Is it time for an extreme makeover?

Tony and I have lived in our house for almost twenty years. Having lived in two parsonages, we were grateful for the opportunity to purchase our own home in 1988 when we moved to Apex. However, we soon learned that with home ownership comes responsibility for maintenance and repairs. We could no longer call the chairperson of the building and grounds committee when something broke and needed attention.
The past month has found us doing some necessary maintenance and repairs on our home. Here's a list of what we've done so far:

* Replaced the downstairs furnace and air conditioning coil
* Replaced all the flex-duct in the attic and under the house for the entire heating and air conditioning system
* Painted the window shutters and all exterior doors, from blue to burgundy
* Re-piped the entire house, which included not only new pipes, but also a new hot water heater and a thermal expansion unit
* A repairman came to fix all the holes in the ceiling and walls, the damage done during the installation of the new pipes
*We had a service person come and do an annual maintenance check-up on all of our kitchen appliances
* Replaced all the crawl space insulation and put down plastic sheeting under the house
* Repaired the clothes dryer vent, which was broken in two places
* Took apart a long-standing treehouse/fort in the backyard that Samuel had outgrown
* Built a mulch-bin (out of the treehouse wood) for a pile of mulch that was once hidden behind the treehouse
* Tearing down the treehouse resulted in the need for an area of the backyard to be resculpted
* As I'm writing this blog, Tony is putting a new coat of paint on the den and living room since we mistakenly gave the repairman the wrong can of paint to use after he finished patching the walls from the re-pipe job.

All of the repairs to the house have reminded me of the importance of also taking care of ourselves. Just as our house requires regular maintenance, so do our minds and bodies. To remain healthy, we need to pay attention to our physical, spiritual and emotional needs. If we don't do the necessary maintenance, we'll start falling apart. And if the cost of repairing ourselves is anything like fixing up the house, it could get quite expensive!