Our New Home

Welcome to the new Palmer House!

Since many of you won't be able to come out for a visit to see our new place, we thought we'd bring the place to you (although you are all still welcome to visit!!).

California living has taken quite a few adjustments. First of all, we are no longer apartment dwellers, which means we are no longer laundry mat people who have to scrimp and save every quarter ever given in change, and which also means we are now lawn mover people and gardeners. It's a wonderful change!

The church rents the house from one of its members. The house is about two blocks away from church, which allows us to save a lot of money that doesn't have to be spent on gas. Speaking of gas...it's expensive, but not as bad as we initially feared. As of today, gas is about $2.65 a gallon, but for the first month we were here it lingered around $2.50.

We have both a front and back yard. Our front yard houses the overflow of our neighbor's gigantic cedar tree which is covered in morning glory ivy. For those un-savvy plant people of the world, the morning glory produces a beautiful purple flower, which in our neck of the woods is a natural attracter of humming birds. Our back yard has a simple concrete patio (that is empty because we have no lawn furniture) and home to our garden. We are attempting to grow tomatoes, ginger, pineapple, and garlic, but we are definitely growing sweet basil and enjoying much homemade pesto.

We are also garage people! One of the California differences, however, is that in California, garages are really basements--storage. Since we are about sea level on ground that is harder than heck, very few people in this area even attempt basements. Rather, the houses are built up a little with just enough room for a crawl space (which Jon found out really isn't that much room at all--he had to crawl underneath the house to install phone jacks in both of our offices which had neither jacks nor lights). We have quickly adjusted to this part of the California experience--our garage is filled with the furniture donated by the church that didn't work in our house, all of our empty boxes, and a few that still have stuff in them. Our garage is also home to our washer and dryer and Jon's work station (he got power tools for his birthday).

One of our first projects after moving was to find an armoire for our TV. It's always been a dream of mine (Lani) to house my TV and stereo equipment somewhere that can be hidden to promote better conversation when company is around. After a few days of searching, we found a beautiful discontinued model that we could put together ourselves. It turned out to be a bit more of a project than we bargained for...The original style was something out of the early 80s, and that just wouldn't do. So to make a long story short, with my eye for design and Jon's handiwork, we completely recreated the bottom molding, left off a few things from the top, changed the hardware, and added some stain, and !VIOLA! we have a beautiful piece of furniture.

We are thoroughly enjoying our kitchen that is bigger than the shoe box kitchen we had last year. We have counters! There's no dishwasher, but I guess you can't have it all..

Jon and I both have our offices in our home. It’s nice to have the working space and the freedom from constantly ringing phones, but after a while, you sure do miss seeing people! I bet you can guess which office is mine and which one is Jon's...

I am still working for Stephen Ministries, the transdenominational Christian not-for-profit organization based in Saint Louis that provides training and resources to strengthen and expand lay ministry in congregations. While I was working for Stephen Ministries in Saint Louis I worked in the Customer Service Department, helping customers and also training all of the new employees of the company. Now that I'm in California, I am working for the Conference Planning Team as a Caring Ministry Workshop Assistant. Basically, I recruit our Stephen Ministry Churches across the country to volunteer to host a half day workshop that introduces the program to churches who don't know about it. Once those churches agree to host, I walk them through the process and make sure that everything is done correctly. I am also doing some market research for the founder of Stephen Ministries, Dr. Kenneth Haugk. I enjoy learning about leadership, specifically church leadership, as I interview leaders as Stephen Ministries prepares to host its first Breakthrough Leadership Conference in Saint Louis in October of 2006.

Jon and I have been so blessed by the members of Bethany who have provided everything that we couldn't bring along with us to California. We have also been taking advantage of the IKEA that is in Berkley, near San Francisco. We are hoping to save up enough money to buy a couch this year...and maybe even a bedroom set (the one we are using this year is on loan from a member at the church).

Enjoy all of the pictures from around our house! :)

--Lani <><