A Project House

We closed on a house this week. If you stand far enough away, and maybe squint your eyes some, it doesn't look too bad. Or it could be I am in denial.

But the closer you get the more issues you see. This will be a real project house. I have calculated 90 days worth of repairs and I might just be underestimating. Although last year we closed on a house on Feb 6 that needed a roof, siding, floors, doors, windows, furnace, and air conditioning and rented it April 15.

This house needs new electrical service, roof, siding, floors, doors, windows and about everything else. We can most likely save the studs and some plaster. It is a true project house.

Another landlord told me when he heard we had bought it he assumed we were going to demolish it and build on the site. 

We were told no one knows if the dishwasher works. I think that means it doesn't. The missing drawer front is laying inside the drawer. Maybe that is a good thing.

Interesting concept of open front shelving in the kitchen as well. Going to have to do something about that drop ceiling that has mismatched panels in it. If the rest of the house has the original ceilings exactly what happened to the ceiling in the kitchen? A small explosion?? A good grease fire that left soot?? Ok, I'm not sure I want to know at this point.

In the living room, I am not so sure of those windows 6 inches from the floor. They might have to go. There is no way those were installed when the house was built. At some time the house was modernized. Oh, yea, Baby!!

The paneling on the wall. No! That will have to go.

     The door on the vanity was bad and then Sharon tried to open a drawer. It came apart in her hand.Pressed sawdust board vanities in moist conditions, whose brilliant idea was that anyway?

And then there are the bedrooms. Is that pink or is that purple. Those single pane sliding windows are a good idea also if you want to heat the lawn as well as the house.

A pale paneling is always a good choice. I'm not sure I even want to know what they hid behind that travesty.

     At least all the old carpeting has been torn out. I am sure they did that to get some of the smell of pet urine out of the house. They did not succeed. All the subfloors will need to be treated.

     Next week a new electrical panel will go in and then we can get current into the house and begin work. This is definitely going to need a lot of work.

     Now is where I have a need to look at pictures of previous houses, just to remember what is possible.This was what the bathroom looked like when we purchased the last project house Feb. 2017

     This is what it looked like 60 days later. I have to remind myself that there is hope. Ugly can be fixed. All it took was a new vanity, sheet rock, toilet, shower, floor, and tile. See just a slight make-over.

     Most of us think our lives look like the fixed up version. I don't think that we are dealing in reality when we think that. When God looks at us He sees us as we are. We are all a project. God loves us already when our lives are a wreck and He starts fixing us. He starts to point out our sins and our deficiencies. He starts to remake us in His image. The image we were supposed to be when God created people. I think most of the time God has to throw about everything out of our lives before He can start to rebuild us. The tough part is to realize what we look like to God and how much of our lives and attitudes need to be fixed. Sometimes we have done some remodeling on our own and it still doesn't look right.We need to be open to God working on us. We need to recognize we are a project, a work in progress that will not be finished till we leave this world and live with God forever.

     

Covered up

     I spent my week either covering things up or uncovering things. We closed on a house on Monday and the first task was filling cracks in the plaster. Every house settles a little with time and there are cracks in the plaster in most of the houses that we purchase. I got to use my new toy and spay texture over the filled in cracks. 

     I think I still need some practice but it was a grand improvement and unless you are really looking it would be difficult to see that there are cracks that have been patched and covered.

     The last owner had his tenant patch some of the holes he  had put in the walls. The job was half done before the tenant was evicted for lack of rent payment. I have a policy of never paying a tenant for repairs or taking less rent for repairs done by the tenant. If you make that deal it is likely the last time you will collect any rent. 

     The value of the work they do always gets inflated and in the end the tenant will think the owner owes them a whole pile of money. Back when I was just out of school and my parents and I were renting some houses we allowed a tenant to paint part of a house to cover some of his late rent. We supplied all the tools. Next thing we knew he had an attorney provided free of charge for low income people and we were being sued because he deserved $2000 for painting the house. Yea, he didn't get that but he did get evicted. I was able to finish this guys work with my handy texture sprayer. 2 minutes and all covered up.

     That is an old medicine cabinet that was in the kitchen right beside the oak cupboards. The only thing I can figure out is that the bathroom must have been there at some time. Surely no one would have cut a hole into the wall and built in a medicine cabinet with a mirror on it in the kitchen would they?

     That left another hole that needed to be covered up. I have to admit I was getting a little cocky with my texture sprayer and now know it does not fix all holes if you don't prep the sheet rock at least decently.

     The next job was tearing out all the old carpeting. You never know what you will uncover when you look under the carpet. It usually is not a good surprise.

     Under the carpet was old linoleum and under the linoleum was the original wooden floor. It had never even been varnished. 3 inch tongue and groove planks. They had covered the wooden floor with what at the time was most likely thought to be the height of fashion. 

    The linoleum was not glued down and pulled up easy. Only problem was in the one room they had laid newspaper under it. I have no clue why but I now know that newsprint will transfer ink to unfinished wood

     If you can read backwards you could read the newspapers off the floor. Newspapers that had been covered up since 1950. Hidden away under carpet and linoleum. 

     Sharon has a love for wooden floors and she spent the afternoon sanding the words off the boards. I am not sure I would have spent the time. I would have covered it right back up with new laminate flooring. 

     So I spent my week covering and uncovering. A lot of people try to keep things covered up. We all have our sins we want to keep private. Who me? No I don't do that sort of thing. Put on a righteous pretense for everyone to see by keeping things covered up.

     It's not going to work is it? Our sins will find us out. Too many who have lived a life that was opposite of the public face they wore have ended up in disgrace. We all know deep down in our hearts we are not hiding anything from God. He looks through the public persona we wear and sees everything we are trying to cover up. He sees the cracks under the veneer we plaster over them. He uncovers what we have tried to keep hidden. In the end nothing will be covered up. All will be known. That's scary isn't it?

     

That's a bad idea

     Many times when you walk into a house and you see how things were done you just have to say "wow that was a bad idea." Now I am sure that in years to come some future person will look at some of what we have done and say "why did they do that?" Of course they will immediately be seen as ignorant by their contemporaries and shunned for life, but that is a fair price to pay for doubting the skills and ideas of the Spoelstras. 

     This must have been a nice spacious kitchen at some time before someone decided that building cupboards in the middle of the floor plan with that handy-dandy pass through was just what the kitchen needed to give it that modern look. It took us quite a bit of time with a sledge hammer to get that travesty torn out. When I see those home shows and they begin taking out cabinets with a sledge hammer I always end up yelling at the TV, "take the screws out of the back and they will fall right off the wall." Well, not on this lovely useful set. They were put in with 16p nails. Bad floor plan and bad building skills.

     This closet was just the thing when this house was last remodeled. Only when the sliding door was opened notice exactly how high the actual floor in the closet was. There was nothing under that false floor either. Maybe it was just put in so small children could not use the closet. I suppose that might be handy but it would really cut down on storage space which is pretty much the purpose of a closet. I am not sure that the beauty of the mahogany paneling made up for the bad idea of less storage although they do say less is more. Maybe not in this case.

     There are home owners that have very strange ideas when it comes to electrical wiring. Pulling triplex wiring out through the sill and just running it up the side of the house is not a good plan unless you are hoping to electrocute someone. And you really want a good money saving idea like this to run right up in front of a window too. That way you can just look out the window everyday and say, "Yea that was a good idea. I saved some expense there" and it is easy to see if anyone is laying on the ground electrocuted.

     See that electrical cord plugged into the metal box screwed into the sheet rock? That cord was originally off of an electrical tool. You want to save the cord if the tool fails. Never know when it will come in handy. That is a dead circuit here because I had unplugged it from a live outlet. Yes that is right whoever thought this was a good idea had wired this outlet with the cord plugged into an outlet in the adjoining room. I suppose if you wanted to shut the door you could just unplug the wire. Now I wonder why more remodelers don't use this easy fix to add outlets. It is a life hack everyone should use exactly never. I can just image what the city inspector would have said. 

     Hey if you are attaching a piece of plywood to the studs you can never use too many nails. If you don't put a nail every inch that baby may just fall right off the studs and who would want that to happen? Not the builder who put this in. I wonder how much of the cost of this built in storage was just for the line item on the bill for nails. There must have been a pretty steep markup on the nails to want to take the time to hand nail that many. That is correct every nail put in with a hammer no pneumatic nailer was used on this brilliant job.

     Then there is this lovely safety fix. First nail some plywood along the basement stairs so no one will fall down from the side.Take some pipe insulation and put it on the top edge of the plywood. Then make sure you put some caution tape on the project so it will be highly visible. All in all this should really be on pinterest so more houses could share the joy. Always try to have the railing on each side of the stairs at a different height also, that just adds to the fun-house effect.

     Coming in the door with wet shoes. Wouldn't want to set those shoes on the carpet. It could leave a stain. I have an idea. Let's nail a piece of peg board to the floor. That is water proof right. I am sure no water would go through those holes in the pegboard and make the carpet permanently wet underneath. Brilliant, man brilliant.

     You have a hole in the paneling. You have a left over piece of OSB board. Well problem solved. Nail that OSB board right over the hole and who would ever notice. It is all wood right? well, sort of, Nah, not even close.

     Thinking you could use a little more heat in basement. Why not just cut the bottom out of a heat duct. Might make it a little on the cold side in the bedroom this vent is supposed to heat, but that is probably because your furnace is under sized. Lets see heat rises so the bedroom will heat first right? Well maybe not if the air has to turn a 90 degree corner and rise into the bedom but blows straight out into the basement. This sure seemed like a good idea when the fellow had his tin snips in hand.

     Oh I know lets screw an electrical box to the floor. Drill a hole straight down and run up a telephone wire and then sort of attach a phone jack to it. I am thinking they must have missed out on those preschool toys that taught most of us you can not pound a square peg into a round hole. See there was a reason we played with that hammer and pegs as toddlers. Maybe there should be a little remedial learning for some. No, if they didn't learn it before the age of 5 they are most likely beyond hope at this point.

     

     OK for the person who did not know, putting trim around the tub at the bottom of the tub surround is not a sign of high intelligence I have just one piece of advice. Don't do that.Water gets behind it and you have defeated your purpose. It also gives your shower that "aint no way I am showering in that" look. I guess this is one way to keep guests from staying too long. 

     It's pretty easy to look at other's house projects and shake your head as you ask yourself, "What were they thinking?"But how often do we see people with really bad ideas when it comes to their lives? I see far too much of it in the lives of many I meet. Children born to single mothers. Broken marriages because we "fell" out of love. I need something to make me happy because I just need a break from life, so a little recreational medication comes into play. I really don't want to pay all those taxes so I will fix the books just a bit. No one will miss the money if I take just a little and I will put it right back when I get paid next week.

     I wonder if some who see me think I am pursuing some bad ideas in my life too. I most likely am but we are too often blind to our own faults. What starts out looking to us like a good idea can turn bad after some time passes. Maybe its time to start living intentionally building God's kingdom. Making sure every idea will play out well in God's eyes long term and not just a quick fix for today. Those quick fixes that leave us feeling good today quite often turn out to be bad ideas in the long run.

Inspections

    I was checking a house today to make sure everything was ready for it to be inspected for the Rental Inspection Program. You have to check to make sure the GFI outlets are all working. For those of you who do not know, you should have GFI electrical outlets within 6 feet of a water source and all outside outlets. The new ones are "improved".

     They self check, but that causes them to fail at a high rate. I am not sure that was an improvement. I have had a few now that did not last more than 60 days. My question is, was it better when you had to push the button occasionally to make sure they work or now when they are self checking and they fail but there is still current there. That gives a fine sense of false security. Where it annoys me is I can never guarantee that a house will pass inspection because the GFI breakers might have failed. At about $16.00 each it really is disgusting when they fail in less than 6 months. I replaced one on Thursday that I had installed last September. $2.00 a month for an electrical outlet. Seems a little steep to me and I do not know if it failed 4 months back.

I want the old ones back. They would work for years and they are so colorful with the red and black buttons.

     You see that plastic vent tube. That is a vent fan duct it is not meant for a clothes dryer. Problem is we do not provide dryers in our rental houses. That means each tenant hooks up their own often using this type of vent. That is not acceptable and is a code violation.


         So we often have to replace the plastic with a metal vent. Of course who remembers that the vent belongs to the landlord when they are moving. Let me give you a hint, No one. So that means I have to check before an inspection how the dryer is vented.                                                                          

     One evening Matthew was not able to get the aluminum vent into what appeared to be a metal piece going through the floor. I finally asked if I could give it a try. I was very proud of myself for waiting as long as I did before I kindly said; get out of my way. I couldn't get it to fit in either. That is when I discovered that it was an old Quaker Oats box wrapped in duct tape instead of a vent pipe. After a while you think you would never be surprised anymore and then something totally strange will show up. I guess the box was a tube about the right size and available. I am sure it wouldn't be flammable would it?

  

     So I have been going around checking dryer vents, GFI Outlets and thinking I really need to wear ear plugs when checking houses. I have to push those test buttons on smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors. They make a horrendous squeal and there are a lot of them in most houses.  Inside and outside every bedroom and on each floor including basements.
     I really love it when I check a house and all the detectors have been removed. Especially when it is the new expensive dual sensor detectors less than a month old. That is when you hear some interesting excuses. My favorite was when I am standing with an inspector looking at all those empty detector holders that I had checked the week before. "Oh I was boiling water last night and all the detectors went off so I took them down." Oh yea, that old boiling water causes smoke scenario, happens all the time. And that boiling water was setting them off in the basement too? Wow that is amazing. Could you get them for me so we can put them back?? Oh, you can't find them, and you just took them out last night?


     That is why I have  detectors, batteries and a driver in my pickup. Just a minute Mr. inspector and we will have the detectors back up. My favorite was when an inspector told me she made the tenant get the smoke detector put the battery back in it and put it back in the holder and check it. As soon as it beeped the tenant asked can I take it back down now? No, No, No. You would think she would have at least waited till the inspector was out of the house wouldn't you?

     When Micah finds a house with the batteries out of the detectors he moves them all higher. He says "At least they will have to use a higher step stool next time."
    I may not be fond of inspectors coming around. It's a lot easier if I don't have to check all the GFI outlets, and the dryer vents, and make sure no one has taken off any outlet covers. It's a lot easier if I don't have to make sure all the electrical breakers are labeled and the windows open easily and all the windows have locks. It is less of a pain if I don't have to check all the fire extinguishers and that the railings on the stairs are sturdy. But the other side of that is, now I have to check and I know that the tenants are living safer.
    It may be a lot easier in our lives also if we don't hold a standard up to how we live. It may seem easier if we just do what we think is right instead of having a set of commandments to live by, but is it? In the Bible in the book of Judges there is a constant refrain. "There was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes." That means God was not the king in the peoples eyes and everyone did what they wanted. If you want to read something awful, read the last couple of chapters of Judges. We need an inspection list to check our lives against. I would suggest Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5 and following chapters. I know I can't live the way we are told to live there, just like I know there are times the inspector of our houses will see something I have missed. That doesn't mean we throw out the standard, it just means we try harder and help each other live better lives by pointing out in love to each other when we see each other falling short of the standard.