Project Limbo

Three years ago I decided I wanted a sign on my porch that said "Solomon's Portico (Acts 5:12)." When I explained it to Carl, he offered to make it for me, though I fully intended to purchase the sign. At the time I was relieved because I didn't know where to have a sign made and I didn't want to spend a lot of money. The following sign scenario epitomizes the sequence that the Solomon family takes when embarking upon any new idea. It can be summarized like this:

Angela imagines it, Carl offers to make it, Carl "improves" it then begins building the "improved" it ... it remains indefinitely incomplete. (I sound like an e-bay commercial).

We have many such items around here, including one HUGE, incomplete 2000+ square foot building project, which began in 2000 or 2001...it's been so long, I don't even remember.

In my mind, the sign was simple: words painted on wood, hooks on the back, hang it on the brick, end of story. In Carl's mind, the words were cut out of the wood, then mounted on a frame with plexiglass behind lights that lit up the sign at night. Of course, no simple switch would work. He needed a photo-eye that automatically turned the sign on at dusk. Did I mention we don't have electricity hooked up to the sign's brick wall?

Back in 2004 Carl excitedly began the sign, cut out the letters, mounted them to the frame and...there he stopped. The sign became one of many its in project limbo.

Eureka! After 14 years of marriage I have discovered the secret to releasing its from project limbo: arrange to (gasp) PAY someone else to do them. So far in 2007 alone I have rescued under-the-house water lines (which have needed replaced for over a year now because they were causing a water-leak line under my kitchen linoleum), a bathtub installation, part of a gutter project and now my Solomon's Portico sign from project limbo. I'm certain I've forgotten something.

As for the sign, I had arranged to order my sign through my mom's uppercaseliving.com home party. The party closed yesterday. Upon telling Carl Friday evening about my impending purchase, he replied, "But I almost have that sign finished out in my shop."

I said, "I'll make a deal with you. If you have that sign finished, hanging and looking nice by Sunday, I'll cancel my order." Keep in mind, we're talking a $30 purchase here, well under our if-it's-over-$150-we-talk-about-it-first purchase rule. I held no animosity. I simply had found, after three years, the means of making the sign at a reasonable price.

Carl worked diligently Saturday and Sunday, running electrical lines, painting, drilling into brick and finally hanging the finished sign, complete with neon-like lighting that allows you to read the sign from blocks away. Mom asked me if I liked it.

Pausing a few moments, I answered, "It's not what I originally pictured in my mind and I prefer the font we had chosen from uppercaseliving.com. But my new sign symbolizes so much: Carl took my idea and brought life to it. He added his own touch, then built it just because I wanted it and for no other reason. I could have a fancy, perfect sign from a store, but what I have is so much better. Plus, it gives me hope for all my its still residing in project limbo."

Read on for more on "Solomon's Portico."