Lessons Learned

I've learned (or re-learned) the following lessons recently:

• There is nothing in this world quite like the local church when it is working properly. I cannot overestimate the value Impact Church and Echo Church have had in my life over the past couple weeks. From quality Christ-centered messages, to necessary friendships and fellowshipping, to the servant attitudes of folks... I have been filled and taken good care of by some wonderful people.
• Never trust an inspector. We are much poorer in the pocketbook because of all the different home inspections this new house brought us. And still with all of their inspection revenues, they missed an awful lot. This lesson applies to inspectors who work for LandAmerica, Becker Engineering, and the City of Cincinnati Department of Building and Inspections. If you see any of them around, tell them they suck. These days, I trust them all with my house about as much as I trust Mike Stanton with a 1-run lead with the bases loaded and nobody out. (By the way, I'm really glad he's under contract for next year. He's the best. Really.)
• Killing termites is expensive. The bug man came Monday morning and worked his butt off. We bought over 3 hours of his time and over 230 gallons of Termidor for about $1000. And from what I've heard, we got a pretty good deal.
• House projects never quite go according to plan. We knew we had a big project ahead of us. We thought we had to take down cabinets, move electric lines, rip up multiple glued-down layers of crappy fake tile, cut and lay concrete subfloor, cut and lay ceramic tile, refinish and re-hang cabinets. We had not planned on finding more bugs or rotten floorjoists, or replacing structural elements of the house.
• There is something very satisfying about building something tangible. I like working with lumber & powertools and physically working so hard that I feel like I might collapse. Freshly-cut lumber smells so good and powertools have such... well, power. And having tired legs and throbbing arms makes me feel like I'm working hard. For a guy whose days typically consist of building a balance sheet and sales reports, building a kitchen is a welcomed challenge. And it gives me the chance to feel pretty dang masculine. Which is nice, as I typically feel pretty tamed.
• It's important to have good music on while building a kitchen. WNKU 89.7 FM is the only appropriate radio station to listen to late at night while doing construction. Over The Rhine, Ben Harper, Bob Marley, and Widespread Panic are the appropriate artists that are to be listened to while doing such work.
• Sleep is not overrated. Every day lately, I'm up early and going pretty much non-stop until after midnight. Sometimes I drive home to sleep next to my wife, sometimes I just sleep on the floor of the construction site. Either way, there ain't much sleep to be had. And thus, I am qualified to now say that sleep is not overrated. I would like to obtain some sleepy sometime soon. But probably not for a couple more weeks. As Jack Bauer says, "THERE'S NO TIME!!!!!!!!!"

There are many more lessons, but these are forefront right now.