Home Maintenance

image from here

I try to post 10 times per month- an arbitrary number for an unbidden task, but one I feel oddly beholden to keeping. My numbers have been down since August for one simple reason: we're homeowners again.

Home ownership is a blessing, but I didn't miss it during our latest stint overseas. Though renting is not a successful financial strategy in the long term, there's something satisfying about saying 'not my problem' when [x] breaks (assuming you and yours weren't responsible for the breaking, and you have good landlords willing to address the problem). Well, we're homeowners again, so now it is indeed my problem. And it seems never-ending.

We closed on our home in September, and have been doing projects ever since. We've accomplished a lot, either ourselves or with the help of friends and contractors, and we're nearing the 'end of the beginning' (those initial tasks we identified as important to accomplish up-front). Here are just some of the things we've done:

• Cleaned HVAC/dryer ducts (and put a cage over the exhaust vents to keep out critters)
• Replaced all power outlets and switches; fixed wiring problems 
• Installed three new fans and three new lights
• Replaced carpet in the bedrooms
• Painted everything but the basement inside, and the shutters outside
• Restored the garage (it had been converted into a room)
• Sealed cracks in the foundation
• Fixed broken dishwasher, cabinets, freezer shelves, and front door window
• Installed bathroom vanity
• Replaced most door knobs & all locks
• Fixed loose tub spout
• Hung two new exterior doors and one closet door
• Hung curtains & pictures

You can see where I've been spending my time. And the home we bought was in good shape!

On the one hand, I find home improvement projects annoying. They take time away from my preferred activities- reading, exercise, games, blogging, and so on. But as I reflect on this, it also aligns with our original mandate: to rule, subdue, and cultivate.

In Genesis (the first book of the Bible), the Lord creates man in chapter 1:

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Verse 28 is called the 'cultural mandate'- the charge to subdue and have dominion over the earth, which requires humans developing common institutions and working together- in other words, culture.

In chapter 2, the Lord gives man a more specific charge:

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

So having dominion means, in part, to work & keep things. 

In chapter 3, man sins, severing the relationship with God. Man's charge doesn't change, but there's an element added in verses 17b-19:

cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,

So now man's efforts will be marked with curses and pain. Ugh.

The Genesis account goes beyond Adam and the garden of Eden. God's charge (and curse) applies to each of us in our daily lives and tasks. We are stewards of what He gives us (see Matthew 21:33-46); our possessions are not ours to do with as we please. As Keith Martel says in Storied Leadership, we are to be 'loving lords':

The loving lord is the one who protects the limits and draws out the possibilities. She is able to consider the potential of her subject and nurture it toward maturity. The loving lord leads the created order into the way it is meant to be . . . loving lordship seeks to bring out the fullness of something for the common good and for the benefit of the thing itself.

This includes caring for our homes.

Our homes are given to us not just for personal satisfaction, but also as a means to serve each other. To be a haven (a safe refuge) for our neighbors, friends, and family. A place to nourish and encourage each other. The physical structure itself doesn't make a home- relationships do that- but we are charged to keep the physical structure in a condition that lends itself to relationships. Some things- like personal safety (addressing structural concerns, sanitary conditions or safety hazards)- are obvious, but other things matter, too. We replaced our bathroom vanity, for example, because the bowl was too high for children to use, and the vanity itself was too large and encroaching on the toilet. We put down hypo-allergenic carpets for the benefit of ourselves and others. We fixed broken items so we can actually use the things we have, for ourselves and others. And so on.

Of course, home maintenance is plagued with the curse, like everything else. Seemingly little jobs can cascade into huge efforts (a home is a system, after all). Supposedly easy jobs can be much harder than expected. And it sometimes feels like 'whack-a-mole,' where you fix one problem and two more pop up. It never ends. 

A caution: because we're fallen people, we can make the home into an idol, and pour unnecessary amounts of time and money into it for selfish reasons. Our homes will never be perfect, and we have to balance what we need to do with what we want to do- and know the difference. Part of serving others is inviting them into your 'mess'- your spiritual reality (both your gifts and weaknesses), and your physical reality, which can mean hosting in a messy home. I'm not suggesting in this post that you can only serve others once your home/heart is in a good place (because that will never happen); instead, I believe we are called to serve others in the midst of our mess, and strive to bring out the potential around you (in homes & humans) together.

This post is now longer than I intended. My overall point: home maintenance is part of God's charge to us, to be good stewards of what we've been given, so we can bring out its potential to glorify Him and serve others. 

UPDATE: the very day I posted this, I discovered a brown spot on the ceiling in the bathroom. The list goes ever on and on.