We renovated the back portion of our house last fall. We moved a doorway, sealed up another, and added on a new master bathroom and closet. We sealed up the old doorway between the back bedroom and the existing bathroom, creating a nice private master suite in the back of the house. So now our bed, in our new master suite, sits with the head of the bed against a newly sheetrocked wall. About a month ago the noise began.
Tick, tick, tick.
It’s a slight noise. It’s like a drip but more mechanical. You don’t hear it till you lay in bed and become silent. Tick, tick, tick. It’s continuous and rhythmic. I got on the floor and looked under the bed. I pressed my ear to both sides of the wall. I went down to the basement and looked around just below the wall. Tick, tick, tick.
It’s been a month, and it’s still ticking. It definitely in the wall, and I’m not sure what I can do about it. There’s something more to the story, but I’m not sure what it is. It’s possible in the future something will happen and the reason for the ticking will be explained. It could continue forever, and we pass the ticking on to whomever we sell this house to in a few years. It’s also possible it will just stop. There is always more to the story. I sit with people all the time and hear the explanation for their ticking.
We often become irritated by someone’s behavior or their inability to get their life together. We make judgments based on surface analysis, but we forget there is more to the story. I think often times we just want to see people get their lives looking good, who cares if there is a tick under the surface. The sheetrock looks nice and freshly painted.
Sometimes we do this with ourselves. We fix up that which people see, but never deal with what’s under the surface. I think about these things as I try to ignore the tick and fall asleep. I lay there and hope the tick isn’t a bomb.