First Anniversary with our Church!

One year ago today we received possession of our church.  Today when I should have been working on uni stuff but couldn't (I forgot the key to my office, my wallet and a text I needed...get organized Victoria!) I looked through some pictures and realized just how different the place looks in one year.

These are from one of the first pictures taken of the basement to a picture I took tonight.

It has been a bit of a transition from living in the city to a smaller town.  One being when you forget things at home.  Going to need to be much more organized.

So what does the next year look like for renos?  Well, we found out last week after the bank appraisal what the church is worth.  BUT the bank then told us that they will not let us take out some of the equity to continue with the reno.  The short reason... they still think of it as a church.  BUNK!!  I guess we are working with plan B...

This blog/journal is going to have to take a detour as we complete some minor renos at the house in Regina so we can rent it out.  The plan is the extra money coming in will help pay for the church reno. 

So another renovation from the beginning... just what the doctor ordered for stress. ;)

Kitchen Countertops are Installed!

When the countertops were ordered they told us it would be around two weeks until they would be ready.  The issue when they came in was how we would get them safely out to Indian Head since one piece was around 14feet long.  We couldn't just put it in our truck because if we hit a good size bump the piece could bounce and break.  The day my dad picked up the sand for the stucco, we also picked up the countertops.  It worked out perfectly as the sand almost worked as a cushion and my dad's trailer is much longer than our truck.

Now that they were actually in the church, we needed to install them.  William asked his brother David to help.  This is the long piece and the side by the stove.

This is by the pass-through.

Here it is installed.  As you can see there is no hole for the sink.  The guys had to cut the counter for the sink.  A little issue was that William's father had given us an extra sink he had but it did not have a template for cutting the countertop.  This made things a little more difficult but the guys got it done no problem.

And putting in the sink.

A few days later William's father came over and help attach the plumbing for the sink.  The last thing we need to connect is the dishwasher.  For now I am just happy to have my double sink.  Here is everything all done.

It's so nice to have the kitchen all put together.  Now to decide where everything is going to go.  With so much space I am having a hard time deciding.  A nice problem to have!  Thanks David for all the help!

Front Entrance Chandelier

Since we have 13foot high ceilings upstairs, we decided ages ago that we wanted proper chandeliers not just simple light fixtures. We have the space so why not?! One for the front entrance and one for the space by the bells.  My father-in-law came over to help William figure out how to wire them in.

It was more than just connecting the wires so it took some figuring out.  A difficult task on a very tall A-frame ladder but it was worked out.  Dad had to go, so the rest was up to William.

Once the main box/frame was up and connected, the outside panel needed to be put on.  This needed to be aligned with the spaces for the bulbs.

As William was getting that done, I opened the crystals to see how they were to be attached to the chandelier. 

 

Each one of the crystals had to be put on separately.  They came with little wires that had a triangle in the middle.  As with many things I over thought how they needed to be placed on the crystals then onto the chandelier.  We stopped for the evening so I could ask at the lighting place how to place the wires.  It was as simple as it looked to be.

So that night we could finish the job.  Me putting on the wires and William putting them onto the chandelier.

And here is the finished product.

When Allan and Rick were working on the upstairs hallway, they would tease me all the time saying "All this work for a F-ing chandelier...All this work for a F-ing chandelier!!"  Well guys well worth the work!! :)

We purchased a matching chandelier for the area with the bells.  After over an hour connecting/putting it together did we then realize that they had given us the wrong one.  It was TINY compared to the one we ordered.  Always something!  William returned it, and the new one won't be here till the end of September.  Other than the hiccup with the wrong chandelier we are so happy with how it looks!

My Dad the Stucco King

When I was very little my father had his own stucco business.  He was extremely good at it and had made an impressive name for himself within the city.  For many reasons he decided to sell off the business and start a different career path.  When we bought the church we really wanted dad to stucco the bottom of the church where William pulled off the old stucco.  We discussed this with dad and he agreed to do the work.

Dad ordered the sand he needed and we picked it up together the day before he was going to do the actual stucco work.

When we got to the church dad asked why William had not put up stucco wire and covered it.  This was totally my fault as I thought dad just wanted William to patch the big hole near the old window.  I am very much a "just let me do it" in almost every situation.  This is something I totally got from my father as when he saw it wasn't done, he decided to take care of it right then and there instead of getting William to do it when he got home from work.  I couldn't even convince him to change into old clothes.

First the stucco wire on the windows.

Then to mix up the cement.  It isn't just a bag of cement, add water and go.  He needed to add the sand and a powdered lime as well as the cement.

Then it was covering the windows that dad had put stucco wire on.  Good thing he had brought out his tools that day, otherwise he could not have gotten the work done. (Two of the three pieces are reminisce of dad's business.  Never know when you will need them.)

 

Once that was done, dad scratched the wet cement so when it was time to stucco it would have something to "hold" onto.

Dad had some of the cement mixture left when he was finished with the windows.  If you know my father, worked with my father, are a family member or pretty much have spent long enough with him you have heard "waist not, want not".  Dad refuses to waist ANYTHING.  It wasn't originally part of the plan but since he had extra he decided to see what he could do with our cement stairs.

Quickly into him playing around with the stairs, it was obvious that he could make them look MUCH better.  He decided that if there was enough materials left over, he would patch all of the stairs.

So dropping off the sand turned into an afternoon's worth of work, and in good clothes!  Day two started around 9:30am.  Dad came over with all the equipment.

Once everything was mixed, dad could begin.  First he needed to put up a base/undercoat of the cement mixture.

When he finished the basecoat, what he had done at the beginning was just dry enough for the topcoat. 

He still has it.  I was so impressed to watch my dad use a skill he hasn't needed since I was little.  He even had enough material to do the stairs,

Everything looks AMAZING!  We could not have done anything like this without my daddy's help.  Daddy-O, thank you so much for taking time out of you schedule to do this for us!  I enjoyed our couple of days working together just the two of us.  And now I have some of your work just for me!  I love you.