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You are here: Home / Archives for Elijah

Elijah

Elijah’s House

July 6, 2025 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Back in March, I wrote a post about the house Elijah bought. We spent practically every Saturday in February, March and April working on doing it up, and he spent his Saturdays, as well as a lot of weekday evenings, working on it through May and June, too. It is finally ready for renters, after he cleans the oven and removes a pile of gravel, and his renters plan to move in in a few days. I didn’t get many pictures inside the house; it looked so bad I didn’t think to do that. I got a few pictures during the process, though.

I took the children to work at the house a couple of times when we needed to be in town during the week. Both times, we worked at masking the walls, since Simon spray-painted the ceilings and trim. We had already painted the walls with rollers.

James hates painting, but he rebuilt the wall of the garage and did other repairs, with his trusty sidekick Mr. Sweetie.

When I was getting ready to paint the window trims in the living room, after the carpet had already been laid, I asked Elijah what to protect the floor with. He got the roll of leftover carpet and turned it upside down! I don’t think I dripped onto it, but I was glad to have it there anyway.

This day, Elijah and James were working on running wires for the new lights and fans that needed to be installed in the kitchen and bathroom. An electrician was going to hook them up, but he didn’t want to run the wires. They had to take up some of the roofing iron because there wasn’t any other way to get at the space.

The last day I worked there was a day in June when we went to town for a funeral. After the funeral, we all went to the house to try to knock out the last few jobs, including a final clean. When it was time to go to the cemetery for the burial, I stayed to wash the kitchen floor while everyone else went, because I knew I wouldn’t be getting back to do that job and wanted to see it done. Just as I finished the floor and was ready to do the outside of the kitchen door, it started bucketing down–I decided to wait a few minutes to do that washing, and walked around the house to take pictures of the finished project, instead.

The kitchen. Not much has changed here, other than scrubbing the walls and cabinets and floor. Elijah patched the floor in a couple of places, and I painted two walls that needed patches.

The laundry, with toilet and bathroom to the left. This area looks 100% better! The walls and ceiling were very patchy, and the floor was rough.

The living room. There is a picture of this room on the post linked above. It has new carpeting, the walls and ceiling have been painted, and the old rusted-out stove has been replaced. The new one is larger, so the boys enlarged the hearth by adding a border.

The bedroom off the living room. This one needed to be sanded back and plastered all over.

Bedroom 1. This room had old, rough gib (drywall) that needed a skim coat all over. It had carpet–the only room that did–but it stunk. There was no door in the main doorway to the room. That door you see was there; see the next picture to get an idea of this gem!

Bedroom 2. This room had gib (drywall) that someone had started finishing but never got done. It also had a cracked window.

It is very satisfying to see this house shining! It looks immensely better than it did before, and smells nice and clean, too.

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Elijah

Elijah’s House

March 9, 2025 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Elijah bought a house! He put an offer on it in early December, and signed the final papers the end of January. Then, we all started working together to help him get it ready for renting. Here are the pictures I got the day he took possession.

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Elijah, West Coast

Elijah’s Birthday

October 8, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Elijah had a birthday last week. Most of us went in on a high-lift jack to go along with his truck, and when it was delivered here, on his birthday, I decided to hide it in the truck. It has tinted windows, and we knew he wouldn’t be using it that evening. That gave us the idea to make him a treasure hunt to find it, so the other children all put their heads together and wrote up a trail of clues. It took them about five minutes to write and distribute all the clues! I got a video of the last two stops so that Simon could share in a little of the fun, since he couldn’t be here. The first clip shows him finding the clue for which he was given “Words in Red.” He found the last one there, which was, “Red Monster,” meaning his truck. Then, though it’s dark, you can see him finding the gift. After that, everyone came back inside and he was given a few other things. First, James challenged him to an arm wrestle–the winner could have the gifts! Unfortunately for James, Elijah is quite a lot stronger still! After that, James started a newspaper-ball fight with the gift wrapping. (Do you get the idea that James keeps things lively here?)

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Elijah, Video

Helicopter Flight

October 1, 2023 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Last year, Elijah signed on to Land Search and Rescue. Since then, he has been doing training for searching for people, mostly in the wilderness but occasionally in urban settings. He has only had the opportunity to go on two searches so far, both in the last two months. The second of them turned out to be a false alarm, but he got a helicopter ride over beautiful terrain on a bright, sunny day, and got to spend time in the bush on that same bright, sunny day. I can’t identify the location or give any details about the incident, but I am allowed to share these scenery photos. Suffice it to say, the location is not too far from us, and the helicopter he rode in is one operated by a company based near us, which we see flying over frequently.

This is Elijah all decked out in his searching gear. He had just walked home after the helicopter ride back from the search and hadn’t taken it off yet. He was explaining here how they measure footprints and stride lengths with that stick to make sure they are still following the trail they think they are.

Here is a quick video of a little of what he saw from the helicopter. Wow!

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Elijah, West Coast

Pinata and Sleepout

November 10, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Intellectual wanted a pinata for his birthday, so he made one.  I think this is when he filled it with candy, just before finishing it. In the background is Seth; this is the last picture ever taken of him, the day before he died.01-IMG_0716

A neighbor gave this building to the boys about six months ago. It was an old chicken coop, not in the best shape. He had a digger (excavator) in to do some work, and lifted this across the fence. The boys loaded it on a bike trailer and moved it here, then gutted it, insulated it, put up gib board (drywall) and finished it, then painted it. They learned how to install the window and door, too, and built a small bed in it. Mr. Intellectual moved in on his birthday, although now he’s moved back into the house.

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The finished pinata—it was supposed to be an apple. We had church here at our house the Sunday after Seth’s death, and the children broke the pinata after lunch.

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Boys, Canterbury, Cheviot, Elijah, Miller Street house

Baptism

January 16, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Our third boy, Elijah, was baptised the Saturday after Christmas, after realizing his sinfulness and need of a Saviour. What a joy to see your children taking that step! We gathered near the mouth of the Hurunui River, and after a short meditation on baptism and salvation, Gayle had the joy of baptizing one of his children (the third time he has had this privilege!). A number of our friends gathered for the occasion, and then came to our house for a shared lunch. It was a very special day, and God gave us the gift of a dry hour or so in the middle of several days of rain, just while we were at the river! Playing on the cliff afterward!

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: baptism, Elijah

Birthday Party

October 9, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We had a birthday party last week for the boy who turned nine.  I am not one to plan an elaborate party, so I just invited a few families with boys that my boys like to play with, and they had a fun afternoon together the day after his birthday. The game of choice was apparently Red Rover–I think they played it nearly all afternoon!

They took a break when two boys banged heads.

This boy actually had two parties–we had a friend over the night of his actual birthday, and had pavlova.

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Children, Elijah, Party

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The Family:


Dad and Mom (Gayle and Emma)

Girl #1, Esther, my right hand

Boy #1, Seth (Mr. Handyman)

Boy #2, Simon (Mr. Inventor)

Boy #3, Mr. Intellectual

Boy #4, Mr. Diligence

Boy #5, Mr. Sweetie

Boy #6, Mr. Imagination

Girl #2, Little Miss

Girl #3, Miss Joy

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