We were on a mission. When Tim and I walked into the back bedroom in our daughter
Sara’s house, we were ready to help turn it into a nursery. Unfortunately, we weren’t prepared for the damage we saw.
I am going to back up a little here. Sara’s house was once my and Tim’s house. In fact, she was raised there. She bought it when we moved over ten years ago. A few years before we moved, we put down new laminate flooring in the living room, her bedroom, and the hallway at her room. On our hands and knees with my stepfather, we laid the floor. We were so excited since it gave the house a whole new look.
A few years after Sara bought it, she helped out a friend by letting them live in the room that was her old bedroom for a while. Tim and I were happy that she wasn’t there by herself. Well, this friend had a little dog that wasn’t house trained like we thought. To be honest, I don’t think it was trained at all. The damage that the dog left behind was what surprised us so much. It broke my heart to see the floor in the shape it was now in.
I asked if we could just replace the damaged section with the few pieces left over from when the floor was laid. Tim said we couldn’t just take up a section. Instead, we would have to take the floor up from a point over. When we started, we put the good pieces in one pile and the damaged ones in another. Soon, we realized more pieces were damaged than we first thought. That meant we didn’t have enough to replace the bad ones. So, Tim and I went to a home store to hopefully find flooring that matched. No such luck. Not only did nothing match close enough to use, but the interlocking system for the new boards were completely different from what we had. So, I emailed the company that had made the original flooring. I pled our case in hopes that they may have some extra pieces of our old flooring stored in a warehouse somewhere. They didn’t.
Are you wondering why we didn’t just buy new boards to replace the bedroom floor? Because it was a good-sized room and that would have been very pricey. With a new baby coming to the family, nobody wanted to spend that much money. Then I had an idea. We would take up the floor in the hallway and use those to replace in the bedroom. We could put in a transition strip at the bedroom door and put new floor just in the hallway. That would be a lot cheaper. After we took up the hallway floor, we took up more floor in the bedroom. I’ll give you one guess on what we found. Yep, many more damaged pieces. That pile was so much bigger than the boards in good shape. Obviously, we didn’t have enough floor pieces from the hallway to relace them.
“Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matthew 13:30 (KJV)
Tim and I had a pile of good and one of damaged floor pieces. Unfortunately, the ruined ones can never be repaired. As for the tares in the verse, they represent nonbelievers. Until it’s time for the harvest, they do have the choice to become believers (wheat). After that, it’s too late. Which pile will you be in?
My son-in-law had the perfect solution. He bought less expensive stick down flooring pieces. Let me tell you, he did a great job on laying them. Now, the old bedroom is a pretty nursery. Pictures of it are with this article. I hope little Maverick will enjoy it. Maybe one day, he can use it as a nursery for his own kids. And if they have any pets, they are house broken.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.