Unforeseen problems

The inside of this closet door was smashed in. It is one of those lovely finds that I probably saw when we walked through the house before we purchased it. Then just conveniently forgot about it until I was going through the house getting a list of what needed to be done and opened the closet door. 

Mirrors attached to closet doors are wonderful things. tenants like to have a full length mirror and I have a hole in a door completely hidden. It may have been an unforeseen problem but it had an easy fix.

I was working in the house when it began to rain. Then the deluge came. That was when I found out that the roof leaked. The plaster work I had done on the ceiling and the new coat of ceiling paint was in danger of failing again. I put a bucket under the dripping to save the hardwood floor from damage, went to our storage and grabbed some left over shingles. I was glad I had already set up the scaffolding before the rain so we would be ready to shingle as soon as the rain quit and the temperature cooled down. So I shingled a part of the roof in the pouring rain knowing I was going to tear it back off within 48 hours. Did not see that one coming.

As of this afternoon the house has a new roof. All the leaks should now be fixed. It is supposed to get hot again in the coming week and I am glad to have the 2 roofs we needed to do this year done.

That is if we don't buy any houses that need a roof this year. We looked at a couple of houses on Friday and have an accepted offer on them. This house looks pretty good from the outside, but it is definitely a project house. There were some issues inside that could not be seen from the outside.

The owner of the house has rented it out for years and she no longer has the energy to fix it up (she is 80 years old). She had a tenant go nuts and tear the place apart. I am not sure why he decided a piece of the foundation had to go. But he peeled up the steel siding and ripped out about 6 foot of bricks and stone.

Evidently the toilet bothered him as well. He broke the tank off. That must have sent some water spraying and running across the floor.

Yea, the kitchen cupboards were also a target of his destruction. It is beneath this wall that he took out part of the foundation. Who knows what he thought was hiding down there.

This is the point where the water running across the floor from the toilet was probably a good thing. If you light the curtains on fire, it tends to make a mess. I think that window and the wood around it needs to be replaced.

This is where it gets scary. See the bullet holes in the duct work. I really don't think he should have had a gun. I am hoping he just shot into the duct work and the furnace and AC unit are salvageable. 

I know all I have is anecdotal evidence or stories from my life, but I meet some people with pistols that really should not have them. I would not want to be a police officer and have to deal with these people. they are armed and they are nuts.

I used to have a couple of revolvers. I sold them when we were foster parents. Teen age boys just getting out of lock down some for weapons charges don't need access to a pistol. I felt the best course was just to get the pistols out of our house.

I remember back around 1980 when I applied for the permit to buy the pistol, I was asked what I wanted it for. I replied, "target shooting and household protection". The nice lady behind the counter at the Sheriff's department said. " No you don't. No permits are given for weapons, for household protection." I said, " Oh. I'm sorry, I meant just for target shooting."  I was given the permit after all the background checks were run.

I have not applied for a permit again since that time but it is my understanding that now, protection is a perfectly valid reason for a permit. We may be making a mistake in arming the population with hand guns for protection. It might have created an unforeseen problem and we are reaping what we have sown.

I realize that some of you who read this weekly are going to take offense at that statement. This is not an issue that should be politicized without due thought. Put yourself in an officer of the law's shoes. How do you respond differently if you know there is a great number of armed citizens out there with concealed carry permits. I support police. Take away all concealed carry permits. I support Black lives Matter, No one needs to be beaten up by a stressed policeman. 

Now some may need to take a deep breath and let their blood pressure return to normal. But I would ask you to think about this. Is a pistol better protection than a shot gun? Better spread pattern with a shotgun, much harder to miss what you aim at. What exactly are you protecting yourself from? If it is a home intruder in the dark a pistol is a lousy defense. I was an excellent shot with a pistol, but if I absolutely needed to hit what I was aiming at, I used a rifle. And I would ask a totally crazy question. Are you expecting a home intruder? Once again all I have is anecdotal evidence, but if one of our rentals is broken into, so far it has been because someone in the house is using illegal drugs. Those tenants are soon gone. I have a tenant right now who is very concerned her house is going to be broken into. I know her history, she may be clean now but I can guarantee there is a past drug abuse problem.

Maybe we should stop having knee jerk reactions to those who disagree with us and ask each other what can we do to make our country a better place. No name calling and acting like junior high kids. Wow that was an insult to early teenagers wasn't it.

We have a problem. An unforeseen problem. We just don't want to admit that more of the same will not fix the problem. Some say a definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. 

Now if it makes you feel better you can call me a "snow flake" and I'll pretend I am wounded.