Choices

Life seems to be doing its best to present us with challenges lately.

I guess I’ll start at the beginning. We are in the process of preparing our house to go on the market. We are moving somewhere else in town, and the reason is important but not for this blog. Just suffice it to say that we are making this choice out of love and respect for other family members, and we have a good chunk of time (until next summer, at the latest) to make this move happen.

So, with that in mind, I have started deep cleaning our house. I described part of that process in a previous blog entry. I have been working hard on our house since the first week of July and I have had some good help along the way. My brother Jon has been helping me with some handyman tasks, and my brother Don just recently came to help us get a couple of rooms painted. I sure am thankful for those two! R.J. does his part as well, although he has much less time available since he is working full time and has rehearsals in the evenings. The house is steadily looking better and better. It’s a long process, but it is coming along.

New paint and a new light fixture and a new curtain in the upstairs bathroom

A new fixture outside as well

Of course, not all of the projects are cosmetic. We installed a sump pump in the basement to take care of water issues ($$). We are getting the roof re-shingled ($$$$$). We have some minor plumbing repairs to be done and a couple of faucets to replace. ($) We did some electrical work ($). We are planning to replace a broken water softener ($).  We need to have a chimney sweep come and take a look at our never-used fireplace ($).

We have been operating out of our savings and have been doing OK with one project at a time. Just this week, though, things got a little more interesting. For one, we had a BIG rainfall, and we got a wet basement in spite of the new sump pump. It certainly helped, but we still had moisture. Rats. I was hoping that problem was taken care of. Additionally, we have a “tree issue” on our back hill. Way back last winter, a couple of trees fell into a couple of other trees. The result is kind of a “tree teepee” where fallen/dead trees are holding up other fallen/dead trees, and all resting just above and slightly on our power line. Apparently this is of no interest to RPU, as in the two times my neighbors called and the two times I called, no one has ever called either of us back or made any attempt to get the problem fixed. So, I talked to a couple of tree guys this week. It’s a hugely expensive ($$$) endeavor (as well as quite complicated) to get these trees removed. Both of the tree guys who came out stood in amazement that the tree-tangle hadn’t completely collapsed and taken out our power. Neither could explain what was holding it up. (I suggested, “God?” and they couldn’t disagree.) So yeah, that needs to happen and somehow there needs to be an extra budget for it.

It's hard to see the extent of the "tree tangle" with all the leaves on the trees.

Yup, that's our power line, in the middle.

One good thing was that our furnace is only 14 years old. We purchased that ourselves, a couple years after we moved in here.  I thought that a good inspection/tune-up and a letter from the furnace company would be sufficient for the sale of the house. Of course not! Life can’t be that simple. It turns out our furnace is a ticking time bomb. The service guy said it was putting out  more than 10 times as much carbon monoxide as regulations allow and that the cost to repair it would equal the cost of a new furnace ($$$). He even put a lovely red sticker on the furnace before he left: “WARNING: Use at Your Own Risk.”

Ah, yup.

So there you go.

With the wet basement and the tree estimate coming earlier this week and the furnace debacle on their heels, I was feeling a bit pummeled. That was yesterday. I woke up today feeling different. After a little time and thought, I can say that what I feel now is very blessed.

Number one, I am blessed by the tree-tangle. Who else can say that they have the God of the universe holding up some trees in their back yard so that the trees don’t fall and take out their power? He’s been doing it for six months or so, waiting for me to catch on to the urgency of the issue. He patiently waits for me so often in life. Why am I so dense and slow? It doesn’t even matter why. He waits. Oh, I love Him!

Number two, we unknowingly had a killer furnace, BUT we didn’t die. This simple inspection caught a problem that could have been life threatening for us or for the next owner of our house. If that isn’t a “hand of protection” I don’t know what is! Hallelujah, we get to buy a new furnace instead of paying for a funeral! ANYONE would take that trade.

So there you go.

Life isn’t so bad after all. Perspective is everything. I still am uncomfortable at the cost of all these different fixes, but if God can protect our physical well-being so completely, how can I not trust Him to protect our financial well-being? He cares about every detail, and I choose to be thankful.

I CHOOSE TO BE THANKFUL!