We have been working hard on the new office building. We really got underway the week after Christmas. The week before Christmas my Dad came down, and on our knees in the building he and I drew the plans for what we wanted it to become. We had hired someone to help draw the drawings, and I had done some research to try to find drawings of the building as it existed, to no avail. So Dad and I pulled out the pencils, broke a desk off the wall, and put it up on a few buckets on the floor, and went to work. We started with a shell of the exterior taken from a plan I did manage to dig out that showed a remodel the former owners had drawn, but never built. The exterior walls were all we left on. Dad and I took the plan to Steamroller, we covered all the interior walls with paper, and taped them into place, and asked them to make us a few copies! High Tech! Yea! It cost us less than $5.00 for those three copies, and we took our architectural scale, tape measure, and pencil and with the magnificent help of my Dad, we drew our plans! :) One day Dad and I were kneeling at those drawings and a subcontractor came in, and jokingly dropped to his knees, folding his arms, asked if he could join us! Oh, the things we accomplish on our knees! My Dad does so much! I know that it is not without the all powerful help of my Heavenly Dad too! That sub can laugh, but it is with heavenly help our project is moving quickly!
A few days later, I took those same pencil drawings into the city, and asked what I had to do to get started! They didn't know what to think of a girl in their office asking for a building permit! I asked questions, and learned, took my plan back, and then asked more questions! I learned that I didn't have to have a State demolition permit, but I needed an asbestos test and a city Demo permit. Done. I called the asbestos testers, one showed up with his "tool bag" and pulled out (seriously) his sandwich size zip lock baggies and a spray bottle, took two samples, and said he would send me a bill (it was $253.00 - seriously!?!) and the test results in a couple of days! Whatever! I mean honestly! Christmas happened in the meantime, and we had a beautiful day! It was one we will forever remember! (See other post!) The Monday following Christmas we went to Salt Lake to enjoy a couple of days with family, which were beautiful!
Wednesday we returned to Saint George to get busy! We worked, and worked some more! New Years day we had planned to go 4 wheeling with friends, but because we had such momentum going, and Grandpa and Grandma were here to help still, we ordered yet another dumpster and filled it again! By the 1st, we were onto huge dumpster #2! The insides of the building were slowly (or not so slowly for those who visited the job but weren't there knocking walls down) going into that dumpster! My kids were fabulous! They are amazing! One wall at a time, we would determine if it was going or staying, and they would tackle it together, ready, Go! In no time, the sheet rock would be in their arms on it's way to the door! They got really good at pulling it off in huge sheets! Thanks team! They are each so fantastic! Everyone put their shoulders to the work, and really accomplished a ton! I am so grateful for each one!
And so have been the past couple of weeks. My Dad has stepped up beautifully to the plate of contractor. He has a new white Ford F-150 with his logo "VPC Val Paulsen Construction Inc." in the window, but he refuses to drive that truck, not wanting to get it dirty! We are so grateful to him for his help! He has commitments on Sundays and Tuesdays in Salt Lake for church (Tuesdays he serves in the Draper temple) so he comes to St. George early on Wednesdays, we work our guts out until Saturday afternoon and try to get him on the road so he can be home before too late on Saturday night!
On the second Saturday of construction, now on dumpster #4, as usual we were all ready for a Sabbath day and a day of rest! L and my Mom had taken an opportunity that day (Jan 9) to go to a music symposium for the morning. The rest of us, did the regular, B got up before dawn to take the boys to hockey games early on Saturday morning, and then we all reported to the job site. Sometime mid morning, most of the team was working downstairs, and I was upstairs trying to finish one corner with a bathroom that we had struggled with whether or not it was staying or going. We knew an interior wall was coming out, and I was working there when I broke into the wall, to have magazines slid out all over! The wall was FULL of pron magazines! I am so grateful that I was nearly alone! I had one little one (I can't even remember who now) working with me, and I sent them away. I grabbed the closest trash can with a black plastic bag in it, and filled the can with this filth! Yuck! The wall was open just above the ceiling tile, which upstairs was really low, and apparently someone would view their filth in the bathroom, and hide their filth in the wall beside the toilet by simply lifting the ceiling tile, and dropping it down the wall. The magazines slid out all over. I tried hard not to look at anything!!!! I picked them up frantically stuffing them into the bag, wrapped it up tight, and carried it out! My problem came when I realized that I couldn't just put this bag into the trash can and get rid of it! I wanted it destroyed! I carried it to the back of our property, and found the regular dumpster nearly empty! I heaved the garbage bag into the dumpster, and then to my car found some flares! I was determined to NOT pass this disgust onto someone else! I thought in my innocence that I could just get a couple of these burning, and the rest would catch on and be destroyed! Of course, Satan can't be destroyed that easily!
We affectionately call flares "Boy Scout Matches" because they can start anything on fire! I have fond memories of being a little girl on a snowmobile trip, gathering wet sticks and logs from the forest to pile into an open area, my Dad lighting the flare, and enjoying lunch, warm in the heat of that fire. Well, that was NOT the case with this filth! Those magazines were thick! They were plastic coated pages, and would not start, let alone burn! I went through four flares trying to get them started! Finally, I found some lighter fluid, soaked those magazines, and then had to sit there and stir them, trying to separate the pages of the books without seeing the filth, for hours to get them destroyed! It was getting dark before I was finally done with that disgusting job! In the meantime, my dear Dad and B working together for the afternoon had finished building all the walls downstairs! Dad had worked with my littler helpers all week long, B coming as soon as he can after work every afternoon, but Dad did awesome! Thanks Dad! By that Saturday evening, all the walls downstairs were done! I finally got that filth burned! I hate campfire smell! I felt and smelled filthy inside and out! I asked B for a blessing to forget the terrible images which I had been exposed to, even the few in the thousands that I had burned! I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood! I finish this post now 1/22, and am grateful to report that I have been able to escape from having those images back into my mind, Las Deo! Our building feels much better, we determined that the entire bathroom needed to be cleared out!!! The filth doesn't have a place now! The walls have come out, the room destroyed, and new walls constructed in new places! It will be beautiful and positive and pure! I am thankful for virtue! I am thankful for cleanliness! I am thankful for purity! I am thankful for the Power of God! He will reign and this earth will be cleansed of it's filth! In the meantime, I am grateful to be a warrior of righteousness, and to have destroyed that bit of filth left in my corner of the world! I will forever remember standing by that dumpster, looking up to the clear blue sky, praying for His help in burning that trash, grateful for the beauty of the earth He created for me!
A few days later, I took those same pencil drawings into the city, and asked what I had to do to get started! They didn't know what to think of a girl in their office asking for a building permit! I asked questions, and learned, took my plan back, and then asked more questions! I learned that I didn't have to have a State demolition permit, but I needed an asbestos test and a city Demo permit. Done. I called the asbestos testers, one showed up with his "tool bag" and pulled out (seriously) his sandwich size zip lock baggies and a spray bottle, took two samples, and said he would send me a bill (it was $253.00 - seriously!?!) and the test results in a couple of days! Whatever! I mean honestly! Christmas happened in the meantime, and we had a beautiful day! It was one we will forever remember! (See other post!) The Monday following Christmas we went to Salt Lake to enjoy a couple of days with family, which were beautiful!
Wednesday we returned to Saint George to get busy! We worked, and worked some more! New Years day we had planned to go 4 wheeling with friends, but because we had such momentum going, and Grandpa and Grandma were here to help still, we ordered yet another dumpster and filled it again! By the 1st, we were onto huge dumpster #2! The insides of the building were slowly (or not so slowly for those who visited the job but weren't there knocking walls down) going into that dumpster! My kids were fabulous! They are amazing! One wall at a time, we would determine if it was going or staying, and they would tackle it together, ready, Go! In no time, the sheet rock would be in their arms on it's way to the door! They got really good at pulling it off in huge sheets! Thanks team! They are each so fantastic! Everyone put their shoulders to the work, and really accomplished a ton! I am so grateful for each one!
And so have been the past couple of weeks. My Dad has stepped up beautifully to the plate of contractor. He has a new white Ford F-150 with his logo "VPC Val Paulsen Construction Inc." in the window, but he refuses to drive that truck, not wanting to get it dirty! We are so grateful to him for his help! He has commitments on Sundays and Tuesdays in Salt Lake for church (Tuesdays he serves in the Draper temple) so he comes to St. George early on Wednesdays, we work our guts out until Saturday afternoon and try to get him on the road so he can be home before too late on Saturday night!
On the second Saturday of construction, now on dumpster #4, as usual we were all ready for a Sabbath day and a day of rest! L and my Mom had taken an opportunity that day (Jan 9) to go to a music symposium for the morning. The rest of us, did the regular, B got up before dawn to take the boys to hockey games early on Saturday morning, and then we all reported to the job site. Sometime mid morning, most of the team was working downstairs, and I was upstairs trying to finish one corner with a bathroom that we had struggled with whether or not it was staying or going. We knew an interior wall was coming out, and I was working there when I broke into the wall, to have magazines slid out all over! The wall was FULL of pron magazines! I am so grateful that I was nearly alone! I had one little one (I can't even remember who now) working with me, and I sent them away. I grabbed the closest trash can with a black plastic bag in it, and filled the can with this filth! Yuck! The wall was open just above the ceiling tile, which upstairs was really low, and apparently someone would view their filth in the bathroom, and hide their filth in the wall beside the toilet by simply lifting the ceiling tile, and dropping it down the wall. The magazines slid out all over. I tried hard not to look at anything!!!! I picked them up frantically stuffing them into the bag, wrapped it up tight, and carried it out! My problem came when I realized that I couldn't just put this bag into the trash can and get rid of it! I wanted it destroyed! I carried it to the back of our property, and found the regular dumpster nearly empty! I heaved the garbage bag into the dumpster, and then to my car found some flares! I was determined to NOT pass this disgust onto someone else! I thought in my innocence that I could just get a couple of these burning, and the rest would catch on and be destroyed! Of course, Satan can't be destroyed that easily!
We affectionately call flares "Boy Scout Matches" because they can start anything on fire! I have fond memories of being a little girl on a snowmobile trip, gathering wet sticks and logs from the forest to pile into an open area, my Dad lighting the flare, and enjoying lunch, warm in the heat of that fire. Well, that was NOT the case with this filth! Those magazines were thick! They were plastic coated pages, and would not start, let alone burn! I went through four flares trying to get them started! Finally, I found some lighter fluid, soaked those magazines, and then had to sit there and stir them, trying to separate the pages of the books without seeing the filth, for hours to get them destroyed! It was getting dark before I was finally done with that disgusting job! In the meantime, my dear Dad and B working together for the afternoon had finished building all the walls downstairs! Dad had worked with my littler helpers all week long, B coming as soon as he can after work every afternoon, but Dad did awesome! Thanks Dad! By that Saturday evening, all the walls downstairs were done! I finally got that filth burned! I hate campfire smell! I felt and smelled filthy inside and out! I asked B for a blessing to forget the terrible images which I had been exposed to, even the few in the thousands that I had burned! I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood! I finish this post now 1/22, and am grateful to report that I have been able to escape from having those images back into my mind, Las Deo! Our building feels much better, we determined that the entire bathroom needed to be cleared out!!! The filth doesn't have a place now! The walls have come out, the room destroyed, and new walls constructed in new places! It will be beautiful and positive and pure! I am thankful for virtue! I am thankful for cleanliness! I am thankful for purity! I am thankful for the Power of God! He will reign and this earth will be cleansed of it's filth! In the meantime, I am grateful to be a warrior of righteousness, and to have destroyed that bit of filth left in my corner of the world! I will forever remember standing by that dumpster, looking up to the clear blue sky, praying for His help in burning that trash, grateful for the beauty of the earth He created for me!