put down on a loan we needed money to get a loan.

We searched high and low for almost a year and finially found a piece of land. We were unable to find both land and house. The land was just what we were looking for 12 1/2 acres, fenced, private ( no close neighbors ) , developed ( city water, ele, and septic tank), with a huge 30x32 barn with a loft, fairly new (oak barn ) for only 55,000 we bid and got it for 45,000! What a blessing we love our land. We we're able to get a small loan of 7,000 more. But that doesn't build a house, or even buy a trailer, we tried and God shut all the doors to getting a trailer put on our property. I am glad He did stop us. A house is much better. We were counseled by many godly brethren to not get in futher debt... That sounded good, but we needed a home.... Our funds are maxed out with all our monthly out go (the land, secondary loan, starage in town (grandmas furnature for our new future home), rent, utilitys, cost of living, etc... What to do!!! A brother with much faith told us to step out by faith and build a house for the money we had! Sounds crazy! I know but God gave us a peace to proceed by faith, ( my grandmother said she believed it was Gods will too.) The County Government charged ''over'' 1,000 in fee's and our money has dwindled down to just under 5,000 because it is over an hour away and gas is costly, plus other costs,we have to go to the land often to help, and take pictures of the building progress.

The Lord has been building our house and I'm sure He will continue to. The Lord has greatly used this baptist brother to help us so far, but he can't do it all ( he's already done so very much ) It will be exciting to watch and see how the Lord will provide. We did recieve 400.00 in the mail from a baptist brother ( from out of state to help with building cost.)

Please keep us in your faithful prayers. We need warmer weather so they can pour and finish the slab...and then we go up with the walls. Then the upper floor.

We failed our first ele pole inspection, Ben forgot the weather proofing on the ele plug box. He's never done anything like this before. An electrician he's not. But he's doing a great job. I'm proud of him. The ele has cost around 200.00 so far for permits and supplies. Pray we pass this inspection.

We just paid our first water bill on the property. Now we have two water bills and soon to be two ele bills...It's getting tight, we need to get moved before too long.

We're packing, and trusting God, we want be in before Thanksgiving which was our goal, but we are praying to be in very soon, at least be able to move our storage stuff in before the end of the year. Then we can work on the bathroom, ele, and kitchen, and move in hopefully by eairly spring!

Pray breathren pray!!! We need much prayer. How exciting!

Trusting God to meet our great need, ~ sister Darlene ~

[glenda]

We are still praying sister Darlene. I know that the lord will provide all that is needed.

Your story is a wonderful one and one that will give God the glory in the years to come after the house is done and you all have lived in it for many many years...

Glenda

[benshelpmeet]

Thank you Glenda! We are excited to get moved! We are busy packing, we are going through all our stuff. We are packing by faith.

Thank you for praying for us.

[George]

Thank you for sharing that seeming endless string of blessings surrounding the building of the new house. What a wonderful series of events it has turned out to be!

Has the weather back there turned wintry yet? I don't recall just exactly when or to what extent you folks start getting frost. Hopefully all the concrete and block work will be finished prior to that time.

Would that The Lord send you some of our weather. Lately we have had summery weather. We have had a string of days in the 80's. It is starting to get chilly at night though with the low close to 40. You may have seen or heard there has been a rather large California type fire about 70 miles south of us. Those things happen when the weather gets warmer and the wind shifts from coming in off the ocean to coming over the coastal hills. It gets warm and dry. But....warm and dry is good for building houses!

Yours in Christ,
George

[benshelpmeet]

Bro. George,

Thank you for praying... We are praying the man will be freed up to pour this Wednesday! Please pray his time is such that he can, and wiil want to do it that day. We need the job done. We need to get the basement walls up soon too or we will have to wait untiil late April to finish building. Time is of the essance. All we need done is our slab poured and 12 rows of block put up then were scott free, because you can build with wood all winter. But cement work needs to be done in above freezing temp. It has gotten down to 32 a few nights but mostly it is above freesing. Pray for the Lord to put a burden in his heart about getting the basement finished before winter weather comes. Pray he will have the time also. His free time needs to coinside with the warmer days. God knows and He can help us.

Our money is spread so thin. We are having to keep two properties running and we're not rich, we have to use alot of our food and gas money. We are doing fine so far, I have alot of food stocked up, we still have to buy milk, cheese, meat,etc. It all adds up and it's tight and stressful. But I'm learning alot of good lessons like how to pray harder, how to be frugile, and be very thankful for what we have. The children are learning alot too about finances and Gods provision. We are truely looking farward to moving into our new house. We used to talk about how we would miss this old farm house, but now we look farward to our new home and fixing it up, it will be far from finished when we move in. It will be alot of fun for us all. We like doing building projects.

It is cool during the days and pretty cold at night, but usually not freezing. We've only had it freeze a couple of times so far. Tennessee is beautiful this time of year. You can see the shape of the hills and hollars.

We have our wood burning stove going. It's real cozy. Wood heat is the best heat I know of. It helps Bro. Bens arthritus, he sits infront of our wood stove in his chair, he says that kind of heat goes all the way to your bones, he right. It's very good heat. It heats our whole house.

God bless you brother, your in our daily thoughts and prayers, ~ sister Darlene ~

[benshelpmeet]

Praise the Lord! Our slab is finished!!!

November 30 2005 Wednesday, The men came and poured and finished our slab. We have been praying real hard for this to be able to get done because the weather is begining to turn too cold.

It was an awsome sight and some kind of proceedure. It's hard work and has to be done right. We had to go back yesterday and cover the slab with plastic and 6 bails of straw then more plastic like a quilt effect. The children and I did it. It wasn't easy the wind was kicking up and picking the huge 20 x 25 piece of plastic like a parashute. We finially got the job done. Boy was it cold on that mountian top. We had to cover the slab like this so the below freezing temp. would not crack the slab. I sure hope it worked.

Next we are praying for the walls of the basement to be accomplished , soon before the weather turns real nasty.

Please keep this in your faithful prayers. God has already done so much for us. We are so excited and very Thankful.

~ sister Darlene ~

P.S. I almost forgot! Ben fixed the ele pole plug and applied for another inspection 27.00 again ( every time it fails we have to pay another 27.00. I think it will pass this time Ben did a real nice job. I think he did a nice job last time but the inspector begged to differ. We are learning as we go. Please pray it passes.

[robinva]

Sister Darlene,

I will keep you all and the "inspectors" in my prayers.

Dh has learned quite a lot in his experiences with the electrical wiring part of our house. One thing he says he has learned is to hire an electrician the next time. ;D

Something that we did that saved us a lot of money (saved 3/4 of the budgeted money ) was checking with a exterior supplier for misordered windows. We bought a good quality vinyl, tilt-down window with low-e gas for $50 each. They were ordered as a group and never picked up so they all matched. That was a great deal, so I'm not saying you will find such a savings, but it would be worth checking out. BTW these were replacement windows and not new construction, so there was some framing difference when constructing the walls. Even so, it was well worth going a step further in framing.

Robin

[benshelpmeet]

Dear sister Robin,

Thank you for the ele advice. ;D

And for the window tip! That's a great idea.

Thank you for your faithful prayers.

Love your sister and friend, ~ Darlene ~

[Sister Penny]

Dear Brother Ben & Sister Darlene,
This is good news on the progress of your home.

I will pray the electrical box passes!

In His Name,
Penny

[MrsDeweySmith]

It has been difficult for Dewey to know that he has the skills and the 'desire' electrically to watch the progress from a distance here

How are things coming? We have continued to tweak our own budget, with the hopes of being able to send Christopher and Dewey to help, but between their hours of work and the costs of extra gas in our budget...well, you certainly know how that goes.

Is there another update as of yet?

Deanna

[benshelpmeet]

No not yet were not able to go back to the property as of yet.