Flows like water

There comes a time in a house remodel, that you realize that you've totally blown the budget, again, and it's sickening, and you can't even care any more. Dad says that "It always costs more and it always takes longer." Amen and then some.

So we've made two trips to the city (50 minute's drive) this week to get the rest of the supplies for the kitchen. And a few other projects, too, but mostly the kitchen. Thursday, we left Jonah with some friends and went to track down two more lazy susans for the corners and a sink base. One we found at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, sans inards and door, for 15 bucks. The other was a show-room clearance at Menards for $75. Scrounges, we are. We also got a new, unfinished sink base for $90, but returned it when we couldn't fit it in the van with the others. (I told him they wouldn't all fit...).

(Aside- after we picked up the sink base today, I totalled up what we had spent all together on all the cabinets --about $400-- and congratulated Nathan that we staying in our budget on ONE part of this project. To God be the glory, of course, but when Nathan had named that as our budget, I thought he was nuts. This many cabinets new would have cost at least $2,ooo. Yeah, scrounging.)

We went to get tile for the countertop at Lowes, since we knew they had some on clearance. And low and behold, we found some that we both loved, and it was on sale. I basked in that glory for oh, thirteen seconds or so. Eh-hem. Well, that was a nice experience, anway, becuase just before we loaded up the cart, we noticed that it was 13.4"x13.4" instead of 12"x12". Who does that? That's insane! And irritating. We tried to figure out how to make it work, but it would have meant a lot of messy cutty and waste. ARG! Our options in 12x12 were limited to beige, beige, and um, beige. What is wrong with people? The world is full of colors and everyone wants beige. Ugh.

Finding tile at Menards today was a frustrating experience. I did get some-- I don't love it, but at least it's not beige. Maybe it'll grow on me. Sigh.

Today we had Jonah with us and he was remarkably good as we proceeded to spend 3 hours trying to find everything that we needed for the counters, a sink base cabinet, and miscelaneous lumber. Swiping my card for that bill was downright painful.

Also, this morning we bought some cedar boards (from a disasembled outhouse! Ah-HAHAHA! Insert your own joke.) from someone north of the city. It was a really good deal and just enough to do outside window and door trim. (I was thankful there wasn't more of it because Nathan was having wild ideas of siding the house with it. Nuff said.) My Dad once told Nathan to "use the stuff that no one else wants" as a means for saving money on projects. Boy, did he take that to heart.

While loading this stuff up, Nathan was talking to the people there. All he did was mention that he doesn't gamble because he would rather give his money to someone who needs it (and he totally would, too) and he knows that God will provide for us. That sparked a discussion in which he did some hardcore witnessing to these people and I was in AWE. No kidding. It never ceases to amaze me how he gets into these talks with people and says all the right things. Praise be to God for the gifts He gives. When we left, the woman was saying how she was glad that God sent him there this morning.

So, even though our budget hurts, God is faithful to provide. And we're gonna finish this kitchen, baby.