A time to tear down

"a time to tear down and a time to build..."
- Ecclesiastes 3:3

At our house, we seem to be mired in the "time to tear down" phase.

I don't usually quote the Bible, but this seemed appropriate today. I'm feeling a certain amount of Biblical wrath.

The delivery men from Lowe's are in my house as I write this. They're taking out the too-small washer, dryer, and refrigerator, and bringing in their new, larger replacements. Over the past couple of days, Will tore down the cabinets surrounding the fridge. The enclosure was too small for the larger refrigerator. More duct tape on exposed asbestos tile flooring. Discovered in this process: a newly revealed scrap of very festive wallpaper between two cabinets.

Then the news. The fridge is too large to fit through the narrow doorway to the kitchen. And before I could even say, "Jehosaphat," (I'm feeling Biblical today), Will was tearing out the molding on that doorway.

I'm sick at heart.

Now that pretty molding is chewed up. The one and only entrance to our kitchen is surrounded by splintered wood (can we say, "not safe?"). Never mind that it's original to the house.

Further, Will is going to have to spend more time tearing out trim. Longer than the delivery guys are willing to wait. So we can't even get the fridge today. Talk about a lose/lose position.

I realize that you have to have patience during renovation. Especially during a renovation where money is tight, and one is not just handing the reins over to a general contractor and saying, "Go to town." But this is just one piece of splintered wood too many.