Demolition Day

No sledgehammers went through the walls, no window panes were smashed to have the shards of glass cover the floor like glitter, but I felt like it was just as dramatic...I ripped up the carpet.  For sometime now the smell of pets permeated the living area of our home. Without fail when I'd walk downstairs I'd be disgusted. Multiple times a day I would wrinkle my nose and proclaim, "It stinks in here, I hate it."  Finally, I'd had enough. After making sure my husband was on board, I started at the transition to the tile and just lifted it up. It was so easy to pull it away from the wall, the carpet came up with hardly any resistance. I rolled it neatly and was pleased. Then came the mat. It rolled fairly easily as well and I was disappointed it didn't look worse then it did but, oh the smell. It was the source of much grief and irritation. I was doing it, I was changing something that had bothered me for quite some time. I don't know the next step. However, I do know, now that I've begun it will have to be finished.

I started to look around at all the other things I dislike, the baseboard, the color of our walls, the windows, the blinds, Troy hates the kitchen cabinets and layout, we could use another bedroom and bathroom, let's put in our master landscape plan in the backyard, dig a pool, put up a new fence.....
Instead of feeling overwhelmed with my list of things we'd like to change I was ready to tackle it. If I can pull up the carpet and not smell cat piss, I'm convinced I can do anything.



Change is inevitable. When you embrace that truth, making changes yourself isn't as scary. If life is going to throw things at you, both good and bad-why not put your own changes in the mix? Why not do more? see more? be more? What are you afraid of? Now go after it. Easier said then done, I know. It is scary to move, to leave, to make a big purchase, to run a new route, to pull a child out of school to teach him yourself, to envision the path that will lead to your happiness. Pulling up the carpet and mat was the easy part. The part of the project that provided enough of a reward that I was encouraged to keep going, I knew I was on the right track. Now we're at the point where decisions must be made, what will we replace it with? Leave it cement? How much will it cost? This point is unavoidable. I can't go climb back into bed with the hopes that when I decide to get up my floor will have renovated itself. I have to be fully engaged in this project, blood, sweat and tears. Lucky for me I don't have to do it alone. None of us do. I have faith that once this floor is complete I will have satisfaction, I will have taken a problem and fixed it. I didn't allow the stench of the carpet to be dissolved into the jar of all the things I dislike. I ripped it out, cut it off, threw it away, freed myself of all it's many stains. Don't hold on to smelly carpet, you're kids will get sick from it's germs and pretty soon none of you will have friends.


I went walking last night and disclosed my seemingly brave decision to begin a remodel with my bare hands. Tawna told me her sister-in-law took an axe to their kitchen cabinets one day while her husband was at work because she was so sick of looking at them. I need to meet this girl!


It may not be wise to dismantle, break, render unrepairable, trash, or ruin any particular part of your house whether it be ugly, smelly or old. On the other hand if it brings you to a point where you can see past the walls that have been closing in on you, it has given you much more than a new and improved floor to gaze at. If you hate something take it upon yourself to change it. That may involve power tools or just the power to change yourself. Some times the problem is purely physical and other times it involves heart, mind and soul. What in your life needs renovating....