ELMER TELLS OF THEIR NEW HOME

As you have been coming on here, you know this is not our new house.  But, as Anna said, we are in our new house.  Let me see describe the house to you.

When you walk in our front door, that faces the road, the living room is on the right and the kitchen is on your left.  It is a rather large living room with sliding walls, so they can be opened when we have church at our house.  Behind the living room is a bedroom, bathroom and second bedroom.

When you walk through our kitchen on the left is the mud room, the washer room,  Anna's sewing room, a small bedroom (my train room) and our master bedroom with a bathroom.  In the back of the house across from our master bedroom and the guest bedrooms is a little room that we made into a smaller living room.  Just large enough for a couple of chairs, and end table.  We like to call this our living room where we can sit when we don't have guests.  It can also be used when we have church to give us more room to serve the meal.  We can sit more people at one sitting.

On the outside of the house there is a porch on the front that faces the road.  There is also a porch off the back where we can sit and look out over our lawn - then the fields.  Anna is going to put her garden to left side of the back porch and flowers around both porches.  We can go out on the back porch from both our little living room and our bedroom.

As Anna said, our basement is cement block with a walk out.  You have to take stairs from the house to the basement, but in the basement you can walk out the door.

Our new barn is to the left of the house.  There is a lot of room between the house and the barn.  We will have our cows, horses, farming equipment and carriages in the barn.

I didn't think I would really like a one story house.  But, as Anna said, I don't have to go up and down the stairs to the second floor, which means a lot to me.  More than I thought it would.  We are really enjoying our new house.

Anna was telling about the stone counter in the house.  Before I had it put on, I asked my friend, Bishop Eli, if it was all right.  He had a meeting of the deacons, minister and himself.  I was there, too.  When he explained what I was asking for, one of the deacons said: "You mean we aren't suppose to have them?".  Eli said it hadn't been decided and asked why he looked so shocked.  The deacon said he and his wife had just gotten their kitchen done over and had stone counter tops put in.  After some discussion it was decided that stone counter tops were all right as long as we put it just on the counter and not on the walls.  Deacon and I were very happy.  The deacon said all he could think of was going home and telling his wife, he had to tear her new counter out.  But that was not necessary.

Anna didn't mention that our son, when he made our bedroom suit, he built me stairs to get into the bed.  Anna has no problem getting into bed, but it was high for me.  As the bedroom suit was in a different wood than our old bedroom set, he made the stairs.

I bought us a new mattress and box spring for the new bed.  We hadn't had a new one in a long time and thought that it was time.  When we got in our other bed, we seemed to meet in the middle.  On the new mattress,  we are both flat and level.  We only meet in the middle, if we want to.

Our son also made the recliner for me that is in our living room.  It is smaller than most recliners, but is perfect for me.  He measured me before he made the recliner which I thought was a bit funny.  Our son wanted to make sure it wasn't too tall or too short for me.  I even got to pick out the material for it.

Someone asked if we had indoor plumbing in our new house and yes, we do.  Our Old Order Amish, allow us to have indoor plumbing, but we are not allowed electric.  So we have regular bathrooms with a sink, bath tub, shower and toilet.  In our kitchen we have faucets in our kitchen sink.  We even have hot and cold water.  Our hot water tank is run by gas.  Not all Old Order Amish allow in door plumbing, but our group does.

Now Anna wants to know if I have any money left in the account I had been saving money in for the furniture.  Yes.  She said we have everything - what could I be saving for now.  I told her a new buggy.  We have a buggy that has a back seat.  We needed it with our family.  Years ago, we bought that used.  Now that John has moved out of our house, we should give him that buggy and get us a new one just for the two of us.  Of course, John may buy his own buggy before we can give him ours.  We have a way to go saving for the new buggy.  This time I want a brand new buggy, built just for us.  It would probably be the last buggy we would ever buy.

After we got settled into our new home Eli and his wife invited us to his house for dinner.  I knew something was wrong, we he asked us to step in his office before dinner.  Also, had an idea about what the problem was.  When we sat down, he said we had been good friends for a long time, but he was also our Bishop.  He didn't want to ruin our friendship.  I told him go ahead, I think I know why we are here anyway.  What it boiled down to is I use the cell phone to much and in public yet.  Some people had seen me use the phone, not in an emergency.  They were right.  In fact I used it at the barn raising instead of going to the phone shanty.  Eli said the telephone was allowed to me and a couple of other Amish people because we belong to the fire department.  It is to be used for the fire department and emergency only except, he has given me, permission to give Marilyn our posts on it.  If we continue to use the phone all the time, he will have to take not only our phone but the others, too and he doesn't want to do that.  I admitted I was wrong and I would use it only when necessary.  As we were leaving his office, Eli got a smile on his face and said remember this isn't Pinecraft.

We had a nice dinner and afterward as we talked, Eli said, we didn't know how hard it was, for him to call us in.  I told him, he is our friend both personal and Bishop wise.  He was in the right.  There was no problem.  He is still my friend.

Now that we got our house and barn done - it's time to go over and work on John's house.  I told him to let his lady plus her lady friends get together to decide how she wants the kitchen and living room.  Also decide what bedroom they want for the master bedroom.  We do the rest.  It is August and that house has to be ready by October or November - they don't have much time.  We have to get rid of the electric, check the plumbing, windows, etc.  Also have to make sure the house is insulated and it needs a new roof.  That is just the start of what he has to do.

Funny, we realize it is faster to build a new house from the ground up than it is to remodel a standing one.

Trust God's Wisdom,
Elmer