As Snug As A Bug In A Rug

Do you remember a few weeks ago when Mitch Boggs Jr. and Jason Fellers brought their families to put the metal roof on the house for Odie to live in? This week we had some more of the Missouri Boggs family visit us to work on the house.

Mitch's younger sister Lysa arrived with her husband Matt and their three children late Tuesday evening. They came to insulate the house with open cell spray foam. It is a huge job and Matt worked like a mule to get it completed. After two long days, they pulled out Thursday about 7:30 or so.

They brought their job trailer with them. This trailer is state of the art with a huge generator, air compressor, all the chemicals needed and a big contraption that mixes it all together, pressurizes it properly and controls the process.

It also has 250' of hose assembly that is like wrestling a very angry anaconda!

The water based chemicals are pumped through the anaconda through two hoses, heated and then pressurized by air, mixed together at the last second and sprayed out of a gun. It is applied in about the thickness of real heavy paint and then expands right before your eyes to fill up the spaces between studs or rafters.

It is amazing.

Matt suits up like a astronaut and goes to work like mad man!

It is instantly hard enough to touch and it completely cures in a few minutes.

Then he goes back and trims off the excess so that it is flat against the studs.

He warned me it would make a massive mess and he was correct. I wish I knew how many trash bags we filled up!

Here is a before and after shot in the garage.

Here are more of the walls after they are trimmed.

Matt spent most of the day in the attic Thursday spraying the ceilings. It has to be quite a bit thicker in the attic to meet the R-Value requirements. Once he finished up there, Matt was anxious to get down and hydrated, packed up and on the road. I will try to take some pictures in the attic later.

We appreciate Bro. Matt and Sis. Lysa Howell and their precious little family for taking time to drive to Ohio in order to insulate the house for Odie to live in. We are trying to make it very energy efficient and low maintenance. 

They moved us a long way toward that goal and did it affordably too. May God bless them for their hard work. It was hot and messy but they did it!

Odie snapped several pictures the last two days.

Matt's parents flew in from Idaho Thursday to spend some time with them. This is his mother Candace. It seems we missed getting a picture of his dad Chuck. It was a pleasure to meet them and Chuck jumped right in to help too!

Kelly Jo's parents, two nieces and a nephew came to check on the progress Thursday afternoon too.

That wraps up two long days of making the house As Snug As A Bug In A Rug!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Some Things Are Better Left To Experts!

The Monday after Thanksgiving in 1993 I went to work for a contractor from our church that specialized in interior trim in custom homes in the Cincinnati area. Trim carpentry was a whole new world for me and I was as green as they come.

The contractor knew my inexperience and my "job interview" consisted of one request. Imagine a tape measure. Begin at one inch and count down aloud to zero in 1/16 increments. Try to do it without hesitating and call each position by its common name.

Ok, here we go. 

1 inch

15/16

7/8

13/16

3/4

11/16

5/8

9/16

1/2

7/16

3/8

5/16

1/4

3/16

1/8

1/16

0

I surprised myself and maybe him by rattling off the list above with no hesitation at all. I had never done it before. I had never thought about it before.

He said, "If you can do that, we can make a trim carpenter out of you." Just like that, I had the job.

It was a job I needed terribly. I was working 79 hours a week spread between two low paying jobs. I was not breaking the bank with the new job but I could take home the same amount by working about 50 hours each week.

Not only was it good for the short term, it has been good for our family in the long term. I only worked full time for that brother for about 2 1/2 years but I contracted for him for 3-4 more years while I was working at GM.

AND I learned a lot! I actually learned more than I realized. All the work I have been able to do or help do on this house project and many other projects the last 20+ years, can all be traced to that job!

I can say without any hesitation whatsoever, that job was sent by God for that particular time in my life! Perhaps THAT is why I could count from one inch to zero in 1/16 increments so easily!

As I said, I learned a lot. One thing I did not learn anything about was hanging and finishing drywall. The trim carpenter I worked for also did some general contracting. I did most of his electrical work on those jobs after I went to GM.

When I was working full time for him, there were times when we had a few days between trim jobs and we would go to the other jobs and do whatever needed to be done. We would frame, paint, wire or whatever.

There were a few times that the ONLY thing to do was hang sheetrock. He was trying to keep us busy but, he could actually get the sheetrock hung quicker and cheaper by guys that specialized in that. So the boss would always give us options.

"You can hang sheetrock a few days or you can take off and go preach some where or work on your own two or three days. Do you want to do drywall?"

My answer was always the same when it came to drywall. "No, I do not know how and that is just half the story. The other half is, I ain't the least bit interested in learning."😀

I have had to hang it a few times through the years. I had to hang two walls yesterday in order to be ready for the spray foam insulation. I did not want to and I did not enjoy it. But it had to be done.

Kelly Jo helped me and we hung six 4' x 12' sheets in a little less than three hours. Ouch! Of course that is with a break thrown in and a lot of time staring at the wall wondering what to do or wishing I was some where else.

If case your wondering if I regret not taking time to learn how to hang sheetrock many years ago. Well, I told Kelly Jo while we were working. 

"No, I do not regret skipping drywall 101 and that is just half the story. The other half is, I STILL ain't the least bit interested in learning."

Some things are better left to the experts!

Thanks for reading today.

Davy

Weekend Woundup and Weview #29

This weekend has been a great blessing to us. We were very happy to experience the presence of the Lord in the services and to enjoy some time with our dear friends in Texas. Praise God for His help and praise God for our friends!

We worked long hours on the house last week and we kind of dreaded the early morning flights Friday and the busy weekend away. However, it was a super blessing to us all the way around. We had great services, great fellowship and a few days of much needed time away.

In fact, I needed the rest more than I realized. We were up by 3:00 AM Friday morning so we took a good nap in Sweeny Friday afternoon after our flights. Then I slept 6 hours Friday night, took a two hour nap Saturday afternoon and then slept 6 more hours Saturday night.

That is an awful lot of sleep for me and I savored every moment of it. I am writing this late Sunday night after preaching Sunday morning and then spending the rest of the day traveling. I think I can lay down and sleep some more!

We appreciate Pastor Larry Lamb and his folks for receiving us very warmly as they always do. Our first visit there was probably in 1991. We did not visit south Texas during our years at home from 93 to 99 and while we were pastoring in Kansas from 99 to 2003, but we have enjoyed many revivals with them over the last 26 years. We always wish we could stay a little longer.

Davy and Pastor Larry Lamb

They built a temporary ramp for Odie to use while we were there. Cool!

The flights from Dayton to Atlanta and then to Houston were nearly perfect. We had know trouble with the transfer in Atlanta and both flights were a little early or right on time.

We did have a few hiccups at Hobby Airport in Houston on the way back and the rest of the evening was a little rough around the edges all the way through. We had three gate changes in Atlanta, the plane that was scheduled to take us to Dayton was having trouble and we finally left on a second plane about an hour behind schedule.

We did arrive in Dayton all in one piece so that is the important part. 

That wraps up our weekend. Thanks for stopping in to read today.

Davy