Lessons from rehabbing a house

I am in the midst of fixing up an old house.  This is not first time I have remodel and worked on my homes and I even flip one house therefore though I am not an expert I do have a lot of experiences.  Here are some lessons I have learned that can apply to life.  First, thing are often not what they appear.  First impressions are just that but when we allow those first impressions to dictate long lasting opinions we will often be wrong.  An example of from my present home.  I was excited to see a new electrical panel box installed because my first impression was that the electrical was all updated.  After a couple of weeks I found out only about half was updated that was not done according to code.  It has taken many hours to pull old wiring, find hidden connections, loose wires inside walls and then rewire it so everything will be safe.  I wish my first impressions were always right back unfortunately they are not so let us take the time necessary to get our impressions right and not jump to unnecessary conclusion.  Second, things are always harder then they first appear.  I know that may seem similar to the first one but this has a the context that life is just a lot of hard work.  There is no way getting around the truth that fixing up an old house is a lot of work.  Just like there is no getting around the truth that living a healthy life both spiritually and physically is lot of hard work or developing a good marriage is a lot of hard work.  Those who are always trying to find the easy way will come up short on achieving greatest in their life, family or in a church.  Third, before any project I do an estimate of how much it is going to cost, I even try to over estimate but every time it always seems to cost me more then I wanted to initially pay.  The lesson here is real simple: doing things the right way, having the blessing of God upon your life and being fruitful will always cost you more then you thought at first.  Being willing to pay the price to do things right will always be repay many times over and over.  Jesus told us to count the cost, to deny self, to pick up our cross and to follow Him.  This is not always easy for if it was more people would be doing it but it will always pay off in the end.  Our God is faithful when we sow for He will allow us to reap His good gifts.
There are others lessons for another time.  May the God of all encouragement be with you.