Transition

I hate wall paper. It seemed like a good idea at one time and every old house had the walls papered over to cover the cracks in the plaster. When we purchased this house, I believe the wall paper can best be said to be failing.

I spent some time pulling off paper (by some time, I mean until I got bored and Tyler really wanted to move in)

Personally I think this is a great improvement. Please remember that my opinion is the only one that counts most of the time. (I will get back to when my opinion doesn't count a bit later here.)

This was the kitchen when we started. Notice the tool box has been carried into the house, but is not open yet. Oh so young and innocent.

Here is part of the cupboards now. That strange bar like thing has been replaced with actual usable cupboards.

Then there was the upstairs. I believe a past owner was a little late in reshingling the house.

Well it seems if you fix the ceiling and pull the siding off that was put over the window it really brightens things up.

We don't "do" carpet. It always has to go.

The best floor is still an old oak floor. It is better than any new laminate out there. 

The old shower was taken out

New tub and tiled surround in it's place.

Vanity was moved and centered on the wall.

New mirror and light and new accessories like towel rod in white completed the transition.

I measured carefully and got the last of the vinyl plank flooring we had in storage. That 8 inch piece is all I had left when it was installed. I was getting worried toward the end that I was going to be short.

Then there was this stairway. A couple of owners back the stairs were "updated and improved" except no permit was pulled with the city. So yes the stairs were 7 and 11 which is code but that created a real problem with the header. I thought perhaps since we bought the house this way it might work. Mike the city inspector said no, (this is where my opinion does't count for much).

Sawsall down the middle of the stairs and carried it all out the door.

Since the original stairs were still under the new ones and they were original to the house they do not have to meet the code of today. Pretty steep but at least there is head clearance.

We are about to walk out of this house and the new tenant is eager to move in. It has been quite a transition from what the house was to what it is now. It didn't happen over night and it was a lot of work, but the house is a lot better than it was and it is worth quite a lot more than it was worth when we bought it.

We all need transition in our lives. We are born sinners and if God is gracious, live our lives transitioning from sinner to saint. It won't happen overnight and it can be a lot of work. I don't know where you are in your life's journey, but if you are walking with God, each year should bring transition as you give up the sins you once hung on to and become more holy.

May God give each of us the ability to see what we have to change to be more like God wants us to be!

 

Letting in some light and doing something right

We are making progress on the house we are working on.

Got scaffolding from Eric on Monday so I could put the windows back in. At some point in the history of the house it was decided there was only a need for 1 window upstairs. Not really a good idea. It was pretty dark up there, especially since there were 2 rooms, one of which had no window. That changes it from a bedroom to a closet by code classification.

The old windows were still there on the inside, but there was 2 layers of siding over them on the outside.

After the windows were installed and open, it made quite a difference on the temperature inside the house. Sure I could have run the central air, but I am much to frugal for that (I used frugal because I can not confess to being cheap, OK, I'm cheap).

Still need to do work on the walls upstairs but Micah got the trim in this afternoon. Look window sills.

There was piece of the wood missing (where a doorway was) in this wall. I thought I did a pretty good job of getting the replacement wood to match. Can you find the new piece??

I also got the missing side panels put on the cupboards. Looks like I got the stain of the new side panels to match the cupboards original color.

Clothes storage is in the 2nd bedroom. I won't call it a closet because we do not intend to put on a door.

Micah laid the floor in the master bedroom this morning. flooring should all be in now.

While Micah was laying floor, I put the tile in for the shower. Still needs to be grouted and sealed, but the tile are up. The old fiberglass shower is standing in the garage. We put in a lot of tile for showers. if you are one of our tenants that still has a fiberglass shower, sorry about that. If it needs replacing we will upgrade to tile.

There is just

something about

a tiled tub 

surround that 

makes a bathroom feel 

like someone cared enough to do it right.

We let a lot of light in a house this week. Finished up the floors and worked on trim. Tiled a bathroom to make it look good and last a long time.

Jesus said I am the light of the world. If you let him be your light he will take care of the details and make your life the best it can be. I happened to see a man I was blessed to share the gospel with, a few years back, this afternoon. He looked great and was shopping with his daughter for a BBQ. I remember how he used to be before he asked for forgiveness and accepted Jesus as his savior. I drove home thinking how grand it was that he and I were going to spend eternity together with God. He now has light in his life, just like I do, and God has really blessed him the last couple of years and given him a life that is so much better than the norm and will last for eternity.

 

It's my birthday and I'll kayak if I want to.

We are working on one house and have another one waiting. This week Nichole asked if she could strart cleaning up the house we have on hold so the time could be moved forward when it would be habitable.

She tore out all of the carpeting

and piled it up, ready to go to the landfill.

I hauled 1 load of carpet and cupboards out to the landfill. When I was there I saw this pile of steel lying off to the side. This tells me the price of old iron must be pretty low when someone would pay to dump 4 loads at the landfill instead of selling it to be recycled.

Nichole took down the remaining cupboards in the kitchen. The house is such a mess I kinda figured she would start to work on it and walk away. I even pointed her toward another house in town ready to rent now. She finished what I had for her to do and when I get the water turned on this week, is ready to start cleaning the smoke off the walls so they can be painted. I think if I were her I would have walked away.

Thursday, Lisa called and I looked at a house for sale.

This is not our usual purchase. The work has already been done on the house. All floors laid and the kitchen cabinets are new.

Tub is new and has subway tile around it. OK, I would have done the window different but we will improvise and make it work for maybe 5 years.

Even the driveway has new gravel. It is almost a turn key house. It does need a few small things changed to pass an inspection.

In the house we are working on Tom put in a new heat run upstairs and Rich and his crew updated the electric. Progress is being made.

I even got the trim up around the stairs.

Micah and I laid the new flooring in one bedroom

and the kitchen yesterday. We use a high end residential flooring now and it lays so much easier than the other grades you can buy. It is also 1/3 thicker so we are hoping it lasts better to make up for the higher cost.

This week Wednesday was my birthday, so Sharon and I took the kayaks out. I know, I do not take a day off very often and I didn't on my birthday either, but I did quit early for a little recreation.

The last year has been a bit hectic. Between August 12, 2019 and August 12, 2020 we took possession of 9 houses. Put on 6 new roofs, laid a lot of flooring, tiled showers, put in new kitchens, sided a house (that was a new low of only 1 house needing siding) replaced windows in 5 houses and fixed innumerable holes in plaster and painted, and painted, and painted.

A birthday is a good time to take stock of your life and all the work on 9 houses isn't really what is important.  

Are you living as God would want you to live? Are you showing the love God has commanded us to show each other? Are you a righteous person? Do you bless those around you?

If every year on our birthday, we had a form that made us rate ourselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on those questions and not how much work we did how would your evaluation look? Hmm, I don't think I will share how I would rate myself.

Sharon's Family Covid weekend take 2

It was not a week that much work was done. A few odd jobs were finished.

That pile of wood had to be turned back into a drawer. I was able to get 2 of the drawers fixed.

I hooked up a light to a 3 way switch. Did not check the wires before I removed the light that was there. Looking at the box, I thought, The wires going west out of the box would go to the switch on the west, and the ones to the east to the east switch. Makes sense right? They wouldn't take and wires and curve them the other way in the wall, would they? I knew the white wire from the west box would be live and the white wire from the east box would be the neutral. Now, that's not a couple of wires you want to hook up incorrectly. Yep, you guessed it, they crossed the wires in the wall. The old fuse box still hasn't been replaced by Rich and boy did the sparks fly when it blew the 30 amp fuse. Next time I tried it after I reversed the wires, I put a surge protector with a 15 amp breaker in the line first.

I also had to clear the branches from in front of a stop sign, at the City's request. I drove back down the street after I was finished to see if I had a clear sight of the sign. As I drove down the street, I thought, "why can' I see that sign?) That was when I realized it wasn't my tree blocking the sign anymore. It was the neighbor's big maple tree. Not my problem to fix.
The balance of the week was spent with Sharon's family. We had tried a month ago and 1 family could not come because of Covid exposure. This time our son's could not be there because of work and of course one had a Covid exposure.
Sharon and her siblings and Parents were able to attend.
Social distancing was the norm. Outdoor games were the status quo. Horse shoes,
Lawn toss (some missed the old Jarts game with the heavy metal darts flying through the air. Where was the danger element to add excitement now?) 

Throwing heavy fender washers into boxes for points,

hayride with Grandpa driving the old John Deere B (I think it is a B), that was originally bought 82 years ago by Sharon's mother's father.

Projects were made in the shop.

Even a furniture grade project was finished.

The high-lite, had to be the disc golf game. Most had never played before 

Let me just say it was evident on the first few "holes" as the discs went careening everywhere.

But the grandsons who had skill were soon giving lessons.

I had a large window air conditioner in storage and it kept the garage at 74 degrees. Meals could be eaten in a much larger space than the dining room in the house.

A lot of adjustments were made to keep the threat of exposure to Covid down but life continued with a family get together as it has in past years. There just had to be some changes to protect everyone. With family members who work with the elderly and some with people with special needs, to not have used precautions would have been unthinkable.

Can we be sure that there was no transmission by someone asymptomatic this weekend? Not absolutely, but we did our best. I cut the tree branches on our property that blocked the stop sign but I couldn't cut the ones on the neighbor's property. So it was with this weekend we did what we could.

Didn't want to be in the position I was in when I hooked up the electric wires and then threw the switch and sparks flew as the fuse blew. There were lives at stake if we had transmission of Covid. It didn't make our week less fun to be outside and spread apart most of the time.

I like to win. Lets work together and beat this thing. The broken drawers were not going to fix themselves. I had to get a couple of new pieces of wood, some glue and a nail gun. The drawers are now stronger than they were when manufactured originally. Lets, grab some masks, social distance, wash our hands, beat this thing and be stronger in the end. As I said I like to win.