Demo Day: Out With The Old, In With The New

I’d be lying if I told you there wasn’t something therapeutic about demo day.

Walking into the homes I will have for sale, I immediately see all of the falling apart pieces, walls that shouldn’t be there, colors that seem to offend and architectural designs that take away from the value from the home. Adrian brings in his incredible construction team, and we strip it down to its best parts. It’s almost second nature to walk into a space and see what needs to go and what needs to stay.

Wouldn’t be wonderful if life was this way?

I wish that removing the unnecessary or unneeded from our lives was as easy as breaking through walls and uprooting floors. I wish that we each were given a demo team, with hard hats on, ready to take on the bulk in our lives for us. But you and I know that this is not the case. Ultimately, sifting through the sawdust to find the treasure takes work, commitment, and intentional living. It takes friends and spouses who tell us the truth about our weaknesses, a community who can champion our successes, and the intuition in our own hearts to see what needs demo, and what just needs a fresh coat of paint.

These reevaluations often come along with the new year, right? We get excited to grow, change, and take on new adventures. Each home and project feels a lot like that new year. What needs to go? What adds value? What requires our focus? What is already thriving? As Adrian and I walk through hallways and bedrooms, our brains have demo on the mind. Removing unnecessary or unwanted portions of a home, allows the best parts to shine. Breaking down a bulky wall in the kitchen, frees families to dine and cook, together. Adding a master bathroom in place of another closet gives couples the privacy they need to start and end their days with peace and quiet. We know that life can already be full of circumstances and difficulties that are harder to get rid of than bad electrical or trim, so our heart is to do the hard demo upfront, so the home can be a place of retreat.

As always, my work reveals to me the ways I can grow personally. Demo is hard work and takes a crew, but it is often the most therapeutic and foundational part of the entire process. Perhaps we can find the courage and gumption needed, not to just break down walls, but to take a good look at our own lives and think, “Out with the old, and in the with the new.” Now let’s put our hard hats on, and get to work.