You do not see the contradiction in that ??
You believe you had the free will to chose to become that creation when you chose to believe .
So your salvation did not add anything to you..it took away what many seem to think is their greatest gift.
I do not create that new man. I do not transform myself. I do not save myself. I realize my need to be saved and cry out to the Father to save me from this body of sin and death. It is God who does the saving by His Grace and Mercy and the work of His Son Jesus Christ.
Sure you do, because without your permission God could only sit and hope you would elect Him . You held all the power .
Calvinists believe that man is dead in sin and trespasses , that our will is bound up because of the fall (remember that Adam no longer had the free will to restore himself to the position he had held.) That is because his will was in bondage to sin. As paul put it we were servants to sin .
That dead will could not , would not ever "choose " to make Christ it's Lord without the grace of God loosening that binding . So when we were saved God ADDED to us , He took NOTHING AWAY . His grace reconfigured our wills so that we are able to Choose Him .Only then can we have a true picture of what sinners we are and desire to choose God.