The Heymann Family Journal

I was thinking about my green house. What can I use for a green house. Then I thought about bubble wrap. Has anyone ever used bubble wrap for green houses? So I did a web search. And people do use it. Mostly for insulation in glass houses. People also build green houses with plastic bottles. So maybe we could also think about doing that? But plastic bottles have a high deposit in Germany, so cost is a factor. Here are some photos. Maybe I can use straw bale for the bottom of the green house and plastic bottles for the top of the green house. Just an idea.

We got some snow over night. It wasn't much, but it looks pretty. Juergen will show the house again tonight. But he is so anxious to sell it, I'm afraid he will give it away at a steep loss. I just have to pray God will protect us in this process. Someone at SAP already replied to Juergen's rental ad. Perhaps it will go in that direction? It's hard to know what is best? Our Father in Heaven Holy is your name, Your kingdom come, your will be done... I spent a good part of the morning studying the book of James. James seemed more concerned that we not sin when we go through trials, and less concerned that God remove us from our trials. It is the trails that help produce our good character. I believe God is very concerned with the process. He is not poor...and his hands are not short that they can not save. How we deal with these issues, united and not divided, respecting one another, with faith and trust. This is the issue, not weather a house sells or rents...

“Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity” -Henry Hartman

Juergen showed the house again. The couple that saw it said that it is the nicest house they have looked at....but it's too big for them. They are just 2 people. It makes me wonder why they wasted our time? The size is clearly advertised. Did they think it would be smaller in person? But the complement encouraged Juergen. I'm happy about that. I'm going to try to take new photo's tomorrow morning. We have done so much over the past week. It does start to look pretty good. I guess the family that finally gets it will be blessed. Renter, buyer...I don't really care anymore. Just as long as they make themselves known soon!

It's Monday, and I spilled my coffee. After a very hard week, I'm hoping this isn't a sign of another bad week ahead. Some days You just want to go back to bed and forget the whole thing. It's cold out side. They say it's going to get very very cold this week. And I hate that! But it's only a few weeks until spring. So instead of hiding away, I need to move forward with the work I have. I cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry and began thinking about the book of James. I will be teaching an English Bible study starting Feb 10th. I'm also starting to organize the Alpha Course in English. That begins March 14th. Juergen shows the house again this after noon. I personally have given up hope that we will sell the house. I have accepted the idea of renting it out. Juergen posted an ad at SAP to rent the house out March 1st. In the mean time, we have hand workers coming to fix things. Someone will paint the stairwell. The heater guy will check th...

As you know, we have this super party tent I bought on eBay for my 50th birthday party. It is 5 meters wide and 8 meters long. The frame is a very good metal. It would be very solid if I dug the posts into the soil, or set them in concrete. The sides of the tent already let in light, it's the top that is the problem. Maybe I could cut large pieces from the top of the tent, and replace those pieces with clear green house plastic? I want to heat the whole thing with a rocket stove. Maybe I could build one or two walls from straw bale to increase the biomass. What ideas do you have? I’m anxious to have a green house. It would be a great time to start my seeds.

Juergen worked all day at the old house. This is after working every night there after work. My poor sweetheart is so tired! And he showed the house to 3 different families. It was too big for all of them. 2 families had no children, and one had a baby. It has 5 bedrooms, why do they look at all? And Sarah had a 2 hour cry over cleaning her bedroom. I think the cry had more to do with Juergen being gone all the time. We are feeling a little beaten up. I'm sure it will be OK, but it's hard not to feel discouraged. Part of this is just being too tired. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. " Proverbs 13:12 We are feeling the pain of a sick heart, but still hoping for the tree of life. I hope it all get’s resolved soon. And for tonight, that we can rest. Everything looks dark when you are too tired!

I was looking around at houses. Juergen shows our house in Leimen 3 times today. Anyway, I found this nice looking house in Bad Schönborn for sale. I don't know where it is in relation to us. But it looks like it has great potential. Maybe you could even talk them down on the price? But 305,000 Euro for a single family house with over 700m² garden is pretty good. It looks like it's in pretty good shape. I have not seen it, so I couldn't say for sure. But it looks pretty nice. http://www.immo-aktiv.de/index.php?cmd=object&id=200

Sadly most of the people that want our house in Leimen really can not afford our house. They ask what the bottom price is, and they want us to go down 20,000 Euros more. We have the house listed at a price where we will lose 11,000 euro already. I showed the house to a very nice family today. But they complained that the house had no fireplace. Sure it would be nice to have a fire place. It would be lovely. I want a fireplace in my new house too...but I'm not dropping the price another 20,000 Euro so you can have your dream house. The idea of renting is growing on me. There are about 3 houses for rent in all of Leimen (over 20,000 people). I'm sure we would be able to rent it out very fast. And then we would not be looking at a big loss...instead we would be looking at a small gain. I don't like carrying the risk of the loan, but perhaps the small risk out weighs the sure loss. We show the house again on Saturday and Monday. Maybe it will sell? But I'm ge...

Good news, bad news. We just got an offer on our house in Leimen. They offered us our price. That's the good news. The bad news is they want to pay us part of the price “under the table”, so they don't have to pay the notary so much money. You need to pay taxes and fees that are about 5% of the total cost of the house. That's a no go with us. Where do they find these people? Lord help us! There is no way I’ll sell my house to the mob!!! This is a test....this is only a test!

Nicole and I continued to renovate the Leimen house today. We bought wallpaper for Nicole’s old bedroom and Jessica’s bedroom. Nicole's room was painted a strong red, Jessica had a tropical photo wallpaper. We are covering those walls, and painting everything white. Nicole cut the wallpaper , getting it ready to hang. And I painted the guest toilet a very pretty Tuscan yellow. We didn't have much time. Nicole has to go to school, and the other kids will be coming home from school. But we did what we could. I'll probably continue the work tonight. We also plan to work tomorrow morning. Jurgen has someone coming tomorrow to refinish the wood floor in the living room. We won't be able to walk on it for a few days, but it will look awesome. There is also someone coming on Saturday to replace the door, and door frame in the boy's old bedroom. They broke the door frame fighting with each other. I thank God boys eventually grow up! I also thank God they now ...

This green house looks like the frame of my tent. This is why I think I can use my tent frame for a green house. And if I had a heated green house, I could start my plants next month. Wouldn't that be wonderful!

I just started to read the book “You lost me”, why young Christians are leaving the church. By David Kinnaman. I have a personal stake in the next generation of Christians. We have 5 children (ages 9-20). I want my kids to adopt my faith. Faith is nothing that can be inherited, it must be adopted by choice. I hope I can live in such a way that they choose to follow Jesus. That’s a great challenge. I am the one that makes them clean their rooms and do their home work. But they know I love them. I just hope they understand God loves them even more. Anyway, it’s a good book. I recommend it. “Some (though not all) ministries have taken cues from the assembly line, doing everything possible to streamline the manufacture of shiny new Jesus followers, fresh from the factory floor. But disciples can not be mass- produced. Disciples are handmade, one relationship at a time.” http://www.amazon.de/You-Lost-Christians-Church-Rethinking/dp/0801013143

Emotionally I'm down. The house has not sold and that is really disheartening. I want to just move forward with other stuff, but the house does effect us. It's not just an emotional effect. It cost us allot of money to pay for 2 houses. The bank isn't being nice, they want their mortgage payment even if we don't live in that house! That hurts. Each month we dish out so much extra money, I could be sending my parents airline tickets every month! That kills me! I want to see my family, but I can not because I'm broke! And we are spending money to fix the house up. Thursday we spend a 1,000 Euro on the floor in the living room. We spend time at the house painting, and wall papering. We may spend another 1000 Euro to put new floors in the bedrooms. We are doing everything we can to make the house more "sellable". It is a buyers market. And people are being so picky! We didn't argue the owners of our house down one cent. We didn't deman...

Happy Birthday to my baby brother Rickey. Miss you! Come and see us soon...ok?

My German friends on Face book and this blog think the cherry wood kitchen looks too old fashion. So I bid on this white IKEA kitchen instead. It sells Sunday afternoon. What's nice about IKEA is it's so easy to replace any missing or damaged parts of the kitchen. And the eBay kitchen includes most of the appliances (minus the dishwasher). It even has a side by side refrigerator. So if we win the bid, it will be a bright white kitchen. Juergen is painting the inside of the house white today. It's basically going to be a clean canvas for anyone that looks at it. It should look fresher...I hope that helps sell it. At least it will be in shape to move in right away. And if we need to rent the place, it will be ready very soon.

I'm looking at kitchens on eBay. I think we need to put one in our Leimen house if we want to easily rent the place. People often have to put in their own kitchen, but it's easier when they don't need to. And of course it maybe easier to sell if it has a kitchen too. New kitchens are between 7-12 thousand Euro for our small space (even higher of course). But I found this lovely cherry wood kitchen on eBay about 50 km from us. It sells in 2 days. It includes all the appliances. It was originally worth 33,000 euro. It is a very high quality. These are solid cherry wood cabinets. I bet I can get it for 500 Euro. I just need the OK from Juergen. It would need a new countertop. But I think it would look lovely with the terracotta floor. I'm going to buy new wallpaper for the room tomorrow. A nice Tuscan yellow. And maybe if I win the bid on the kitchen, I'll replace the little handles with a nice white porcelain knob. What do you think? Juergen is pain...

I've been very sick over the past week. It's really been a full time effort to recover from this very strong virus. If you would talk to me today, I sound like I have a cold. I do have a cold, but it is much better. Today is the first day I have any energy at all in over a week. And I know I had better be careful not to over do it. I do have good things to report. Juergen found an Autism care center near by, a house where they have 5 autistic adults cared for by 5 caretakers. They actually have a spot for Jessica. She can try the group out next week. This group is very special. They are all trained to help Autistic people specifically. And they don't just manage them, they help them progress in personal life skills. This was our great hope. We did not want Jessica just baby sat. We wanted her to have the opportunity to continue to learn and grow as a person. We wanted her to be in an environment where she could communicate through facilitated communication...