protecting your assets

I like to do the worst jobs first so I can stop thinking about them and scratch them off the to-do list. We had (notice the past tense??) 6 roofs to shingle this year.

This house is done!! You could walk the roof but it was not easy. 5 of the 6 roofs we had this year were in that category of feeling you are going to slide off. 3 are done.

I am told this house has had that tarp on the roof for 4 years. When I put in an order this week to have the water turned on, and told them it was the house with a tarp, they knew where it was. I talked to Tom about getting Central Air Conditioning put in and when I gave him the address, He said "that's the house with the tarped roof." It was famous. I can't understand why the city code enforcement wanted the roof fixed. It should have been in the city tourist brochures, COME TO OSKALOOSA AND SEE THE HOUSE WITH THE TARP. But, oh no, they wanted a new roof. Total lack of vision.

Now no one will be able to give directions using the tarped house. We still need to put on new siding and paint it a color that will match the new shingles.

After we purchased this house last winter we were informed the city wanted this garage painted. Personally I think it could be called an antique look, but the inspector was not of that mind set.

I painted it on Tuesday while Micah was roofing with Logan helping. It was a struggle to stay off a steep roof, but I was able to steel myself and paint at  ground level. I guess I get the hard jobs of painting with a sprayer while Micah and Logan just took the easy road and shingled. 

Had 3 houses inspected yesterday. The first one nothing was found out of code. On the 2nd house I found out you can not have incandescent light bulbs in a basement with carpeting or a laundry. That bulb in the picture is a new LED bulb. Those old incandescent bulbs can break and hot pieces can fall and light the carpeting or laundry on fire. Yea, I would like to see the statistics on that one. 

And another thing you can have incandescent light bulbs in your fixtures with ceiling fans with flutes on them, like the one in the top right of this picture. Those I guess can't break and start fires. I know, I don't have to understand the rules just follow them.  

I do know every electrical box has to have the wires clamped. I thought I checked all the boxes in the basement of the 3rd house inspected. Boy, was I wrong! There was no clamp on this switch box

There was no clamp on either side of this box 

And the wire going to this box had the plastic coating removed. These are the pictures I sent to the inspector that all issues had been corrected.

When we started yesterday Harrison (the rental code compliance inspector) asked if these we our last 3 houses to be inspected. Oh no, my friend we have more. I know he has seen a lot of me and I have seen enough of him, but we will have to struggle on for a while yet.

I spent this week getting houses into code compliance. I don't have a problem with that. We put on new roofs and paint anything that needs to be painted even without being told we have to by the city. We just bought these houses during the winter when we could not paint and shingle and the houses were inspected before we were able to fix them. The houses we own are an asset. They are worth more if we keep them in good shape. The real Estate agent we use told another agent she would list any house we own for sale, because she knows they will be in good shape. That seems to be unusual for rented houses. It is short sighted for owners not to keep their assets in good condition.

It's Easter this week. We remember Jesus death and Resurrection. The most important thing any of us has is our soul. What shape are you keeping your soul? Do you know you are a sinner and only Jesus paying for your sins will get you into eternal life? 

Yesterday a couple of young women knocked on our door. They were missionaries of the Church of the Latter day Saints (Mormons). They asked if I had read the book of Mormon. I bet they were surprised when I said "yes". They asked "what did you think of it."

I replied, "I am glad it has almost the entire sermon on the mount in it, but some of the earlier stuff is kinda sketchy."

"Oh" They didn't argue.

Then I said. " The book of Mormon says you can only have eternal life if you know Jesus died for your sins. Do you believe that."

They said they did and wished us a happy Easter.

I have no idea what their total theology is. If they believe the whole book of Mormon is truth, they are wrong, but if they believe the historical Jesus died for their sins on a cross outside of Jerusalem 2000 years ago, that is the path to salvation.

I was blessed to be able to talk about the gospel of Jesus this weekend. To sort of check the state of someone ones greatest asset, their soul. 

What about you, what is the state of your soul? If the winds and the rains of this world come, is your roof rain tight and your walls sealed with a coat of paint? The only thing to rely on is Jesus everything else will let you down.

I fixed the electrical wires in our houses. Have you checked to make sure you have removed the dangers to your soul from your life? 

Jesus has conquered death, but we will only rise to live forever with him if we know we are sinners and Jesus has paid the price.