Built-In Dresser

It's been several years now since this photo was taken, but it sure doesn't seem like it.  This is a much younger Lyric playing with his play tools.  When we originally built the stairs to the attic we recognized that there would be a nice little usable space under them accessible from Lyric's bedroom.  Our idea was to have a little book nook complete with an overhead reading light.

That's just what it was for quite a while, albeit an unfinished one, but recently we decided to reinvent the space.  The original room was the largest in the entire house at 13' x 16' so we didn't feel bad about stealing some space from it to put in the staircase and a hallway to the bedrooms.  However, we are also enclosing an HVAC system into a closet in this room.  That system will service the second and third floors.  Even after we steal this additional space, it still leaves the room at roughly 10'x12', so it is still a generous bedroom size.  But, we thought we'd use that extra bit to its fullest potential with the next owners in mind.

So, we pulled out the light, disconnected and terminated the wiring within the junction box, roughed in some heavy duty drawer slides using 2x4 lumber and started putting together drawers and a drawer face.

I used some drawer facing boards that I got for free on Craigslist years ago.  Youth Of The Ozarks (YOTO) Thrift Store had been given a container-full of brand new cabinet scratch and dent stuff and mis-sized doors that they knew they couldn't sell so they were giving it all away for free.  Jacob and I spent a good hour filling the 8-foot bed of my truck with perfectly good material.  There were several other people there, as well, filling their trucks, vans, and cars to the brim.  The container was unloaded and cleaned out in no time.

I made the top three drawers by attaching two desk drawers together side by side.  There was a nice solid wood desk at work that was unwanted.  If no one wanted it, the manufacturing engineers were going to destroy it and toss it in the dumpster.  Of course, I wanted it.  And, they were almost perfect for the space.  The bottom three drawers were built from high-grade finished cabinet plywood from the truckload I mentioned earlier.

All in all, we only paid a few dollars for this built-in dresser.  We bought the pulls back in 2008 for 50 cents each at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  I bought the screws and wood glue I used at some point.  But, the rest was all free.  I love the way that it turned out.  And, it's a ton of storage.  These drawers are 32" wide and 33" long.  I love creative and practical use of space.

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For Sale

Well, it's time.  We bought this home back in February of 2007 and have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into the thing.  We love it.  We always did.  But, it's come a long way.

If you've been following my blog for any length of time then you know just what a trip this place has been.  But, it's been totally worth it.  Now that we've put it out there on the market, it's a little sad for us.  Just a little, though.  We're still focused on getting all the last little things wrapped up and done so our minds are mostly preoccupied.  AND, selling the home has been our goal throughout the process, so it shouldn't come as any surprise to us when it happens.

One thing we did this last week that we're very excited about and busy with is our new storage unit.  I rented a 10x20 unit so that we could do a partial move-out.  We want to stage every room and get them as uncluttered as possible.  The rooms we live in aren't that hard to stage, but every storage space in the house is full of our stuff.  EVERY storage space and there's a lot.

So, we began the process of loading up our things we don't absolutely have to have at our house right now.  Three truckloads have been taken so far.  And, let me tell you, I'm great at stacking things in a storage unit.  We have tons of more space available which is good because we're hardly done.

The end product will be a lovely, spacious and inviting home in every area.  We will even have lovely closets.  :)

Please let people know about our home for sale.  We are doing a "For Sale By Owner" and would like to create an incentive to get people to share by word of mouth.  So, whomever the buyer names as the person who told them about the property, we'll pay them $1,000.  So, tell everyone you know.

I created a website for the property at 1036WestScott.com

And, we have it listed on Zillow.com, as well.

Wish us (and yourself) good luck!

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I'm Not Color Blind

You:  "Wait.  Didn't you just write a blog back in November stating that you were color blind?"

Me:  "Yup."

You:  And, now, you're saying that you're not?"

Me:  "Yup."

You:  "Explain."

Me:  "Glad to."

I'm surprised that I actually let that negative statement slip out of my mouth in the first place.  It's amazing what curses we put on ourselves out of habit, really.  I've been saying it most of my life actually.  But, I've decided to change all that going forward for two reasons.

First of all, I believe that our words have power beyond what we know and that they change things that we cannot see.  The Bible mentions the power of words a lot.  They not only destroy and cause damage but build up and bring healing.  Matthew 12:36 explains that we'll all be held accountable for all the words that we speak in our lifetime.  If they were inconsequential then there would be no need to be held accountable for them.  Now, don't let this get you down.  In case, like me, you've let your mouth run around unbridled in the past, there are such things as salvation, grace, and forgiveness that God freely offers, as well.  Thank God for that.  It's all very clear that we are in certain need of it.

That said, I'm no longer going to curse myself by claiming color blindness.  Instead, I'm claiming the truth.  I don't see black and white.  I never have.  I see colors just fine.  Now, in the past, I have struggled with certain colors on the spectrum.  However, I believe that I am being healed of that, which brings me to my second reason.

About a month ago, Jodi attended a conference at our church that was about healing and activating people to pray for strangers for physical healing.  I had just written the aforementioned blog the week prior to this conference taking place.  I had taken the color-blindness test twice that I linked to on that blog and both times had received the result: Strong Protan.

Fast forward to Jodi coming home from the conference and praying for my eyes.  She had me take the test again and I received the result: Medium Protan.  That's an improvement!  So she prayed again.  She had me retake the test.  I received the result: Mild Protan.  Boom!  Another level of improvement!  We repeated this 5 or 6 more times and I continued to receive Mild Protan as the result every time.

So, I may not be completely healed, yet.  But, what I have accepted to believe is that God was showing me something even more important than a specific color wavelength.  He was showing me that He has the power to heal, that He wants to heal, AND that He wants to reinforce the truth in me that He has given us a level of verbal power, as well.  I feel like He didn't completely heal me because He's also given me the charge to heal myself and others.

I've claimed color blindness for three decades  30 years, I've been using that God-given power incorrectly.  No more.  I'm not color blind.

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