Easy fix

Have a tenant moving their last belongings out this weekend. The lawn had not been cut for over a week and I knew they were living in Des Moines. I figured I should mow that lawn before Dustin put a notice on the door and the city had it done with a bill to me for $250.00.

When I was behind the house I saw there was some paint pealing off. There was a new gallon of gray exterior paint in the basement when we bought the house several years ago. I have saved the paint and I used it to touch up the house this week. I do hope when it dries, it blends in. As I was finishing up, it looked spotted. best case i have the paint no longer missing patches on the back of the house and it was a free easy fix. Worst case it is the back of the house. 

I also had some paint come off the house I had painted with a brush this spring. I have no clue what was on the siding on the north side of this house but small flecks of paint have come off twice now. I got a bonding agent to put on the 4 boards that were flaking. After I had the bonding agent on, I thought I should go do something else while it dried properly. Then this strange urge came upon me and  I read the directions to see how long I had to let it dry. Normally I am not real good at reading the directions. Everything should just work the way I think it should. Well the directions said I had a maximum of 30 minutes to get it painted after the bonding agent was on. Good thing I didn't drive away and let it dry and cure for a couple of hours. Of course if I had and the paint didn't stick again, I would be telling everyone what a useless product that bonding agent was and it was not the easy fix it claimed to be..

Had several interesting repair jobs this week. Had a tenant call me on Tuesday that they had an electrical breaker going off about 6 times on Monday and several times Tuesday. I went over and took a look. Breaker was on and I didn't see an immediate reason that was popping the breaker. I called Rich and he headed my way. While he was on his way over I started tracing down what was on the breaker. Lets see, when they rented the house there was a window air conditioner and the fridge on that line. Oh you added another window air conditioner. OK the breaker is probably going to be able to carry that. Ah, last November you added a deep freeze. So now it is warming up and you turned on both air conditioners after adding the deep freeze. Oh, you added another deep freeze to the line in February. So we have a fridge, 2 freezers and 2 air conditioners on a 20 amp breaker.

Rich showed up just as I was unplugging a deep freeze and looking for another electrical outlet. He put on a tester and I had them kick in the a/c units and the fridge. Only 9 amps going through the breaker at start up. I had Rich replace the breaker just in case it was weak, but I think I had found the problem. Fixing it was easy, just plug appliances into different outlets.

Had a tenant tell me they had a ceiling fan that had a bad wobble to it. I took my step ladder over, (10 foot ceilings) and thought I would be pulling that fan down and resetting the screws that were holding it up. Once in a while you have a fan poorly installed and the screws pull loose. The fan starts to really shake as it turns.I was not looking forward to this job because the whole fan and light have to be disassembled to get at the screws holding it up. I am not that fond of working over my head and I usually drop a screw and then can not find it. It seems that every one of these things has a specialized set of screws that are not interchangeable with other ceiling fans.

 I climbed up on the ladder and pushed on the base of the fan just to see how loose it was. The base was solid as a rock. I turned on the fan and it was wobbling slightly. The fan has a short shaft down for an extension and it has a ball attached that fits into a flange. If any fan blade is out of balance it will wobble. I took a cloth and wiped the dust off the fan blades. tried it again and gave it some speed. Yep it turned smooth as can be. That is the kind of fix I like, just a dust cloth.

Next job up was a water leak. Floor of the bathroom and the laundry room were wet. They share a common wall. I was thinking it was probably the wax ring under the toilet. That would most likely mean cutting off the toilet bolts with a saws-all, disconnecting the water line, picking up the toilet, trying to move it without water left in the toilet splashing out, and working behind it in a small bathroom to put down a new wax ring. That was just not high on my list of things I wanted to do. OK, it might be really low on the list of things I want to do. I have people ask me all the time how they can become a landlord. They really need to come along and fix someone else's toilet sometime and then decide if they still want to rent out houses.

When I looked in the bathroom it was obvious the water was coming under the wall from the laundry room. Now we are talking. Shut the door on that toilet and go to the laundry room. I pulled the washer out away from the wall. I thought "it sure looks like this washer has a leak under it". Now I did not want to buy a new washing machine (we provide washer/dryers in 3 houses, the houses are small so we justify the rent by providing all appliances) I climbed behind the washer to check out the elbow of the drain pipe. I had to move a clear plastic tube out of the way to have free room to work. The tube came down out of the ceiling. I checked it and yea it looked dry as well. I wondered what in the world used to be attached to a clear tube dropping out of the ceiling in the laundry room.

I got down and took the drain elbow apart and it was not leaking. the washer drain hose was wet and it didn't look like it touched the floor so I took it off and filled it with water. No it wasn't leaking either. The only thing I could figure at this point was the washer itself had a leak. 

I went to the store where we can often buy used appliances. They had no used washers. Well, it seems they had 2 of them but they had not checked them out yet to see if they were fixable. They would get to it next week. For a fleeting second I thought about buying a new one for $350.00 more than a used one. The urge quickly passed.

I went to the next store where we can sometimes get used appliances. No used washer. Couldn't even get a new one till maybe June 5. Manufacturing plants were slowed down by covid. Turns out he did have 2 used ones in the back he was trying to make 1 good one out of the 2 by taking the good parts and combining in 1 unit. He would call me next week if it worked out.

I went to get our appliance cart to remove the old washer and bring it down to the land fill. Wanted to get it out of there so the tenant wouldn't be tempted to use it and the floors would be able to start to dry up.

I climbed behind the washer once again and started to turn the water supply off. That was when I knocked that clear tube that came off of the ceiling off the washer. It had been lying with the end turned up. Water ran out of the tube. I traced it back. It went to the bottom of the furnace. It was the drain for the water condensing off the Central Air conditioner. The house is built on a cement slab and they installed a pump on the side of the furnace at the bottom. The water is collected and pumped up to the ceiling and then it goes above the laundry room and is supposed to drain into the washer drain. Yea, at sometime during the winter when the A/C was not running the tube was pulled out of the drain. It was now dumping on the floor. I sure am glad I could not find a washer to buy when it was a free fix, just put the tube back in the drain.

Next I went to fix an electrical outlet that was not working. It just stopped one day according to the tenant. It does happen that an outlet wears to the point you can't get good connection when something is plugged into it and that is what I assumed I was dealing with. Seldom do you find a broken wire behind the outlet, but that is possible as well. I plugged my tester into the outlet and yea that sucker was dead. I was about to pull it out when the tenants son, Derek said "the switch over here turns the outlet on." What? At what point was anyone going to tell me that. It is much more likely that a switch wears out than that an outlet does. I left my tester in the outlet and went to get a different tester to check if current was going through the switch. I pulled off the plate and took the screws out of the switch. Put the tester on the wire coming in. Current coming in and current going through. Did I mention there were 2 switches beside each other? Well when I was removing the one switch, I turned the other one on when I was pulling out the first one. Derek said "there's a yellow light on in your tester over here in the outlet." What? Yea there was now current in the outlet. The tenant had somehow gotten confused which switch was which. She kept turning on the outside light when she wanted the outlet on. She kept saying "I am not crazy the other switch runs this outlet." Um Hum, sure it does. "Well it used to." Um Hum, sure it did. Once again some investigating for a free fix, just turn on the switch.

Jesus said "A new command I give you, love one another." There are lot of things going wrong in our country right now. There is an easy fix. Love one another. Take a walk in someone else's shoes. Have some empathy for those around you. Take Jesus's words seriously, Love one another. It is an easy fix to complex problems. 

Sharon's birthday

An update for those of you who read this every week, the woman who called me that she was being tested for covid and might have exposed me, tested negative so  am free to interact with others again. It  does give me pain to know that several people are exposed daily at Chrystal Heights as they care for inpatients in the midst of an out break. A big thank you to each one of you who is showing up to help the vulnerable and my condolences to those who are losing loved ones.

 The bats were gone from our vent until Friday and they were Baaack! Now it is down to seeing how uncomfortable I can make them until they find a new permanent home. Somewhere far from me is the goal.

 35 years ago I met this girl who had just graduated from college. She was related to a young man who was our neighbor. He was related to me as well. I asked her for a date, I know, how messed up is that? I had a great uncle who was married to her great aunt. Our family told their children don't marry a Bandstra and their family told their children don't marry a Spoelstra. It was obviously meant to be. How much more can a young couple rebel against the norms than that? Sharon's dad used the same lawyer my family did. The lawyer told Bert his daughter would never be poor if she married Royce. Yea, well I proved that guy wrong.

We married in 1986 and Joshua was born in 89. 

Micah was born in 93 and Matthew in 94. We had 3 sons and life was good. Then the unimaginable happened. Sharon had a physical and they did some blood work. The tests did not come back normal. I had a crash course in Waldenstrom's macroglobulinimia. It is a cancer of the immune system and it is not curable. We had 2 preschool boys and a 3rd grader and the doctors were only offering delaying the inevitable. 

This picture was taken many years later along the roller coaster ride of thinking Sharon could win the battle and then seeing the cancer spread again. I still get tears in my eyes when I look at this picture knowing how brittle she was at then. God is good! After this time of treatment Sharon has done exceedingly well. As of her last tests there is less cancer in her blood now than there was when she was diagnosed 23 years ago (I think I have that calculated correctly). God has heard and answered the prayers of His people in a miraculous way.

Sharon is the joy of my life. I could not survive without her.

I told one of my sons last year that I shorted them by not showing them how to fight with their spouses. He said "yes, you did short us." I hope and pray that they have a relationship like Sharon and I have had. I hope Sharon has the same view of our relationship that I have. I know we had not been married long when I over heard her tell a friend, "I tried the silent treatment on him, but he never noticed." So I know we have had differences but I can't remember them or what they were about. I am not so foolish as to ask Sharon. She might remember because I am sure she was the wronged party not me.

Our family has grown as the boys married.

Sharon now has daughter in laws to perhaps make up somewhat for living in a household of males for so long.

When Sharon was diagnosed, her goal was to survive till Matthew graduated high school. The boys are all through college and married. I think the new goal should be 95 years old,

because I adore her and have no desire to walk this life alone. Sunday is Sharon's birthday and I wish her a happy birthday and many more to come. She brings joy to my life.

Heading out of Des Moines on vacation a couple of years back. Sharon has taught me it is OK to fly somewhere for vacation.

Train station in Chicago. She went with her mom. She hasn't taught me it is OK to ride the train on vacation yet.

If there is a state or federal park, it must be seen.

105 degrees out? As long as there are no bugs we go.

Oasis in the desert? Get your feet wet even if there are signs about dangerous bacteria in the water.

Sitting on the top of a stone mountain wondering why they keep shooting off a canon. Yea, they shoot off the canon as a warning to get off the mountain because lightening is coming. Should have probably read the information before hiking in a couple of miles. We once hiked down a trail in a swamp in Louisiana. When we came back out I read the sign "Do not hike this trail unless you contact the ranger you are on the trail, so there will be a search if you do not come back out." We met another hiker who asked us where our walking sticks were so we could push away the venomous snakes. Lesson is don't travel with Sharon if you want to take the safe path.

Don't drive by a historical site. They must be seen.

Climb to the top of any pyramid (Memphis I think) or tower and look around.

Find interesting places to eat. Had some wonderful meals and experiences in restaurants and some memorably awful experiences (the awful ones make the best stories. The one that was packed with customers but was so filthy that the door ways to the kitchen were black from hands of workers leaving grime. The southern BBQ place where they just added vinegar to boiled pork, Yum) in the picture we are the first customers after a 10 year legal battle that went clear to the Supreme Court, to allow this Subway to open.

Sharon you have taught me to be inquisitive when I did not want to be, enjoy the small pleasures in life, take time to get away and yet allowed me to build a business not once but twice (first one failed spectacularly. When our CPA looked at the numbers and then looked at me, I said "hey, if you are going down leave a big hole in the ground when you hit.") 

Sharon, it has been a whale of a ride. Let's keep enjoying life together for a long time.

Unwanted

At the end of last summer, we had these black droppings on a piece of our deck right up against the house. I foolishly thought is was some bird roosting on the window sill. It was back again this week. Sharon said someone had bats in their entry way and I thought , Oh no, I don't want bats in our attic.

Well, guess what. The bats did not make it all the way into the attic but were inside the vent up at the peak. They could not get into the attic because of the wire screening. 

I hate bats. Did I mention that I do not like bats. I do not care if they eat insects. They can eat all they want as long as they stay away from me and out of my house.

I hung a light in the attic and as of this morning, there are no bats in our vent. They are unwanted by me. They need to live else where and come out at night to eat the bugs. If you try to tell me bats eat mosquitoes, the research is not very good on that unless you confine the bats in an enclosure with mosquitoes, otherwise they prefer other bugs. They sure did not clean the mosquitoes out of our yard last year.

Having driven them out of our vent, I was concerned where they would roost next. I lit a fire in one of our fire places just to give them some smoke in case they went into the covered chimney for a new home. We have 4 chimneys so I am keeping an eye on all of them.

Spent some time with Cody and with Irv and his crew this week. In the picture above Irv put a new sewer line in a house we had sold with the promise of a new septic system. Turns out the old line was full of tree roots.

Irv and crew (I know Tim, you were there but I don't know the other guy's name) pulled out the old bell tile and put in new PVC line. This was the 5th line we have had plugged this month. Cody has cleaned out 4 for us and I hope we are done for a while. The tree roots are looking for water and are growing through cracks in the lines. The shortage of toilet paper has caused some things to be flushed that should not have been. This has made the problem worse as various wipes and paper towels get caught on roots and block the lines. I do not want the roots in the lines and I do not want the non-flush-able products in the sewer lines.

My week was a week of stuff being where I don't want it. This morning I received a phone call from a woman who was crying. She said, "Mr. Royce I am calling the people I had contact with. I was tested for covid and I feel awful. The test will come back in 3 days. I am headed back to the hospital now. " Great, I met her Friday morning just a couple of hours before her health went down hill. Only 14% of tests come back positive for covid so the odds are high she will be negative and I can go on with life as normal by Tuesday morning. But I will guarantee you it is not something I want in my life. Right now I am staying away from everyone as much as possible, so if she is positive and they start doing a contact trace, at least I will not have messed up a lot of other's lives by exposing them as well.

Every Sunday Sharon and I have been going to church because I am the Elder chairman of worship committee this year. There were just a few of us there. Pastor Jon, the accompanist, maybe 3 or 4 singers for the praise team, the sound tech, the video person to put the service on-line and Sharon and me as the congregation. This week is the first week our church will be having attended services again and we will not be there. Kind of strange, we went every week when no one else could and now that services are opening up again we will be at home waiting for a covid test result.

We take so much of our normal life for granted, until it is taken away from us. Many of us are now living in a new reality. No hand shakes, no hugs, staying 6 feet away from others. Shopping once a week. Businesses we can not get into unless we have an appointment or order over the phone and they set the purchase outside the door. We are living with a lot of unwanted things in our lives.

I have a dental appointment on Wednesday, at this point I am assuming she will be negative and I will not be quarantined, but I did laugh when I was told I would have to wear a mask to the appointment. I know, it is for protection of staff and other patients until you sit in the dentist chair but still the vision of doing dental work on a patient wearing a mask amuses me. 

I hope and everyone can find a little humor in the unwanted stuff in their lives. Oh, did I mention I hate bats?

Blessings?

Nancy has been asking for a deck on the back of her house for over a year now. My reply was always no. No one else in this cul-de-sac we own has a deck.

She finally got my attention by saying "the step is too high I can't get in the back door." Nancy has a bad hip and she won the argument. Although the day after I put the deck on, when she asked me when I was going to put the railing around it, she just about got it taken back off.

We have a policy of no dogs on chains. It is written into our leases. I have looked the other way on the dog tied part of the time to this tree. This week I saw the dog had gotten the chain to spin around the tree. Another couple of weeks and I think the tree will be cut down. The tree will die now anyway. It has been rung.

I started putting a new roof on a house this week. I usually put up scaffolding now. I am getting old and Micah wasn't around to help. Sharon asked how long it would take for me to get it done. I said, "well Micah and Matthew would finish in about 4 hours. I figure about 4 days should be about right for me to get it done." 

When Micah and Matthew were putting on roofs professionally a man once asked if the bill would be less if he carried the bundles of shingles to them. 4 young guys, 2 with nail guns and 2 feeding them shingles. The man told me, "every 90 seconds I had to have a bundle on the roof to keep up. Every 90 seconds!" I'm not that fast.

I hate moving the scaffolding. I am not that fond of setting it up, but I really hate moving it. Yes there are wheels, but they always seem to be setting sideways and working as brakes. Did I mention I hate moving scaffolding. 

I was hoping to get the North side finished on Thursday. Started our air compressor and climbed up on the roof. The compressor just kept running. I looked over the edge of the roof and I could see the gauge. It read 100 pounds. That is barely enough to drive the nails and it should have been at 150 pounds with 125 in the air line. I went down and shut it off and restarted it (I know that is a vain hope but it works with computers and compressor is sort of a similar word) Nope still only 100 pounds of pressure. I shut it off and blew the tanks empty (twin tank compressor) and tapped on the regulator and lines. Then I restarted it and it went all the way up to 15 pounds. Wow that really fixed the problem. So my solution was buy a new compressor. Couldn't get into the first store I tried. Had to call them and they had to call me back (they did call back 6 hours later). Went to another store and choices were a small one that would not feed a roof nailer or one so big it was meant to be stationary. As I was looking at the lousy choices a man sidled up to me and said, "go to Walmart, they carry them in the store and I have had mine from there for years and it runs all my air tools". So I did what I never thought I would do, bought a tool at Walmart. Look at what covid 19 has driven me to. Sad!

As I was dropping one of the last bundles of shingles on the roof, I did not get my hand out from under it quick enough. The bundle slid down the roof a couple of inches. I pulled my hand out and thought, wow that hurts and I don't see any damage. Then I noticed that even though it looked normal the shingles had sanded a couple of layers of skin off. Right then was when the blood just started to seep through the remaining skin.

Left a few trails of blood on the roof but I finished the north side on schedule.

Friday I finished the large section of the south side and tore down the scaffolding. All I had left for Saturday was that small 6 foot section to the right.

Then Micah told me he wanted to work on his house on Saturday.

Friday late afternoon we went to Home Depot in Des Moines to pick up flooring. We waited 45 minutes for them to bring it out and load it. Then I thought, I am not driving back through Des Moines the way google maps sent us to Home depot. I am going to drop down to the bypass. Was merrily driving along when we saw the sign. Off ramp closed at University. So we were blessed and got to drive 10 more miles through Altoona. Lucky us. 

Micah wanted a wall removed before we laid the flooring. See all the electrical wires in the wall? I had told him I was going to be on vacation when he removed that wall. Well that didn't work out for me. We had to trace all the wires, disconnect and rerun them today. 

I am getting smarter. I take a picture of 3 way switches before disconnecting them. Too many ways to not put them back together correctly and then it becomes a game of trial and error. We had all the wires reconnected and Micah turned the breaker back on. All the lights worked first time out. Now that is close to a miracle. 

Where we took out the wall and a built in book case, we need to fill in some sub flooring. I told Micah I would see what we had in storage. I found this piece of 3/4 in wood. That is not a piece of plywood. It is a board that is 22 1/4 inches wide sawn out of a log. I do not remember what house we pulled it out of, but I would like to know when the last time was you could by a board over 20 inches wide. Seems a shame to cut it down to the 16 inches we need.

It was a week of progress and pain. Deck built, roof almost on, wall removed , that's progress. Tree killed, air compressor replaced, finger sanded down, that's pain. Life is filled with good and bad. How you respond to the pain and joys of life will dictate your attitude and emotional and mental state. I know many are stressed now because life is not normal. Take a deep breath and look for the blessings in your life. Maybe, ask God to open your eyes to see the blessings he is giving you right now. Maybe, after you talk to God, start making a list of all the good things in your life. If you are at all like me, the blessings far out weigh any pain.

Hidden in plain sight

I found out I was playing a game this week when I didn't know I was.

I was sitting in my office entering rent payments into the accounting software and data sheet when the 3 year old girl who visits us 3 days a week came running into my office. "I found you" she yelled.

"I didn't know I was lost" was my reply.

She ran out of the room and I could hear her start to count.

She came running back in and yelled "I found you".

Then she did it all over again. It took 3 times before I figured out we were playing hide and seek and I wasn't very good at hiding.

Later, I told her we could play again and I would look for her. She ran through the kitchen

into the back entry way and stood by the door. It wasn't real tough to find her. She hid in the exact same spot every time. When I would "find" her she would scream with joy.

We looked at a house this week. Our opinion is, it is over priced,but just because we think that doesn't mean someone else won't find it to be a bargain. In the basement there was an interior half wall made of brick. As you can see it is failing, or perhaps better said, it has failed. I have no idea why this wall has so much pressure behind it. It is about 6 feet inside the house. There is a crawl space for the 6 feet and the dirt behind the bricks looks dry. It obviously has water pressure against it some of the time. Someone tried to cover the failing wall with wood, but the wood has given way as the wall pushes out and the bulging bricks are no longer hidden.

Then there was this special fix of the basement door. The basement stairs hand rail was a little too long. Now I would have cut the rail back a foot so the door would clear it. that just shows I have no imagination or capability of thinking outside the box. Why shorten the rail and cause a dangerous situation of not having a hand hold for that last step when you can just cut a notch in the door. Ingenious solution. Most of us would want the hand rail to be hidden when the door was closed. Shows we are closed minded I guess.

We are in the Spring season. The plants are growing and the lawns are being cut. The farmers are planting their crops and "The heavens declare the glory of God". The truth to some is hidden in plain sight. There is a God who reveals himself in all the world around us. To many He is hidden in plain sight because they do not want to see the works of God.

I know there are those who are asking where is God when people are dying of a virus and our economy is shut down. It is a question that has been asked for thousands of years. Where is God in a drought when people die of famine. Where is God when plagues ravage the land. Where is God when evil men rise to power and the land is filled with shed blood. God is still there and though evil may seem to reign for a season, God will reveal himself in due time and there will be shalom. He may seem hidden to us for a season but if we search we will see that he is in plain sight.