God uses symphony plans to soften hearts?

Bizarre but true! Our public hearing concerning the building variances for our project was December 5th at 1:00. We had been told that this was a "rubber stamp" process -- if our neighborhood and NPU approved our variances, then the city of Atlanta would just approve their approvals. Not so.

Trent was behind several cases Friday afternoon, most represented by homeowners plus attorneys. After a couple of hours of watching the zoning board diliberate on each case, he saw one case similar to ours turned down flat. By 4:00pm our case had still not been heard, and the situation looked grim. No attorney. No particular reason that the city should approve us above others. All that was left to do was pray!

Meanwhile, Trent asked one of the ladies in charge what she thought about the time line......would he be out of there by dinner? He explained that we had plans to go to the symphony (we had been invited by some friends to a wonderful "Gospel" evening at the ASO). For some reason, this thrilled the powers that be. We don't know if the zoning board members are big supporters of the symphony, or what, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. Once Trent's case was finally called up, he was introduced as "The young man who has plans for the symphony," obviously finding favor in the eyes of the moderator. After Trent explained why we deserved a variance (without an attorney -- only a divine "counselor"), the board agreed!

As some of you have been aware of our struggle to obtain permits, this has truly been an answer to prayer! We still have to obtain the permit from the permit office next Friday, so keep praying. Although the process is suppose to be smooth from here on out, we've learned not to take anything for granted.

Thanks for your prayer! And thanks, Richard and Suzanne, for inviting us to the symphony. It was fantastic!

Plans for our expansion

Here is the floor plan for our proposed attic addition. The goal is to move our children's bedroom upstairs to create more living and entertaining space downstairs. The second bedroom upstairs will give us a much needed guest room. And you can imagine with 4 girls in the house, another bathroom will be crucial.

This architectural layout was started by our good friend Chuck Rogers. He is a great architect and you should hire him! The drawing posted here is actually the work of our very talented friend and contractor, Josh Burg.

The first part of the project will be to add two shed-roof dormers and extend a gable in our roof to make head room. Later a staircase will have to be built from our current dining room.

Our goal is to do the renovation economically but still keep it in line with the period and style of the house.

Expanding - we need your prayers

We want to expand our home near Georgia Tech to be better hosts to the students God called us to serve. On this blog, Emily and I will share the story behind this expansion project and update y'all on how the project is going. Who should read this blog?

1. People interested in how God is working at Georgia Tech
2. People curious how Trent, Emily and the McEntyre girls are doing. (there all sleeping well right now)
3. People interested in the connection between hospitality and Jesus
4. People interested in the building process of expanding a 1924 Bungalow in a period with an attic addition.

Right now we would like to ask people to pray for us to find favor with the City of Atlanta Bureau of Planning. Friday, Dec. 5th at 1:00 pm we have our hearing for the three variances we need in order to get permitting for the project. We have been working on permits since May 2008.

Here is our baby, Kathryn. She's quite sweet. We think she is looking forward to this project getting underway. We'll share more about her and the family in future posts.