Small problems?

Our family got together and stayed in a restored mansion this weekend.

Everyone is working diligently here on making a decorative flowerpot on the front porch. We also went to a couple of state parks. With most tour attractions shut down, the parks were crowded.

The boys and their wives slept in the restored part of the house but most of the time we just walked through it.

A couple of formal parlors we never did sit in.

We used the dining room for several meals.

Most of out time was spent in the addition.

The kitchen was large enough for many hands to make light work of meals.

Sharon and I had the master bedroom which was also a later addition.

The master bath was 1 of 4 bathrooms. Only problem was this beautiful bathroom was not really usable. No door just a hall way with a turn in it. Makes one a little uncomfortable knowing anyone can walk down the hallway, turn the corner and look straight into the bathroom. Soaking in that jetted tub would have made for a nerve wracking experience.

Being in the house remodel business makes one look closely at houses. Really, they just jabbed a hole in the wall and stuck a coaxial cable through. Nice job.

Standing on the 3rd story deck off the master bedroom and looking up, I can see daylight through the roof. That is going to be a problem!

Dead bolt gone from the door to that deck. I do know someone would have to have a long ladder to access the door from the deck, but still at these prices and the dead bolt missing?

New door in the addition and I can see daylight through it.

I know it is tough to patch old plaster wall, but a dryer sheet is not a good fix.

Some one must have locked a bathroom door and closed it. Yea there are better ways to open the door than kicking it in and breaking the jamb.

The roof was leaking at some point up by the ceiling. I know tough fix on a 20 foot high ceiling.

Couple of spindles missing on a railing 20 foot up is not a good idea.

The tile in this shower was not sealed after it was grouted, and the ends were neither grouted nor sealed. In the next couple of years the moisture wicking behind the tile will bring this wall tumbling down.

This shower door opened to the inside. Little tough to get into the shower, around the door and shut it. Remember always have your shower doors open OUT!

Then there were the safety issues. Come on, I know it was the servants stairway originally but with guests using it, it should have a rail.

 

New inner balcony or loft and the spindles are 6 inches apart. Some kid is gonna slide right on through.

Would not want to use these steps either on an icy day or a dark night. Railings, railings, railings!

Masking tape to hold down an outlet cover. There had to be a better way.

  

Electrical wire dropping through the trim with a wire nut on the live side. I believe there should be a junction box there to start with and then a cover please.

OK, so I take joy in finding others mistakes, but I do believe if you are going to rent out the house there should have been an inspector walking through it at some time. Maybe AirBNB should think about that.

We chose the house for it's 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, and we were there for family not for a perfect house. It was certainly large enough and comfortable enough for what we needed.

This morning I asked Matthew to lead us in devotions. he chose: Deuteronomy 6

Hear O Israel! The LORD our God is one! You shall Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 

He said it was a blessing to grow up in our house where we lived by this principle. Faith was the center of everything we did as a family as our boys grew up.

That was a great affirmation to Sharon and me. We made God and His ways the center of our family. I pray that each of our sons will do the same.

We stayed in a beautiful old mansion. It had a lot of small problems. Each of us as a family does as well, but if God is the center of your life, those problems will just be minor things that should and can be fixed.

What lasts?

Wednesday we took possession of a project house. A little something to keep me busy for the rest of the summer.

Went to cut out carpet and roll it up on Thursday. Yes, all carpeting in rentals needs to be cut in strips and thrown away. It belongs in the landfill. We only have 1 room with carpet in our own home and we are removing it from all rentals. There was a nice surprise under the carpet in a couple of the rooms in this house.

Oak floors. Yeah! A coat of polyurethane and they will last a long time. they should last the lifetime of the house. 

Of course the bedroom that was added to the house later did not have a surprise under the carpet. it was the plywood that was expected. It took a couple of days to get all the tack strips and staples out of the floor from the carpet installation. By the end of Saturday when I finally swept out the rooms I was thinking a little jail time for carpet layers might be appropriate. OK, I know it is not their fault, they are just doing what the home owners want. So maybe some community service for those home owners.

We took possession of another 2 houses on Friday. One of the houses had a "small" fire in it. Now I have 2 project houses. I called Mike the city inspector on Friday and asked what I needed to do to get started on the house.

It had that lovely yellow "Do not cross Fire line" tape across 1 window and fluttering in front of a door. it also had a "It is unlawful for any person to use or occupy this building" sticker on the door that said "This notice shall not be removed under penalty of the law."  I told Mike I wanted to remove the old door, install a new door and window and get the house buttoned up. He told me " I am glad you bought that house. Take the old door out and throw it and the sticker away."

Well, that looks a lot better

The plywood came off the burnt window Saturday morning.

Got the old window frame out,

and the new window in. The house needs a lot of work but at least now it is tight enough to keep out the rain and small animals.

Took a look in the storage shed behind the house. Oh yea, there is a couple of trips to the land fill.

Did find a collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder books laying on top of all the junk. I am willing to bet they will be the only thing of any value in the shed and it is questionable if they have any value.

I went back over the the house I had started on and began the "tear out stage". That narrow counter top is now on the pile headed for the landfill. The washer and dryer will go back into the basement where they originally were. I started to remove the hookups from the kitchen.

The top kitchen cupboards are out.

Even though I am sure this is a very nice medicine cabinet,

it is also on the pile to get buried.

When we walk into a house, we often shake our heads and ask "why was it done that way?" Sometimes it is simply that the styles have changed. Carpet is not the first choice for floor covering anymore. A medicine cabinet that was "that latest style" in 1965, isn't anymore. The old solid wood doors with no weather seals, need to be replaced. Their time has passed. Do you really want the washer and dryer in the kitchen? I am thinking maybe not.

There are cycles to all things. The oak everyone covered up, because who wants something that dated in their house, are now sought after floors. The things we gather up and save will be discarded as trash by those who come after us. There is a warning there. Don't get too attached to the things of this world. Those things do not last. All the work I do on houses this year will be garbage in the future. 

There is only one thing we have that lasts forever, our souls. Too often we get caught up in the stuff we have or the stuff we want when it will all turn to garbage. Are you as concerned about your eternal soul as you are the things you think you need or want today?

One man's trash

This past week has been a busy week.

Finished up the house we were working on and listed it for rent. I always have people call 2 minutes after it is listed and ask "is the house still available?" I think to myself, it has only been up for 2 minutes of course it is not rented yet, but they do have a point. It has been at least 7 months that we have had a house not rent in less than 24 hours after listing.

I had to clean out the garage on Tuesday because I promised they could have the house on Wednesday. It took 2 pickup loads to the landfill and a load to our storage building to get it empty. 

When I was hauling the junk out of the garage I found shutters for the front of the house. I had thought the house looked plain and dull but the shutters helped quite a bit. The Rental Inspector for the city walked through the house on Thursday. I think he was assuming a bit too much, that I know what I am doing. It was a cursory inspection at best. I had left some exposed wires for him to find and he did not find them. Jason was the one who came instead of Harry. Jason said "I am going to have to confess to Harry I didn't see that, because you are going to tell him aren't you?" You bet I am. 

I was filling the pickup with gas at Casey's when a man came out carrying a pizza. As he walked past me this terrible smell about knocked me over. I thought, "What kind of pizza would smell so horrible, and who would eat that." Yea, that was when I noticed the dead truck that had pulled up behind me.

Tenant moving out.  This might have been the last house we put carpet in when we bought it. That is never done anymore. All solid surface floors now. When they moved in I knew the carpeting was about finished. The last year certainly did not make it any better. Carpet is not like a fine wine. It does not improve with age.

I knew there were hard wood floors under the carpet. I also knew those floors had an issue and that is why we put down carpet.

Yes, someone had used a sprayer to paint the ceiling and the walls.

There appears to have been a bit of over spray and some drift. Sharon was of the opinion we can remove the paint and salvage the oak floors. I am well aware when she says "we" she means "you". I was thinking "lets see, a day's labor to put down new laminate or hours and hours and days and maybe years to clean those floors, laminate seems like a good idea."

Yesterday, the tenant had left some cleaning supplies she was coming back for. I picked up one of her "as seen on TV" labeled spray bottles and sprayed a couple of square foot of floor. Low and behold the paint came right off a couple of minutes later. I thought that smells like Simple Green Cleaner. Went home and got Sharon's bottle of it.

It loosens the paint and I have 1/2 of the living room floor cleaned off.

Sharon stopped at a garage sale or 2 on Friday morning. when she came home I asked her if she had offered them $45,000 for their house. She had not. In the afternoon we walked over to our neighbors who are moving and were having a sale with proceeds going to a charity. I told Sharon as we walked up to offer them $45,000 for the house. Once again she failed to do so. She is not really invested in finding houses for sale is she. Sure the last house is listed for sale at over $400,000 but you never know unless you shoot the offer out there.

 

Well Friday evening I got a call from another landlord. He wanted to sell a house next to one we already own. Knowing the market is hot right now in Oskaloosa I was almost afraid to ask him how much he wanted. When I finally asked, "what are you thinking here?" he said $45,000. We are going to need to paint all that lovely paneling, put tile in the bathroom, replace a couple of windows and install central Air. But I just want to say that even with all my encouragement of Sharon to get a house bought on Friday for $45,000 she failed and I succeeded. Of course I do have a little problem of no cash and am going to have to start begging bankers on Monday to see the wisdom of my purchase.

So lets see, I had several times this week where what I thought was junk turned out to be good. while hauling junk to the landfill I found shutters to make a house look better. While pulling junk carpeting out, I found with some cleaner and I could salvage what were the junk wood floors under the carpet. What I thought had to be the worst pizza I had ever smelled most likely was not junk, it was the dead animals in the truck behind me that were decomposing in the heat that stunk. While I was coaching Sharon to make junk offers on houses, I actually bought a house for that price.

I have met several people recently that are making really bad decisions in their lives. They are choosing the "pleasures" of this life over something of real value; knowing and serving a loving God. They see my words of believing in a loving God as junk, because they do not want to give up their "pleasurable" sins. They have it wrong, they have the junk and I have the real treasure. Jesus paid for my sins and I find serving God to be a real lasting pleasure.