Important work

It was a slow week. It actually was a productive week it just wasn't a lot of manual labor. My mother had a cousin who, when he was younger said "I am going to find a way to make money without physical work." I did not hear where he ended up financially but he started off quite well. I may not have done a lot of "work" this week but I did get a house bought. (OK, not actually bought yet but our offer has been accepted and it is a pending sale.)

Sharon was texted by a relative of the owner that this house was up for sale about the same time I saw it come up on-line. We looked at it on Monday.

When we go through the house to look at it, I do the inspection right then . That gives us an edge because the offers we give are "no inspection, no appraisal". The deal will not fall through because of issues an inspector might find or it appraises less than offered price. Usually it works out well, except the unfortunate time I did not check and found out the entire interior of a furnace had been removed. Oh, well we were able to fit a new furnace in the budget on that house. When there is no electricity in a house when you inspect it you assume the worst. I do hope I didn't miss anything on this one because we only have a 2% allowance for overruns (Electricity was turned on and the furnace was working properly).

We were a couple of hours too late on another house that sold this week. Listed for sale and sold within an hour. That was fast. I thought we would have till noon the next day. I miscalculated, 4 people looked at it before we did. 

This is the only picture I have of the dumpster we have for a few of our tenants. This was the morning of July 5 after it had a firecracker land in it last year. Lovely bonfire that was. Anyway today it is full to overflowing and is not scheduled for emptying till Tuesday. Stimulus money was deposited in bank accounts this week (well, not my account of course, the IRS site reads, you will be informed when to expect your payment.) Anyway, I was comfortably sitting and reading Wednesday at about 8 pm when my phone rang. I really do not like calls at night because it is usually a furnace not working or a water leak spraying every where. Although my favorite is "The drain in the basement has been backed up since this morning can you get someone to fix it?" "Um, no! Not till in the morning and only then if I am the first one to call Cody." Why would anyone wait till evening to call and then just expect a repair man to hustle on over when they knew of the issue all day long? 

I met a former tenant in the hardware store this week. They bought a house 18 months ago. I encourage our tenants to buy a house when they are financially ready. I asked her if she was enjoying home ownership. (Mortgage payment would be less than rent) I loved her reply "ownership is not all that great". Yea, she was in the hardware store buying repairs that they would now have to install because there is no landlord to call. And the cost of those repairs is over and above the mortgage and escrow payment.

To get back to Wednesday night, it was a tenant calling. they were at Walmart and had bought a TV. It would not fit in their car and they were asking if I could deliver it home for them with my pickup. I am a nice guy, so I said yes. A couple of Walmart employees loaded it in the back of my pickup. I have a 6 1/2 foot bed on my pickup. The TV in the packaging filled the entire bed from cab to end gate. Stimulus money well spent!!! Got her gone!!!. 

Yes the stimulus money made it into a lot of bank accounts this week and went right back out. The dumpster is full of cardboard packaging from purchases. At least the economy is being stimulated! It's working, yea!

I did get a couple of hours in painting on Saturday. I need to paint the peak on the other side and then I am down to just the white trim on this house.

At some point the house was added on to. They removed the vertical car siding where the addition was added. I think they should have removed all of it so the clap board siding would have gone all the way across on the top peak. That extra $50 must have been above budget. Of course I am pointing fingers at others when I could have filled it in with clap board before I painted.

My biggest job this week (beside the one I have a salary for, Calm down Joel I did write checks and enter invoices and do payroll this week,) was babysitting a 3 year old girl while Sharon took a class on-line. We watched some Curious George videos, read a few Bible stories, and played "where's Micah" while looking at old pictures. After a while she could recognize Micah as a teenager but the pictures where he was a child had her pointing at me if I was in the picture. 

I started by saying it was a slow week, but it wasn't. We bought a house which is an investment that will pay dividends for years to come. I spent some time with a 3 year old. I know others have been telling her that God loves her, but the first time I said "God loves you" to her this week she said "No!" By Friday she didn't say no anymore. 

If I and several other people in her life right now are telling her about Jesus and that God loves her, that is the most important thing I could have done this week.

I know some are very worried about the economy right now. I know some think there should be no social distancing and we should just let covid run it's course. Others look at the science and epidemiology and advocate for even more closures and social distancing. This is not a place where I am going to argue the point. We do know it is going to take lives no matter what we do. I was privileged to tell a little girl this week, "God loves you"? How about you?  That is the important work to do right now. Tell someone who needs to hear it, God loves you.