Welcome to our new home for the next 8 months! This is the old and quirky home Melissa and I have taken up residence in. We prayed and thought about our upcoming trip to do medical missions in Kenya and felt that is was a good thing to save all we could. We weren't honestly very excited about leaving our previous and very comfortable apartment. We believe one of our purposes in America is to be good stewards of our finances. This older, cheaper home will definitely help save us money. The house was built in 1928 and we call it our "practice home" because we are practicing some simple home repairs and yard work. The tree in front was a little shaggy the day we took this photo, but we made it get a hair cut.
One of the additions that was very important to us, was building some sort of privacy fence along the north edge of our lot The house sits right on a major arterial street and it was very noisy (especially with all the jacked-down cars blasting music from their external speakers and the ambulances and police chasing said cars). Buying a new privacy fence was far
out of our budget for this, so we set off on a hunt to find cheap materials. When I say we, I mean my astounding wife applied her sleuthing skills to uncover what she could uncover. I am so proud to inform you that she found over 70ft wooden privacy fencing for free! Some guy was tearing down his old fence to build a new one. This was fantastic because it was built of 2x4's and, though weathered, the wood was still in great condition.
So we rented a gas-powered auger (which was glorious), borrowed some good friends, purchased cement and built our 70ft of wooden privacy fence. I am quite proud of the fence... it hasn't fallen yet and doesn't look like it will anytime soon. Huge thanks of course to everyone that came and helped, Joel Maus, Bobby Parks, Kris Crawford, Josh Weed, and Brayden Heath. There is no way I could have made a good fence that straight, sturdy and quickly without their input and vast brawny abilities.
The fence works good and the house is quieter, especially at night. As an added bonus, strangers no longer walk through our yard to access the bus stop on that major street. They actually have to walk around our yard. This is great because it is very disconcerting to wake up in the morning, be standing in your kitchen to get some orange juice and see and Mr. Unkempt amble through your yard. Mr. Unkempt meant and did no harm, but I am glad he walks around our house now rather than through it. If you want to see more pictures of the process, you can visit our facebook album of the event.
The fence saga was a refreshing evidence of community. Without the help of everyone along the way, we never could have accomplished this. Thank you to everyone for your help. Thank you, Lord, for inventing community. As we look on all He has done we are resoundingly convinced that it is good.
