Like Gold Tested in Fire
By Nathan
When God tests me, it’s not like the tests I took in school. A school test checks to see if I learned the lessons the teacher presented. God’s tests ARE the lessons.
To test gold in fire, it’s placed in a crucible and heated until it melts. Then flux pulls all the impurities to the surface so they can be removed. Once it is purified, it can be poured into a mold and given a new shape.
Heat. Stress. Deadlines. Meltdowns. Flux. Plans changing. Obstacles. Injury. Casting. Transformation. New skills. New roles.
That sounds about like what I’ve been experiencing during the last couple of weeks.
Taking the test.
Ironically enough, the spiritual testing that I’m undergoing also involved an old-school multiple choice, true/false kind of test. I’d dug the septic system without realizing that I needed to have a license to be able to do so. Thankfully, the folks at the Department of Public Health told me that I could take the test after the fact and get a one-time homeowner’s installation license.
They emailed me a chapter from the code book that contained about 20 pages of information on the safe and correct installation of septic systems. I read it and re-read it several times. Meanwhile, my front yard looked like a re-enactment of the trench warfare used in World War One. The kids loved it.
I also had to spend a day correcting the errors that they saw in the system. It involved moving some dirt, replacing most of the end caps, and redoing some of the PVC. It doesn’t sound like much, and it was mostly pretty simple, but it took most of a Saturday to do it.
I called DPH and scheduled my test for Thursday. When I got there, I was handed a paper test with 100 multiple-choice and true/false questions. I am absolutely certain that some of the questions were not in the material that I’d read. I had to make educated guesses. After I finished, the nice lady told me that it would take a few days to get the test graded. What!?! When I told her that I’d scheduled my follow-up inspection for the next morning, she said she’d try to get it graded faster.
At nearly 5:00 PM Thursday, I got the call. I”d passed the test with an 82! A ‘C’ and above passes! Praise the Lord! The next day, I met with the inspector at my house. They said everything looked good, except that I needed to install a plastic filter in the septic tank. I could send them a picture of me installing the filter, and then I could cover the system with dirt. Good thing, because Danny Johnson was scheduled to cover it the next day, Saturday morning.
Roughing in.
The rough-in inspection is kind of “the big test.” The inspector looks at the framing, the plumbing, the electrical, and the HVAC. If I pass, I get to move forward with the project. If I fail, I have to fix everything the inspector highlights before I can move forward.
In the week leading up to the septic test, I also had to finish the framing. One of the challenges of a poured slab is that the drains go in before the walls go up. Each of the drains was just a couple of inches from where it was supposed to be once the walls went up. Ahhhh well. The two showers needed pieces of 2×4 ripped down to the right thickness in order to frame them up. Thankfully, I had the table saw that my Uncle Tom gave me. It came in handy.
Saturday morning, I woke up early. For about an hour, I shoveled dirt onto a couple of places on the septic system that wanted to do by hand. I didn’t want the excavator to accidentally knock them out of alignment by putting too much dirt on them at one time. I’d started a pretty good blister on my right hand by the time Danny showed up. It took him less than three minutes to move more dirt than I’d moved in the previous hour by hand. By about noon, he had completely filled in the yard.
Lots of little details.
At about that time, my buddy Ross showed up. You have read about him in previous posts. He’s a plumber, electrician, and all-around handyman. We were going to install the rest of the supply lines and the HVAC. The goal was to have everything ready for the rough-in inspection the following week.
Ross knows what he’s doing, so he went to work installing the shower valves on one shower while I installed the final strips of 2×4 on the other shower. He had to fiddle with it a little bit, but I’d done a good enough job setting the plumbing up that he didn’t have too much trouble taking care of it.
My electrician, Joe also showed up to finish the electrical for the HVAC system. The inspection doesn’t require that the entire system be connected, but they want to see the pipes and wires going to the right places. Joe installed the disconnect that will run the condenser outside that will connect to the mini-split heads in the bedrooms.
Ross then climbed into the attic to run the HVAC lines for each of the mini-split heads. Mini-splits are great technology. The cost can’t be beaten. The system that I purchased cost less than 25% of the price quote I got for a conventional system. Each room has its own thermostat and they do a great job pulling moisture out of the air.
While he was up in the attic, I went down to the crawl space to connect the water. The way I’d set up my water manifold, I just needed to splice one 3/4″ pipe for the cold and one for the hot. It only took about 20 minutes. When I came back up, I was able to try out the new hose bibs that I’d installed on the outside of the house.
Inspection
After getting all that work done, I walked through the addition with Larry. He’s done a lot of these, so he knows what to look for. After about 20 minutes of wandering around, he looked at me and said, “I think you’re ready. Now clean this mess up.”
Larry loves a clean job site. It makes work faster and safer. It’s a lesson that I’ve tried to learn, but I can’t say that I’m naturally neat. It’s an effort for me. I thought that it would be important for passing the inspection, so I got to work. It was a lot of work. I worked on it Monday night and planned to burn the midnight oil Tuesday night to get it completely cleaned and ready for inspection.
At about 3:59 on Tuesday afternoon, I got this text message from the inspector, “I won’t be back to work until Monday. I could come by right now if somebody’s there. I’m like 10 minutes away.” After a few frantic phone calls, I reached my father-in-law, Jerry, who said he would happily open up the house. I called the inspector and told him to head to the house.
5:00 came and went, but I didn’t hear anything back from him. On the drive home from work, I just prayed and prayed that I’d passed. When I got to the house, it was empty and the inspection card had not been signed. I panicked a little. I wandered next door looking for Jerry.
I found Jerry down by the barn. He looked pretty cheerful. “Congratulations, you passed!” Relief washed over me. “But you have to do a couple of things and send him pictures to get final approval. Let me show you.” Jerry and I walked to the house and he showed me the note from the inspector on the refrigerator. All I needed to do was install some hurricane ties (little metal brackets that connect the trusses to the walls), change the bathroom vent pipe from flexible to solid, and tape the vent pipe joints with aluminum duct tape. All easily done!
Replacing the flexible duct with a hard duct left me with a long section of flexible pipe that had no real purpose. So, of course, I cut it into little sections and gave it to the kids to be robot arms.
Active waiting.
Insulation is a funny thing. It turns out that I couldn’t buy insulation for cheaper than I could hire a company for installation. They buy so much insulation and get such a bulk discount compared to what I can get it retail that the difference is enough to pay someone to do it with some profit on top.
Getting the insulation installers to show up presented a little bit of a challenge. Projects keep them very busy. At first, I was hoping to get them there the week after the rough-in inspection, but they had to push it to the following week. That left me with a weekend where I had nothing to do. Not really. I had plenty to do on the outside of the house.
I built a square form out of 2×6 to pour the concrete pad for the HVAC system. Catherine and Jonathan helped me mix and pour the concrete. They enjoyed that tremendously. I even got them to sign their work when they were done.
I also had a bunch of dirt to move. Even though Danny had filled in the trench, a big pile of dirt and clay was left next to the road. The kids loved it and turned it into a network of caves for matchbox cars. Mary loved it less because it enticed the kids, especially Jonathan, to play next to the road. She wanted that gone. So I borrowed my friend Barbara’s tractor and started to move the dirt to the backyard. Spreading it out and getting it somewhat level took the rest of the day.
The following week, I basically phone-stalked the insulation company. Monday: “Are you coming?” “No.” Tuesday, same. Wednesday, same. Thursday: “He’ll be there this afternoon.” Meanwhile, I kept pushing the date for the inspection until later and later in the week. The insulation guy did show up on Thursday afternoon, but he didn’t finish. He told my wife that he’d be back first thing in the morning and would finish it up before lunch on Friday. I texted the inspector and asked if could come by on Friday afternoon.
The insulation guy showed up at about 9:00 the next morning and was as good as his word. He finished up right around lunchtime. I texted the inspector and let him know that he could stop by. At 5:02, I got the text response, “You’re good to go.”
Passing the tests.
Three inspections, three passing grades. Praise the Lord! But there is one other test that’s harder than the rest of them. That’s the test where God wants me to learn to trust in His provision for my family. In my last post, I shared how my loan account had emptied out and my truck had died. Well, I have a couple of praise reports on both of those points.
Since I posted that note, people have been very generous. I’ve been given almost $13,000 to help finish the project. That isn’t quite as much as I think I’ll need to get it completely finished, but it’s significant progress. Praise the Lord, and thank you to everyone. You know who you are.
I was also offered three vehicles for a long-term loan until I can get my project done and can find a permanent solution. I have faith that the permanent solution will present itself at the proper time.
God’s grace and provision are evident in all of these tests. He wants me to learn to trust Him for provision. He sees my needs and will provide for my family. That doesn’t exempt me from a lot of hard work and persistent diligence. But He’s the one who takes care of the timing and puts the right people in the right place at the right time. I knew that on some level intellectually, but it’s different when I get to experience it in the midst of the biggest project of my life.
This test isn’t just checking to see if I know my scriptures. It’s changing me for the better.
Everyone’s generosity during this process has blown me away. The following people have helped to make this project a reality. I couldn’t have gotten this far without them: Mary Krupa, Larry Harris, David Jude Krupa, Joseph Krupa, Catherine Krupa, Jonathan Krupa, Jerry Germann, Joe Almeter, Nick Almeter, Lawrence Almeter, Michael Almeter (his son), Michael Almeter (his cousin), Tag Bussey, Leo Suer, Ben Suer, Matthew Suer, Pat Molitor, Tom Molitor, Hannes Molitor, Pat Muller, Nick Wingate, David Johnson, Jordan Goodman, David McGee, Glen and the guys at Maner, David Germann, Tom Krupa, Laura Krupa, Joseph Krupa, Joseph Muller, Philip Hatfield, Miguel Melendez, Maddox, Jared Miller, Fr. Jacob Almeter, Anthony Almeter, Bob Visintainer, Ross Ott, Noah Ott, Max Molitor, Peter Molitor, Mike Hayes, Gabriel Hays, Kolbe Almeter, Luke Almeter, Charlie Almeter, Eric Sterett, Gabriel Hayes, Wayne Johnson, Danny Johnson, Wes Swenson, and Cohen Insulation.
If you don’t have time or tools to donate, but would like to help make the House of Krupa a reality, a financial gift would be a great blessing. This is kind of like a do-it-yourself GoFundMe. DIY is my style.
If you want to read more of my adventures building the House of Krupa, check out the archive!
Jesus snatched me out of the darkness and saved me from complete madness. If you want to hear more of that story, check out Demoniac, now available on Amazon.
