Dear Readers,

It’s a big week at Church Sweet Home. The drywallers are coming! The drywallers are coming! This means we’ve entered Phase Three of construction: Drywall, Paint & Flooring. Tyler and I are so excited, we can’t sleep (well, that may be just a symptom of middle age, but you get the picture). A building really begins taking shape when Sheetrocked walls cover the studded ones.

I’ve also caught up to reality in the stories on this blog. When I started the blog back in late November, the posts were a month or so ahead of what was actually happening at the old Methodist church we’re turning into our dream home. But we don’t work on the church every single day, so reality inevitably caught up. I have a handful of vignettes in the vault awaiting publication, but let me tell you, I scrambled last week, writing blog posts day by day. Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed I changed my mind about the “tomorrow” installment more than once.

Meanwhile, I’ve run across a few odds and ends along the way, news that occurred after I wrote about the subject initially. Like, whatever happened to that bat that appeared out of nowhere and flew into the furnace room? And how were those sixteen-foot-long faux beams delivered to the church? (Hint: Not in an Amazon Prime cardboard box). That’s how it goes with a real-time memoir. Sometimes stuff happens after publication.

So for the next week or so, I’ll be sharing a few little stories that will ultimately be integrated into the relevant location in the memoir. Think of this as the time in the novel—especially a mystery novel—when you page back to reread a few passages to remind yourself about what’s going on.

Also, it might be a good time to show some love. If you’re a fan of Church Sweet Home, I’d love it if you told your friends about it, especially the ones who like to read real-life stories or the DIYers who binge-watch HGTV or the aficionados who appreciate historical restoration (and rubberneckers who are obsessed with real-time accidents—we welcome them, too).

To share on social media networks, just mention www.ChurchSweetHome.com. The best place for a new reader to start is here: https://churchsweethome.com/how-to-read-this-blog/

And, I learned a new trick: You can save Church Sweet Home right on the home screen of your phone, like an app. Here’s how on an Apple device: Just type www.ChurchSweetHome.com into the search bar on Safari and then look for the icon on the bottom of the screen that looks like a box with an up arrow.  Click it and scroll through the options until you find “Add to Home Screen.” (This is also how you might share the webpage with a friend via text (“Message”) or email (“Mail”) or Facebook (Facebook icon).) Now you have a short cut on your Home Screen that gets you right to ChurchSweetHome.com to read the latest.

In any case, I’m grateful to those of you who’ve come along for the ride and who offer words of encouragement. After working on the church for five months and a hundred years of winter, we appreciate it!

Tomorrow: An oil-burning air conditioner? Read about it here.