Christmas Aftermath

Due to the Christmas and New Years holidays I have been very slow with this update.  Sorry.  Last week we were in Fortaleza so I told my builder to use the week to complete other projects.  Since the work had already slowed down on my house and I didn’t want anything done while I was not there, I thought that it would be a good idea to take a break and start afresh this week.   It seems to have worked because they have given my house more attention and we are getting closer to completing some of the major projects.  The interior of the house is almost complete and today I hired a painter that will work on priming, smoothing with a plaster-type mud, and painting the interior and exterior.  They said that it may take up to three weeks to complete.  The pictures above are of the main room tile and the bathroom granite divider.  I have many “visitors” every day because the kids are on winter break right now and many have nothing to do but “help” me at the house.

Yesterday the men completed the front porch roof and today was connecting the sewer line to the house and completing some little finishing work.  We hope to install the front gate and door on the entrance wall as soon as they are finished being built and painted at the metalworker’s place.  This will make the place more secure, which is needed now more than ever.  Today, the big news in our state is that the police are on strike.  Fortaleza is having great difficulties and every crook looking for their piece of the pie while the authorities are fighting amongst themselves.  Please pray for our safety and the security of our new house.  Also, in two days a rodeo will be held two doors down from our house.  These events are ALWAYS LOUD and sometimes they go past midnight.  Rodeos always bring in some rough characters, mainly the workers.  So we will not get much sleep from Thursday to Saturday night.
Two blessings for us are: the US dollar is UP and there is a new bank in town where I can withdraw international funds.  This is a huge blessing when you consider that we were driving 35 minutes to get out money.  Praise the Lord for His provision!!!!

Window to the Future

It has been quite some time since my last post because the work has sped up substantially.  Louro (my builder in the striped shirt above) said that he was in a hurry to complete our house.  The three month deadline is coming quickly and he knows that my payments will also come to an end when we reach 70% of the total to be paid.  In the past couple of weeks they have covered all of the walls with concrete, inside and out, and installed all 11 windows, and installed the electricity, and started on the roof.  This past weekend was Thanksgiving for us so we went to Fortaleza to celebrate with our other missionary friends. When we returned they had completed pouring the floor and front porch.  We drove 4.5 hrs with two large pieces of granite and two granite sink counters.  Fortunately the roads are pretty good for interior standards and the granite did not break on the way.  You could probably heard our sigh of relief in the U.S. when we unloaded the slates of rock and they were still in one piece.  They will serve as a wall divider for our shower box.  This was cheaper than having a glass box installed and it will look very pretty with the matching sink.  Tomorrow the wood for the roof is going to arrive and they will start installing the trusses.  I will be driving to Fortaleza to pick up our tile for the bathrooms so when I return Louro can start the finishing touches of the bathroom.  Please pray for my safe travel over the next two days as I will be driving for 9 hours.

Ceiling Problems Solved (before it even exists)

The reason for the recent silence with this project is that we had quite a blowup a couple of weeks ago. After putting up the “belt” the process for installing the ceiling starts. This is accomplished by ordering premade concrete reinforced “2x4 type” beams. These beams expand from wall to wall and are set about a foot apart until they cover all of the openings where the ceiling is located. Bricks with “wing-like” sides hang between these beams to form the surface of the ceiling. Boxes for ceiling lighting, then conduit, and then a rebar mesh (see photo) is installed on top of the structure before concrete is poured on top to seal off the entire roof of the house.

The problem occurred when my “builder” ordered the wrong size of beams because of a miscommunication between him and me and then he tried to fix the situation without saying anything to me. When I saw the way that he planed to fix the problem I questioned the integrity of the roof.  James, our fellow missionary in a city 30 min. away, looked at the fix and agreed that it could create some problems in the future. After some intense but clam arguing the builder decided to fix the situation and have some new beams made. With a little compromise on both sides we were able to come to a suitable situation that we could both agree on.

Now that the ceiling has been installed we have been working on the installation of electrical conduits and then covering the walls with concrete & light plaster. By the end of today we should have all paths for the electrical installed and most of the walls concreted. We have even started on water and sewer, which will not take long.

I have got to hand it to these guys. Between my American way of doing things and my weak Portuguese construction language, they seem to be doing very well. It is absolutely strange to them when I tell them that I want to fabricate a water heating system for my showers and washing machine. None of them like to take warm/hot showers and most of them probably don’t own a washing machine. And when they hear that I am going to build this system myself from an internet design it makes this “stranger” in their land even stranger.

--Please pray for the building of our roof. It is my white albatross and I still don’t know the way we are going to build it (structurally) or how much it is going to cost. (I am currently working on this so I should know more soon.)
--Thanksgiving we will head to Fortaleza to pick up a bunch of granite pieces for the shower and kitchen. Please pray it doesn’t break on the way back to Croata because the roads still have some holes from last rainy season.
--I have one more month of payments for the builder until we meet the 70% agreed amount until he completes the work. Pray that he spends his money wisely and saves enough to pay his workers when I stop paying him. The remainder 30% gets paid when the work is completed.

Whole House, Household +Walk-thru Video

We have now started on the top "belt." This is a rebar re-enforced concrete band that is poured on top of the load bearing walls to pull the structure together. The next steps are putting in the ceiling and then the roof. Together these make up the largest cost for building most homes. After this it is pretty much mostly concrete work and plumbing. I am going to do the wiring for the home and I have already purchased most of the materials. My current rental house has all of the electricity for the house running through one 15 amp breaker. I am currently getting this house house ready for our move in the near future. It is the renter's responsibility to bring their rental back up the same standard that it was before it was rented and I want to have a good testimony so it will be in much better shape when we leave. As for now, we still have a lot of work to do here before we turn the house back over to the owners.

Here is a Psalm that encourages us as our house & household grows:

Psalm 127

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

¹ Unless the LORD builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
² In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

³ Children are a heritage from the LORD,
offspring a reward from him.

Walls and other Blessings.

Last weekend we had to quickly run to Fortaleza for an emergency doctor's visit with Julie which ended in more joy than grief. It was worth leaving the construction site for four days to deal with her cyst which was causing here much pain and to find out that our pregnancy suspicions were correct and the baby is doing well at 8 weeks. We needed to stay for follow-up visits to the doctor and the house work in Croatá continued without us. This is a scary thing if you know anything about construction in the Brazilian interior. But when we arrived there was very little that needed to be changed due to minor measurement errors and the walls of the house had increased greatly. The men made the changes in one day and continued to go up with more walls of brick and mortar. Now we have another reason to get our new house completed and it was good to go to Fortaleza and get some more supplies.

As I have said in past writing, materials are generally more expensive here and labor is generally cheaper than in the US. One exception to this rule is granite and marble. It is in a surplus here and as far as materials go I would consider it "cheap." I had an estimate done on 2 bathroom sink counters, 2 bathroom shower divider walls (2m x 1m), one large kitchen countertop, 12 window sills, and 2 floor thoroughfares. The total ended up being R$2300. In the States this would probably be 5 times this amount. An added blessing to this cost is the recent increased value of the US dollar. The dollar has been falling since the day we stepped foot on Brazilian soil but the past two weeks have taken a turn for the positive. We were receiving 1.50 reais for every US dollar we spent. The dollar closed at 1.88 on Saturday against the Brazilian Real. This is the highest rate that we have seen in over two years. It still has much to recover to reach the 2.43 rate when we arrived here in Brazil, but it is a great blessing none the less. This will positively help offset some of the hyper-inflation that we are experiencing here.

It is just one more proof that the Lord is taking care of us and He can provide even when other things are failing. He is to be praised for all of our recent encouragements: the new house construction, Julie's pregnancy, and the value of the dollar increasing. Please thank Him with us for the blessings He uses to encourage our work here in Brazil. I will end this blog with a list of the blessings that we have to look forward to in this new house:

--It has a ceiling so...

No sand, leaves, or bugs falling into our house.

During the day the house will stay cooler (We don't use an air conditioner.)

Mosquitos cannot enter through roof tiles.

During the rainy season our sheets, furniture, & electronics will not get damp from droplets.

In the future we can build a second floor if we want.

The night sounds are blocked out easier.

It is more secure from theft than only having removable tiles.

--This house is an investment because...

We were paying rent but now we can be paying against what we own and improvements go toward our investment and not someone else's.

Our town is growing fast and will probably grow faster when the new highway is completed

Investing in the US is not "currently" as secure as in Brazil.

We also will have a carport to protect our vehicle from the sun.

--We have a more suitable place for ministry because...

The floor plan was made with areas to meet.

This house will be easier to keep cleaner and better for inviting people over (especially with the kitchen joined with the living room and an extra bathroom)

We are planning for an area to play basketball and have a soccer goal.

I am going to put a sink and toilet in the garage for the kids from kids club to use (They won't dirty the house or find things in the house that they would like to borrow indefinitely.)

--We have a more suitable living situation for our family.

We actually have some storage areas and closets (our current house has none)

Julie and I have our own bathroom/shower.

I will have a carport where I can repair the many things that break (like the car)

The kitchen we currently have is very hot, little, and very ugly.

--Other blessing are...

People see us more dedicated and have already shown more acceptance.

We now have another group of neighbors to get to know and tell about Christ.

We are directly behind the hospital which provides some emergency care if needed.

We have a place to keep the dogs outside when visitors come.

Everything will be new and clean.

I am going to work on getting hot water for the showers.

The Laundry room is separate from the kitchen.

Our front wall with be open so others can see inside instead of totally closed like our current wall/gate.

I am adding many places to hang a hammock for rest and visitors.

Plans for construction

Prayer requests for this construction project:

*Safety for the men working
*A good witness with all the workers

*Money Transfers go well (I remove the money from ATMs a little at a time but often the ATMs are broken or out of cash.)

*That the men will do quality & honest work

*That it will be done by Christmas (Our personal desire)

*That the money will hold out- the US $ does not drop and that I find good prices on materials

The land we purchased was already walled off and with a small garage. It was being used to plant corn but it was mostly covered with burrs when I cleaned out the brush. It has homes on both sides and we are building the house in the middle of the property to give us meeting areas in the front and a place for our two dogs in the back. The dogs will be able to walk all the way around the house at night for security.

We believe that this house will be a great help with our ministry here. Its location is not downtown but it is physically located in the middle of the city behind the only hospital. We have already met some of our new neighbors and we are closer to many of the kids that we already work with. We were able to choose the layout of this house to suit our family

and the ministry we are involved in. The structure is concrete reinforced walls so we can even build another level if needed to have a larger area for church services. Our present house doesn’t have a ceiling and the yard is nothing but sand so cleaning is a nightmare and the bugs have free reign. With a ceiling and window screens on the new house we will be able to keep the mosquitos and dust to a minimum.

Another addition to the new house is closet space. Most homes interior is like the one we are renting where they do not have any closet space or storage. Cloths are kept in furniture pieces like dressers and large armoires but most people don’t have anything extra to store. We are currently using Michaela’s room for storage space because we have no extra room, closets, basement, attic, or garage. (She was excited to find out that she will have her own room.) We plan on using the covered outside space for kids club while it lasts. We would like to convert our Kid’s Club into a Sunday school program early next year so we should also have plenty of meeting areas to split it into groups.

The completion date for the house is the end of November but most things here tend to run way behind schedule. I am praying to move in before the New Year for an early Christmas Present but I will not hold my breath. -Todd

Building a House. What! Why? How?

In the US, building a house seems like such a fun thing to do if you have the funds. Building a house here in Brazil was not even on our blueprints a year ago. Material, methods, and terms are very different especially to someone who has only lived here for about 2 ½ years.

But after visiting a good percentage of the homes here in Croatá, we have decided that finding a decent house at a decent price is not at all easy either. You see, there are not any real-estate agencies, classified ads, internet sites, or apartment search magazines even for a town that is the county seat. It is a rare occurrence for there to be a sign on a house available for purchase and if you find the words “For Sale” painted on the front wall, it is likely that it is from years past and never removed. The only way to find a house for sale is word-of-mouth and, although this was very fun, we still could not find anything more than two bedrooms at a reasonable price. In fact, when many people found out that the (assumedly “rich”) Americans were looking for a house they were willing to sell their small houses to us at large prices. As we looked at the amount of money we could get through a loan, we realized that we could build a house for a better price than purchasing a used home and then we could make it how and almost anywhere we want. Also, our current rental house needs some serious upgrading and we didn’t want to put more money into it and lose the investment. Unlike the current U.S. housing situation, real estate here is a very good investment and our small town is growing rapidly so we decided to take the plunge.

The Lord blessed us with a piece of land from the town dentist and one of our new Brazilian friends was able to make a deal for us to keep the price low. Then I drew plans on my computer using Google Sketch-Up for a couple of homes and talked to a bricklayer in town. After much documentation and red tape we started to build two weeks ago on August 29th. One of the most difficult hurdles of this process is trying to find out what is the end cost of the project. With the fluctuating US dollar value and high fees on transferring large sums of money internationally it is hard to know how much money I have to start with because my loan is from the US. After estimating how much I have to spend, I needed to estimate the cost of materials in parts: foundation, walls, roof, and fixtures. Even though my brick layer has a team to do the labor and a place to purchase materials, prices interior are top dollar and it is worth the 9hr round trip to Fortaleza to purchase windows, doors, fixtures, and smaller items for plumbing and electrical. Praise the Lord I have a truck to carry the materials!

Our current feelings on building are much excitement mixed with fear. I visit the site multiple times a day and sometimes spend all day with the workers. (I even have done some of my Bible studies at the existing garage at the property.) So far they have been very trustworthy and they have been doing a good job. Sometimes measurements are not exactly accurate I constantly need to make sure things are going according to the plans. But we feel blessed to have the opportunity to meet more people and build a house that will give us the opportunity to serve the Lord and the community of Croatá better. The project is scheduled to be completed in 3-4 months and we are praying that we can be in the house by Christmas. The Lord is worthy to be praised for His faithfulness to us and we now have a daily reminder of His provision. Thank you for your prayers. --Todd