Foundations

 January 31, 2024

Linda and I are doing what we can to help our granddaughter and her husband remodel the building they bought for their new business venture, Three Lakes Cafe, a coffee shop in Cassadaga, NY. Remodeling is always an interesting business, requiring demolition and renewal. The demolition part isn’t hard; figure out what needs to be taken down, and do it. Building the new is a different story.

The upstairs apartment where they will be living had a leak in the roof over the kitchen counter. The roof had already been fixed when they bought the place, but the damage to the kitchen ceiling was quite evident—part of it was literally falling down. Last week, I screwed a piece of 2 X 4 to an existing ceiling joist to give me something to fasten the drywall patch I had prepared for the fix. Monday, Jake and I screwed the patch to the joists with deck screws, the only screws I had long enough to reach through the drywall, lathe, and into the joists. The lathe itself was too compromised to hold the patch securely.

Today I taped and applied the first coat of “mud” to the seams. When the drywall compound is dry tomorrow, I’ll go back, sand it down, and apply the second coat. Hopefully, all it will then need is a second sanding before painting.

I say all this to note that there is a necessary sequence to the project. Get one segment out of order, and the whole job stops until we backtrack and get it right. There are no shortcuts. 

Life itself is like that. Too often, we cut corners, compromise our integrity, fudge a little here and a little there, hoping we can cover it all up with another coat of whatever compound we can lay over the top. But if the foundational work isn’t done, and done correctly, it just won’t last. The lathe needed to be secured; the joists located and marked, the patch cut to size, the tape and mud applied, sanded, and applied again. You can’t sand wet mud, and you can’t tape over dry compound. If the lathe isn’t secured, things will be uneven. Each step is important, each one in the right order, so the end product is acceptable. 

I’m not a professional, so it’s probably not going to look as finished as it could be, but it’s not going to have noticeable seams or falling pieces of plaster. The foundational work is first, and it’s unseen, but absolutely necessary. If the unseen work is done well, the finished product will stand the test of time.

“No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” —I Corinthians 3:11