Let's talk about the house!

Well, that little burst of writing in December didn't last, did it?  I was teaching and we're building and time got away from me!  Now, I'm home (like most of the world) but we are still building...with an even greater sense of urgency.  Well, we're pressing on with a light at the end of the tunnel.  We hope to move in by the middle of May, Lord willing.  But for now, we're going to take a quick look back because we have a video to show you!  The only real update from the last blog is that we won't be off-grid.  It would have been wonderful, but in the end it didn't work out to be as cost-efficient as to make it worth-while.  The fuel costs to run a large generator, which would need to run every day for a few hours in the winter, plus the cost of the generator itself (and I don't mean the kind from Canadian Tire!) put our calculations over the top.  We are still focused on being energy-efficient but now we will have a much lower initial cost.                                                       -Cathy

From Jonathan:

Finally, after almost 12 months, we have our first video of building our house. When you´re building a house, you normally have hardly any time for other things (like making videos). But here it is: Video number one, of us building our house. Enjoy.

There were also some other steps, that you did not see on video, for example:

1. Before we were able to scrape off the dirt we had to move mple:some frozen cedar logs (in April). The only way we managed that was with the help of the neighbor, who came with his tractor to move them away.
2. We also had to cut down some trees and clear away some bushes.
3. And, (in case you´re wondering) here is what happened to the flat tire that started coming off: We called the rental company and they told us that their insurance does not cover a flat tire. So it´s our responsibility. They recommended somebody who fixes tires though. He pulled up in a bright yellow pick up truck with all his equipment.....and left less than an hour later with a big smile on his face (fixing the tire wasn´t cheap). Then when we were going to park it for the night, we started hearing a hissing noise. Another hole, in the same tire!!! The guy came back in the yellow truck and fixed the tire again, this time (luckily) only charging us 20 dollars for the second fix. 
4. After the backhoe had scraped off all the dirt, it was left at the side of the road by our property for a few days, with the name of the company potrayed for everybody driving by to see. That was some cheap advertising for them. They even got payed for it!!!

From the beginning of the video to the end of it was a time period of about 1 month, because we had to wait for,the building permit to come through, good weather, weekdays (because of helpers) and more good weather. 

The laying of the concrete blocks themselves took about a week, we were hoping for it to take two days, although it looks so fast in the video. 

More to come, if we can find time to write and edit videos.😉

We're back to blogging!

Isn't it amazing how quickly time flies by?  Not just when having fun but when you're busy.  Well, with homeschooling five kids, building a house and living with my parents we're quite busy already.  But then throw into the mix that Dominik goes to work full-time and I fall back to part-time!  Plus hockey and dancing and a few riding lessons thrown in for fun!  It's been fine but we are really thankful that Christmas is here!  It is lovely to have a break and to now be able to blog a bit again too.

We got back from Austria and enjoyed two weeks at our cottage, up in Lanark County.  It was good to have that break before we started building again.  We didn't catch too many fish, but just being away from town and out on the lake was wonderful.

Jonathan has finished a video about building our house- it doesn't quite bring you up to date but another video is on its way.  I start to think that we will need another computer so that there isn't a queue for working on this one!  To date we have ('we' being Dominik!) managed to finish the wiring of the house, the inside walls are framed in, all windows and doors are installed, the chimney for the woodstove is already in place, and the outer walls of the house are insulated.  Our next steps will be to wire the breaker box and lay the plumbing, then we can insulate the ceiling and install our woodstove.  Then we will be able to chip away at work in comfort!  We won't drywall the interior walls yet as this will allow the woodstove to heat most of the house.  Dominik and the kids cut a lot of firewood in the fall, so we're ready for the stove!  Our new 'hope-to-move-in' date will be as soon as we can in the spring.  When the ground thaws a bit we will get the septic done and the well dug.  By that time we hope to have enough finished to have it liveable.

We have decided to make this house an off-grid home.  We hadn't really seriously considered it when we started planning, but the cost of hooking up to the electric system here made us re-examine solar.  We visited a friend-of-a-friend nearby and he bought his solar package from a company in British Columbia which is really very affordable.  With that decided, we then have to think differently about appliances and anything which runs on electricity.  This doesn't really change too much in our lives, but it certainly gives us a satisfying feeling that we will be able to be more independent and self-sufficient in our living.   We already want to use propane for the stove and for hot water.  Maybe we can find a way to connect the woodstove to the hot water as well, in future.  For now we just want to get set up and get in the house! :-)

In other news, Jonathan, Jeremiah and Josiah have been enjoying playing hockey in the Kids Christian Hockey League in Brockville.  They each play just once a week and they all look forward to it!  Rebecca has continued with Irish Dancing and is able to help with the younger classes as well as being in a class of two at her level.  We attended the performance at Christmas and could see how she and her dance partner had improved this year.  Elena did some riding in the fall and will continue with that in the spring.  It was great for her to get out and ride and to become more confident around and on the horses and ponies. 

Besides house-building and home-schooling, Dominik came in to work for 6 weeks at the Christian school because one of the teachers was found to have cancer and had to go for treatment.  This was a grades 6-8 class.  I was still working, although mainly part-time (an occasionally supply-teaching), and it was fun to be in the same work environment together!  Now he knows about all of my co-workers and who the kids are that I see every day.   He's had his 'retirement' in December and I will be taking the grade 6 class in January.

We have begun meeting with friends to have church on every other Sunday, and this has been going really well.  It's an answer to prayer to have a group to be involved with, where people can use the gifts that God has given them, and to be where others can come to 'church', without it maybe feeling like church.  We've had a good number of people come out to that and we look forward to see what God will do with this in the new year.

We stayed here at my parents for Christmas and have two Austrian Bible students from Colorado visiting us.  They are the sons of co-workers of ours from Schloss Klaus.  It's great to have more Austrians around for the kids to speak German with and to play hockey and endless games of 'Jungle Speed' with! 

We wish you a joyous time over the Christmas holidays and a blessed New Year in 2020!!!!

 

Just under a week left in Austria!

Isn't it amazing just how fast time can fly by.  Here we are in Austria, working away at retreats and back into our old life as though nothing had changed, and yet next Tuesday Jeremiah and I will be flying home!  Shortly thereafter Dominik and the other kids will follow.  It feels as though we've had a marathon time of visits and camps and rounds of coffee.  People wanted to see us and chat about life here and in Canada.  The kids have all been to one or more camps, which is a huge blessing!  But we're not exactly on holiday. It's normal life, just in another language!  We are so thankful to have had this time, and yet we also look forward to another visit sometime in the future when we can also include a camping trip to the beach in Croatia or Italy.  That is a summer holiday here. :-)

A farm before the mountains.

Austrian houses.

Older balconies....

Younger house and balconies!

Kirche in Frauenstein.

Here you can see the Bergkirche- which is on the hill above the Schloss, with the Kremsmauer towering above it!

They build houses differently in Austria.

Another farm...neat and tidy.

One of many Kappelle found in the countryside,

St Anthony- in the Kapelle in Frauenstein.

On a friend's farm- the bundles of kindling made beautiful.

I've been thinking about all the different things that we appreciate here.  The beautiful mountains are obvious.  But then there are things like the washing machines.  Front-loaders with a smaller capacity than those giant ones in North America.  These machines heat their own water and you can do a wash at 90 degrees celcius!!!  We had a few white items which had turned grey in our time in Canada.  We feel like the top-loaders just 'tickle' the laundry and rinse it through with some warm water.  How hot might that be???  Well, these grey things were washed at 90 and now they are white again!!!!  One of these is at the top of my wish list for our home.  I truly can't wait!!!  Maybe we should open a shop and promote them!  Canadians need to know!!!

Look! 90 degrees!

What else do I miss?  The local pharmacy.  It has shelf after shelf of bags of teas.  Yes, teas.  They are all medicinal and are widely used here.  It's mainstream medicine, not even considered alternative as it would be at home.  Do you have a sore throat?  Sage tea is just the thing!  Mixed with a bit of honey, it tastes devine!  What about a cough?  Well, you could try thyme tea or a specially prepared mixture called 'Brusttee' (Chest tea).  They don't tell you all that is in the mixture but it is fantastic.  Not only does it work but it starts off as a startling blue colour (maybe from Bachelor's Buttons) and then changes to a brown as it steeps.  Again, add a little honey and it is magnificent.  If you wanted tylenol (paracetemol) or such like, you would have to ask.  And then it comes in much smaller quantities than what you find at Walmart.   They have teas for kidney problems, lung problems, to purify the blood, for sniffles and for everything in between!

Medicinal teas in the pharmacy (Apotheke) in Micheldorf.

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Now let's talk cars.  Manual cars.  Lovely cars with a gear shift!  If you want to travel anywhere in the world, you really need to know how to handle a stick shift.  It has been so much FUN driving one again.  I am thankful for the car that we have in Canada...we really need the space that the van provides, but these manual cars are fun.  Understandably there are loads more BMW and Mercedes and VW on the roads.  Also cute VW vans which would make great campers, and the occasional Ferrari or Porsche.  When we are driving around the kids can play a game looking for European license plates.  In one hour on the Autobahn you might see (remembering that many are travelling for summer holidays just now) cars from many parts of Austria as well as Germany, Latvia, Italy, Romania, Holland, the UK, Sweden, Spain, Hungary, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, Russia, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovena, Serbia, Slovaki and Slovenia.  Occasionally you'll find the Ukraine and more far-flung places.  We used to travel with blank maps of Europe and coloured pencils so that the kids could fill in the maps as we saw the cars.

Today we said a tearful goodbye to the leaders who had come for the Ten English Days Camp.  They came from England, Scotland, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.  I'm so happy that all of our family could once more experience TED and build some relationships with these leaders.  It could be some time until we are all back again. 

We had a day out at the pool in Micheldorf.

There was a battle of their small groups! They were ships: Relationship, Discipleship, Kingship, Dictatorship, Mothership etc.!  This was Battleship!

The forecourt of the Schloss.

Kerstin! :-) 

Not -so-random Teddies (Paul and Jonathan). :-) 

Final battle of the week-long game!

Teddies against the leaders water game. 

So now it is time to pack and to look towards our life in Canada again.  The sooner that we get our house finished enough to live in, the sooner we can have visitors!!!