Making Changes

Last year I laid new oak floor in our hall

and in my office

After cleaning the carpet in our living room we gave up and decided to put new flooring in our living room as well.

The problem with oak 3/4 in flooring is every time you move across the floor you only have another 2 inches covered. At the end of the day on Monday I had worked on the floor for 5 hours and was not very far along. I did have it scribed and cut to a snug fit along the brick wall in front of the fireplace and the wooden stairs coming down from the hallway to the living room.

 When it was quitting time on Tuesday I was 2/3 across the floor. Putting down random length boards is like putting together a puzzle.You do not want the joint of 3 consecutive rows to be within 4 inches so you hunt through the pile until the right length is found. 

The last few rows can not be nailed down with the floor nailer. There is no room for the gun up against the wall. A floor nailer shoots staples that will hold against the constant walking and changes in humidity. When you have to switch to a regular nailing gun you know the nails will not hold the floor down as time passes, so you also put glue under the last rows. 

I was over joyed to have the last of the floor in by the end of the day on Wednesday. Thursday I could catch up on a few things and a couple of meetings. On Friday morning I went and finished grouting the bathrooms on the ground floor at Lake View camp.

Saturday Micah and started removing the wall between his kitchen and living room. It is always the unexpected that slows you down on  a project. This time it was all the unexpected electric wires in the wall. We had to find a new way to run the wires.  

By afternoon we had the wall out and all the wires rerouted except the wire to the light switch. It is a 3 way switch and will need a new wire pulled from the fixture to the switch. We didn't have any 3 strand wire and I was sure I had some in storage, so we will have to do that when we rebuild the cabinets and trim up the walls.

Putting in the new flooring was a lot of work. I was pretty stiff and sore at the end of each day from getting up and down, but I love the way the new floor looks and feels.

Saturday when I walked into Micah's house and looked at what he planned, I thought, Oh no, this is going to be a bugger to get done. It is what Micah and Linsey want and by the afternoon Micah said the house was looking better already.

I have come to learn over time that it takes time and effort to make change for the better. It never seems to happen for me easily or immediately. If you want a new wood floor, the furniture all has to be moved and the old carpet torn out. Then the new floor has to be painstakingly put in. 

If you want a wall gone, you first have to find out if it is load bearing, then locate what is running inside the wall. Electrical wires, heating ducts or anything else you may have to deal with and do not want to cut. You have to remove the sheet rock (if you are lucky it is not plaster and lathe). You have to cut out the studs and then fix any sheet rock issues and put up trim.

It is the same way in life, if you want to change for the better, it is never an easy process. You might have to give up ingrained habits. You might have to give up friends who would continue to pressure you not to change. You might have to give up addictions that you never thought of as addictions but really are. You might have to give up some things that you love even though you know they are not good for you. 

We all need to change for the better. In theology we call it sanctification. The process of becoming holy. It may be difficult but we don't do it alone. No one will become a better person on their own. Only when we ask God to walk with us and change us do we change. 

Our old dirty carpet is gone and we have a new oak floor. Micah now has an open concept house. Neither of us would go back to what we had. It is the same with life. When you ask God to make you a better person and then work to change, once you see what life can be, you would never go back to what it was.