Withstand pressure

     Next week we should close on 2 houses so I was trying to get a few of those jobs that I had on the back burner done this week.

       We purchased a house about this time a year ago. It had a new basement put under it several years back. There is a large maple tree in the neighbors yard putting pressure on one area of the wall.

     So even though I did not want to do it, I went and rented a jack hammer from Eric. ( I use the term loosely when I say rented because when I brought it back he said I had not used it long enough to charge for it. Thanks Eric)

     I had a hole in the basement floor rather quickly. Then I had to dig clay out of the hole to put the I beam in as deep as I wanted it. That actually took a little longer. Break the clay loos and then take it out by hand.

     I dropped the I Beam in the hole and then mixed up some concrete to fill the hole back in around the I Beam. Attached the beam to the frame of the house and walked away. It should hold the wall from being pushed in any further. All of that because the neighbor's tree roots are pushing against the wall.

     We came to an agreement Monday with a bank on the value of a house they had foreclosed on. We thought the house was worth  75% of what they were asking. After trying to sell it for 4 months they gave up and agreed to our price. I had made it clear to them that I was going to pull our offer if they didn't accept it by this Monday. 

     The basement of this house has an interesting architectural design. Those stepped up blocks are there for a reason and it is not just to be annoying. They were built into the basement walls to keep them from buckling in. Although they are a pain, they have value. They are putting pressure on the wall to keep it in place. If the house I put the steel beam in this week had been built the same way the tree roots would not be pushing in the wall.

    We all have pressures in our lives. We all have something tempting us to buckle just a little. Sometimes we have something pressuring and tempting us to buckle a lot. What will you do when the temptations come? How will you hold up? Will you give way just a little. It really isn't hurting anyone is it? Just a little sin, a little pressure from those around me. Problem is it starts to make our foundations give way a little. Soon we have nothing left to stand on just like a house where the foundation has given way..

     We might even be able to convince ourselves it is not really wrong. Did God really say we shouldn't do that? Wow, there is a phrase that goes way back to the first humans. Temptations come to all of us. Are you prepared for when they come.

     Do you have supports built into your life? Matthew 7:24 Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house: yet it did not fall, because it had it's foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rains came down the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

    Jesus doesn't say if the rains come and the winds blow, He says the rains came, the winds blew. Temptations and doubt will come into your life. What does your foundation look like?

Who's in charge?

     I spent a lot of this week sitting at my desk. I search the real estate listings every day and this week there were a few possibilities. I have a friend also in the rental business, who I think might be calling me in a day or so. He will ask, "Royce, did you buy that house?" And I will say "yep, you gotta be quick if you want the houses priced right."

Some times you have to be really quick. This is the photo from the listing. That ladder against the house is mine. I had permission from the owners to get the roof patched to stop the damage before the photos were even up on the MLS site. (yes I know it needs siding desperately, siding may be a lot of work but it is so satisfying to me to change an ugly house into a nice house)

     This house is at least for sale by owner. I was also trying to purchase 3 other houses this week. All 3 are foreclosures. 1 is bank owned, 1 is Freddie Mac and 1 is Fannie Mae. Oh, give me the owner sale any time. 

     For the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae houses I needed letter from my bank that I could raise the money for the purchase. So I had a bank officer write letters saying they had reviewed the purchases and we could buy the house. Made an offer of $40,000 on the Fannie Mae house and they countered at the asking price. That was pretty cold. No give at all. Micah and I had discussed how much we were willing to pay for the house and it was asking price plus a little if it became a blind auction. There was no way I was going to cave and give asking price if we were the only offer. 

     We raised our offer to $41,500 and Fannie Mae blinked and countered at $42,000. Deal, we'll purchase the house. Of course they required a Cashier's check for the earnest payment of $1,000. Fine if our personal check isn't good enough, I'll get a cashier's check. So they had $1,000 cash and we will owe $41,000 at closing plus any costs. Fannie Mae then kindly rejected our letter of funds available from the bank because it was only for $40,000. So back to the bank I go to get the required letter stating we can raise $42,0000 through loan proceeds, other assets, and cash.

     I know I have signed more than 60 pages of Fannie Mae paperwork already. The Freddie Mac house is not many less pages. Wasn't there a Federal paperwork reduction act that passed congress a few years back? Yea, that's working swell.

As soon as we had a signed offer in hand on the owner sale house, and permission to do it, I was on the roof of that house. At some point the eaves down spout had been installed to drop the water on the back addition roof. That is not a good idea. The roof had failed and water was coming into the back entry.

I tore out the particle board sheeting and replaced it with real plywood and then put flashing over it to seal it till next Spring. I bought some new down spout and rerouted the water flow off the back roof. Wow how stupid is that? I am spending money to fix a house we don't own yet, but by the time the deal closes it will be too late to roof the house. This will stop the damage and we can fix the interior this winter.

I don't know who the HVAC contractor was in this house but we are going to have to have it all replaced. If you look closely at the picture you can see that the water heater and the furnace are vented almost level about 10 feet before they vent up the chimney. Code is 1/4 inch rise per horizontal foot and the water heater might just be that, but the furnace actually drops down. That is a good way to fill a house with carbon monoxide. It may have worked for the last 20 years, but maybe it only worked because the house leaked air. We will put in all new windows and doors. That will make the house much tighter and fresh air will not flow in as much as it has in the past. I have no desire to be poisoning tenants with carbon monoxide. 

At least the Fannie Mae house has a newer furnace properly installed

And I know the water heater is not putting carbon monoxide into the house either. That's because there is no water heater. When we were walking through the house I wondered why there were 2 water pipes that dropped down from the basement ceiling and were capped off. Sharon was with me taking pictures and asked where the water heater was so she could get a picture. (we use pictures to go back through the houses and calculate cost to rehab) That was when I suddenly got it. Those capped off water pipes were where the water heater used to be. 

This property has an extra building on it that we can use for storage. Now we have a couple of partial garages filled with supplies, wood and cupboards. This will allow us to get all of our materials in one central location on a major street.

     We are going to have to put in a new door to make this work, but Micah can now stop asking me if I am going to remove a tenant from a storage building Sharon and I own so the business can use it. Notice how that seems like a good idea when he is not collecting rent on the building? Me I am not so fond of that idea. This building will be a much better deal. If we rented it with the house it would not raise the rent, so it is basically a freebie.

    So I wonder how many are still reading this and how many quit back a ways. I do have a point today. We needed a storage building and now have one. We had first chance at purchasing a house and bought it. We had a banker who was willing to give us an blanket letter that we had funds available. None of this was really anything I did. It is the hand of God. 

     How many of you rely on God for everything? How many of you have said to God, "whatever You want is good with me." 

     I see how God has been orchestrating our lives for the last 4 years and I wonder at times if it is just us or if everyone has this feeling of assurance that God is in control. Doesn't mean everything is perfect according to me. It means everything is perfect in God's eyes and that is good enough for me. I have watched while God has provided what we need and has filled my days with productive labor. He has brought a lot of people into our lives. Some who know salvation and needed a place to live or some help. Others who have not known salvation and have heard of the gift of grace from us. 

     God has changed me. Now if you talk to me, be ready to talk about God. I had oil changed in our car last week. Met a man at Walmart while I waited. We talked about working in God's kingdom. 4 years ago I would not have done that. I may not be very good at it yet but God is working on me.

     How about you? 

calm before the storm

     I do feel for all the farmers struggling to get their crops out of the fields. It rains everyday and the fields have turned to equipment eating swamps. The crops are in danger of rotting in the fields, so for the farmers we are in the midst of the storm. Personally, I have no crops in the field to harvest. People ask me how much rain we have had and my response is "I don't know, I don't have a rain gauge." 

     I am in the calm before the storm. We have had our offer accepted on what we call the blue house.

I was adamant that we had made our best offer. Micah did not agree and we got into a blind bidding war for the house. Gotta love those bidding wars where you are allowed to raise your offer but are not allowed to know what the competing offers are. Well we won, so there. I just hope we only won by a little and not by way too much. We should be alright because the ROI will be at the upper end of our scale unless we run into unforeseen issues. It will probably be November before we get possession, so I have the rest of the month to take it easy. 

     Then it will be a heavy work load. Windows all need to be replaced and walls need to be torn out and floors need to be laid.

And that lattice has to go with the half walls it is connected to. I think this house alone will fill our winter days, and our agent called me on Thursday to ask if I was available. No I am in Pella. Well I am walking into a house that the owner started a remodel and quit on it. No sheet rock in the house. I said "I am guessing it needs roof, siding, windows, doors and all the interior?" Lisa said yes. I asked "How much do they want?" There was no answer. I think they are waiting till I tell them what it will cost to remodel and then set the price. I am looking at it this week. May be we will end up with 2 winter jobs. That might be a bit much.

Sharon goes off to a Bible study that includes a meal on Tuesday nights. That leaves me to cook my own meal. I asked her Monday if she was going to be going this week and she said "well I could stay home." No, no, I just want to know if I need to get a steak out of the freezer to thaw. It is a struggle but I am able to survive those Tuesday nights cooking my own meal. Well aged prime steak and hand cut fries on the grill. I know some of you out there are thinking, Royce, we can bring you some food to help you get though Tuesday nights, maybe a nice pasta salad or some steamed vegetables, but really I will be fine. Sharon makes up for it and feeds me well the rest of the week, I can get through one meal of lesser quality once a week.

We put down carpet squares in Micah's basement to replace old carpet that flooded earlier this summer

     We also made a lot of progress on his bathroom. still need a few more tile and some grout, but it is shaping up nicely. We need to get all these little projects out of the way because the storm is coming. It is easy at this point to say we will take our time and not get in a rush to get a purchased house ready to rent, but once we own it every month it is not rented is a lot of money not collected. 

     Remember to pray for the farmers who are looking at fields of mud and need some dry weather, they are in the midst of the storm. They have no control over the weather. That is in the hands of God. My oncoming storm of work is self inflicted. Till it hits I will be taking every chance to grill some steak and enjoy the calm.