Before & After

Back in 2012, right before we left for PNG, we found out that the Lord had provided us a house. Needless to say, we were shocked. Sight unseen, we were homeowners in a country we'd never even stepped foot in. Only God does something like that.

We knew ahead of time that this gift would need a fair share of TLC, but when the Lord gives you something, you don't say no, right?! 

Once we arrived, our "to do" list grew quickly. Inside, 30+ year old moldy wall paper needed to come off, trees needed to be cut down and parts of the outside were damaged from rain. 

And the roof. 

The roof was in bad condition. It was old and had rusted parts in several places. One of those rusted spots was the small bathroom in our bedroom. Every time it rained the water would run down the walls and we'd walk into a huge puddle in the floor. Not pleasant in the middle of the night. So this clearly was going to be repair number one.

Here's the house shortly after we moved in...red rusted roof and all.

After about 9 months waiting on parts and pieces, we had a new, non leaky roof-yay!

The next stage came as another surprise to us. In 2014 we were gifted a solar panel system that powers the entire house! Thanks to the year round equatorial sun beating down on our roof, we have one less monthly bill to pay. Pretty amazing.

(I will say it pained me slightly to hear the Construction department drilling holes into my nice nearly new roof!!)

 

The next thing we knew we had to do was have the exterior painted. Wood was continuing to rot and we knew if we were going to stay long term in this house, we were going to have to bite the bullet and have it done. 

We asked around and several friends had hired a very reliable, knowledgeable PNG man named Andy. He came by one day after hearing we were interested in using him and he said, "Great. I can start Monday." We were floored. We had zero paint and were in a scramble to get supplies. Andy could not only paint, he was quite the carpenter as well and replaced all the rotting pieces we had been worried about.

I will say there is a rather lengthy drama story with the paint. The short version... what we ordered and what we ended up getting were two different things. What we ultimately ended up with was a color friends of ours had purchased in the US and didn't need, so we bought it from them. Clearly, there are essential details missing that this space just can't cover. Trust me.

Needless to say, the end result pictured below is nothing what I had originally in my mind, but I couldn't be more thrilled! I'm excited to have this part finished. I'm also hopeful that we will get to enjoy this gift for many more years.