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?