Home Renovation

The family that renovates together drives each other mad!

This week we installed new floors. The job was calculated to take three days, but it took the better part of a week. A week where our fridge and stove was in our livingroom and various sections of the house cordoned off as the ceramic tiles were installed.

Added to the chaos was one very disturbed llasa apso. Bubba, the llasa apso stayed with us during the renovations. We had wisely decided that Sophie should be babysat for the week and so she was boarded with a friend of mine.

The problem with home renovations is the chaos. Where do you put your stuff? Who put it away? Can it ever be found again? and of course, the inevitable: do we really need this stuff?
If we did not have any stuff, life would be very easy and home renovations would not be stressful. The stress is having to deal with our stuff. King David in the Old Testament set aside 1/3 of his army to look after his stuff. I think our stuff is simply drowning us. Putting things away brings it all to light, there are the 14 sets of mismatched dishes, the numerous tablecloths, the condiments that threaten to collapse our fridge, the paintings, the dog leashes, the bath products, the kitchen cupboards, and that blackhole to end all blackholes..the hallway closet.

Hallway closets are entities unto themselves as they are the resting place for extra jackets, numerous shoes, umbrellas, winter hats, summer hats and in our case, one unweildy old fashioned vacuum cleaner, that really does not do a good job as a vacuum cleaner but is excellent at taking up space and knocking unsuspecting visitors to the closet on the head with one of its hoses.

Although I did not do any of the renovations, except for the moving of fridges and stoves and furniture, after a week of having someone cut tiles, grout, sand and pound nails into our floor all the while being surrounded by chaos...I am exhausted. I have a new appreciation of the creation story in the book of Genesis. After God organized and made sense of the stuff of the universe even He had to rest...no wonder I am tired!