The Latest Addition - Ethan Tyler

My brother Preston and Christie had their first baby, on our dad's birthday. Pretty cool. Here are some pics...


He was such a good baby. No crying just after being born. Apparently he has a single dimple, just like me. I am the only one that has one until now.

Phase... Ten I suppose.

It has been a busy month plus... I was able to finish my student teaching/observation at Bryan High. It went very well. I was pleased with the teacher I got to work under, and thoroughly enjoyed working with the kids. It was mostly seniors I worked with, and also did some substitute teaching. Now I just have to get caught up on all the paperwork.

This week I have been back focusing on the house. Here is the latest...

Here is my newest experiment, my sawmill. I was able to pick it up, but have had limited time put into it so far. I am so looking forward to getting the house done and finding a job, so I can put more time into it. So far I have gotten new blades for it, and have run it through a couple of logs. So far so good. I cannot wait to go through a big mesquite and cedar log.

Here is the kitchen floor I opened up a couple of weeks ago.
So I lived with it like this for a little while. Got a little more motivated to work and did this to it...
NO MORE KITCHEN!

I am getting a little tired of that. Hopefully I will be able to get it finished before too long. I have been working on the addon the last couple of days...

Yes. Lovely. (said with a tired, what do I get myself into, sarcastic tone) A picture is worth a thousand words. And to get it built back I donned...
a bee suit. A lovely nest of bees took up residence in the addon's ceiling which we could not get to, so I get to frame a wall of a house in a bee suit. It was totally worth the $100, because I have yet to get stung.
So here the wall is framed.

... And done. The wall went very well. I just wish the small finish work inside could go so well. I guess there is always tomorrow.

I am Back!

Back in town. NOT driving back and forth to Louisiana anymore. The big news is that I have quit my job in order to pursue teaching. So now I will be able to focus on getting my teaching certification, finish my house, and finally become a true citizen of Bryan/College Station. I am so excited.

First order of business is passing my content exam for High School History this coming Monday. Second on that front is my student teaching for 4 weeks in April and May. Third is finding a job for the fall after finishing my online work. Becoming a student again after 9 years may be interesting as well.

The house has started being torn apart, (obviously, from previous posts). I need to remove my floors next, and then start leveling. It will be a project. But it must be done.

The fun thing I hope to have as an income hobby is my newest purchase of a sawmill. I have been cutting some mesquite and cedar in the last few months, and cannot wait to see how they mill up into lumber.

Phase Three

I am going to call Phase Three complete. Thanks to Josh, I was able to get the rest of the siding off from the back and around the house.

I even got a look at the attic, which is another project I have been putting off because of being afraid of what I would find. It was not as bad as I was thinking it would be. That is good, since I keep running into things to fix and replace.

We did work on what I am calling Phase Two A - cementing in two posts for the fence.

And things were going better than I was expecting in the few hours we worked, so I started Phase Four - opening up floors in my house. I was not planning on doing this just yet, as it is cold tonight, and I didn't want further ventilation in my house while I was trying to sleep here. But I could seal off that room, so it was a good start to the nitty gritty of leveling a house, gaining access.

Phase Two - Almost Done

So I started Phase Two yesterday, and almost completed it. That was moving all my stuff from the house to the shed. I got some help this evening with the big stuff, so I am going to call it nearly complete. I still have several computers, (meaning 11), to go through, make sure there is not anything I need from them, and then throw them out.

So here is the beginning of Phase Three:


That is the rear of my house that I am pulling siding off of. Thanks to Josh, Tristan, Bashard, and David, almost all that siding is off now, as well as the bad fencing on the side torn down.

Unfortunately this is the only part of the job I am good at - tearing stuff down. It is the building back up that is the hard part.

One interesting thing that I have been learning through this process of downsizing, packing, moving, and storing stuff is a simple lesson on maintenance. I read a couple of weeks ago about library archiving - how digital archiving just doesn't last as long as we think it should. I have had it in my mind that once I get all my old photos copied on to the computer, make a couple of backup CD's, and put them in different areas of the country I would be safe. The house could burn down, and I would still have them.

But this handout said that in the BEST of conditions digital media would only survive about 50 years. Between media decaying and the progression of software, that digital information would have to be maintained and migrated from software to software throughout the years in order to maintain its quality.

That hit me hard for some reason, because I love the idea of doing something all out for a short period of time, and then having that skill, ability, money, or income come in with very little to no effort after that. Kind of like writing a book, or fixing up a piece of real estate for rental.

But it appears that important things always need to be maintained. It is fact of our fallen world. Sin entered into the world, and we now have to follow the law of entropy - everything wears down.

So I have been noticing different things that must be maintained...
my house - obviously.
relationships.
money & investments.
even spiritually we need to be maintaining and growing. I have been noticing in the Bible lately how many times it mentions the present and continuing tense when I am expecting a one time past tense. Such things as sanctification, justification, hope, grace, action.

And I guess I should qualify the term maintenance for me. I see it as more than just keeping to the status quo, but improving and growing what is being maintained.

Anyway, that has gone through my head quite a bit as I go through the pack ratted stuff I have collected and carried through several houses over the past many years, and asked the question "Do I REALLY need this?" And along with those: "Why the heck did I carry those books all the way here?" "How much gas and energy have I wasted doing this?" "This is ridiculous."

Thank goodness our hope is not in this world. This world is falling apart in so many more ways than one. Our hope is in its creator, and redeemer of our fallen world, Jesus Christ.

Phase One... Done!

Thanks to Justin, I was able to complete Phase One. Phase One was getting my dilapidated shed turned into a storage unit.

Just to show you how optimistic I am, I was started the day expecting to start on the shed by myself at 1:00, and finish it by 5:30, after packing up all my stuff inside the house.

Thank goodness, Justin showed up early, and we just focused on the shed all day. I know without a doubt it would have taken me three days to do what we did in one.

So now, I have a place to take all my boxes of stuff, my tools, and furniture. That is on the docket for tomorrow, along with starting on my house. There are several places I can start, and am unsure just where the best place would be.

So here are a few pictures showing progress...

Here we have raised the walls and roof, put in the 4X4's, and set them down on blocks. The original builder of the shed had the walls on the ground, with a flooring base of pallets and thin wafer board stuff. Great place for mice and roaches. (I fogged it a couple of days ago.)


Here we have the floor joists in, and half the plywood.

The finished floor.

And I couldn't stop smiling. It is so nice when you see something in your head and it actually comes together.

And Back Again...

So an update on the "addition." I have gone full circle with the addition. First I did not want to live in the house while leveling it, so I thought I would build another dwelling here on the back of my property.

Well, the city didn't like that idea, so I had to get a little creative and attach it to the house somehow.

Taking a look at the finances, both Bill's, (older, wiser men than myself) thought I overestimated my cost for the addition I was hoping to build, and offered words of caution.

So I cautioned into planning just one room on to the house.

Then as I thought about it more, and having less money to work with than I thought I did, having not been to work in almost two months, I decided against the addition altogether. There were several factors, not just the money. Time is also a factor, and the fact that the small addition really would not add that much value to the house, aesthetically, or monetarily.

So I put in the application for the leveling permit yesterday, and received it today. So now the real work begins. And I get to live right in the midst of it for at least the third time in my life. Let's hope this project goes quicker than the first two.

So for anyone wanting to get some house leveling experience, just drop me a line. Nail guns will be used, jacks, and lots of climbing under the house. This will be fun. Then once the house is (semi) level, indoor sheet rock, some plumbing, and exterior siding will be the focus. Come join the fun!

I plan on working all this week on it and will greatly appreciate any help.