Turning out good

We had a couple of Rental Inspections this week. 

They are kind of stressful for me and for the tenants. For me because you never know what Harrison, the inspector will see that I might have missed. Stressful for the tenants because someone is walking through their home judging how they live.

Daniel and Brittany are our longest tenants. They have done an amazing job of keeping the house in the shape it was when they moved in. I had not really looked through the house since March of 2016. I was surprised to see the cupboards looked as white as the day we painted them. 

Next on Harrison's list was Neal and Susan's house. Neal went through the house with me when I was checking all the electrical to make sure it was up to code last week. Neal was very helpful and found an outlet that was not wired correctly. We have some great tenants who work with us to get through these inspections with as little pain as possible.

The Inspection program has changed. It was set up so we could buy a house get the interior remodeled, rent it, and then get the outside fixed up when the weather was right. Now the house has to be inspected within 60 days of a tenant moving in.

We have an offer on this house. There is no way this house could pass an inspection before May of 2019. 

See what I mean? This thing has tarps over the roof. If we have an accepted offer, we would not get possession until November. I don't want to put on shingles until next spring when the weather warms up because they will not seal down. I asked the city inspector how that would be handled. If we would only have 60 days, I would pull our offer. He told me "I will work with you, stay in contact." he said he would give us a year extension on any exterior work. 

We will see if we get this thing. We are not bidding too aggressively. It needs a lot of work. Maybe someone will want an empty lot (demolish the house) more than we want this house. If they do they can have it.

Micah and I spent Friday and Saturday working on his basement bathroom. He wanted to replace a fiberglass shower with a built in tiled one. First the old fiberglass shower had to be torn out and new sheet rock had to be put up. That took a day. Didn't help any when we found there was a hole in the concrete floor under the old shower. Had to fill that in.

Today we started laying tile. I cut the tile and Micah laid them. It was a slow job. every tile but one had to be cut. Micah had purchased 12 x 24 tile. Try laying that on a floor that slopes to a drain.

But I am pleased with the way it is turning out. 

Our inspections the last 2 week's turned out well. No re-inspections or code violations. The tenants were a great help. No the houses were not without issues. On one house I was walking out the door when I asked "there is a vent fan in your bathroom isn't there?" There wasn't. I had to call Rich to get one installed, but it was before it cost me $75.00 for no bathroom vent fan. I almost missed that one.

Micah's bathroom is turning out well. Yes there were some bumps in the road the last 2 days. The new shower assembly would not shut off until Micah pulled it apart and put it back together late Friday night.

There are two ways we can look at life. We can look for the big picture and know we have a God who cares for us and is going to make everything turn out well in the end. Yes there will be some bumps in the road. Maybe a few major crashes on the highway of life, and I know when you are in the middle of a crash it is awfully hard to look beyond today and know it will turn out alright. But God has promised it will. God cares for the sparrows and He will care for you.

The weather has turned to fall and it is time for me to head down to sit by the fireplace on a cold wet evening. The radiant heat from a fireplace is a special feeling. I think if we are paying attention we could feel that same radiant love of God warming us clear through as he cares for us and makes sure everything turns out well.

I want to be in charge

With a slower week I had a chance to read some. I read the book 

It is the story of Sam Wyly a successful entrepreneur. What I found interesting is there were a couple of times when he was on the edge of having the banks call his loans. It seems to me almost every successful business man is at some time in his life very close to bankruptcy.

I also read the above book. It is the story of a man whose nomination to the Supreme Court was withdrawn. Kind of appropriate reading for the politics swirling at the moment. 

I also donated blood on Monday. My blood pressure readings have been rising a little every time I give blood. It was not really concerning me, although I was keeping an eye on it, until Monday. The reading was high, OK, high enough to get me thinking I need to get this checked out. When I walked into our church where the blood drive was, I could feel my pulse behind my eyes, which made me think, uh oh, blood pressure is going to be off the scale. The next day I thought I either need to check it when I am not thinking it is going to be high or make a doctor appointment. I bought a monitor. I checked blood pressure on Wednesday, Ok a little high but not bad. On Thursday normal for my age, on Friday normal for a man younger than me. It is amazing how mentally we can affect out physical systems. I was pretty sure I had what is known as "white coat disease", high blood pressure when medical professionals are around. Which compounded itself by every time I was thinking "it's going to be high" which made it spike.

When I was young I used to be able to make my temperature rise. When I did not want to go to school I would tell mom I was sick and then when she took my temperature, It would be high. She was concerned that I would have an elevated temperature at least once a month. She drug me in to see a doctor. This was back when those old army doctors from world war II were still practicing. They had seen it all. He looked at me turned to my mom and said "throw away the thermometer". Well what mother is going to take that advice. How could she not take my temperature when her poor little son told her he was sick and didn't think he could go to school.

Then I made a mistake. I shared the fact that I had this hidden talent with one of my sisters. Never share any secrets with a sibling. I do not remember which one of the two it was but they ratted me out during supper one night. Royce can make his temperature rise. My mom looked at me with this appraising look in her eyes. Guess what, a fever never got me out of school again if I had no other symptoms. Oh I tried, but she wouldn't even get out the thermometer. She would just say in a kind and caring voice," I think you can go to school and if you get worse just call and I will come and get you." I had gotten caught. Parents don't want their children calling the shots.

Had a couple of rental inspections this week.

I had gone through the houses earlier to make sure they would pass. The one tenant had a clothes rack in front of the bedroom window. I told them it would have to be moved so they had unfettered access to the window. When I showed up with the inspector they had moved the clothes rack but had moved a book case behind the door so the door to the bedroom would only open half way. It had to be moved. They had done as I asked but just created another problem.

     At another house the inspector told me he was going to let this landing slide with only a railing on one side. I went back and measured it later. Yea, he let it slide but it was within code. He couldn't have sited it if he had wanted to. Sometimes it seems people just want to be in charge. Hey I am important and I can make you do what I want.  

We all like to be in charge. We all like to think we get to make the decisions. If we are in business we think we can be a success, then God takes us through the tough times.

If we have to move the clothes rack we will put a book case there. 

If I am an inspector I can act like I am giving you a break because I am a nice guy, but I am still in charge.

We can sometimes change our health status if we want to be in charge, even involuntarily. 

As humans we have a need to be in control. We never want to just let God be in charge. Its' too scary at first. What if God doesn't want what I want?

     Stephen L Carter in his novel The Emperor of Ocean Park writes- Although every believing Christian understands God guides our steps, fewer and fewer emphasize the point. A God working actively in the world makes us uneasy. We tend to like our God distant and a bit malleable, ready to bend to every new human idea. A God with a will of his own is too scary, and, besides, he might get in the way of our satisfaction of immediate desire. (published by Alfred A. Knopf 2002 page 300)

     I am working on letting God be in control. I am working on placing everything in his hands. I am working on telling God what ever you want is good with me, just show me what to do and when to do it. It is making my life so much easier. I may not be very good at it yet but I am getting better at letting go and letting God. In the end it is much more comforting than scary. 
     And I do wonder if I could still give myself an elevated temperature when ever I want to. I may have to try that sometime, I know I can involuntarily make the old blood pressure rise. On the other hand if God has set a normal temperature and blood pressure maybe it is best if I leave it alone.

New Perspective

Started the week with a few projects left to do on the house I was planning on finishing in October.

There was a 30 foot ramp in the back yard that we wanted replaced. It was screwed together. The screws turn out easily within the first, oh maybe, year or so. After that it gets a bit more dicey. These were philips head screws and they were not going to come out. I had to use a bar and break the screw heads through every board to get them off. That took more time than I had figured. It was also quite a workout on the shoulders. I think I have recovered as of this evening.

Look! There are just 5 steps down to the yard instead of a 30 foot ramp almost to the back lot line.

I spent the next day leveling the dirt in the yard. At one time the previous owner was going to put a door into the basement instead of an egress window. The contractor had not filled in where the stairs down were to be. There was about 2 foot of dirt missing. That was a lot of wheel barrows of dirt to fill the hole. Then Wednesday afternoon I was finished. 45 days ahead of schedule and nothing pressing to do. Micah had told me on Saturday I needed to look at a house that was for sale. I had taken a look on line and thought, that thing needs everything. It looks like a lot of work. By wed. afternoon I was thinking I might have some time on my hands so I called our real estate agent.

We set up to meet on Thursday. I got there early and walked around the house. I added up $8200.00 in materials needed before she even showed up to unlock the door and let me inside.

Walked in and looked up. Yep, this is the ceiling of the kitchen. At least the sheeting on the roof was replaced by someone, but there must have been showers inside the house before it was fixed. I do love the way the blades on the ceiling fan sag.

Yea I know that is my finger, but still look at those cabinets. How could anyone live with that much grime? I added in the cost of new cabinets.

And then there was the bathroom. Lisa our agent looked in and said'Oh Yuk!. Yea, that is all going to need to go. New tub, new vanity, new toilet, tiled surround and new flooring.

I am not sure whose brilliant idea it was to put a stairway down to the basement on the side of the dining room. It will have to go and the floor relaid.

Old stairway will need to be reopened up and finished to the basement floor again. Someone thought it was more important to have a pantry off the kitchen than to have a dining room more than 7 foot wide. In my opinion not a good choice.

 
And then there was the closet placement. Huge closets that will all have to be moved.

They were put in the long way in bedrooms that are not large to begin with. They need to be put on the short wall at the end of the rooms.

 And if you are putting in closets, you need to put a big one by the front door, right? Not always and definitely not in this case. The furnace register is actually inside the closet. Your coats will be toasty warm while you are freezing in the living room.

I am still trying to figure out exactly why that diagonal cut out flooring is in the corner of the dining room. Why oh why. It boggles my mind.

There was also this old shower in the basement. Interesting because the drain about 6 feet away from this shower stall. As long as the floor slopes toward the drain, I guess the water would drain eventually.

But I did find this lovely 100 amp breaker box in the basement. That was unexpected.

And a furnace and water heater without too much age on them. A week ago I would have said there is no way I want to even think about this house. Now I need to fill some time and I am thinking, Ok, we can move 3 closets. Build a couple of interior walls. Redo the kitchen and the bathroom. We can move the basement stairs. We can get a new roof on this thing and reside it. 

Now comes the sticky part. We can not make an offer on the house for 2 weeks. Owner occupants have first chance on the house. That might happen, but I doubt it. After 2 weeks it will be open to investors. I think we will be in competition with builders looking at the lot and planning on demolishing the house. They might be smarter than I am.

Everything depends on your perspective. The last project house we bought we finished in 90 days. It is a nice house now and everyone thought it should have been torn down when we bought it. A week ago I didn't want this much work, now I am thinking, what else have I got to do?

A lot of life is like that. It all depends on your perspective. I used to not want to talk to people about God. I don't know why that was. I think at times I was afraid of what they would think of me. I might have thought they wouldn't want to hear about God. Now my perspective has changed. How can I be silent if I meet someone who might be eternally lost? How can I not share with those around me that God cares about them. I may not be very good sharing God's love but I am a lot better than I used to be. I have had wonderful unexpected conversations. I have seen souls saved for eternity. Now I know there are 2 kinds of people. Those who are forgiven and have eternal life and those who don't. That is the great divide.

Last week I was working in a house and the young woman who is living there was listening to music. I think she was playing songs on her phone. They were all Christian songs. I had not had a chance to talk to her about the gospel yet and it made my day to hear "Hallelujah to the lamb". One more person I will see in Heaven isn't that fantastic?

Just random thoughts

     Micah and I went to work on a back deck on a house this morning. It has a looong ramp down to the back yard. We are going to tear it out and put steps up to the small back deck.

You can just see a part of the ramp in this photo. Sharon took this picture last week just before she mowed the weeds down. When we got to the house the dog was loose in the back yard. Micah said "it's a black Lab it will be friendly." It wasn't. It wasn't friendly to the point I think the dog was thinking about jumping the fence and attacking us. We decided the tenants were most likely still asleep on a Saturday morning and went to clean out our storage garage. It had gotten to the place I was just opening the door and chucking stuff in. There was no way to walk into it and find anything anymore. It was due for a cleanup and today was the day. 

We got it all squared away with a pile to go to the dumpster next week.

 I had a woman contact me last night. She wanted to talk about the property line between a house she owns and one of ours. She is trying to sell her rental house and wanted to sell it with this entire driveway and the bushes. She assured me that she had planted the bushes 16 years ago and had tended them since then. She also wanted my tenant to stop mowing part of her yard. Little problem there.She had planted the bushes on the neighbors property which now belongs to us. She wanted us to deed her several feet so she would have a better lot to sell. Um, no, I don't think so. The only reason I know she did not own the land the bushes are planted in, or the yard my tenants are mowing is because the neighbor behind us had a water line break 9 years ago and she refused to let him fix it, as she said the line was running through her lot. She had her lot surveyed to prove her point only to find out she did not own the land the water line ran through. Sorry lady I promised Shawn he would never have to worry about repairing his water line because I would control it. Wow that got an angry response. She is going to remove the bushes from my lot now because they evidently belong to her. Sure, fine, whatever, knock yourself out woman. If she is selling the house what does she care?? I have found in these situations it is best just to lent them rant away and don't respond. Some people seem to feed off of opposition, if you just ignore them they quiet down, and the real plus, if I just ignore them, is I don't say or write anything I will regret later.

We have 4 rental inspections this month. I found the cold air ducts in one of the houses had wooden sides. I called my HVAC man and he assured me it was in code. I had been told by the inspector they were making all the owners replace wood sided duct work. I sent him the above picture and was relieved when he texted me that it would be fine as long as the wooden duct work did not go all the way to the furnace. That was a great relief. I found another one of the 4 houses with the same type of cold air duct work. That would have been costly to fix a non problem.

Micah and I did replace some GFI outlets this afternoon and installed some new smoke detectors in one of the houses up for inspection.

I am looking forward to a bit of a more laid back week. I need a less stressful couple of weeks. Stress can be hard on a person and it has been a stressful couple of weeks. Jesus called his disciples to come apart and rest a while. We all need a time of rest. Next week I have some steps to put in, 3 doors to paint, some siding to put up for Marlys, a garage to straighten a couple of degrees and 4 shingles to put back on the hip of a garage roof. I think I will start just a little later in the morning and end just a little earlier in the afternoon. Take some time to enjoy just acknowleging all the blessings God has given us.

crazy week

We closed on a house on August 22. It was  a bit of a disaster. There was an eviction notice taped to the front and back door. There had been dogs in the house. Dogs who wanted to go outside and had clawed through the sheet rock by the doors and windows. The owner was in a nursing home and had rented out the house with his furnishings still in the house.

The previous owner requested time to get his belongings out of the house. I agreed to give them until the evening of Monday the 27th. I was thinking a nice leisurely cleanup and remodel with an end date late October for a rental date of November 1. Micah disagreed with me and said we can have this house ready by the first of October. "We are losing too much money if we leave it vacant another month" said the young man who only shows up maybe 2 days a week. Personally I thought , yea whatever. It'll be ready when it is ready. Micah cut up and carried all the carpeting out the first weekend when we were still working around the previous owners stuff. 

 

Deconstruction is never my favorite part of the job, it always feels like you are going backwards instead of forwards. Tearing everything out until you can look around and say alright we are down to the place we can leave the rest.

 I repaired the sheet rock upstairs and sprayed the texture on Tuesday and started painting. Painting seems to take forever and my favorite cut brush was finished. 

That might not have been a good thing. Just don't look too close.

Thursday I went to Menards and bought flooring. That afternoon I started laying the new floors.Then in the evening I found out we may need this house ready to live in on September 6. Oh, no, we can never have this house ready by September 6. No way No how. That is not in the realms of possibility. Lost a little sleep that night, I'll tell you.

Friday I continued laying flooring. I was making good progress. Then I found out at noon we had to have the house habitable by the first of September. Yes,9 days after taking possession we had to have this thing in livable condition.

Micah was hanging new moisture and mold resistant sheet rock in the basement. The basement of this house had water in it. The air conditioner drain had failed and the water had backed up in the basement. Then we found out the toilet in the basement had a leak and that was adding water also. All the bottom sheet rock was saturated. 

 Micah kept right at it and had it mostly in by Saturday afternoon. (I hate to admit it but he does a lot better job than I do at hanging sheet rock.)

 I had the floors laid by Friday evening and we just had trim work to do upstairs on Saturday

We walked out of the house this afternoon September 1

 As the UHaul truck was backing up the driveway 

We still have some work to do in the basement and in the main floor bathroom, but it is livable. we still have to fix some of the outside problems and the electrician is coming on Tuesday to install a vent fan in the basement bathroom.

So my plan was to have a tenant in this house by November first. Micah's plan was to have tenant in this house by October first. We were both wrong, we have a tenant in this house September first. 

We can make all the plans we want but what happens is sometimes very different.

James 4:13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 

Boy did I find that out this week. My plans were not what mattered. God had other plans and made them happen.