Some days are diamonds some days are stone

There were stones, pavers, bricks and cement blocks lined up around the foundation of the house. Would make it difficult to mow so I started prying them up with a shovel and stacking them. 

Matthew and Meagan are buying a house in Pella and are thinking of putting in a brick and stone patio.

I stacked (Ok Sharon gathered up the bricks) everything on plastic on the driveway so they wouldn't be frozen down when Matt and Meagan take possession December 18. What started out as stone and a problem has become almost a diamond because it now has value to someone.

In the house, I tore up some of the carpet in a bedroom, and then tore up some of the linoleum under the carpet and was excited to see a fir floor underneath it all. 

Yea, that diamond find turned out to be stone. There was an old opening to the basement stairs and some plywood repairs.

Micah covered it up with new floor yesterday. Much better look.

The living room walls and carpet were a wonder to behold.

Carpet and pad tore out and the floor was intact beneath. Problem was it had never been finished in the center where a rug was used. Without sanding the whole thing down an 1/8 inch there is no way to make the color match across the entire floor. After some discussion we decided to refinish the floor without sanding, and even though it will be multicolored it will be a better floor than a new laminate. 

But the floor under the dining room carpet was a gem. Beautifully finished and preserved for years under the old carpet and pad.

In the kitchen my plan was to lay a new floor over the old. Micah looked at it and said I think we can tear off the top 2 layers. I said, "It's glued down, it will not come up clean." That's when he grabbed a flat bar and proved me wrong on the spot.

There was an old pine floor hidden under linoleum and 1/4 inch plywood.

The old countertop had been patched with duct-tape. Now I thought we could just put duct tape on the entire countertop for that red-neck look, but I was voted down. We slid in the new countertop yesterday.

That's when we found that those hand built cabinets were not the diamond I thought they were. They varied from 23 to 25 inches wide. The countertop would not slide up against the back wall. At places there is an inch of gap. Yes those cabinets are truly stone. We can't scribe and cut the back because it is the cabinet width and not a crooked back wall we are dealing with. We will put up a tile back splash and see how much gap we have to cover once we have the tile installed.

In life we can see the problems or we can see the blessings. It is up to us to choose. We had 4 floors we uncovered. 2 beautiful, 1 iffy, and 1 we covered back up. That's not bad. It's usually that way in life as well. The good outweighs the bad if we just take a good look. 

God gives us a lot of blessings but we need to look for the good and learn to overcome the bad. 

 

Meeting the Loan officer

 Back in 1976 I was 18 years old and wanted to buy a piece of land. I went to the bank where I had a savings and a checking account. My parents had their accounts in the same bank. I told a teller I was looking to borrow money for a land purchase. She notified a loan officer (son of one of the owners of the small town bank). He took me into his office had me sit down in the chair across from his desk and patiently explained to me that a young man such as I, had no assets and would not be a good risk for a bank to loan money. He said “I am sure you can understand that.) I said “sure”.

I don't understand his attitude. Doesn't this guy look like a good loan risk??

The piece of land I was wanting to purchase was priced at $64,000. I had worked in high school and made some investments which had allowed my savings account to grow to $20,000 (wish I was smart enough to make that kind of money today). The bank officer had not asked if I had any assets. Had not asked if I had any cash; he just assumed I was some kid with nothing. I do wonder if I was wearing those red pants with the blue jean bottoms. Now those were "cool" and should have been an asset for the bank to use as collateral. 

I walked out of his office and went back to the teller line and withdrew the $20,000 in savings, emptied my checking account, closed both accounts and walked out the door.

Maybe had I worn my leisure suit, I would have been given the loan with no questions asked, not that any questions were asked as I was ushered out of the man's office.

Two days later the bank officer’s father, major share holder of the bank, showed up on our yard and wanted to talk to my dad. Why did your son pull his money out of our bank and close his account? Wouldn’t actually want to ask me, just have dad straighten that boy out and get the money back in his bank.

Of course why would any bank executive think this guy was managing his money. It really had to be dad's money in my name, right?

 Dad told me to tell the man why I had closed my accounts. I said, “I asked for a loan to buy real estate; your son explained to me that I had no assets. That being the case I do not know what you are talking about because if I have no assets I could not have had a savings account to empty.

A couple of days later dad pulled all his accounts as well. You didn’t mess with his kids. That is dad cleaning the windshield on my car before Sharon and I left the church after our wedding 10 years later. Hey look at the hat and leather jacket on me. 10 years later I had cleaned up a lot!