Before and After

Yes, this is the same house. Before and After.

A friend of mine asked, "Do you think God sees the house we live in, the car we drive, the clothes we wear? Or does he just see our spirits, and how we interact with each other?"
I revisit that question often when money is tight, and choices have to be made. I also think of it when I go to confession. For some reason it came to me when I saw this house.

I wonder if God sees our souls similar to how my husband sees a house in need of repair. Full of possibilities. The top picture has been neglected. Literally the people who lived there, closed the door to the back room to hide the hole in the roof. The hole let in the weather, and a few squirrels. Eventually the neglect damaged the house. With a little vision and a lot of hard work, the house was repaired. When we go to confession we walk in damaged by our sins. With grace we leave renewed.

Don't close the door to try and hide something embarrassing or ugly. It costs less to keep up with repairs when they arise. Don't scare yourself out of reconciliation.

Bench project

LIKE NEW AGAIN!

If I were thinking I would have a before and after shot. Instead I have a picture during and after my little home improvement project. Oh well, I am new at this.


A friend gave me this bench. I LOVE it! However, it needed a little TLC. The wood was a bit weathered. A painter friend of ours gave me a little advise. He told me to add 1 cup of bleach to a gallon of water. Then use a scrub brush to clean the wood with that mixture. He said that somehow this seals the pours in the wood, it kills anything growing in the pours. This would return it to a like new condition. After scrubbing with the bleach solution, wash with a power washer or just scrub well with plain water and rinse. Make sure you get all the bleach solution off the wood. Then the wood is ready to sand and stain. He suggested an outdoor stain that protects against the UV rays.


I know I'm not the only one with this delima, so I wanted to share the solution with you. It was a lot easier then I first thought it would be. The color of the wood after the stain was the same as the color when it was wet. I probably should have bleached it one more time before staining, but I still think it turned out great!

This is a picture of the bench in progress. The top part is wet with the bleach solution.

You can see the weather damaged to the wood.

Did you see this truck going down the road? That was my husband. He told me he was going to the store to buy a few trees. They were on sale, and we could use a few evergreens. He came home with 11 trees each 7 foot tall.

This is my husband...no project is a small project.