Renovation

For the last few weeks, there has been a crew of workers in and around my house. I took on a huge project renovating my basement animal room for the last month or so, and timing and my wife’s ambition coalesced at the same time, and voila, we are also now renovating our living room. As with most things with our aging house, each layer removed revealed old wounds that needed redressing.

The termites that decided to have an insect sex party in our living room a few years ago revealed the level of their destruction when the old floating floor was removed. Those little dudes ate most of the plywood below the floor. Thankfully, that was all sitting on a cracked—we discovered—concrete slab. Had this been anywhere else in our house, well, we would have teleported between floors due to the dietary particulars of hungry termites.

Once those old boards were tossed into the dumpster and they tore into the wall, we discovered that the damage didn’t stop at ground level. Not only did we have termite damage from floor to ceiling on one side of the room, but we also found that the grade of our driveway was directing water to the most termite-damaged corner, making it the perfect habitat for rot and termite dining.

Thankfully, part of this renovation required us to tear into the wall to remove an old window, and what’s a few more studs and plywood boards among amigos? It was an easy fix for this stellar crew, and I’m thankful we found it all and corrected those weak points.

The room is almost finished. We’re waiting on a set of French doors that went on backorder the moment we hit “buy it now” on Home Depot’s website. So, since I had more work to do and the doors were a few weeks away from landing on my, er, doorstep, we decided to see if the crew wanted to take on a unique challenge.

My tortoise pen was dismantled and trashed last year when we did our back yard dirt rodeo, and it’s been something I’ve had to put off more times than I’m happy about. The construction crew was happy to oblige. Currently, they’re making a semicircle of 2x12s and 4x4s that will contain my jumbo tortoises—maybe a rhino.

Sometimes you must admit your weakness, inability, or lack of time and hire it out. I could have built this pen, but I lessened my load and let the professionals handle it. They’re roughly halfway done with it, and I’m already stoked on how it’s turning out.

In the next few months, once the literal and figurative dust settles here, it’s going to look like an exhibit worthy of select friends and families’ personal viewing. I’m excited to share my hidden worlds with the rest of you via videos on my YouTube and other social media channels.

I’m trying to take the advice of so many folks and unburden myself from so many of the things I’ve taken on. Letting someone else build my tortoise pen is yet another example of how I’m trying to listen to you all. Stress is still abounding, work hasn’t gotten any better, but I’m finding small ways to hit the pressure release valve. One of those things has been the multiple trips recently into wild spaces.

I released another Catching Creation episode earlier this week. The views on my channel don’t reflect the hard work I put into editing, but I don’t care—yet. I’m still earning the trust of the good people who used to tune in by being as consistent as I can in this early phase. I need to buy another camera and eventually a new computer, but I’m taking it one thing at a time and using what I’ve got. Thankfully, my iPhone is a digital Swiss army knife of sorts. A good story transcends medium, at least, I hope.

If you’re in the Randleman, NC area today around 3:30 pm, listen to me prattle on about war, nature, and my personal story. I’m sharing from A Toad in a Glass Jar at the Randleman Public Library. I think the event starts at 3:30, and I plan to arrive as soon as I can after work, which will likely have me screeching in just a bit after 4. I’m glad to share with that community, as some dear friends helped make it happen. If only they show up, I’ll consider it a win.

If you still haven’t grabbed a copy of my book and want to help support all these projects, shoot me a message and I’ll personally sign and ship you a book for $25. Thanks again for sticking with me week after week. Until next time.