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.