Everyone's seen the show Home Improvement, where Tim Allen is the absent-minded Tim "the Toolman" Taylor. It's a very funny show. Sometimes my life resembles Tim's a little more than I would like - whether it's saying something stupid to my wife and having to talk my way out of it, or taking on a new DIY project and ending up with a bigger mess than I bargained for. The latest Taylorism that I have taken on is boxing in the carport on our house.

I started the project in early July, and thinking I could do it all myself. And for the most part, that has worked. I tore out the existing closet, took all the siding of the side of the house, framed in the new part, and tied it all together. I had a little help from my brother-in-law with the plywood - it's awkward and it's definitely a job for two people. Then came the drywall . . . and time to call in the professional.

My dad is a carpenter - he worked in residential construction for twenty years and has been in commercial construction for the past twelve. So he knows what he's doing when it comes to this sort of thing. He helped with hanging and finishing, and then last weekend we texturized the walls. I can definitely say that without his help, the finished product would look TERRIBLE! I'm horrible at finishing drywall!

I have now taken on the next two areas of this project simultaneously . . . painting and wiring. Now I ran the wires back when I was framing . . . over a month ago. So much has happened in the past month that I have now forgotten some of the details - and of course, I didn't make a diagram! So for the past four nights, I have been trying to wire the ceiling fan. It's not really a complicated matter - unless you think the hot wire coming from the junction box is actually the wire from the switch, and the hot wire going to the switch is from somewhere else. Needless to say, it hasn't been going well!

Then last night, after I had cut a few wires too short and pushed them back into the walls because I thought I no longer needed them, I figured out I did! So I had to cut holes in the wall of the closet and splice a short piece of wire onto the now-to-short one. Now that I have it all figured out, it works!

Painting has been another episode, since I had to start with primer, then a coat of paint - and we're not talking one color here - my office has three different colors. I'm also repainting the rest of the house, starting with the wall that stretches the width of the house, half in the kitchen and half in the living room. The blue painter's tape doesn't work on textured walls and ceilings, and I now have red paint drips on my wood grain baseboards - I'm not really happy about it!

But it will all come together - eventually . . . right? There are so many thoughts that can be pulled from this whole ordeal, and I could probably write a book about all the mistakes I've made and the lessons I've learned as I've tackled this project. The most important thing to me is that the project is expanding our home so that as our family begins to grow, we'll have room to spread out. And the love and determination that has gone into addition makes it an invaluable part of our home.

Just like home improvement, I routinely fall into the trap of attempting self improvement by myself. Yeah, sometimes I get it right, after weeks or months of trial and error. And sometimes I just give up and call the professional. God is the ultimate personal improvement expert. If I need to clean out cobwebs, repaint some walls, or even add on to my life, it works best if I seek his help from the start. Does that mean that's what I always do? Of course not - I'm driven by accomplishments, and if I can accomplish anything on my own, it makes me feel great. But I have to remember what Jesus told his disciples when they asked who could be saved: "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." (Mark 10:27)

How many times have I said I would quit doing something? How many times have I said I would START doing something? How many promises have I broken to my wife, or to other people, or worse - to God? With myself, these things are impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.