Maintenance

     I spent my week fixing a few things. The boys and I had moved a fridge a month back. (When I say the boys and I, it was more me saying hey, guys put that fridge on the back of the pickup cause that looks like it could take some effort). It was a heavy fridge and when we took it off the pickup it came down hard. (OK here when I say we I mean I thought I could roll it to the edge of the pickup and slowly let it slide to ground level while the boys watched. Oops mistake there it didn't)The wheels were rated for 400 pound load, but I don't believe that rating was for dropping 400 pounds the last 2 feet. 

     As you can see it was a bit damaging to the bearing race. The bearing on the outside was still seated so the cart would roll but its days were definitely numbered. I went around to the local stores and no one had the wheel I needed. I could get plenty of 6 inch wheels but I needed one with a 5/8 inch arbor and everyone carried wheels with 1/2 inch arbor. Then I started searching on-line. No luck I could find 8 inch wheels but they would not fit the cart.

     I remembered there were a couple of dolly wheels in the garage of a house we had bought. I had brought them out to Sharon's dad and asked him if he wanted them. "Sure I will just put them with the ones I have. Don't like to throw stuff away." Well I feel kind of guilty because I went and got them back. I was so excited when I measured them. They were 6 inch by 2 inch wheels just what I needed. 

     Then I tried to put them on the cart. I pulled out the bushing that was 1/2 arbor. Oh, Oh, outside of the bushing was 3/4 inch not 5/8. Piece of cake I will just get a thinner bushing. Not in Oskaloosa, I might have wasted the time of some parts men while they searched diligently through their inventory. Started looking on-line. Was not finding anything, then I remembered McGriffs. McGriffs had everything when I was farming. You needed it McGriffs had it. I drove up to New Sharon thinking to myself, I am wasting gas here but low and behold, they had the bushing. They had steel ones and brass ones and bearings that would have fit. More choices than I knew what to do with.

    All is well with our appliance cart again for a total cost of $4.53 and about 10 hours time searching on line and scouring stores. That shows my time is not worth a whole lot right now that I can throw away 10 hours to fix a $99.00 appliance cart.

     Next I decided to do some preventative maintenance. Tenants seem to want running water in their houses and if water goes into a house it has to go back out. I checked some sewer lines for root growth this week. Most of the lines coming out of our houses are the older bell tiles. They work great until a tree starts searching for moisture. Tree roots will move right into those bell tile and fill the line right up. We have put in several clean outs so we can get equipment down the lines without going into the houses. We put one in on a house December 2016 when there was snow on the ground and it was cold. Cody had checked a plugged drain and needed a clean out to get it completely clear. Irv came out and dug one in. It was such a great feeling when the snow melted to find we had put a new clean out in about 2 foot from an existing one that had been hidden under the snow. Now every time I check for roots I ask myself shall I open the new one or the old one. It is so worth the $350 I paid for the new one to be able to ask that question because we all want choices in life don't we?

     This line ran under 4 houses before it connected to the city line and it was always filling up with tree roots. Irv came in last summer and put in a new one. When your house is the only house with a basement out of 4 houses on the same line it is not a pretty sight when the line backs up. But the new line is PVC all the way. Now that maple tree can hunt for water all it wants to, it is shut out of our line.

      While he had the trench open Irv put in new water lines as well. Water in water out. I think on everyone of these jobs about half the cost is fees to the city not that they don't deserve all those fees. It takes a lot of effort to lean over a hole in the ground and say "Yea that looks right."

     One house I checked for roots in the line this morning has no trees on the property, but this lovely old maple tree on the neighbor. Those babies will reach out a long ways to infiltrate a sewer line. If anyone tells you they will just put out roots to the drip line, don't believe a word of it. They will find water a long way off in a dry year and I hate those calls from a tenant telling me sewage is rising in the basement.

     My week was spent keeping the wheels rolling and the lines running. Making sure things are turning and flowing smoothly. If I do that for "mechanical" things I should do that for relationships as well. I took the time to fix what was partially broken and partially blocked this week. The appliance cart wheel would have turned for a while yet before it failed. The drains might have been slowing down but they were all still running. They were Ok for now but bound to fail if left untended. 

                   Sometimes I don't put the time into relationships because they are still OK but maybe not great. If you don't tend your relationships they will fail. If you don't put in some effort before there is a total breakdown that breakdown will come and then it will be a lot tougher to fix. Make sure your spouse knows you care. Make sure your children know you are there for them. Make sure you are keeping in communication with your friends. Make sure you have an open channel to God and are giving a part of every day to spend in His presence. 

Holes

     I purchased a new hole saw this week. My three inch was not quite big enough to cut the hole for a bathroom vent fan. 

     I had removed the toilet from the basement of a house we had purchased. That is our modis operandi. Don't really want to have to cut holes through the sills to install vent fans. No one who ever put a toilet in the basement thought to themselves "oh, I better vent that area", No they were just putting in an extra toilet. I can't understand a toilet setting out in the open, to start with, but it seems to have been a popular idea in the mid last century. The house I had to cut the hole in, at least had  a laundry room with a door. Wow, talk about your amenities. A wall and a door around a bathroom.

     John is a nice guy and after living in the house for a couple of months he asked if they could have the toilet back in the basement because their granddaughter was staying there at times. There is a bedroom in the basement with an egress window and I had a weak moment and bought a brand new toilet and installed it.

     Now I could have carefully measured where I needed to cut the hole for the vent, but I decided to take a drill bit  and drill through the joist and siding for a pilot hole. (I did check to make sure the side of the house had nothing on it or up against it such as electrical boxes or air conditioner lines before I ran that drill through the joist). I ran the drill through and went around to the outside and fired up my hole saw and set to cutting.

     Do you see that there is a hole through the siding about 2 foot west of the new vent? That would be because I was not the first person to run a drill through the joist. The last time someone did it it evidently had something to do with the heating system. I saw the pilot hole and got right to it. When I had finished cutting the plug wouldn't come out of the hole because there was a nail just off center of where I had cut. That should have been my first clue something was wrong. I finally got the plug split and pulled out only to see I was looking at metal. Yep, dead center on a heating duct. That of course was when I noticed my pilot hole over about 2 feet. Yea! Royce you may have issues with spacial concepts. I would feel really stupid but last summer Matthew drilled a pilot hole through a roof for a vent fan and drilled straight up through a bundle of shingles lying on the roof. Shingles with a hole drilled through them are really not of much use, in case you are wondering.

     I went to our storage shed and looked for the yellow piece of vinyl siding I knew we had somewhere. Oh yea, you see it up there stuck in the rafters? I took a snips with me and crawled up over everything to cut off a foot of siding to cover a hole. I am glad it is on the back of the house because the sun has bleached out the rest of the siding about 3 shades of yellow. The new patch doesn't match very well.

     I looked at a house that was for sale. I think the owners did their own kitchen remodel. They put in some nice cupboards but cut the counter a little short. I was looking at that and thinking how exactly would I fill that hole. Wide caulking has just never appealed to me. A trim board there? Really that just seems wrong.

     Then I was looking where the fridge should go when I saw the above brilliant plan. Run an extension cord up behind the counter from an outlet behind the cupboards where the counter top doesn't lie flat against the wall. Now first of all, you should not hook up a fridge with an extension cord. Not a good plan. If they didn't want to run a wire in the basement and put in a floor outlet, they could have put the outlet in the side of the counter. Leaving a hole to run an extension cord just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

     At this point I had had enough of holes. I wish I could tell you I had bought some doughnut holes just to say I ran into a few good holes this week but I didn't, I bought a cream filled bismark. I guess it did have a hole that was filled with cream and that was the best hole I had dealt with all week. 

     A Couple mugs of coffee and some pastries can brighten my day. Even make me wax philosophical. I wonder how many people I meet every week have holes in their lives. How many are missing someone or something. It is easy for me to judge someone without knowing why they say and do the things they do. Maybe they have a hole in their life and they are mourning someone who is gone. Maybe they have a hole in their life because of loss and they are in poverty. Financial poverty or emotional poverty or spiritual poverty. 

     It is easy to condemn, it is harder to fill holes. Next week I will look for the holes in the people I meet and see if I can help fill them up just a little. I can do that because right now God has filled all my holes and put me in a good place filled with His goodness.

Oh What Fun

     We buy almost everything with a credit card. The credit cards are paid off at the end of the cycle by automatic debit from a bank account. Don't have to order or write very many checks and we get cash back on every purchase. Every morning I check our credit card activity. That way I have all purchases fresh in my mind. Of course there have been several times I have asked Sharon if she had made a purchase in a store only to find out it was me. (Did you know you can track someone through a town just by watching the credit card use pop up on your account? I am not suggesting you do that though because the person who has the card may not appreciate thinking you are keeping that close of tabs on them, I'm just saying. And it is really not smart to call that un-named person and ask "what did you just buy?" Probably really not smart if that un-named person now has a bigger paycheck than you do. I'm just saying.)

     If you can read the number on that credit card go ahead and use it. You might be prepared for a fraud charge if you do, though, because it has been shut down and flagged for fraud. One fine morning I saw that we had signed up for a couple of Amazon Prime accounts. Well, mistakes can happen when ordering on line, so I assumed one of us had bought something on Amazon and inadvertently signed up for a Prime account twice. No problem I would go on line and fix it. Well, low and behold, we did not have a Prime Account. I called the number on the back of the card and they shut that baby down right quick. "Your card has been compromised sir, and will no longer be accepted. If you have any automatic payments on that card you will need to change them to the new card we will overnight to you." Well, I forgot our insurance was an automatic payment on that card. Farm Bureau Insurance felt they should be paid to cover damages or liability on the houses. This whole insurance business is really a for-profit scam and not altruistic at all. I can't believe they are so self centered they want to get paid and charge a late fee if the credit card they normally charge is rejected. (they have offered to refund the late fee since I gave them the followup letter from Chase informing me my card was compromised and deactivated) 

     We had our first inspection this week under the new rental house inspection program. Our house passed. I have heard that about two thirds have been failing and needing a re-inspection. I am feeling good about passing and not having to pay the $75 fee twice, but just wait, we will get caught out on something we did not expect on the next house inspected.I have been stopping at Walmart everyday looking to buy a fire extinguisher and they haven't had the right size. There has to be a fire extinguisher in every house. I know some day I am going to walk into a house and find one with the gauge not in the green or just plain missing.That would not be a problem if I could always buy one locally. I have a feeling Landlords in Oskaloosa are finding they do not have fire extinguishers when they get inspected and have been keeping the shelves at Walmart bare. Today there were 4 of the type fire extinguishers we use on the shelf at Walmart.

     I know where two of them are now. Safely in my garage so I have one if I need it. Maybe the other Landlords are hoarding them also, oh no what if we all become hoarders. That might be possible. We have another garage where we store excess appliances, cabinets, wood, flooring and about everything else.

     It is about stacked full to the place we can add no more. Fact is it is getting difficult to find anything or if you know something is in there and where it is, you can't get to it. this morning I retrieved a bathroom vent fan way out of the back by climbing over a lot of "stuff". I am going to say we are not hoarders yet because we were planning on pulling several large items out of this garage beginning today. Either that or I am in denial about the hoarder thing.

     We were supposed to close on a house we are buying from FNMA. Only the deal did not close today. The bank that foreclosed on the house and forced a sheriff's sale, foreclosed on the wrong mortgage. They foreclosed on a second mortgage instead of the first mortgage. Same bank held both mortgages. Now FNMA has to get a release from the bank that originated the loan so FNMA has title to the property. 

     FNMA had a clause in the purchase agreement that if I was not ready to close on the 12th there would be a daily penalty until I closed the deal. Funny but there is no penalty when they can not perform and moved the closing back to Feb. 2. Seems I don't have the same rights as a government organization. I never would have thought that. Aren't we all equal under the law?  

     This was going to be my last laid back week but it looks like I have 3 more. Oh well I will try to struggle through, keep a stiff upper lip, and soldier on. (that's why I was digging a vent fan out of storage today, time to get a few jobs I have had on the back burner done.) Would have liked to start on this house tomorrow because when the weather warms up and outside jobs can be done its time to paint and shingle houses. Oh, that will bring back the good times.

A week of doing nothing

     I think I could get used to this. We finished our last house ahead of schedule and we are waiting till next Friday to start on the next one.That means I had a week that was fairly laid back. Yes there were problems. We have 2 houses where the water pipes were plumbed in through the garage. That would be a good idea if the garages were heated. They are not.

When they brought the pipes up into the garage in this house they built a frame around them and filled it with insulation. That is a good idea until the tenants don't use water for over 24 hours and its 19 below zero. 

     This house at least has the water heater in the garage so there is sort of a tiny little bit of a heat source, but open the door to drive the car in a few times a day and inside temperature gets real close to outside temperature. 

     On Saturday I told Sharon I was going to go buy a bunch of insulation bats because it was going to be a long cold holiday weekend. By Tuesday evening I had used all the insulation I had bought but everyone had running water. Both of the tenants whose pipes froze were exceedingly kind and thoughtful. 

     Jason crawled under the house to see if he could find the problem before he called me. He had looked up on the internet how to fix frozen pipes and thought he had a plan all laid out before he called. I just took a gallon of hot water with me and they had water again in 2 minutes. I had an advantage because we trace the water lines and electrical and look at the heating systems before we purchase a house. I knew where the spot most likely to freeze was. Jason felt a little bad that he called me when all it took was 2 minutes. I said to him, "fine, a gallon of hot water fixed it and where would you get a gallon of hot water? you had no running water." I wasn't about to tell him where he could have gotten that hot water out of his own water heater. I would prefer to go fix this issue myself.

     Delinda called me the next day after 8 am. Her water was frozen the night before when she got home. She didn't want to bother me late at night and didn't want to wake me up in the morning so she waited till she was at work to call. I was heating the pipe when I thought what is that noise? Ah the water in the tub was turned on full bore. I knew the pipes were unfrozen. How does one know which way is off if there is no water.

     This week really reinforced that we have some great people living in our houses. I did a pre-inspection walk through on the house Kirsten lives in. As I was about to leave I noticed I could see daylight between the north door and the door jam. I asked Kirsten how long it had been like that. She said she noticed it late summer after a very windy day when the the door blew open. I asked "why didn't you call me? That was a brand new door when you moved in. It should not leak air. You have been spending way to much to heat the house against the subzero temperatures." "I didn't want to bother you" she said. Kirsten, it is no bother to come and reset a door. I would rather do that than have your heating bills go up.

     The house that gave the most trouble in the cold weather was the one we live in. When the house was built the plumber in his wisdom thought it was a good idea to run the water supply for the kitchen sink up between the studs in the exterior wall. Now the total insulation in the walls of our house is 3/4 inch blackboard. As you can imagine I spent my mornings with a hair dryer blowing hot air along the pipes and then shoving insulation in around the pipes with a rod when they thawed. I did that 3 mornings and I am still not sure if there is insulation in the right place. I made the  mistake of saying to Sharon, "you know, if this was a rental I would open the ceiling in the basement, drill holes through the floor and move those pipes in a foot and then put the sheet rock back up and solve the problem permanently". She thought we should not have to live worse than a tenant and I should maybe get that done. What do they say, the mechanics car always need a tuneup and the plumbers faucets drip. I think I will put this one on the list though and get it done.

     Micah and Matthew went with us to Ottumwa to eat at the Appanoose Rapids Brewing Company. One of them asked us as we were about to park at the restaurant if we had reservations. You know, when the temperature is hovering under zero you really do not have worry about the crowds. I am not saying it wasn't real warm in the place but do you see the boys in their coats. But the food was good and it had a cool atmosphere, (get it, a cool atmosphere, don't you hate it when people have to explain their jokes).

    On Wednesday I was in this house fixing a light. The pull switch for the light on the ceiling fan in the living room was stuck on "off". I had stopped to pick up the rent when Bonnie said "Oh my living room light doesn't work. I didn't want to bother you but since you are here, could you...?" Sure. So I had no ladder or anything with me and had the bottom off the light trying to reach everything by standing on tiptoes when Micah called. "Um Dad my car doesn't start very well in cold weather." I finally got that translated into, I am at work and my car is in the parking lot and is not going to start. I drove to Pella and Micah got out his jumper cables. We hooked up to my pickup and that baby started like a charm. I was really, really glad we could drive to his house and change out the battery in his garage instead of in a below zero wind chill. We went up to Arnold's to get a battery and were lucky enough that they still had the one he needed on the shelf. The man at the counter said they were getting low on batteries in stock. Boy I wonder why that would be. As we were driving back to Micah's house I just kept thinking of what had happened last time Micah and I played at being mechanics.(you can read about that fiasco in the post "I think we should stick to houses") This time it was a simple enough fix we could conquer the problem and the car started. "yeah us, what a good job"

    So it has been a laid back week. I was planning on putting a floor in a cabin for Lake View Camp this week but it was way too cold for me to want to do that. Maybe that means I am getting old and soft. Or maybe it means I am getting smart enough to know there is a time to take a break and I don't have to feel guilty about it. I think I'm going with the getting smarter idea because I am still somewhat in denial about the getting older.