tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67654671505662815632024-02-19T21:53:23.952-08:00This (Old) New HouseThomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-5130823048670297652011-09-07T08:27:00.000-07:002011-09-11T18:50:19.006-07:00MOVED IN!!Praise the Lord! We are moved in.<br />
We moved in July 30th and three days later the rest of my family converged on our home. This is the first time that all of my siblings and our children have been together since I left my home in 1985! My parents are also with us. This is their 50th anniversary year so it has been a special time for all of us. Today just my family and parents are here, all the rest have returned to their respective homes. What a blessing the new home has been for all this activity. We had 25 people in the house for about 10 days and it didn't feel crowded! The party continues. There has been a constant flow of visitors, over-nighters and anybody who has felt like dropping in. It is God's house and we have been blessed to live in it.<br />
Much thanks to all our friends who have given so much time over the last year during the process of renovation. You have made this joyful time possible for us. The Lord will bless you richly for blessing us. I have prayed this for every hand that has touched our house during the renovation process. I will be discontinuing this blog after a few weeks since it's main purpose was to keep everyone up with the renovation schedule. We are going to be renting our old home on Ridgecrest.<br />
I have been mulling over starting another blog to share some things the Lord has laid on my heart and maybe insights gleaned over the few years the Lord has given me on this earth. I will let you know when that happens. <b><i>God bless each one of you.</i></b><br />
<br />
Shalom,<br />
ThomasThomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-14032621238161718822011-07-28T10:29:00.000-07:002011-07-28T10:29:28.878-07:00Well we are almost at the end of the renovation saga! After many months of hard work and countless hours of help from so many friends, we are moving in this weekend. There will probably be lots of small stuff to chase after we move in. Thank you so much for making this possible for us. The house looks great! We are already moving small stuff. On Saturday July 30th starting around 9am we are going to move all the large items from 344 Ridgecrest to 299 Summerfield. We could use many hands on Saturday. So if you are able please let us know so we can organize manpower accordingly.<br />
<br />
Blessings<br />
Thomas & TinaThomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-54810445156058867202011-07-19T07:48:00.000-07:002011-07-19T07:48:16.058-07:00<div>
Hello friends,</div>
<div>
Progress! Progress! Progress. Thanks to lots of help we are on the home-stretch. One more room to lay flooring in and then sanding and finishing. Should be able get it done this week. Electrical work will be finished in the next day or two. We are going to move in next week. We could use some help with cleaning up before we move and some manpower to get some heavy items into the rooms during this week. (beds, cabinets etc.)</div>
<ol>
<li>Install flooring - stain and finish. </li>
<li>Touch up paint</li>
<li>Trim to install - crown molding, base, window stops</li>
<li>Cleanup - inside & outside</li>
<li>Move in!!</li>
</ol>
<div>
There is light at the end of the tunnel and its not a train!!</div>
<div>
Shalom</div>
<div>
Thomas & Tina</div>
Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-91620471451368337662011-06-21T07:28:00.000-07:002011-06-21T07:28:51.244-07:00Good News!<div>Hello friends,</div><div>We have made a lot of progress with the help of some friends who came out and helped through the last few weeks. The whole house has been primed. All ceilings have been painted. All the trim that could be painted has been painted. Some need a second coat. Some of the rooms have been painted, some are in progress, others have yet to be started. We have a goal of getting everything done except for the flooring by the end of this month. It will be great if we can get flooring started early but that will have to wait till all the painting is finished. I have made a list of things left to be done below.</div><ol><li>Roll paint in all rooms (lots of walls!), second coat on some trim.</li>
<li>Trim to install - crown molding, base, window stops</li>
<li>Install remaining plumbing fixtures</li>
<li>Tie in electrical lines for new room</li>
<li>Cleanup - inside & outside</li>
<li>Install flooring - stain and finish.</li>
<li>Carpet install (will be done by carpet people)</li>
<li>Cleanup - inside & outside</li>
<li>Move in!!</li>
</ol><div>Thanks to everyone who has been on site. We are very grateful for your sacrifice of time and service. May the Lord richly bless you for blessing us.</div><div>Shalom</div><div>Thomas & Tina</div>Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-51562585482647512062011-05-29T13:48:00.000-07:002011-05-29T13:48:18.539-07:00House update<div>Hello friends,</div><div>We have been able to make some good progress in the renovation process. All the big 'construction' type work is finished. We have started painting the upstairs. There is some trim to be installed downstairs after which we can proceed with painting. A lot of cracks to caulk!</div><ol><li>Cleanup - inside & outside</li>
<li>Trim to install - windows, doors, case the openings, crown molding</li>
<li>Spray prime downstairs</li>
<li>Spray paint trim downstairs</li>
<li>Roll paint in all rooms</li>
<li>Install remaining plumbing fixtures</li>
<li>tie in electrical lines for new room</li>
<li>Install flooring - stain and finish.</li>
<li>Carpet install (will be done by carpet people)</li>
<li>Move in!!</li>
</ol><div>We have been able to do this with the help of a few friends. Thank you for investing time and energy in our home.</div><div>Shalom</div><div>Thomas & Tina</div>Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-6426730808412301262011-04-20T07:20:00.000-07:002011-04-20T07:23:21.555-07:00House updateHello again after a long time. Just a quick update on the renovation of our house. We are getting very close to being done. Almost all the big construction stuff is out of the way. We have started painting in the bathrooms upstairs. The upstairs is ready for starting painting. We are trying to get all the remaining small drywall related projects out of the way so that we can avoid dust when we start painting. We still have some electrical wires to be moved and an opening enlarged. (the electrical is the space for the opening). Trim for the new room has to be installed. We are also cleaning up our mess as we go along. Lot of drywall dust and pieces of drywall to be removed. There is a growing pile of construction debris outside that will need to be disposed of. So still a little bit of work to be done. We hope to get move in a couple of months. Here's the list of things to do. If you have the skill and availability we would welcome your assistance.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol><li>Cleanup - inside & outside</li>
<li>Move electrical lines and wire new receptacles.</li>
<li>Trim to install - windows, doors, case the openings, crown molding</li>
<li>Exterior window to be cut out and exterior door to be put in it's place.</li>
<li>Spray prime the whole house</li>
<li>Spray paint all the trim</li>
<li>Roll paint in all rooms</li>
<li>Install remaining plumbing fixtures</li>
<li>Install flooring - stain and finish.</li>
<li>Carpet install (will be done by carpet people)</li>
<li>Move in!!</li>
</ol><div>Again - our sincere gratitude to those who have been helping through the past few months.</div><div>Shalom</div><div>Thomas & Tina</div>Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-78876608266051449512011-01-10T22:45:00.000-08:002011-01-14T10:21:41.343-08:00Renovation updateThought I would catch you up on a long overdue update. June through November gave us very little time to work on the house. Just few hours a week, sometimes not even that much. End of Nov and December though have proved to be fruitful months. We have added a living room to the house. It is roughed in with wiring and drywall is completed. A little sanding and it will be ready for painting. The boys bathroom is almost finished. A large chair accessible shower is in place. The sink, toilet and shower have been plumbed for drainage. I hope to finish the supply lines for water this week and try to finish up the electrical after that. A friend has been helping with the electrical. After that we will be gutting the bathroom in the main hallway downstairs. Much of the floor underneath is dry-rotted and will need to be replaced along with new vanity and shower. An exterior window in the laundry room needs to be removed and replaced with a doorway. After that there is list of small things that need to be finished. These include - yes, more drywall, trim in the new room and other areas where we had to remove it, some more sanding. Somewhere in the middle of all this (over the next couple of weeks) the window guys are supposed to be installing new windows. After that we should be pretty close to being able to prime and paint. After the painting is finished we will install the hardwood flooring, sand and finish on site. The carpet people will install carpet. Also during the winter months we may try and clear some of the dead-fall and overgrown brush in the wooded area. There is all sorts of junk lying out there that needs to be drug out and thrown away. So there's plenty of work to be done still. I work most evenings on the renovation after I get home from the office and usually every Saturday. Thanks to a few of my friends who are good at construction work we have been able to get a good bit of work done over the last 5-6 weeks. If you are skilled at trim work or construction I could use your help.<br />
<br />
Shalom,<br />
Thomas<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">PS I'm adding to my husband's blog. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;">If anybody has a little free time tomorrow (1-15-2011) late morn or midday (not sure yet) Mr. T will be unloading (not installing) a lot of wood flooring at the new house. If you can help, let me know and I will let you know when he starts the trip home tomorrow. Blessings, Tina</span></span>Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-17275253147090065642010-06-25T07:43:00.000-07:002010-06-25T07:43:28.476-07:00Renovation update June 25thHello friends,<br />
You are probably wondering what's going on with the house. Well, I have had a few busy weeks with a lot of nights and weekends being occupied. We are also in St. Louis for follow-up procedures with Micah. So you can see we are in between things. We are in the process of getting a living room added. In a few weeks we will need help with painting etc. I will try to keep you updated. Again, our deepest gratitude for all of you who have given so much of your time and energy to help us get work done on the house.<br />
Blessings<br />
ThomasThomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-59915831151806975842010-06-01T18:04:00.000-07:002010-06-02T05:27:32.322-07:00Renovation updateDear friends,<br />
I have not updated this blog in a while because of some uncertainty in our planning. Many thanks to those who have come several weekends in a row to help get some major work done. What a blessing you have been to us!<br />
<br />
Work done so far -<br />
<ul><li>The entire flooring for the house has been gutted and disposed of.</li>
<li>All the underlayment, which was made of particle board has been pulled up and disposed of.</li>
<li>All the defective decking has been replaced</li>
<li>All the underlayment has been replaced with new underlayment</li>
<li>All the walls have been wiped down and cleaned of dirt and pet you know what!</li>
<li>Almost all the rooms have had the first and second round of holes being filled.</li>
</ul>What needs to be done -<br />
<ul><li> All the rooms need a light sanding, dust wiped down and then checked for further mudding or hole repair.</li>
<li>All the crown molding, chair rails and baseboard need a light sanding</li>
</ul>Once this is done we need to spray and backroll all the rooms that can be sprayed with Kilz primer/stainblocker. Then we will spray all the trim that can be sprayed with the trim color. After that we will roll paint in all the rooms. I will need some assistance with backrolling and brushing as we spray.<br />
Our immediate goal is to get the upstairs painted. There will be some construction going on downstairs while this is going on. After that we will move downstairs. I usually work every evening after work and on Saturdays. A tentative schedule is on the calendar.<br />
<br />
<br />
Blessings<br />
ThomasThomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-19187125052574043072010-04-19T21:06:00.000-07:002010-04-19T21:06:20.156-07:00April 19, 2010<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hello friends,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Many thanks to the Thursday & Saturday crew! This past week we were able to get rid of the last of the wall paper (I'm thoroughly convinced that wall paper is not of God!), clean up the back yard & replace all of the sub-floor upstairs and one room downstairs. We were also able to meet with someone about the heat & air, windows & flooring. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> On schedule for this week is some afternoon cleaning & wall patching on Tues. & Thurs. around 2, some wall moving (that means demo for those in need of "therapy") on Tues./Thurs. evening & Saturday morning. Evening work will probably start around 6:30 so if you have a little free time come out & help. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Blessings,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thomas & Tina</span>Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-2002310198119341352010-04-16T14:36:00.000-07:002010-04-16T14:38:01.442-07:00Work schedule Sat, April 17<div class="MsoNormal">Dear friends,</div><div class="MsoNormal">We have started renovating our new house (299 Summerfield Dr.) It has gone great so far. We will be working during the week and on weekends. We are filling holes in walls, cleaning walls for painting, replacing underlayment, removing wallpaper, clearing brush, picking up junk in the woods You can email us at <a href="mailto:tvhouse@eplus.net">tvhouse@eplus.net</a> or see the <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=varughese62@gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago">CONSTRUCTION CALENDAR</a> link for a schedule. If you are able to help please come. Much thanks to those who came last weekend. We got a week's work done in one day! What a blessing you have been to us. We are very grateful for your love in action.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">May the Lord bless you,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Thomas & Tina<o:p></o:p></div>Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-38347413713196117442010-04-13T07:11:00.000-07:002010-04-13T07:11:50.190-07:00April 13, 2010<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Thank you so much for all the hard work! We had an amazing turn out on Saturday, having about 40 people all day long! I believe the total number of volunteers that showed up was about 50. We got all of the old flooring out and most of the sub-floor had to come out also. We worked hard on the wallpaper all day and made a huge dent in it, but there is still more waiting on us. A broken tile floor was pulled up in one room, screening removed from the porch, tack strips pulled up, staples removed from stairs, large trees near the house & surrounding the back porch cut down and hauled away, hedges trimmed, front of the house cleared of weeds and a lot of fun had. We had 4 different churches represented! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We will be there again on Saturday so if you want to come meet some new people and get your hands dirty come out and help us. Tina and some of the kids will be going out on Tuesday and possibly Thursday afternoons to do some work. There probably won't be any work in the evenings until the weekend as Thomas has a show this week with work and Micah's birthday is this week also. Once again, thank you so much for all the hard work.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blessings</span>Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-32821607373689737392010-03-31T18:28:00.000-07:002010-04-04T21:50:24.406-07:00Out with the old!Dear friends,<br />
For those of you who are planning to assist us in the renovation of our new abode - <b><i>the first day of work will be Saturday, April 10th starting at 9am</i></b>. The address is 299 Summerfield. Click on the picture to get a map. We are hoping to have 25-30 people. This is the most labor intensive part of the process and if we have enough people we should be able to knock it out that day. Even if you cannot work all day just a few hours will be of great help.<br />
<br />
We will be engaged in the following -<br />
1. Aggression Therapy! - ripping out old carpet and laminate floor. (will be hauled outside to a trailer)<br />
2. Wallpaper removal where possible<br />
3. Wiping down all paintable surfaces (probably with a very mild soap solution)<br />
4. General cleanup inside and outside the house.<br />
5. Trimming and/or removing unnecessary growth from the landscaped area around the house.<br />
<br />
Please bring your own tools if you can since we cannot supply everyone. (gloves, hammer, flat prybar, utilility knives, cleaning sponge, small pails, etc)<br />
Hope to see your there!<br />
Blessings<br />
Thomas & TinaThomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765467150566281563.post-33441108649240938482010-03-27T00:33:00.000-07:002010-03-27T10:45:27.368-07:00TVCrew House<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">We have been in the process of getting a new house. It is now nearly accomplished. Many of you have asked how you could help us. We need help getting our new place fixed up. The work includes - ripping out carpet and flooring, installing new wood floors, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">stripping wallpaper,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> prepping walls and painting, bathroom addition, other minor restructuring, general cleaning, yard-work. We are trying to organize the work so it will flow smoothly and be an enjoyable experience. If you are able to assist us please send us an email at <a href="mailto:tvhouse@eplus.net">tvhouse@eplus.net</a> with your contact info and your abilities. We will contact you with a schedule. We will try to post a calendar for last minute volunteers! We need lots of help!</span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Blessings,</span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Thomas & Tina</span></span>Thomas & Tina Varughesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01430294578766946647noreply@blogger.com0