Hard To Believe with some Faith Thrown In

We had thought that the decorating of our bedroom would take about a week. We are now actually into the fourth week to see it to completion. The saga began 5 years ago.

At that time I totally changed my colour scheme from dark regency green to cream. The regency green had been painted onto heavily embossed wallpaper, the idea being that we would only have to paint the walls in future and not re-paper as we do throughout the rest of the house. In order to cover green with cream we had to use 3 coats of paint. All seemed well until it completely dried when the paint began to crack. In time it looked like the cracks on a piece of china. We decided to just live with this mistake until we needed to redecorate.

This year I decided I no longer wanted to live with this wallpaper, added to the fact that we were having problems with a strong smell of mildew in my fitted wardrobes. Hence we embarked on completely stripping the room and hoping that we could deal with the mildew problem by heavily venting the wardrobes that are fitted to the outside walls.

Now to the unbelievable part. In moving a strip from the top of the end of the wardrobes to strip the paper more easily we found that the furniture fitter had packed the space between the wardrobe and the front outside wall with all the cardboard packing cases that the flat pack furniture had been delivered in. We removed the front panel and found boxes inside boxes, including off cuts of wood and other odds and ends. Everything was wet and mouldy from condensation and the lack of airflow. It had been there for the 15 years since we first had this particular furniture fitted. We found this mould had spread to other places too once we removed some draws and bedside cabinets. The ‘cracked’ wallpaper was a benefit to us in the end as we may not have redecorated so soon. In the end all things do work together for good though it is often hard to see at the time.

Yes, this is some of what we found

And the space where we found it

In the gap to the left of the mirrored door. We plan to leave this gap open and not replace the panel. Not so neat but space for air to flow.

Some other issues that were nothing to do with the above added to the time it has taken to complete the work. On removing shelving from an inside wall, the plaster decided to part company with the wall so Alan then had a plastering job to undertake before proceeding further. Then as he removed a radiator from the wall it slipped and that black oily stuff that sits in radiators once they have been drained ran out and onto my cream carpet. To cap it all I had sent my velvet curtains to a dry cleaner to be cleaned and what did they do, they washed them when I had assumed they would be dry cleaned. They shrank. As they had only just skimmed the window ledge before it now entailed lowering the curtain rail. This brought the drilling to the height of the lintel above the window and it took Alan almost a day to drill through this, breaking a number of drill bits on the way. Stressful? Definitely.

Fortunately we do have other bedrooms in which to sleep so I was grateful for that but am really looking forward to be back in my Tempur bed which moulds itself to my body and totally supports. For the uninitiated Tempur mattresses are used in space ships to help support the body during space flight.

I had an old missionary friend who would always say when life threw lemons his way, "Now what has God got to show me in all of this?" This I know is the way forward but it is usually a while before I get to this place, often allowing stress and frustration to take over instead. We are exhorted in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in ALL circumstances. Even now this is not something I feel like doing or even want to, but that's OK. We are not asked to feel like it or want to do it, we are just asked TO DO IT as God knows the peace that obedience brings. One of the study notes on this subject in my Bible says "People are naturally happy on some occasions, but the Christian's joy is not dependent on circumstances, it comes from what Christ has done, and it is constant." To me that is not speaking about feelings but a person who is joy and peace within us in spite of how we feel.

I recently received this award 'From lemons to Lemonade' again and it aptly fits in here. It came from Margo. This time I pass this on to Adrienne whose blog and life certainly lives up to this award. The most recent difficult time for Adrienne has been the sudden and unexpected death of her son-in-law, leaving her daughter to bring up her children alone. You deserve it Adrienne.