Christmas Card Tree

Our Christmas card tree has sprouted lots of 'leaves', there are so many beautiful cards and letters from our precious family and friends!  We absolutely love getting Christmas cards in the mail and our kiddos love to look at all the pictures. 

We're thinking of each of you this season and pray that you all have a blessed and wonderful Christmas!

Officially Finished!

Yesterday we signed the papers and we are now officially homeowners once again!  It was the long awaited and much anticipated official finishing touch to our 2 year journey of building our home.  It was a day that we wondered if it would ever come at times.



I thought it would be appropriate to share our Christmas letter that we recently sent out as it sums up all we've walked through in the past couple years. 

I know most of you have received our letter and have already read it, and we have received such sweet and encouraging responses from some of you.  We are so blessed by your loving and kind words. 

Ultimately we hope the glory goes to the Lord, for it was only by His leading, His strength and His grace and mercy that we are where we are today and can share our testimony of His goodness and faithfulness in our lives. 

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s hard to know where to begin in telling of all that God has worked together for good in our lives over the last few years.  We watched Him work miracles and sustain us through the building of our house. We experienced the blessing of the birth of our third child Janessa who was our most calm and low maintenance baby when we needed it the most.  And we were shown great love from the Paulson family and many others who helped us throughout the whole process of building.  So please bear with us as we attempt to share all the Lord has done.

Our adventure began, unbeknownst to us at the time just how big the journey would be, when Jeana was pregnant with our 3^rd child Janessa.  At the time we were living in an old historic home in downtown Minot and because of the layout of the house we had difficulty seeing how our growing family could continue to live there.  The Lord used this dilemma to direct us to what ultimately led to the building of our own home.  We initially pursued purchasing a larger house but due to the rising market value we could not upgrade from our current home at an affordable price.  Nathan still worked for ACB Construction and we had friends encouraging us to build a house as well as offering their help in the building process.  We sought the Lord and counted the costs for our family knowing the sacrifice would be great and chose to move forward.

This is when we experienced firsthand a miracle from the Lord.  Our house was never on the market but our realtor offered to show it to a couple who she thought would be interested in it.  On the 1^st night they walked through the house they offered us full price and gave us a 6 month window to close.  During this time we were still looking to buy a house, but because of a fall out with an offer we made on a house and this unexpected offer on our house, we put our trust in the Lord and accepted their offer to purchase our home.  Within a month we purchased our land, and in 2 months we closed on our house, packed up and moved all of our belonging into storage, then we moved into the Paulson’s camper.

In June, after building had already started, the historic flood of 2011 hit Minot, ND.  1/3 of the homes in Minot were flooded including our historic house that we had just sold 2 months prior.  In hindsight we saw the hand of the Lord pluck us from that house and protect us from so much devastation.   We are in awe that we are where we are today instead of where we could have been had we not chosen to follow His prompting on the selling of our house.  At the time, the sale and move from our home had seemed sudden and was out of character for us, but now we know it was the Lord working a miracle on our behalf. 

We lived in the camper from April to November 2011. In May we broke ground (when the ground had unthawed) and building began on the house.  A typical week during this time was: Monday thru Friday Nathan worked from 7-5:30 for ACB Construction, he rushed home to the camper for a quick dinner and then headed to the property to work on the house, usually until midnight on average.  Saturdays were spent working on the house and Sundays were set aside for the Lord and Family.  Monday thru Saturday Jeana spent her days the same: pregnant with 2 toddlers living in a camper, in some ways much like a single mom.  Occasional trips were made to the property to watch Nathan work on the house and as often as possible, trips to Menards just to have time together.  In July Jeana gave birth to our 3^rd child Janessa and we brought her home to the camper.  Nathan took a week off as we transitioned to being a family of 5.  Then work resumed as usual for Nathan, and Jeana adjusted to having 2 toddlers and a newborn in the camper. 

            November came and temperatures had been below freezing for a while, leaving a small window of time during the day where water to the camper was available and nights were getting dangerously cold for the kids.  So we made the decision to move into our very unfinished house. Here is a description of our living conditions when we moved in: the floors were OSB, we had our appliances but nothing else in the kitchen and we had a working bathroom with a toilet, sink, and bathtub which also served as the kitchen sink. The outside was house wrapped but there was no siding and no insulation in the basement.   Shortly after we moved in, we obtained our certificate of occupancy and work continued on the house.  The living conditions were challenging but we were grateful to be together more now that we were all living together in the new house.

In 2012 we watched the house transform piece by piece from a construction zone into our home.  With few exceptions Nathan’s weekly routine remained the same until the recent completion of the main level in November 2012.  The main reason for our motivation and drive to get the house finished was due to the requirement the bank had set, 100% done on the main floor, to get off a construction loan (interest only)and into a mortgage.  

From the beginning to the end there were many people, precious friends, who volunteered and helped Nathan with the building of our home.  We truly could not have done it without their help and the time they set aside for our family.  Thank you to all who helped and for those who prayed for us.  We are grateful beyond what words could begin to express!

And we’re grateful to be where we’re at…finished with the house.   These past few weeks we’ve been finding our new normal.  Reflecting back we can see the hand of the Lord clearly directing us, His goodness and faithfulness in spite of our mistakes and shortcoming through it all.  He protected our children and our marriage, He protected us from so much devastation due to the flood and He has sustained and strengthened our family through it all.  We can only give the glory to Him for the good that has come through this process.

We are excited to see what the Lord has in store for our family in the coming year.  It’s always an adventure when you put your trust in the Lord and allow Him to direct your steps, with Christ it’s the greatest adventure of all.

Love the Mudd’s

A Year In Review

Just over a year ago we moved out of the Paulson's camper and into our very unfinished house.  And here we are a year later and very grateful to be finishing up.

My mom has asked me for a 'year in review' post for a while now, but I've found it hard to sit down and put everything that's happened in the past year into words.  Nathan and I took some time to look through all the photos from the past year and it's hard to believe just how much has changed and transformed.  Over the past year we've watched our house transform from a construction zone into a home piece by piece.  It's been a pretty amazing experience that sure makes you appreciate every part of a home, even down to the smallest aspects. 

We moved into our house in November of last year.  It was getting too cold in the camper.  We had no running water in the camper except for a couple hours each day and it was simply too cold at night for it to be safe for the kids.  So, we moved into our house that had little more than a working toilet, sink and bathtub that also functioned as our kitchen sink for quite some time. 

When I look back at the pictures it's hard to imagine that we made it through to where we are today.  The floors were OSB and I had two toddlers running around and an infant.  There was no insulation in the basement or siding on the outside of the house.  Nothing was in our kitchen other than a fridge and a stove.  And thankfully we also had our washer and dryer hooked up.  A must have.  I had run to our local Goodwill and grabbed every flat sheet that was available to spread down on our floors just to try and make things a little more comfortable.  And it was from there that we began to move forward into turning our house into a home. 

Last night in the camper.

Life when we moved into the house.

the kitchen

the master bedroom

a functioning bathroom with no door

main living area

First order of business was getting the kitchen cabinets installed so the floor could go down.

Nathan took the week off during Thanksgiving last year to work on getting the main living area floor installed.

After the floor was in Nathan finished installing the upper cabinets in the kitchen and the cabinets in the laundry room.

Then we got a makeshift counter on the island so we could temporarily set up the sink.  It was so nice to finally not have to do the dishes in the bathtub.

Then we camped out in the living room while the carpet was installed. (December 2011)

2 trips to town and 2 couches to find the right one for our living room.

first couch was too small

second was just right

Counter tops came, the back counter tops sat there un-installed for many months, the island counter tops were installed.

During the month of January we worked on the master closet and Zeke's closet.

Books were pulled out of boxes from storage and put on the bookshelf in the hallway.

Extra touches to the kitchen cabinets were installed.

February we saw the girls' closet finished.

Then we started the Mid-Way House Tour.

living room

dining room

sun room

And the island lights were installed.

April we started getting started on the Master Bathroom, the final flooring to be installed on the main floor.

Zeke got in on the building action and helped Nathan install door handles on the doors.

All the while the outside of the house remained like this.

May we saw some exciting changes taking place, work once again began on the outside of the house as siding started going up.

Stairs in the entry got flooring installed.

More touches to the bathroom went in, along with some organization.

And problems with the shingles on the roof ensued.  Nathan spent many afternoons patching shingles.

And more siding.

In June we got the garage doors temporarily up.

And still more siding to work on.

In July we say a big change to the front of our house when the pillars on the front porch were installed.

August brought about one of the most exciting finishes, siding on the house was finally completed!

October was a month of getting all the final touches finished on the main floor of the house.  Lots of trim and patching holes... almost finished...

And finally around the second week of November we finally finished!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the look back over the past year of our life.  Praise be to the Lord, we are so grateful to be on this side of the building process.  And we are just thankful to be done with the main floor!