Grateful

Over the past few months (we started end of May) we have been working on adding a new deck onto the back of our house. This project has been some years in the making. The house came with one medium size deck off the family room and one very small (could barely fit a chair) deck off the dining room. Our original desire was to have steps into the backyard, have two decks the same size and a bridge connecting them. After the county rejected those plans we decided that we would just make one large deck across the back of the house.

Now, the MOST important thing to mention in all of this is that we would not and could not do something like this without my Dad. My Dad is simply amazing (in all ways but especially when it comes to construction). He drew the plans and then redrew them and then he basically built the entire deck, with help from Erik and many friends (who pitched in from time to time). My Dad can basically do ANYTHING when it comes to building. He once told my aunt that if she could think of it he could build it (this was when he completely gutted and renovated her house). He has over the past several years, tiled the kitchen in our bathroom, added chair rail, added an additional bathroom, moved a huge shed by himself using levers, installed a patio, built custom bookshelves. He did all that in our townhouse which we sold a few years ago. When we moved into our current home he remodeled the basement making one huge bedroom into two smaller ones, he installed a double oven, installed 3 sliders and converted one slider into a window, fixed various electrical problems with house, gutted our old master bath, remodeled it and installed a washer and dryer on our second floor. His most recent project is the deck. In all these projects his ability to work constantly amazes me. He puts in 60 hours in 4 days and then at 9:30 at night drives home to NJ. He is truly gifted.

He has done all this for his daughter (who he loves), he has served his son (who he also loves) with remodeling and putting several additions on his house, I already mentioned my aunt, he has also helped various other family members. You might think he is a great guy for serving all these people in his family but he has also in recent years (as he entered partial retirement) remodeled a strangers house (someone whose house was destroyed in a flood). He goes on missions trips to New Orleans, Africa and Nicaragua. I imagine he would go anywhere to help someone in need. He uses his gifts for God's service and glory.

Dad, I know you hate being honored but we are tremendously grateful for your help (that doesn't seem like the right word) in building this deck. It has already made a huge impact on our family. The kids love being out there and we already enjoyed such sweet family times together.