Moving In

Here's Larry, carrying in the first piece of furniture and then sitting down to enjoy the great room -- for about 30 seconds!




We've been working hard, trying to get moved in before we leave for Amman & Beirut to visit our family. I'm supposed to leave tomorrow for Beirut; Larry flies to Amman on Wednesday. We realized last night that my passport is missing! Larry has his primary passport, but his 2nd passport is missing also. They're not in the place where we always keep them, and we have been going through boxes, drawers, suitcases, purses and everything else all day, trying to find them. Please pray with us that mine will turn up in time for me to get on the plane tomorrow.
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Finished!

The house is finished -- except for a few little things -- and we started moving in on Friday. It's a big mess right now, but we took some pictures between the cleaning and the moving in and wanted to give you a tour of the finished product. We'll post more pictures when we get a little more settled.

Great room, kitchen and dining room:




Master bedroom and bath:





Downstairs:



The loft:

Update

Right after I finished the previous post, Larry called to say that we passed the inspection! Thanks for walking with us through this and praying for us. There's still a lot of finishing up to do at the house, plus a lot of cleaning and packing to be done before Friday.
Maybe some of you haven't heard our best and most important news -- Emma Grace Cox was born yesterday to Kimberly & Jeremy at 3:00 pm EST in Amman, Jordan! I tried to post the picture they sent us, but it didn't work. We'll try again later.
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Inspection

Things are pretty crazy around here, but I wanted to give you all an update concerning the inspection. The inspector came on Monday and came up with a long list of things that needed to be done or corrected, some of them reasonable, many of them definitely unreasonable. It's pretty hard to get everything right when you don't even know what the codes are, and even if you did know, I'm not sure it would help, because they keep changing them and adding to them. Anyway, Larry/Dad, Ron & his crew have been working just about around the clock since then, trying to get everything ready for them to come back today (Wednesday). Please pray with us that everything will pass so that we can begin moving in on Friday.
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Progress

We're making progress! You can see some of what Larry & Jeff accomplished outside on Tuesday:


The 100 year old barn wood looks great in the guest bath:

The stairs up to the screened porch are almost complete. You can get a glimpse of Larry on the porch, moving at his usual speed!

Stonework on the concrete wall is almost complete. This wall is a wing off the poured concrete basement wall and connects to the natural stone wall.

A view of the railing in the loft -- almost complete.

We had hoped to have the final inspection tomorrow, but their office is closed tomorrow for Good Friday, so it will be Monday before the inspector can come. Gives us a little more time before the inspection, but less time between the inspection and our departure for the Middle East.
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Birthday Boy

Caleb is one! He was sick on his birthday, so his party was a couple of weeks late, but he didn't seem to mind. Here's the sweet birthday boy:

Our clock is ticking!

The kitchen countertops arrived last week -- after two delays -- and have been installed, along with the sinks, microwave/vent, and cooktop. This picture shows progress that has been made, but also some of the things that still have to be done.

The ballusters and newell posts have been set on both stairways.

We wanted an old piece of wood to use for our mantle, and Larry found this 100 year old beam in an old mill that closed down some time ago. It definitely has character! Larry's rubbing it with tung oil.

We're pushing to be ready for final inspection by Friday. Larry has 4 guys coming tomorrow to help him finish up around the outside of the house (Jeff & his brother, Jon, and 2 Berry students). We'll let you know how things are going.

Larry's favorite color

The house is looking more like a Cox home as splashes of Larry's favorite color have been added to the downstairs kitchen area and the outside doors! The ground floor is almost complete, as you can see from the kitchen and bathroom, and the stone retaining wall is finished. Larry & Jeff will be moving dirt on Thursday, filling in around the house.

Petit a petit, l'oiseau fait son nid.

We're getting there, little by little, but no moving date has been set yet. Maybe in 2 weeks? The driveway has been poured, garage doors are in, and work is in progress on the stone retaining wall. The garage should be painted today.
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It's a bull!

Here's the newest addition to our herd. Jolene delivered her calf Saturday morning, and Larry was there to observe and assist. He doesn't have a name yet, so we're open to suggestions.
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