ROCC Extreme Home Makeover - Small Group Edition

Welcome to the ROCC Extreme Makeover - Small Group Edition!

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At long last! So many of you have been anxiously awaiting pictures of the exciting activities that when on one cold weekend in January! What exactly was happening at the Roberts house the weekend of January 9th, 10th, & 11th? Following you will get to enjoy pictures and the story of how beautifully the Lord works in the details of life in addition to how He brings joy to all involved ... may your life be blessed by seeing the miracle of what the Lord can accomplish when we give Him something to work with!

A Special Thanks Goes To ...

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An incredibly big THANK YOU goes to Jeff Hutchison with Patch Ministries. We could have never pulled this huge project off without him!

How the Roberts Home Makeover Came to Be ...

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This idea was born out of hearts that desired to serve a family within our Church Body as a Christmas gift to The Lord. Through the leading of the Holy Spirit, the Borders Small Group began to formulate a plan for how they could serve a weary family in need of some extra love in our Body ...

The Roberts family of 8 (Bob, Caroline, Elena, Ian, Evan, Elijah, Jonathan, & Joshua) became the unanimous choice and the group set out to make arrangements for how to accomplish the task at hand.

First, the group wanted to send Bob and Caroline off for a weekend get-away. This was a two-fold purpose; 1) to give this weary mom and dad a relaxing time together alone with NO children, and 2) to give the group a chance to tear up their house and then put it back together again without them seeing the process; a mini-home makeover per say ..... So a card was created letting Bob and Caroline know about their weekend get-away (destination unknown to them!) Once they had chosen a date, arrangements were made to finalize their destination, and then it was time to make arrangements for the children!

The plan was for the children to stay Friday night at the house and be helpful in the cleaning and organizing process (whose bright idea was that? ~ oh, ummm, nevermind ... I think it was mine) ... The Borders and the Newvines stayed with the children Friday night. Then Saturday morning, arrangements were made for each child to go to a special "fun" destination for the day as well as to spend the night Saturday night with someone in the Church Body. All the children would then be ready for Bob and Caroline to pick up Sunday morning immediately after church; that was the initial plan anyway ...

Saying Goodbye and Exiting the Building ...

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The Newvines arrived at 3:15 p.m. Drill Sargeant Joy wasted no time encouraging Mom and Pop to get their "booties" on the move ... and that they needed to be out the door at 4:00 p.m. sharp! Let's go, let's go, let's go!!!!!!

Johnny made this beautiful house that he wanted to make sure Mommy remembered before leaving for the weekend ... Elijah is so graciously displaying it for the picture ...

Mommy saying goodbyes to her youngest Joshie ...

The Roberts Family Photo

Bob and Caroline before pulling out of the driveway to their desitation of ... where?

Caroline and Bob took the Newvines car with an envelope waiting for them on the dash telling them where their next stop would be on their desitation to .......

(by the way, they were pulling out of the driveway at 4:15 p.m. ... not bad!!!)

Not 30-seconds later ...

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Bob and Caroline had not even finished backing out of the driveway before demolition inside began ....

Johnny's expression as he entered the room ... and here is what he saw ...

Beware! Hazardous Work Site ... Under Construction

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Where should we start ???

Let the organizing ...

And cleaning begin ...

Dinner Time!

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Here's what was accomplished by dinner Friday night ...

Framing was up for the recessed lighting.

Elena assessing the "ruins" ...

Don't look too closely, it's a little dusty ...

Construction in process on the new closet ...

Spaghetti for dinner, yum!!

David has decided to sacrifice tonight ... instead of shaking a half can of parmesian on his spaghetti, he saves the little bit left in the can for his buds ...

Buddy gets in on the action ...

Back to work after dinner ...

Sheetrock is now up and ready for mudding ...

Friday Night Notes and Bed-Time Stories

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At about 9:00 p.m., the children sat down to write Mom and Dad notes telling them how they were thankful for them and how much they love them ...

Elijah was so enthusiastic about writing his note and drawing his beautiful picture ...

Johnny was enthusiastic about taking his Rubik's cube to the Hargis's on Saturday. He was also packed and ready to go!

Elena was checking out what was going on with the outside world while chaos was going on with her inside world ...

Next, it was time for a bedtime story of Goodnight Moon

Joshi loved helping tell the story ...

Nighty-night everyone ...

Saturday Morning A-Buzz With Busy Bees ...

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Even though it was cold and rainy, Saturday morning was in full swing by 9:00 a.m. We had an outpouring of people in the Body who helped in various ways such as those who picked up children for their fun time away, those who gave monetary resources to support the cause, and those to came to help clean, sew, build, wire, mud, sand, paint, etc., etc., etc., ...

Help has arrived!!!

Eunice Cleaning ...

Chad and Minda Organizing ...

Edna Sewing (with a helpful Jim alongside)...

Randy, Chris, Andrew, & Russ Sheetrocking ...

Curt taking care of Electrical ... with a little food to keep the energy up...

Chris doing some closet building ...

Kathy doing a bit of cleaning in the kitchen ...

A little patch work by Jim ...

Sally taking care of laundry ...

Dawn Dusting ...

Kate, our happy mudder :))

Andrew sanding down the wall.

Curt in action at the closet...

David, an amazing shelf builder ... weathering the rain and cold ...

Look What I Found!!

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During the cleaning and organizing process in the utility room, lo and behold, Dawn stumbles across a HUGE container of parmesan cheese! Oh my! David won't have to sacrifice tonight!

Saturday Night Dinner ...

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The guys taking a break for dinner

Looks like Chris can't keep his eyes open ... and it's only 7 o'clock!

The girls enjoying dessert ... well ... Lindsay is anyway :))

Back to Work after Dinner

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Once Andrew finished up the sanding ...

The girls got to priming and painting the back wall ...

While the guys were working on the closet. The inside is now finished!

Andrew moves onto making final touches on shelving for the bookcases ...

Joy primes and paints the shelves ....

Finished!

Dawn and Joy then move onto painting the chest that is to go at the foot of the bed.

Sally is busy painting the laundry room.

David hanging out under a new sink top installation ...

Dawn assessing the computer/guest/craft room organization from hers and Lindsay's hard work!

Hey! Why are you guys sittin' around? Get back to work!

A snag or two along the way ...

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Can anyone engage in a project of this size without there being a snag (or two) along the way? Below was one little snag, or should I say a place where someone got "stuck in the mud" ....

AAA could have easily been called, but the testosterone was in full force, so there was no talking the guys into calling anyone ... they were gunna do it themselves ... and to their credit, they did ... :))

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Another slight snag was waiting for the mud to dry (on the walls not the car) :)). The 30-minute mud was purchased, but it was setting up so fast that water was added, which caused it to take a LOT longer to dry. This put waiting mode into Sunday morning before the last coat of mud was sanded and ready to be painted for the bedroom. Not to mention bookshelves needing to be put in, floors needing to be cleaned (big time!), a mirror needing hung, furniture needing put back in place, & cleaning, cleaning, cleaning needing to happen ...

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At 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, Chris, David, and Joy found themselves haggardly looking around at sheetrock debris, equipment, supplies, mud all over the living room, a master bedroom that had the looks of a tornado invasion, and hazy sheetrock dust hanging in the air. It is not an understatement to say it was a huge mess. Was this project was really going to get done in time???

Sunday Morning Snapshots ...

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A little weary, but we've still got lots of to do!!!

The "dusty" twins

Here's how the furry ones were fairing on Sunday morning ... Can't go through the weekend and not have something mentioned about them! They were survivors!

Yet To Be Accomplished vs Accomplished

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It is no exageration that it looked as if a bomb went off in the L.R., but below are some pics to shine a little light where much was accomplished ...

Starting with the basement ... if only there had been better before pictures ...

Everything was cleaned and organized down to the last box with nothing left lying on the floor (there may have been a few items thrown away...).

The Hallway Closet

The closet complete with only priming and painting left to do on the hallway walls.

The Guest/Computer/Craft Room

Everything organized with nothing thrown away ... those girls were amazing!

The Kitchen

Cabinets wiped down, counters cleaned, floors scrubbed, shelves organized, stove cleaned, and dishes washed.

The utility room beyond the kitchen was reorganized (with nothing thrown away), and the laundry room had a fresh coat of paint and was beautifully organized by Ms. Sally.

Down to the Wire!

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The rest of the house had been whipped into shape including bathrooms being completely cleaned upstairs by Ms. Shelby (who missed getting her picture taken). However, the Living Room and Master Bedroom still had a ways to go. These pictures were taken at 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning in the Master Bedroom. Notice the details of the room such as: Sheetrock dust, ladders, paint trays, rollers, furniture in disarray, etc. etc., Oh my goodness! Church is going to be done in an hour and a half and we are just putting primer on!

I'm sure Caroline will be thrilled to see her beautiful dresser covered with this!

Scurrying Like You've Never Seen!

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It was decided that stalling would be of great help since there was still painting going on in the Master Bedroom; not to mention the Living Room looked as if there were no hope. Kate was gracious to take the Roberts family to lunch while the group continued to work feverishly ...

2:00 p.m. The call came in. "They will be here in 20 Minutes!" Shouted Joy at the top of her lungs. You should have seen everyone kick into high gear. There was still equipment in the L.R., floors to be vaccumed and mopped, a Master Bedroom that still was not put back together, and a Dining Room table screaming for items to be put in their place. Only to be a fly on the wall ...

2:19 p.m. "One-minute! We have one minute!" Came Joy's earsplitting update ... if the group was moving at high speed at the 20-minute warning, the 1-minute warning sent everyone into orbit ... lightening speed. Who knows what ended up where as there was a fury of activity with things flying, people running back and forth like wild madmen (& women), and some yelling "Where does this go?" As the expected arrivals pulled into the driveway, Eunice was finishing mopping up the last of the dust at the front door.

When the Roberts walked in the door at 2:23 p.m., this is what they saw:

Welcome Home!

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A sweet time together was cherished by all as Caroline shared her heart through tears of joy, ultimately giving thanks to the One who allowed such an outpouring of love through His Grace.

Exploring The Extreme Makeover

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The walk-through ...

The Crowd

The Grand Finale

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This is what you've all been waiting for. The big project ... was it able to be finished? See what you think ...

Notice Caroline's hand heading toward her mouth ...

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35

One Last Note

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You may still be wondering where Bob and Caroline went on their weekend away ... they were sent to a beautiful cabin in Townsend ...

Sometime in the near future, Caroline will share stories and pictures of their amazing time away, so check back later!