~ from my home to yours, living the Working Pantry lifestyle ~ surviving today's economy ~ a can-do spirit and attitude ~

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Our Journey to a Mortgage Free Home ... #18

(You can read previous entries in this series HERE.)

In our last post I shared about the porch and how blessed we were to have help to get it completed before a permit expiring deadline.

We had one more big thing to get done and it took a span of 2 years to complete it.

What was it?  It was our flooring!

We wanted hardwood flooring in our house, so we saved and scrimped and saved and scrimped until we had enough to purchase it.  Next came the installation and two young men volunteered to install it for us ... free of charge. (They had helped a contractor install lots of hardwood floor and knew how to do it!) This was just one of the many ways God used others to help us in our mortgage free house endeavor!  

Between purchasing the flooring and finding a time that fit everyone's schedule to get it installed, we sat with a huge pile of flooring in our living room floor for 2 years.  It was huge and it took up so much room ... and oh how I wanted this job done.  This was an intense lesson in patience for me personally ... just saying.

I am so grateful for and to the young men who installed our flooring.  They did such a professional job and took such care while doing the work.  I just cannot say enough good about these 2 young men.  Everytime I think of these 2 men I ask God to bless them, they were so good to us.  Today, I enjoy beautiful wood floors because of them!

After the flooring was installed and the sanding done and the finish put on them ... guess what?  We could officially finish moving in ... what a happy day that was!

Oh, there was still plenty to do, lots of little things and there are still several things yet to be done.  But we are content to work on them as we have time and money.  We are so thankful for our mortgage free home, I won't pretend that it has been easy because it hasn't, but the end product has been worth the journey.

We still want to add on a full length back porch, a couple more bedrooms, brick it and several other smaller things, but we rest in the knowledge that if none of those things get done, we still will have accomplished our goal of having a mortgage free home.  We give thanks to God and all the people who were willing to be used by Him to make our mortgage free home a reality.

I hope you have enjoyed our journey thus far, from time to time I will give updates on our latest project but for the most part this is where my sharing our story ends.

I hope it has inspired you!


Until next time,
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

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15 comments:

  1. What wood did you use? We are looking at hemlock because that is what is in other parts of our home. Some rooms in the newer part of the house were damaged beyond being able to be saved, along with the floor joists. Since the other hemlock is old (150 years), it is a challenge to find wood that basically matches. Installing it is another challenge... So far we have 3 rooms of plywood which is oh so lovely.
    Do you have some pictures? I am curious what technique they used (was it butted together or?)
    Brenda (not Hendee, which is the dog and a whole 'nother story)

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    1. Brenda, we used solid natural oak wood flooring. Each piece of flooring had a grove on one side and a lip on the other. The young men worked diligently and carefully fitting each piece just right, tapping it in place with a rubber hammer and then they had some kind of hand held tool that tightened it each piece in place. After they would lay a few pieces they would nail them in place using a special kind of nail. (I get the plywood, we lived with plywood floors for quite some time!!!) I'll try to add some pictures later.

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  2. Thank you for taking us on your personal journey. It has been wonderful to see how you and hubby worked so hard to achieve all you did. In our 'have now' society, the two of you show how taking time and working, really working, can achieve great outcomes.

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    1. Thank you Jane, that is the purpose of my sharing our journey!

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  3. Thankyou for sharing. Its been lovely hear your journey.Di in Aus

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  4. it has been a most wonderful journey & very inspiring, thank you for sharing it with us & hope to see the odd update in the future :))
    thanx for sharing

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    1. Selina, thank you, updates will be posted as they are done!

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  5. Good morning,

    I really enjoy this series. Are you going to post any pictures of your wood floors? What a blessing with the 2 men that helped you.

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    1. Marie, I will try to find the pictures of that process and add them to this post.

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  6. You were truly blessed to have such wonderful volunteers! I'm sure your floors are beautiful....Vicky in Ky.

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  7. Oh how wonderful. I am happy happy happy for you as I do know how tiresome living "in" construction can be. No doubt you appreciate the very floors you walk on. How many people can say that:) Congratulations and blessings to you.

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    1. Thank you Lady Locust and yes we do appreciate our floors as well as every inch of our house.

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  8. Really enjoyed reading through your journey! Glad you share it, Patsi. :-)

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