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?