We Nailed It…Literally

Does this scenario sound familiar in your house?
• Require child to clean up his bedroom which has every drawer open and clothes all over the floor.
• You check a while later and it “looks” picked up, until you open the closet door…gah! Try again.
• Come back 15 minutes later and said child is casually playing a game on the i-pad. Must be picked up right? It seems so, until you look under the bed. Gah! Try again!
• Give him 20 more minutes and it all looks good. He goes about his day and all is peaceful…until you start doing the laundry later only to discover he simply moved his whole mess right into the hamper whether some things needed to be washed or not. Gah!
I call it the moving mess syndrome and it has been rearing its ugly head around our house for the last year or so. I’m guilty of it also. I “organize” one space only to move my mess to another space that will later need my attention. If our mess had frequent flyer miles, it would have earned a free trip to Hawaii with no black-out dates over this past year. Something had to be done to tame the beast. Hence, the evidence:

Ugly, right? No, we are not hoarders. I don’t need to be helped on TLC by some magic psychologist who informs me I am holding on to stuff because I was traumatized by not getting the purple stitched Gloria Vanderbilt jeans everyone else got. FYI…I had two pair-purple and gold for those of you old enough to know what I’m talking about. We just needed better storage solutions. So, here’s my no cost knight in shining armor.

Now, I know he’s not all twinkling eyes, dimples, great hair, and a killer smile. He’s more on time, smart, sincere, and “open your car door kind of polite”. Perfect! In no time I was loading “nowhere to store” items on to his dependable shelves and the garage was starting to take shape. I still have to do a lot of organizing.  My goal was to be able to walk through the garage by the end of the day.  I know, lofty goal right?

We have a collection of large items that no one wants to part with…especially the golf cart. We needed a place to put some of the large items freeing up floor space in the garage. We were in need of a shed. Unbelievably, we no more than thought it when we received a call from a friend saying he had a shed on his property that he was going to haul away and asked if we wanted it.

Hallelujah! Now, I’m not saying God’s main concern was whether or not there was a shed in our backyard, but I can say undoubtedly throughout my life, God has provided. He provides so often in my life in little ways that it is a strong reassurance to me that He will always be there to provide in big ways when needed. Isn’t she a beauty?
To top the weekend off, we decided to build a deck. We had a 10 x12 foot slab on the back of the house barely large enough to hold a small table comfortably. Our old home had this back yard, which we loved.

My dad (age 75) and my mom (age 73) have always been hard-working do it yourselfers before there was even such a term. Being a minister, with a penchant for architecture, led him down a path few have traveled on. They built a lake cottage out of a recycled barn, three houses from scratch (no contractors), and four beautiful church buildings. Recently, they had a home built for them and the builder was so enamored with their ability to rip boards even in their 70’s that he has the good material left from a build hauled over to their garage to use. God provides.

My dad planned out the deck, gathered all the extra materials, and we began building the deck around 11:00 a.m. After digging, leveling, and pounding in what seems like thousands of deck nails, we had a brand new deck by 6:00 p.m. the very same day. Start to finish. Can you imagine?

He rips the boards all at the same time and we literally put it together like it was one giant Lego set. They all fit together perfectly and everything is square and level. No extra trips to Home Depot. No standing there, scratching our heads. No cut mistakes. Just sore muscles.

I have big plans for this deck. To recap my President’s Day weekend; Cost of shelves in the garage-$0. Cost of shed in the backyard- $0. Cost of deck-$175 for concrete blocks and a few additional pieces of wood, deck nails etc…. It may not have been the relaxing three day weekend of my dreams, but the fruits of the labor are so good. I can rest next weekend.