See the Good

I pulled the old medicine cabinet out of the house we are working on.

Imagine my surprise to find this cache of old double edge razor blades behind the cabinet. I looked at the cabinet and there was a slit in the metal backing that allowed who ever lived in the house to slide their old used razors through and out of sight.

I did get 1 bedroom finished

 Walls are painted, mini blinds are up, smoke detector in, and new door knobs installed. I bought the door knobs at Walmart. When I got back to the house and started installing them I noticed one of the packages had been taped back together. I checked and all the pieces and screws were there so I thought, well someone must have changed their mind after they opened the package (ok, I cruelly thought maybe his wife didn't like the style so he had to return it). I put the knob in the door and as I was shutting the door this random thought flashed through my brain, you should turn the handle to make sure that thing works. But did I grab the door and check before it closed? Oh no I just let the door close and latch. Yea that knob was returned because their was an important piece missing. The handle turned just fine but the catch that pulls the latch open was not there. That door was not going to open. Of course instead of thinking a minute and pulling the hinge pins I put my flat bar between the jamb to try to pry it open. Yea, that didn't work so well. I could hear the door starting to crack. I was about to quit when it popped open. I went back to Walmart and exchanged it for a new knob. I did tell them to not resell that knob because it didn't work.

I hate painting the inside of closets. Quite often they don't need to be painted, but these were really bad. Black marks on the walls. It looked like those black marks that used to be left by the soles of shoes. But 3 foot high? Come on really?

Friday was a warm day and I got the exterior doors painted.

I can paint the siding and exterior trim after a tenant moves in but the doors have to be open to paint them and it is much easier when the house is vacant. I saw the weather forecast and used the warm day to get them done.

Remember this bedroom floor with the carpet pad stuck to it? Every day I worked on cleaning that baby.

  I would pour water on a section in the morning and scrape off anything that had loosened by 3 pm. Then pour water on a section and scrape that area the next morning. It has come up in 2 layers. First the top layer gets wet and releases and then you have to soak the bottom layer. Just watch I am going to have hours and hours invested in this floor only to have the last washing make the wood buckle and a new floor will have to be put in anyway.

 

Friday was Sharon's last day of work until next year. She wanted to get away for the evening, go out to eat and stay away overnight. I looked on-line and found a really cheap hotel room. The hotel didn't look very fancy in the pictures but we just needed a place to sleep right? When we pulled into the parking lot it looked a lot nicer than I had anticipated. We went in to the front desk to register and the woman who checked us in said "Oh, you have a king suite." I am thinking "I don't think so, not for what I paid" She gave us a map of the motel and showed us which room was ours and which door to use. As we walked back to the car I asked Sharon "did she say king suite?" Sharon said "yes." I looked at the map and saw that the size of the room we had the key to was larger than all the rooms except 2 others. When we opened the door we entered the sitting room with the bar area.

Then you could walk down the hallway to go to the Bedroom.

  We had 2 fridges, 2 microwaves, 2 TVs. In the sitting area with the wet bar there were cupboards with glasses and plates. I don't know who messed up our booking, but they can book a room for me any time. I measured the room (hey, I am in the real estate business, its what I do). It was over 600 square feet. We have a couple of rental houses that size with kitchen, living room, bathroom and 2 bedrooms squeezed in. Here that was the size of the king bed suite.

This summer some members of our church built this building for Lake View Camp. I helped with the planning but never made it out to actually work on the building. That might be the reason the building is straight and square, I wasn't there (see how I made that rhyme? I don't want you to miss that linguistic flourish). Anyway we stopped on our way back from Des Moines because I had heard lake View Camp had gotten someone to install the overhead doors. And yes indeed, there were doors in the building. So any of you reading this who helped to build this machine shed, the doors are in and thanks for all the work, money, and time you donated to this project

So, lets see, I found old razor blades in a wall, had to paint 2 closets (ugh) , installed a door knob and locked myself out of a closet, spent a couple of hours every day scraping old stuck carpet pad off a floor I may not be able to salvage anyway. Now there is a good time, right??

On the flip side I finished a bedroom and shut the door on it. ( when we shut the door on a room that means it is finished and ready to rent.) Painted exterior doors in December, Spent a night away, (First Saturday I haven't worked in a long time) at a much upgraded hotel room that was bargain priced to start with. Saw that someone else had completed a job our church members had started. 

 A lot of life is attitude. Remember the question, how do you see the glass? Is it half full or half empty? I could complain about purchasing a door knob that was defective, but instead I find it humorous that I was too stupid to check it before I installed it and closed the door. What kind of an idiot does that, anyway? I don't want to see a glass half empty. I want to see life as not only half full but full to over flowing. There will always be things that don't work out in this life. We live in a broken sin filled world, but I have a God who cares for me, watches over me and fills my life with good things and joy.

Next week is Christmas. 2000 years ago Jesus changed the lives of all who accept his saving grace from totally empty to overflowing. May your eyes be open to the blessing God gives you every week. May you see the gifts of God even when things go wrong. Revel in the love of God and all the bad will fade away.