Rebuilding Together

After a week of various serving opportunities, I feel supernaturally at peace today!

Last Thursday, Randy, Chelsea and I went down to Willow-South Barrington to help with seed packing (read more here). On Friday, Brandon and Randy took the work truck to pick up donated building materials to deliver to Cary-Grove Neighborhood Life. Then on Saturday, we got a random team together to help Rebuilding Together's Restore Aurora project - 30 homes in the Aurora area were rebuilt/restored by various volunteer groups.


We teamed up with James Frangella and ServPro of LaGrange Park / N. Riverside and brought down with us one of our employees, Brandon; the husband of one of Women's Group friends, Steve; our daughter's youth pastor, Kevin; a dear friend of our's, Carrie; and our roofer sent down two of his employees. Along with Jim's team, we had a State Farm employee and her boyfriend, and two men who are part of a real estate investment club and one of their daughter's. Like I said, totally random group, but the most awesome group I could have hoped to work with. There was not one ounce of ego or attitude floating around and we got quite a bit of work done in a pretty short amount of time.


Check out our quick photo album from the day on Our Facebook Page.

If serving isn't your thing . . . make it your thing. Your soul will thank you!!!

Happy Earth Day!!!

Okay, before anyone comments that "saving the earth" is all hooey and something the government made up, think about this . . . The earth is a beautiful planet. Stop and take a gander at nature today, I mean REALLY check it out. It can be a thing of immense beauty!!! It should just be a total given that we desire to be good stewards of the planet we live on. It's our home, why on earth wouldn't we want to keep it clean and fresh??? And, yes, that pun WAS intended. Sorry!

Now, pay attention to all of the garbage gathered along the roadways as you drive on them. Look at how quickly the garbage at your favorite coffee house gets full of recyclable cups. Smell the assaulting stench of chemicals as we clean our homes and cover up those "offending odors". It's the ugly side of life and it brings us down. Who wants that???!!! And, okay, sidenote here . . . why was a chemical spray invented to cover up odors in our homes??? Don't cover up nasty odors!!! Find the cause AND GET RID OF IT! But, I digress . . .

If we would all just stop pretending that our actions don't affect the planet and get on with behaving ourselves and doing the right thing, this planet would be the thing of beauty it is intended to be.

Here are a few easy tips that you can get started with RIGHT NOW! As they say over at Nike - JUST DO IT!

• When going to your favorite coffee house, ask for your drink in a mug or take the cup home with you and make sure to rinse it out and recycle it.
• Get a group together to spend an afternoon picking up trash along a roadside. This is perfect for a church youth group, a school community service group, National Honor Society kids, etc.
• Turn off the water when brushing your teeth or rinsing dishes for the dishwasher. This is a BIGGIE that I need to get better at. Too often, my honey needs to ask me, "why are you in here and the water is running in the kitchen". I turn it on over a sink of dishes needing rinsing and walk off. UGH.
• Turn lights off every time you walk out of a room. Turn computers off when not in use. Unplug phone chargers (another we need to work on), etc.
• Refresh old furniture instead of trashing it. We have become such a huge throw-away society. Instead of spending your money on something new, spend it on employing someone to paint, sew, cane your furniture back to good shape.
• Clean with earth friendly products. Good old vinegar and water is an amazing cleaner!
• Instead of using pesticides on weeds, use boiling water. I tried it the other day on dandelions and the next day, they were completely brown and shriveled up.

The list can go on and on and it does. Search the internet for whatever area of your life you know you should be approaching in a much more earth friendly manner.

And, let's be painfully honest here - as you can see from the list, it all involves effort. Let's not be a lazy society of wasteful consumers. Let's pull up our bootstraps and be active caretakers of this beautiful planet we call EARTH!

A New Bathroom Transformation!

It seems, in this economy, that people are choosing to take care of their existing homes and updating them to enjoy them themselves now while also giving them an advantage when and if the time comes to sell and the market is in a better place. They will have newly remodeled spaces, making their home more attractive over the competition. A VERY popular remodel in these times is updating/rearranging the bathroom.

One of our most recent jobs was a bathroom transformation from outdated to spectacularly functional. We took out a shower that was in a tiny closet-type hallway and created a new linen closet in its place.

We removed a spa tub that the customer rarely used and replaced it with a roomy, walk-in shower complete with bench and a tiled niche along with a Basco Infinity sliding shower door and Moen faucets and accessories in brushed nickel.

Next, a single-sink countertop/cabinet was replaced to give this customer much needed additional storage and room. A Staron solid-surface countertop with intrigal sinks was installed on taller cabinets with extra storage. Coordinating mirrors and light fixtures were installed to complete the look.

We're in the process of three new bathrooms and are looking forward to upcoming kitchen remodels too. Will keep you posted (pun intended).

The most amazing product . . . Solid marble or quartz groutless custom shower systems - easy cleaning and absolutely gorgeous!!!

Chief Architect class - an amazing design program!

Handicap accessories have style and no longer need to look institutionalized.

Taking the backroads to Chicago through Winnetka and Kenilworth and along the Lakeshore - so beautiful!!! Love it!

R & W Has Joined Facebook World!

Developed our biz facebook page tonight.

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