I heard a statistic yesterday that home ownership is down to the lowest it has been since 1998. The market hasn’t been great and people are choosing to rent instead of own. With home ownership comes a long list of things that you never knew you signed up for. There are plenty of bills that sneak up on you; but the home improvement projects often just pile up rather than sneak. There’s the leaky faucet in the bathroom that you’ve been “going to get to” for two years now, and the trim work in the bedroom that could use a little paint touch up to make it all better. But who has time to open the paint and do that?

I have been blessed with a friend who has quite the eye for home renovations. She can spot the ugliest room in your house and say, “We’re going to make this look amazing.” She sells you on it and the next thing you know, you’re knee deep in a home project. The wonderful thing about my friend, Donna, is that she doesn’t just give you the idea to run with it, she runs with it and you can either get in or get out, but you better get out of the way either way.

We are currently in the middle of remodeling my kitchen. I live in a house that was built in 1955 and probably has the same hinges, pulls and paint from the day of its foundation. It’s a big kitchen with plenty of cabinet space, but it was so dated and gross that I just never had the drive to update the cabinets. Donna comes in with these big ideas about staining the cabinets, painting the walls and making the whole place look better; and so I did what any person would do… I got behind her vision. She can see things in a room that no ordinary person would imagine. Take the cabinets for instance. We sanded them down by hand because we didn’t have any fancy sanders just lying around the house. While I was at work Friday, four of my good friends were working feverishly to get the cabinets in painting condition.

After the sanding, we did a coat of primer, two coats of paint, a black wash finish and a glaze to go on top. After all of this work, I decided that Monday night I would buy the hardware for the cabinets and pop them on quickly so that we could move to other things on Tuesday night. Little did I know that finding hardware to fit 56-year old cabinets was exhausting. By the end of the night I was biting my tongue to keep from saying things that shouldn’t be said. Who knew that something as small as 18 cabinets and 22 drawers could just about make you lose your mind.

When you start a home improvement project, make sure you know what you are getting yourself into, and most importantly, make sure you know who you are getting into it with. When working on things that are less than pleasant, you had better make sure you are surrounding yourself with people who you can stand to be around. Through this project, the only thing that has kept me sane is the fact that I am surrounded by a group of friends who are there for me no matter what. They are painting at my house, even while I’m still at work. They are murmuring under their breath just as much as me, so there is no room for judgements in this kitchen.

When it comes to the hard stuff, it’s good to know that you have a great group of people rooting you on in your corner; and that is exactly what I have been blessed with…. a group of friends who not only cheer from the sidelines, but jump in the game to help you handle your business.

What kind of friend are you? What kind of friends do you surround yourself with? Would they be there for you in times of need or just when the sun is shining in your life? Think about it this week. Be the kind of friend that you want others to be to you. The Bible does say, “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”