Entries by Joshua Kugler

This is the place to to find updates on Joshua and Crystal's remodeling project. You can add a feed for just this category to your news reader, or simply bookmark this page and check every few days.

To get a little background on what's going on, take a look at our original letter. As always, donations are welcome. Thanks for stopping by!

The active todo list! Check back often to track our progress!

• Upstairs wiring Done!
• Basement furring Done! - 2008-09-18
• Media conduit for exterior walls Done! 2008-09-24
• Cleanup for foaming Done! - 2008-09-25
• Have house foamed Done! - 2008-09-26
• Cleanup after foaming Done! - 2008-10-01
• Walls we're replacing/adding
• Bathroom/guest room wall Done! - 2008-10-01
• Laundry room/office wall Done! - 2008-10-06
• Family room/office wall Done! - 2008-10-11
• Furnace room wall
• Kids' room closet Done! - 2008-10-08
• Wiring for light fixtures and switches, including stair light
• Floor reinforcement downstairs Done! - 2008-10-16
• Wiring up interior walls
• Install water heater
• HRV System
• Baseboard plumbing and installation
• Replacing stairs (code compliance)
• Solid foam insulation on downstairs floor
• Resurfacing down stairs floor
• Media conduit for interior walls (including speaker wire conduit and security system conduit)
• Downstairs tub drain replacement
• Plumbing
• Window replacements
• Sheet rock
• Switch/outlet installation
• Underlayment upstairs
• Texture walls
• Priming and painting
• Flooring installation
• Cabinets and vanity installation
• Kitchen appliance installation
• Miscellaneous stuff (light fixtures, etc)
• Move in!

If you follow this blog, or our Facebook pages (Joshua's, Crystal's) you know we're expecting our fourth child in November. That means, as much as we love our Subaru, we're going to have to say goodbye. We recently (yesterday) acquired a used Toyota Sienna. It's a 2004 with almost 90,000 miles, but it's in really good shape. It has all the Alaska accessories: engine block/transmission heater, winter tires, and it's all-wheel-drive of course (Toyota is the only company still making an all-wheel-drive mini van).

We will be selling our Subaru Outback once it's cleaned up and in pristine shape. We hate to see the Subaru go, but are excited about the baby, and really jazzed and praising God about the vehicle acquisition.

It isn't news that our national level of grammatical literacy is declining. It isn't news that a quickly jotted e-mail or text message will have improper grammar, or teeth gratingly obnoxious abbreviations (whts with that ne way? enuf already! kthnxbye!). It is somewhat notable however, when a chain with "over a thousand flooring stores worldwide" sends out an advertising postcard with a 2nd or 3rd grade grammar mistake.

With that in mind, click on the image to the right, and take a good, long look. Stare at it a while. While you're (that's a hint) staring at it, contemplate how many people worked on this invitation, planned it, thought about it, and viewed it before it was given the official OK to go to print. Imagine how many looked at it as they stuffed them into envelopes (eh, maybe that part was automated). Then, wonder with me, if you will, why no one in that entire process ever wondered why "YOUR" was missing an apostrophe and trailing "E."

And no, you can't blame this on Podunk Fairbanks: this store is a Worldwide chain. At least they say so on their web site.

I could go on, but I'm so flabbergasted I have nothing left to say.

[And yes, you better believe that I'm proof reading this entry very carefully. It would be the height of irony to have grammatical errors in a rant about grammar. And yes, this is posted under "humor" but it really is a tragedy.]

Two photos too cute not to share.

Progress continues to be made, slowly but surely!

More NextStep ministries crews worked on the house since the last update, and more got done! The entire upstairs ceiling is now covered by sheetrock. Only one panel is left to secure into place.

We also had our electrical service entrance replaced by the fine folks at Bright Electric, and the down-stairs subpanel installed. The frustration came from miscommunication and lack of communication. We thought the labor was going to be free. It was, in part, but it appears Bright Electric thought it would only take four to six hours. It ended up taking about 24 hour of labor (had to replace the mast guy wire, feed lines because they were aluminum, and do some other modifications because the first inspection didn't pass). More materials were required than we originally planned as well. In all, it ended up costing $3200. Bright donated part of the cost, we were able to pay part of it, and NextStep minitries covered the rest. So, it was all taken care of, but the money did come out of our sheetrock budget.

In all, Praise the Lord! We've made some great progress. We can start finish work on the inside electrical now!

Somebody in our family turned 50 recently. 50,000, that is. On June 10th, 144 miles through a tank of gas the reliable, trustworthy, efficient, useful 2005 Subaru Outback began the second half of its journey to 100,000 miles.

This car has been through quite a bit with this family. It brought all three of our kids home from their places of birth (hospital for Elizabeth, birth clinic for the other two). It's taken Crystal and me on two anniversary get-aways. Carried lumber for the house remodel. Made five trips to Anchorage (one of those being a one-day round-trip for shopping and to pick up an oven). Helped us move into (and out of) two places. Carried pallets for a contract job (five in the back, four on top). Dozens upon dozens of shopping trips. Been an impromptu baby-changing station.

It's been a great car. We look forward to another great 50,000 miles.

After several months of no progress on the house (due to finances--mostly--and other things), some more work is being done on the house. NextStep ministries from Wisconsin is sending teams up to Fairbanks this summer to do construction projects in the area. Our house was one of the locations chosen, and we are excited!

So far on the agenda: new stairs, vapor barrier, new kitchen window (done!), some electrical work, plumbing installation, and sheet rock on the upstairs ceiling. We'll see what else we can accomplish.

We have a list of todo's to get the upstairs livable so we can move back in, and that is our action plan. Our finances are tight (still working part time, looking for a full time job), and the team has a limited budget, but we know God is in control, so we'll see what He has in store.

Keep praying! We're making progress!

Jonathan may be 2.5, but he is still a toddler. And sometimes he toddles...and sometimes he does faceplants. Such was the case, sadly, this past Sunday at Alaska land. He was trucking across the parking lot and hit an uneven spot. I only caught the last half of the event, so as near as I can tell, his hands went down, but didn't adequately catch his fall. His face made contact with the asphalt knocked off his glasses (they survived) and gave him, as he put it, an "ouch on my cheek." He cried, we wiped it off, prayed for him, and he was ready and raring to go once again. Brave little boy.

Or so said Elizabeth this morning at breakfast.

Yesterday evening, Crystal started getting pains below her stomach. Having just had a chiropractic adjustment earlier that day, she didn't think much of it; she wasn't due for three weeks, after all. But as the evening progressed, it became clear she was experiencing contractions. So, early this morning, the mid-wife came over, checked Crystal out, and said, "Yep, you're dilated to three centimeters."

Time to go to the birth clinic.

After a relatively short labor (about five hours total), our third child, a boy, was born. Eight pounds, 14 ounces; 21 inches; born at 4:37AM today, January 24th. Incidentally, today is also my dad's 65th birthday. Another interesting fact about my dad's birthday: He was born about 6:30AM, Arizona time. So, our new baby boy was born 65 years after his grandpa, almost to the minute.

Praises:
- Crystal was only three weeks early, so we didn't have to go to the hospital (the cutoff is three weeks prior, two weeks after)
- Baby and Mommy and doing GREAT!
- Labor and Birth had no complications

Prayers:
- Baby boy doesn't have a name yet...we want wisdom in naming him!

Edit: My dad is 65 today, not 68.
Edit: Correct hospital "cutoff"

Joshua is starting a new job Monday! See his geek blog for more details.

These tickle me, for some reason.

Q: How many elephants can you fit in a VW Bug?
A: Four. Two in the front, two in the back.

Q: How can you tell if an elephant is in your refrigerator?
A: There's a footprint in the mayo.

Q: How can you tell if two elephants are in your refrigerator?
A: There's two footprints in the mayo.

Q: How can you tell if three elephants are in your refrigerator?
A: The door won't shut.

Q: How can you tell if four elephants are in your refrigerator?
A: There's a VW Bug in your driveway.

So, due to lack of projects at my current employer, I might be getting laid off come Wednesday. Not the news one wants to hear.

If anyone has any leads for telecommuting tech jobs, please let me know. There is a link to my resume at the top-right of this page.

Thanks!

Every now and then you get a reminder that small children are still working on discerning that fine line between reality and dreams. Like today, for instance.

Elizabeth was sleeping on the bed while I worked at the computer. She woke up from a dead sleep, eyes open, and, the following conversation took place:

"Hey dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Earlier I saw some giraffes."

"Really?"

"Yeah, outside."

And she laid back down and was back out. And this all happened in the span of about 60 to 90 seconds. Wow.

If you go to the rebuild category (http://jjncj.com/blog/categories/1-rebuild) the first post is a "sticky post" giving introductory information. Well, now it's going to serve double duty. I'm going to take my todo list from this post and add it to that sticky post, and update it as thing get done.

That way, you'll have a constantly updated progress chart. So, either bookmark the rebuild category or the sticky post itself. Or just add our RSS feed to your RSS aggregator.

Last Friday (2008-09-26) the house was spray-foamed! This is a polyurethane closed-cell foam that is one of the best insulators out there. We got four inches of foam in the studs up stairs, and two inches of foam in the 2x4 furring down stairs. Translation: the house is very air-tight and very insulated. The boiler with a couple of unit heaters on it can keep the house quite cozy.

We spent the last week cleaning up after the foamers (studs have to be cleaned, random foam overspray, etc), removing the rest of the sheet rock on the upstairs ceiling, and sweeping/vacuuming up the aforementioned mess. Save the stairs we're redoing, no more demolition!

It's coming along nicely. Stay tuned for more!