Rwandan Adventure

As I look at the last published post, I'm shocked to see that 5 years have passed. 🤪 Say what... Time sure does fly! The timing of this return is mostly due to the extent of our visit to Rwanda! We have many friends and family who want to keep up with us and aren't using Facebook or Instagram! 

Starting at the beginning! 

In April I continued to feel this urgency to let go of the life we knew. A desire I leave the life we have and purse something greater. Not the American Life greater... Like a complete departure from the American Life.

In early May I finally voiced this desire I had, "I don't know why, but I just want to sell everything we have and move to Africa or another remote area and live in a hut!" A few days later I clarified as, "it doesn't even have to be forever, just for a few years."

Little did I know what was going on behind the scenes. Joey didn't respond immediately, but with in a week he said, "I haven't told you, but about a month ago I was approached to head to Rwanda for  2 months in June, with the possibility of a full year stay! I haven't mentioned it because nothing has been official, it's all just 'talk'!"

Guys if that doesn't give you an awwe of God's goodness, I don't know what could. God had begun working in me and preparing me for the future! 

* I want to stop and note, as I'm writing I realized.. what a lesson! I can't tell you how many times I try to "prepare" my spouse to my will (ideals). Gods working in a heart is going to be so much greater and lasting then any change I can create! 

This was the middle of May.... Leave in June, reality set in that we might go to Rwanda, but now was the difficult task of not preparing and preparing. No tickets had been purchased, we could leave in a week or never. We might be going 2 months, we might be going a week.  This crazy place of uncertainty lasted about 2 weeks. 

In early June we booked airfare, we had dates! We had a timeline, we could now plan!  At this point it looks like our stay will be short! However both Joey and I are open to a longer stay if the Lord opens the door that for.  

Project 525: DIY Entry Table

One off the neat things about our new house is the georgeous entry, it has rich blue slate/stone flooring, exposed brick, and a doorway to the "second entry" made of reclamed wood!  It is amazing, in addition to its beauty, it's the perfect water proof room, the flooring actually flows in from the outdoors. So I wanted- needed an entry table but being the frugal (ok cheap) girl that I am I decided that I was going to build one.

During the move I came across this planter that was amazing and fit perfectly in the space. It had the slight instustrial feel to it that I love and I knew I could make a top that brought in the rustic feeling of the house.

So I set out to make a top,at  first I just cut a piece of shelving board to sit on top and yes, it made a table but it wasn't quite the look I was going for.  So when my dad was here for Easter I beggged for his help and he obbliged. 

We took old boards and cut them the 4 inches wider than the width of the board.

Then we attached them to the shelving board, my dad is much more percise than I would of been.

Finished project, we just set the top on the plant stand!

Perfection!

And yes the old boards are that amazing all on there own! 

Project 1 of 525- One become Four

So I had lofty hopes of documenting all our completed projects as we renovated our new house and turned it into a home. Sadly I haven't, as someone who likes to have things done yesterday I felt like we weren't making any progress. Actually I was kind of depressed about it, here it had been a 6 weeks of pre-move in renovations and now we have lived here for nearly 2 months and it isn't finished to perfection. Right how terrible is that, at this point it should look like we've lived her for 8 years or so I thought. Today I had to remind my self that I called this project 525 because it wasn't one project for perfection but many projects to get us there. I mean really its because it our address and but made me feel better so why not. So this is my therapy, a completed project.

Project # 1

When we purchased this house it only had one bedroom and then a large "rec" room (32ft X 20ft) on the second floor. So before we moved in we wanted - needed to create some bedrooms. We renovated the rec-room creating an office, guest room, Bryce's room, and a hallway.

Original floor plan- master on left and "rec" room on right

pre-renovation

mid- renovations- Looking at the studded walls for what is now three rooms.

New floor plan (right side of the stairs only)

Pre-renovation

mid- renovation- awesome hole, I mean hallway I smashed open

first room -office

second room- Guest room

Third room- Bryce's 

 Now because these rooms are not at 100%, ie: it looks like a magazine, I had been feeling like we hadn't made progress. but really we have finished a very large project. Actually the weekend we did this four projects were finished. We ran electrical - Project 2 and it works, replace a damaged floor joist in the crawl space- Project 3 and stop a leak in the up-stairs bathroom- Project 4. 

Project 2

In all actuality at this point, just in this area alone we have completed at least 15 projects (the rooms are fully functional, all though not finished, FINISHED) but more on that progress later.

Project 525

 Early in November we finaly closed on 525 Atkins Drive. I say finally but considering we weren't even looking for a home on September 25th it has actually gone pretty quick.  As excited as we were to get in the house and start the remodeling it was pretty nerve racking to think that we now owned TWO homes and starting January 1st had TWO mortgage payments.  (Random fact, since we had to postpone our closing it actually happened on the same day as our closing on our current home, 4 Mechanic St.) But fears have been laid aside and God has provided, we are in the process of closing a Lease to Own and they will be moving in Jan 1st and purchasing in September!! YAY no double mortgage payment. 

Since the home is a foreclosure and has sat empty for over a year there are many things that need "help" before we can move in.  The carpets need to be ripped out, a rotten joist replaced, and the 12+ months of grime need to be cleaned up. The biggest pre-move in project is to create bedrooms, the house is currently a one bedroom, however there is a 32x18 rec room on the second floor. We plan to divide it into three rooms; two bedrooms, and an office. The rest of the projects are cosmetic and can be done once we are in the home.  Below are the current floor plans and proposed floor plans

Current 1st Floor 

Proposed 1st Floor - tear down wall between kitchen and famly room 

Current 2nd floor- Master and Large Rec Room

Proposed 2nd Foor-  Create 3 bedrooms, and add a 2nd Up-Stairs bathroom

Before we move in we will have built out the three bedrooms, the next project will be to replace all the windows, then to tear down the wall on the first floor, we will have to replace the roof and the HVAC at some point after all that is done we will add the second bathroom upstairs.   Also at some point we will be creating an entrance from the greenhouse into the main house, not sure if we will use it as an office or a garage.

When God Moves He MOVES!

I haven't blogged in along time, thought about it but never did.  But God's working in our lives this past week just couldn't be kept quite. 

About 6 weeks ago I just had a burden to pray for a new house, it was weird. I love our current house it is in a great location it is more than big enough. Joey was not aware that I had been praying this.

Part 1:  That God would provide a home.  I decided to pray specifically about what I wanted in a home since I was pretty sure this was just a far-fetched idea.

                1) in town but felt like the country 

                2) plenty built in of character  

                3) needed some work so we could make it our own 

                4) It would be cheap

                5) I wouldn't look for it, if it was really his will it would just happen.

Part 2: God would provide someone to buy or rent our current home for what we would need to get out of it.

Last week started like any other week, Sunday we went to church, Monday  Joey went to work, Bryce and I chilled and Tuesday was a little different Joey worked in DC. But that was still pretty normal, 90% of the time Joey works from home or rather coffee shops and McDonald's but the other 10% of the time he travels between Boston, New York, and DC. 

Tuesday:

I digress so back to the story, on his way home from DC Joey texts "Let's go look at this house".  Now for a while we have been looking at houses up for auction to purchase as a rental, something cheap enough we could pay cash. My response was " if you think it's the right place and its less than 35K I trust your judgment."  I figured it was over.

Joey arrived home and asked again about seeing a home, my response was the same.  Joey replied, "I really want you to see it" Again I responded I trust you.  His response  "I saw this place last night and couldn't sleep so around 2am I drove out to look at it. I really want you to look at it." 

Ok I figured what does it hurt. So we drove up and walked around the house, WOW. But Joey's self employed, I'm unemployed and we already have a house (mortgage). My thought was I love it but there is just no way we'd be able to get a loan.  As we left Joey said "this is like the man who found a treasure in a field and sold everything he had".  So we prayed.

Wednesday:

Joey called the Realtor and set up a walk through for Wednesday.  We meet at the house at 11:30 am and the Realtor sure didn't try to sell the house, she made sure we knew every possible thing wrong with the house, and we would have to make some improvement (roof, windows, H-Vac).  Plus the house only had one bedroom, but the 2nd floor contained a 32x18 foot room that would need to be split into bedrooms.  We left with mixed feelings, things could get expensive quick.  So we prayed and prayed some more.  The house had been inspected in June and it included estimates for many of the repairs.   It turns out that with the exception of one issue everything else could wait a few years.  We prayed some more.

Thursday:

We decided that it wouldn't hurt to go to the bank and see if there was any possibility we would qualify for a loan.  After about 15 minutes the bank had given us pre-approval for the list price of the home (146k).

We prayed some more and contacted the Realtor that evening to make an offer, now we figured they would be willing to settle between 132K and 136K so we offered well below that in hopes that a counter would be somewhere in that range.  So at 9pm that night we made an offer on 525 Atkins Dr. (link to photos)

Friday:

Around 1pm just over 48 hrs after we first saw the house, we got a call that our offer was accepted. No counter just accepted.  The As-Is assessed value is 220K and we purchased it for nearly 100K less than that.

Remember my prayer,  part one had been more than answered.

Still don't know what we are going to do with our current house, but I'm not worried about it God is the God of the impossible.

Day 26 and 27

So with the Rotary portion of the trip coming to an end I've slacked a little on blogging.  Although for the first time I "feel" pregnant, so i pretty much have been crashing every available second.  Anyway's today we have a free day to pack and shop so i figured why not just catch up Friday morning. 

Day 26- National Cinema Museum. 



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First we took the lift to a balcony to see a panoramic view of the city and the Apls in the back ground

Turin was the first capital of Italy, this castle where the Savoy's lived

Our group!

original Orson Welles contract

Jimmy Stewart

Psyco script in Hitcocks office!

Some original masks used in Starwars.

Then my camra died, so the rest you will need to visit Turin to see!

Day 27- Pinerolo-  a near by city where we meet some amazing people

AM- Toured a museum for a "friendly society"  started in 1849.  Each member would give .20 Lira each week and then if a member was sick or out of work the society would support them.  Pinerolo was the first in Italy and it spread threw out the country.  The society was the only one allowed to continue during the fascist period.  They also provided education classes, the society is still in existance today.  I didn't take any photos becasue i was so intrigued i didn't even think about it.  Oh the society was for the poor, .20 lira was a huge amount for these people but yet most of the community was a member.


Oh an interesting fact about this city... the city is close enough to France that through out history they have been both French and Italian. During a point when Pinerolo belonged to france, in a local jail/ prison, they had a man that was moved about every 2-3 years, no one knew his name.  He wore an Iron Mask.

After a wonderful lunch, we went to stables (or a breeding facitliy) kinda of an interesting way to spend the afternoon. While there we were able to see a famous Italian racing horse, Varenne. He only lost one race in his career and he happend to be sick that day.

Day 25

Today we visited the Turin Egyptian Museum - the second largest in the world!  It was amazing.  All items are original artifacts, no reproductions.   I had every intention of labeling all the photos but it is nearly 1am and we have had a very busy day.  Perhaps i will be motivated at a later time to label them.