I may have a problem. Katie has informed me that I have started a remodeling project every trimester of Penny’s pregnancy. This next one we started is a big dog as we decided to tackle both bathrooms, which means our family of five is limited to using the new bathroom in the laundry room until I get at least the hall bath done.  Fortunately my friend Mike just bought a dump trailer and has been helping me demo the old bathrooms. The kids don’t bat an eye anymore and are always looking for ways to help.

One thing I have learned since my first remodel back in 2006 is that you might as well take everything down to studs and build it like you want. I have tried a few times to build on top of the old or try to get away with matching the old to the new and it just doesn’t work. In this case, we took out old subflooring as well because they had tiled it and there was no way to clean it off without spending massive man hours on it. We are also moving doorways and that means that the paneling, which Katie has valiantly spruced up over the last 5 years, was finally going to have to go. Now I can see all the fun stuff: the shoddy framing they tried to do around an old AC unit, the rotted wood on what used to be an exterior wall, and the spliced electrical wires dangling in the cavities.

When Mike got here with his super cool, super nice hydraulic dump trailer, we started in on the paneling. We were pretty surprised that we filled it with just that. So he hauled it off to burn so that we could start in on the stuff that would have to go to the dump. The next day we filled that up and off he was to the dump and back. Which we filled up again. Two bathrooms and we are up to three loads. By the time we get finished I’m sure there will be another.

Which got me to thinking (and here comes the “you see, Timmy”) how much demo I really needed in my life when I met the Lord. The self that He has had to take out of me, and the self that is still coming out, is shockingly volumous. LIke some of the old subflooring that had been nailed down for thirty years, it didn’t want to come out without a fight. But like a good remodeler, He is taking me down to studs so He can deal with the hidden issues, and when His work is complete I will be much more useful for His kingdom. In the mean time, there’s a lot of dust. You’ll have to pardon my mess.