Garage Renovation

We have been in the process of renovating our garage for over a year and I am so happy to say that it is just about DONE!

We have a very large garage and wanted to add some extra space to the house. We ended up adding 2 extra bedrooms that we will hopefully get to use later as the kids get older and don't want to share rooms anymore. We also added an extra full bath and made a nice laundry room. 

I sometimes just stand out here in amazement and excitement that we are finally finished. I never thought the day would come. From the long days/nights of scraping popcorn ceilings to watching my Dad build walls and put in windows and doors to painting and watching floors get put in. It has been the most amazing process. 

We have watched God take the small amount of money we had and turn it into more than we could have hoped for. From day one He has been a part of this process. We learned early not to get in His way. We just prayed for every part of it and then we waited and watched.  

It all started when we had to have our electric panel updated before our Fire Inspection. Dylan called our electrician to come out and do it.  The entire inside panel and the outside panel had to be updated and redone. He worked for 3 full days and when he was done he gave us both a hug and drove away. No bill... just the simple works, "I know what is like to be young." I remember just crying.... we didn't pay for labor or one single piece of material. 

That is when we decided we were just going to hand over the entire process to  God. Be diligent in prayer and be slow to proceed until He provided the next step. 

The next step was a friend who had finished his house and offered us all the left over sheetrock. He even delivered it to our house. It let us do almost half of the work. 

Then a friend had 3- 5 gallon buckets of paint. She gave it to us.  15 gallons of paint for free. It also turned out to be really great colors. Colors I would have picked myself. 

Dylan found 2 huge rolls of insulation that a friend was getting rid of. More than we would even need to finish the whole garage. 

After my Dad called to give me the estimate for the tape/float and texture, I received a phone call with a donation to our remodel that was $500 less than the price my Dad just quoted me. Again I just cried. We decided to put that money aside because obviously God wanted it to be used for the drywall. We only had to come up with a small amount extra to add to it. When the day came to pay the man who did all the work, the bill was significantly less. In fact it came in $200 less than the donated amount.  

Do you see a pattern? Once again God was showing us that He was in control. Trusting Him in this process has taking more patience than I thought I had and has been such a humbling experience. You realize just how not in control you really are. 

Dylan scrapped 3/4 of the ceiling on afternoons after work or on weekends. It is a tedious and not fun job. Then once day our good friends called to say that the husband was coming over to scrape popcorn and the women and children were going to have movie day.  Luke literally scraped the ceiling for hours while his wife Becki and I and all 9 of our kids watched the Anne of Green Gables trilogy. All while Dylan was at work. He also brought his shop vac over and cleaned the entire floor spotless before he left. 

OH and I can't forget about how our washing machine was not working right. We had one of the awful new ones with the sensory and the lid lock. It finally quit working. We knew we didn't want another one that had the sensor and didn't really have the money to buy a new one. We looked at used ones but prayed about it while we washed clothes in the bathtub for 2 weeks. Then, while accepting donations for a garage sale we were having for our foster group, an old style washing machine was dropped off. It needed a new $30 part. It is the most perfect washing machine in the world. Again, God provided. 

After all the walls were put up we went out there as a family and wrote our favorite bible verses. The school room was full of verses about wisdom and knowledge, having courage and working hard for God. 

The guest room we choose verses about hospitality and helping others. I would randomly go out there during the day and pray those verses in each room. 

At the end of the day I want the school room to be a place to learn about God, to grow in stature and wisdom and to teach our children that the single most important choice and thing they can do in this world has nothing to do with their career or what sports they play or how cool they are but has everything to do with following, loving and choosing Jesus as their Savior. 

I want our guest room to be a place for all. Anybody who needs it. We want God to place people in that room. 

School Room under construction: 

Guest Bathroom under construction:

I remember one Saturday after nothing significant had happened to fund the remodel.   I had this weird feeling like maybe we had lost our patience and had continued when we should have been still.  We wanted to do everything in His timing and I worried that maybe we had gotten too anxious. Then sitting in my living room I looked over to see my Dad on his hands and knees in front of our freshly cut door leading straight into the new hallway. I had to go to my room and just cry. I realized that there may not have been miracle money or lined up donations but instead, my Dad. He came over multiply times a week.  Sometimes even just for something silly or even when he only had 30 spare minutes. In was in that moment that I realized that God had sent my Dad. 

He has never once complained.  

He works for free.

He loves on my kids, bringing them treats and leaving them notes on the walls. 

God gave us something so much more special than an extra space in our house. He gave us memories with Papa. Shared lunches, laughing at Jojo stealing all his tools and trying to "help." The remodel is amazing. I love looking out there and seeing what it has become and dreaming of how God is going to use it to bless our family and hopefully other kids.  More importantly though, it has literally been a labor of love. He not only helped with the remodel but spent so much time getting the main house Home Inspection ready. Installing cabinet and door locks, making sure everything was safe. I know he thinks we are crazy getting involved with foster care but that hasn't stopped him from supporting us and doing anything and everything we have asked to get ready for it. 

Now we are officially using it.

 We call it the West Wing. It is amazing. We still have a few things to do.... we need a water heater for the shower and paint a little more trim.  It is a little cold out there because we haven't figured out exactly what we are going to do for heat and air BUT I know from this process that God will provide the answer in His time. We will just use fans and heaters until the day that He makes it clear. No rush, No worry.

We have family coming to stay next week and were going to be using the guest room. We had a bed frame but no mattress. We were willing to buy one but were holding out and praying about it. Two weeks ago a friend from my homeschool group asked if we would have a use for a Queen mattress. I mean seriously....... God is so so good. Dylan picked it up the following day and we now have a complete guest room. 

I feel like this space has been the most amazing testimony for our family. 

 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says: "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."

 I love this verse so much. I don't know what exactly we are called to do other than to follow Jesus with abandonment. We started out wanting this garage done for selfish reasons and as it progressed it was clear that God was going to use it for His good. We will continue to remain faithful and watch as He does it. Whatever it may be.