A fulfilling week

Sharon and I went for a drive one evening this fine week. We bought 32 pounds block cheeses. A lot of hamburger patties and Cajun sausages. Some marinated chicken breasts and cooked baby back pork ribs. Those purchases were not the reason we drove down.

 Aged whole rib-eye beef  loins are my favorite purchase. Buy the whole loin and then hand cut it. Steaks on the grill make a nice reward after a day of labor.

I was not planning on this roof getting shingled for another week or 2. That is until I got a call last Sunday that the roof was leaking and some plaster had fallen. The scaffolding was already set up beside the house but I was waiting for Micah to help. Monday I called Logan and we got right at it. 

We almost finished one side of the house 

when I was called that we had a flooded basement. I do hope the west side of the house doesn't start to leak because it is not on the schedule till this Friday when Micah will be back around. The sump pump had quit in a house and water was rising. With a furnace in the house less than 60 days old I wanted the water pumped out before it rose enough to get in that new furnace. I did find out a lot of stores were out of sump pumps after last week end. I found one and got it installed. It pumped the basement empty in a couple of minutes.

I finished this narrow piece later. Notice the electric line? It almost touches the roof. The pole that belongs to MidAmerican Energy is leaning toward the house causing the wire to hang low. The wire and the pole belong to MidAmerican so there is nothing I can do about it. Called them to tell them I wanted the wire tightened up to raise it further than 2 inches above the roof. You can't see it in this picture but they just put a plastic wrap around the wire. There problem solved. Yea, unless that wire swings in the wind and catches my new shingles. I am not impressed.

This house also needed the trim around the windows painted as well as the rake board. My ladder was just long enough for me to stand on it and lean back and paint behind and above me. It is not a very good paint job, but if any one complains I will show them where the ladder, paint and the brush are.

Thursday was a dry day so I went back to putting on siding. This is one piece I had to cut to fit on the porch.

Of course there was a piece just like it on the other side of the porch but I had already nailed up the first piece so I had to calculate the cuts all over again instead of just tracing the first piece. Bright move Royce.

We are getting far enough on the blue house I can start thinking about painting the interior. All of the sheet rock joints have the first coat of mud and a few walls were ready to texture. I stopped in to see if Malcom Lumber had any of the recycled paint they are closing out left. I don't like any of the colors but I don't mind blending my own color. They had 44 gallon left. They cut me a deal if I would buy every thing they had left. I like to put exterior paint on some of our houses interiors. It cleans up better than interior paint and is meant to take more abuse because it is exterior paint. If I can get it cheap that makes it even better. With 3 exteriors to paint and 2 interiors this summer we will use a lot of paint. I think I might have enough.

I was ready to texture this afternoon and bought some compound at Walmart. When I opened the bucket I remembered why I don't buy compound at Walmart. Bucket is just 2/3 full or 1/3 empty, depends on your perspective.

I sprayed a few walls.

Even some of the walls we did not touch so they would have the same texture as the new walls. So all in all it was a productive week.

Steaks cut and in the freezer, a leaking roof fixed, widow trim and rake boards painted, some siding put up, sheet-rock taped and mudded and some of the texture sprayed. 

All of that done and I can still say that was not the best part of my week. I spent some time this afternoon with a woman whose daughter is in jail. We talked about how God could impact that young woman's life and change her behaviors and only God working in her life could make that change.

That mom thanked me for being kind and compassionate. I told her "we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world, if I can't do that in a small way like this, what am I doing?"

Of all the work I got done this week it was the encounters with people in need that were the best work done. It is often what appears to be the least important things we do, that make the biggest difference. Don't miss opportunities God gives you to build relationships. Do you ask God to use you to build his kingdom. As I sit here Saturday night and look back over my week I am amazed at what God put in my life this week. I was allowed to loan an man $50 to buy his heart medicine. Loan a woman $50 to buy some needed items for her children. Spend some time with a woman who needs to find housing for her family before August when the house they are living in will be sold, and talked to the mom about her daughter in jail. On my own I probably would have avoided all 4 people but God did not give me that option because he was busy building his kingdom. 

If you ask God to use you to build his kingdom this week what will God put in your life? 

A Lot of Projects

When I get too many projects that need to be done I get this feeling I am drowning. We finished the roof on this house this week. 

Climb the ladder up to the scaffolding, then climb the ladder up to the toe-hold board, then the next ladder up to the top of the roof. Yea, that was not a good time. We have been waiting for the weather to warm up but that day when it hit 89 was way too hot to be on a roof.

Finished up early morning that day and could tear down the scaffolding and load it up in the pickup.

Next project on that house is new siding. Started on that after I took the scaffolding down. I enjoy siding a house because it changed the way the house looks. It can turn an ugly house into a thing of beauty. 

Got partially set up at the next house that needs a new roof. That makes 5 of the 6 we had to get done this year completed. Except we are in the process of purchasing another house that needs a new roof and siding. So no actual net gain for the week. Still have 2 roofs to do.

It is the thought of having to do the work that is the worst. I had the shingles delivered so if the weather cooperated we could start either Friday or Saturday. The weather did not cooperate.

This is the house we are purchasing. Sharon stopped at a garage sale and bought the house. See when they have a garage sale you have to be literal. Micah and I were working when Sharon came to find us and said "I have found a house to buy". It was an estate and they were wondering what to do with the house. Micah and I went over and made an estimate of repair costs and made an offer. We are going to have let Sharon claim she bought this house though.

On rainy days we are still working on the interior of the "blue" house. I think we have everything torn out that needs to come out. The new windows are in. Oh yea we still have an exterior door that needs to be removed, but that is usually an easy job.

Right now we are working on sheet rock. I scraped off the popcorn ceilings. If you look at this picture closely you can see they added sparkles to the texture when they sprayed it. I bet that was the latest greatest thing when they did that. Yea, that has to go.

Even the bath tub is back in place with new mold and moisture resistant dry wall around it.

On Saturday just before we quit I put a finish coat on one seam. Now I can say we are started on the finish coat. "Don't have all the tape and first coat on every where yet but we are close.

Last night some farmers were saying they have a lot of work to do but are just having to wait because of  all the rain. I am sure that would drive me crazy. I at least have projects to do under cover when it is raining so I can stay busy and not think about the work I am not getting done.

I am trying to think of that as a blessing instead of  obsessing over how many projects we have to get done.

God has it all worked out and we will get everything done in his time. There are a lot of farmers out there right now who are concerned about getting their crops in and cared for. They might be wondering what happens financially as every day delayed lowers the yield potential. 

I know it is easy to say God has it all worked out when it is not my problem, but I remember a few years back when a farmer was lamenting to me about a short crop. I told him, "you will make more money this year than you have every made in your life." I was right, he collected crop insurance as corn price went over $7.00 bushel. Right now we have piles of grain here in the Midwest. Maybe God is fixing the over supply and the low prices.

See, it is easy for me to see the big picture when it is not my problem. Right now I am looking at too many projects for the summer. A lot of farmers would look at that and say you have no problem at all. Our problems are usually larger than reality in our own eyes.

"Adopted"?

January 2013 we went to the Des Moines airport to pick up this kid from China.

We figured he would stay in our home as an international student for a semester.

 

He was going to move to another family in Pella for the 2013-2014 school year, but then he decided to stay with us another year.

So Tony stayed and that was a good thing

he stayed for the 2014-15 school year also.

He became a part of our family

He learned that it snows in Iowa.

And sometimes it snows a lot.

He made himself at home in our basement even after Micah and Matthew had gone off to college. Then Tony went to college at the same college where Micah and Matthew went. Up in Sioux Center Iowa where it snows. 

Tony graduated this Friday

When Tony was at Dordt he would tell other students he had a brother at Dordt. They would be a bit surprised when he would later point our Matthew as his brother. Not a lot of family resemblance. We are friends with one of the professors. When Matthew and Tony were both at Dordt she would tell people that she taught our sons. It seems we weren't the only ones who considered Tony part of our family.

Sharon and I did the Dordt graduation stuff for the third time this week. It was just as much fun doing it with Tony as it was with Micah and Matthew.

Although I did notice crossing campus we were stopped by young ladies wanting to talk to Tony. I may have to sit him down and explain about girls,um they might be interested Tony.

 Walked across Dordt campus for the last time with Tony

And then loaded some of his stuff in our car for the trip back to Oskaloosa. Tony starts a job in Pella on May 29 at the accounting firm where Micah works. He is moving back into our basement until he finds an apartment. No hurry Tony, it will be great to have you back for a while. We kinda consider Tony our 4th son. He is in the family pictures taken at the weddings in January and March. I told the photographer at Matthew's wedding he was our adopted son. 

Kinda reminds me of the family of God. We are adopted into God's family. Tony has joined our family and he is one of us. Do you feel the same way about the family of God?

Someone is watching

Last Saturday Micah asked what we were going to do. I said ,"well the insulation has to go between the ceiling joists so we can put the sheet rock back up on the ceiling. When we purchased the house the roof on the east end had leaked badly. They had replaced all the sheeting, many of the rafters, and the roofing. They had also taken out all the damaged insulation and sheet rock, which was greatly appreciated. 

Micah was not in favor of putting up the insulation. It makes him itch, so I guess I can understand that. He said we can hire someone to put it up. 

I put it up on Monday. It doesn't bother me and it only took a couple of hours to do the whole thing.

Then I went out to Eric and rented a sheet rock jack. It is a low ceiling so I thought I could put up 4 sheets without a jack. I had 6 screws in the first piece when it fell. I walked out of the house at that very moment and rented a jack. Toughest part was the small rooms the jack really did not fit in. Then no matter how well I had the rafters marked, I kept missing with the screws. I do not enjoy running a screw gun over my head to start with and then when a screw hits nothing and you have to pull it back out and do it again it really tries my patience.

Next project this week was removing and replacing windows. There were 5 windows on the west side of the house in an 18 foot span. That is too many windows in my opinion. (remember there are times when only my opinion counts. This was one of them.)

Now there are 2 new windows. The air conditioner was the hardest thing to remove. It was only held in with spray foam but I could not get it to budge. I finally pushed the whole window frame out with a pry bar.

Of course when it crashed outside it left broken glass inside and outside the house. That was not goal and did not make me a happy camper even though I was sure that would be the end result when I gave it a shove with the pry bar.

Today I started on a steep roof. 

 

I did the easy part. Just what I could reach from the scaffolding. Even so, every shingle has to be held in place while running the nail gun with the other hand. It's not easy work for your more mature worker like me. 

When I pulled up to the house this morning the tenant kindly said "you're not getting on that roof are you? You need someone younger to do that."

"Are you saying I'm old" I asked.

"Shingling should be done by those younger than 20". He said.

He may be right on a roof like this. I don't mind a roof I can easily walk and nail down as I walk across it. 

I had an audience today as I was working. A really cute kid watching through the dormer window. I sometimes forget that I have an audience watching every day. God is watching. After being watched by that little boy today, it made me think back to earlier this week. How did I react when the screws above my head hit air and I had to start over. What was my attitude as I was trying to wrangle a jack into a room too small for the jack. What did I say when the broken glass all had to be cleaned up after the window broke. 

Today when the shingles would slip I was careful of what my words and attitude showed. I had an audience. Was I as careful earlier when I thought no one was around? 

Someone is always watching, The devil is trying to make you sin and God is watching to see how you react. Not watching to say "Ha I caught you!" No, He is watching to see how His child is responding in a broken world.

Maybe I should enlarge and print the picture of that kid and put it on the wall in every room I work. Might make me more aware someone is watching.