The Process

We are in the process of finishing a house so that we can sell it - 

again.

I wondered if we had always done this - 

worked hard at the very end in order to get the house on the market - 

and in thinking about it, 

it IS a pattern!

Only one time had we had the house completely ready to sell when we decided we wanted to move. And we have done this plenty of times.

I'm not having a hard time thinking of selling this house, although I love it, but I hate the last couple of weeks of mess, work and stress.

It looks awful around here.

We have a family room and bathroom that we hadn't even touched until a few weeks ago.

It needed a complete gut and a window added (who would build a room without a window?!).

We have since added the window(which meant cutting through concrete block and brick),
 moved plumbing,
endured the sheetrock stage,
painted the ceiling and walls,
tiled the shower (the grout job from hell),
built a cabinet, have the cabinet painted (working on the doors and drawer fronts),
and have the tile floor down but not grouted in the bathroom (today's project).

Floor coverings coming a week from Monday.  (Yippee!)

It is a mess - 
and not just in that room.
The dirt trails throughout the lower floor of our house and even makes it's way up the stairs.

I know we are on the downward slope now BUT it still feels like quite a list...






We are meeting with a couple that go to our church who just recently came back to the Lord.  They requested that we meet with them - kind of a mentoring time if you will.

Sweetest couple with a big past.  We already love them, we really do.
Love to see them and be with them.  
BUT this last time together was not that wonderful.
As he said "it was brutal".

But as I was moaning over my list of to dos for the house today I was reminded of what Warren had told me on our first remodel

"It has to look worse before it can look better". 

He's been proven right about that.

And today God just spoke to my heart about this couple.

"It has to look worse before it can look better".

They are determined to walk the walk but there is a lot of garbage to clean up first.
A lot of remodeling.
If you've walked with the Lord for any length of time, then you've been there.
There is just a lot of tearing out and building up and the process is messy and not so much fun
but you can't get to the beauty without it.

And this week, I think I'll tell them our story.  You know, the worst
 part- before it got better.
That should encourage them.
If nothing else it will encourage me.