Foundations

photo courtesy of Simon Howden of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

“They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.” Luke 6:48 NIV

Last summer, when Zac was first hospitalized for FPIES, we were in the midst of a huge construction project on our house.  We closed in our garage to add extra living space and re-arranged that entire end of the house.

We’ve been very happy with our new living space; finally the boys had a decent sized bedroom, I had a glorious  closet, the new master bathroom makes me feel like I’m in a spa, and most importantly, Darrel now has an office.

Except, I noticed in January that the fake marble in our tub surround was pulling away from the wall.  I called our contractor, but he told me to call the marble company.  I did, and they were horrified – “We’ll be right out!”

They came to fix it and politely informed me that they had not, in fact, messed up during installation.  They were no experts, they told me, but in their experience what we had going on in our house was a foundation problem.  They said they’d be happy to come out and re-attach any pieces of fake marble that popped off as often as necessary, but that it would continue to be necessary until we got the foundation fixed.

Ugh!  Say what?  We JUST had construction done!  How do we have a problem like this already?

They showed me some of the “clues”: cabinets pulled away from the wall where they were previously sealed, tile shifted away from cabinets at the base, the aforementioned tub surround pulling from the wall, and cracks in the sheet rock of some of our brand-new walls.

Did I mention this was the day before we flew to Atlanta for our specialists appointments?

So it wasn’t until mid-February before I got the chance to call our contractor back about the foundation.  He said he’d never heard of a house shifting like this after construction, and had no recommendations for a foundation repair specialist.  So, I googled for one.

Finally, last Tuesday, the licensed, certified, engineering degreed foundation guy came to look at my house.

And he informed me that I do, in fact, have a MAJOR foundation problem.  A foundation problem that is directly caused by contractor negligence.  

Apparently, when they were building our new addition last summer, they didn’t account for the extra weight that would need to be borne on that end of the house and added absolutely zero support piers and beams to the foundation.  Add to that the drought our area has been in for the last two years and the heavy rains we’ve been having this spring, and as a consequence, the “new” end of the house is now shifting downwards.

Enough so, that it is quite literally trying to rip my house in two.

So far, the estimate for just  the foundation repairs is…staggering, to say the least.  We still have to pay another staggering amount for a comprehensive home inspector to come tell us everything that has been damaged from the faulty foundation, then get an estimate from a different home repair contractor for the interior, roof, and cosmetic damage…which, knowing our luck, will also be a staggering sum of money.

Money we Just. Don’t. Have.

Even before the faulty foundation was revealed, Darrel and I were seriously concerned about how we would be able to even keep  the house once June comes; we had saved enough money to pay the mortgage while I was out on maternity leave, but assumed that I would return to work.

My paycheck would have continued to pay for the mortgage and our childcare costs with not much leftover, but we still would have slowly been able to pay off the debt FPIES has forced us to accumulate this year.

As that date draws nearer, and Zac still has NO safe foods to eat other than my breast milk, we can’t see any possible way I can leave him for 4-10 days at a stretch in order to work.  

In order to keep my son alive, I may have to take an extended leave of absence from my job.  I won’t lose my job, but I won’t have any income.

Without my income, we can’t make the mortgage payment.  

And now, on top of that worry and stress, we’ll have a huge – HUGE – H U G E outlay to fix what should never have been broken by an incompetent man during the hardest summer of my life.

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We’re pursuing our options and trying to sort out a plan to handle this latest concern, but all of this got me thinking a lot about foundations.

The definition of foundation is:

1. that on which something is founded; basis

2. (Miscellaneous Technologies / Building) (often plural) a construction below the ground that distributes the load of a building, wall, etc.

3. the base on which something stands

Looking at just the 1st definition of the word, I’m considering the foundations upon which my entire life rests.

My house, obviously, rests upon an earthen (and inadequate) foundation.

But that’s just where I live.  What about my life?  Is it also on an inadequate foundation?

For example, our finances.  They are based on my job as a Flight Attendant and Darrel’s job as a computer geek.  I have to question whether those are good things to rest our financial well-being upon; are they safe and reliable?  Am I putting my family at risk by depending upon those jobs?  Have I done everything in my power to reduce our cost of living so that our money can go further and we can stretch a penny into a dime every chance we get?

The foundation of my family is my marriage to Darrel.  With two kiddos with special medical needs, am I continuing to build the foundation of my marriage to Darrel?  We’ve added an awful lot of extra “weight” to our marriage and our lives…have I added the necessary piers and beams to handle that weight?

What about myself?  My kiddos (and my husband) depend very much on me.  Am I laying the proper foundation for self-care so I can continue to care for them?  Do I take the time I need to ensure I get a break, a chance to recuperate and relax?  Do I make the time for friends?  Do I ensure I get adequate food and sleep?

Last, but by no means least, what about God?  I quoted from Luke at the beginning of this post, but only a small part of it.  The whole quote is Jesus saying

“As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.” Luke 6:47-48 NIV

Luke goes on to say:

“But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.” Luke 6:49 NIV

I wonder…do I hear God’s words and put them into practice?  Am I building my spiritual house deep into the foundation rock?  Or am I allowing my soul to resemble my physical home; pretty on the outside, but internally being pulled in half?

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It’s a lot to think about; I guess I don’t have anything enlightening to share with you about this train of thought!  It’s enough, for now, that I’m considering the questions.

I think we all need to look at our foundations on occasion and see if they’re based on Rock or Shifting Sands.

So I’m encouraging you to take a moment and ask: what are YOUR foundations?  Are you building them well?  (Even without FPIES and other medical mysteries, we all need good foundations!)

(And as a side note…what is UP with all the “stuff” being thrown at us lately, huh?  Like I don’t have ENOUGH to deal with already, right?)