I’m finally moved into my house now! I closed on the property on December 29th and then my family came up to help me make it a bit more livable. We removed many walls that the previous owner in order to bring the house back to it’s original floor plan. The previous owner had divided the house up into 3 distinct sections: a top floor apartment, a larger apartment on the bottom, and another smaller apartment on the bottom. So one of the first things we removed were the walls that were blocking off a door and separating the two bottom apartments.

We then removed the larger, more dated kitchen in the larger apartment. We also tore up carpeting and linoleum that was throughout the bottom floor of the house that was covering up it’s original hardwood floors. One of the areas next to the old kitchen had two layers of linoleum as well, and so there’s still lots of glue stuck to the ground that I’ll need to try to get up with a sander. If that doesn’t work then I’ll have to look at other flooring options.

Currently I have my bedroom, the living room, part of the future dining room/ kitchen, and foyer painted. At least, mostly painted anyway. I still have a little trim to do in the dining room and foyer, actually. But currently the house is fine for living in, and I’ve moved in so that I can continue to work on it in my down time after work.

I was fortunate that I purchased it when I did, as we didn’t have anything happening at camp for the first week and a half of the year. So, I was able to take time off and work on the house exclusively.

Aside from my house, I also put together our first annual staff retreat to review how our summer went and to get suggestions on how to make it better for next year. We spent about 6 hours together going over everything from activities to the kitchen to our Leaders in Training program (LIT) to counseling. I recorded our sessions for that weekend, and I’ve since listened through it to jot down the specifics of what we’ve talked about. So I’ve got a good starting point on what we need to change for next year. We only had about 15 people but I’m hoping we’ll have more attendees next year.

Coming up this year, we have our first Men’s weekend that Hickory Cove is putting on. It’s actually starting today, so if this is your first time hearing about it, I apologize that I didn’t mention it earlier. If you don’t want to miss any other events we have going on, go to hickorycove.org or follow us on facebook.

Anyway, we also have our 5k Race coming up that was rescheduled because of poor weather last year. That is taking place on February 24th, and I’m sure if you’ll come that you’ll have a great time. Even if you’re not interested in running the course, it’s still a nice hike through our woods, so you should come on out. Or if you’re interested in volunteering to help out, contact me and I’ll get you connected with the right people to get registered.

As I continue working on different projects around the house I’ll be sure to take a few pictures and upload them to keep everyone in the loop. I also should have a regular letter going out soon for those that may not follow this blog.

As always, if you have any questions about what I do at Hickory Cove, how to pray for me, what you can help with, or just want to see how I’m doing, feel free to email me or call. All of my contact information is listed here.