2021

Started the year putting the finishing touches on a house purchased in September 2020. Previous owner had health issues after the sale so it took us a while to get possession, then we had to wrest possession from all the flees left behind by their dogs. 

February our first grandson was born. Welcome to the world Caleb Spoelstra.

In March we finished the first house purchased in 2020.

Sharon and I headed for a short get away in the Quad Cities. Had an apartment downtown Davenport right by the river. It was kinda cold on the rooftop terrace.

Painted a house that was finished in November of 2020. When I bought this house, everyone thought I had finally made a bad purchase. No one is complaining anymore since the house is looking much better and is quite nice inside.

In April Sharon and I went for a driving tour of State parks in Northern Iowa. We stayed in a cabin by a lake in Clay county.

Then we remodeled a house we had pretty much rented as it was when we bought it 4 years ago.

In May we finished one of the larger houses we had bought up to this point. Rented it to a couple with a real need for housing and it has worked out well so far.

I spent June and July doing volunteer work fixing housing for nonprofits. Started spending my evenings on our patio enjoying our fire pit. I had not done that for several years. Now I am looking forward to Spring intending to spend more evenings out on the patio this year.

                                           

                                 In August we had to put in new flooring and fix holes in walls, and totally repaint a couple of houses.                  

                                        

                                           The tenants had trashed the houses before moving out

In September we did a major road trip. Down to Oklahoma, swung over through northern Texas, back up through the Oklahoma panhandle and traveled around Kansas. A lot of interesting land formations out there on the "flat" plains.

On our return we finished up a house that was simply horrid when we purchased it.

In October we took possession of the "Big" House. Did some outside essential repairs between working on another purchase.

We finished up this house in November and then could turn our full time attention to the "Big" house.

Our first Thanksgiving with a Grandson. My, how he grew during those few short months.

Then it was onto fixing the "Big" house. It seems like everything in and on it needs repairs.

Just the front door, which is 8 feet tall, needed to be fixed. It had 2 handles, neither of which worked well. It had holes in it that allowed the outside air to come right on into the house. Had to cut blocks of wood to fill holes and apply Bondo to get it air tight and looking presentable. An 8 foot tall door with beveled glass windows was worth all the effort to repair.

The outside is just about all fixed

At least a good month and maybe more to get the inside fixed.

After that we can move on to our next project.

We picked up the windows today.

A whole pickup load. Looks like it will be Spring before we are finished with the projects we have lined up.

I hear a lot of people complaining about the last 2 years. I know there have been difficulties, I spent some time in the hospital in 2020 with Covid, but over all God has been good and He always will be. No matter what happens in your life, God is good. Look for His gifts and His hand in your life. Sometimes everyone needs to look back and see what has happened. Now the perfect time to go back over your last year and see the gifts God has given. 

 

Filling holes

I feel like I spent my whole week filling holes

This was the front door of the house we are working on when we purchased it. It is an 8 foot tall door so we did not want to replace it.

That meant the cracks and missing wood needed attention. Bondo car body filler is the carpenter's friend. The door is ready for the finish coat of paint (except for a couple a pieces of wood to hold in the lower left glass pane).

We are replacing the doors to the bedrooms. The door jambs are also 8 foot tall with transoms over the doors. Our plan is to put new doors in the old frames. That meant all the old hinge and lock cut outs needed to be filled before we could cut new ones. Yep, Bondo again. 

They are all filled sanded and painted.

Then there were the floors. The hot water radiators had leaked and in a couple of places the floors had  swollen up.

Took out the pieces that were raised and trimmed them. Then put them back into the floor. 

There were the holes where the pipes had gone to the old radiators

A total of 23 holes to fix.

There were a couple of times I thought I had them all and then I moved the carpet I had down while painting and there were more.

I hope they are all filled now.

There are 2 door ways to the bedrooms where the flooring was painted. Why, just why? I checked today to make sure it would sand down. Hopefully tomorrow we will start putting the new flooring in the hallway and I wanted to know if we would have to go into the doorway. I am thinking not at this point. 1 hole we don't have to fill.

There were no upper cabinets in the kitchen when we bought the house.

We have put in several and we still need to purchase another 3. I put the first coat of polyurethane on the inside of the doors this morning.

Also put a coat on one of the new bedroom doors.

A neighbor to another house we have purchased, but haven't worked on yet, told Sharon Wednesday evening there was a window out of the house. She was concerned because squatters had broken into the house in the past. I was concerned because we had the furnace on and I didn't want to be attempting to heat all of Oskaloosa.

When we purchased the house the sellers said they would give us 5 windows they had bought for replacements. I thought I would just quickly screw one into place Wednesday evening to close the house up. 

Yea, that didn't happen because not a single one of those new Pella windows will fit anywhere in this house, or in any other house that we own. Fact is, I would like to see the house these windows would fit in. So there is a piece of plywood covering the hole now until the new windows are delivered to the distributer.  

I dismantled one of the new windows that were part of the purchase and I think at some point in the future I can use the parts as fixed windows that do not open to replace old picture windows and garage windows. 

So I spent my week filling holes. Holes in a door and in door frames. Holes in floors and holes where there should be cabinets. A hole where a window blew out.

It isn't always easy to fill holes in houses, but it is a lot easier than filling holes in people's lives. When I was teaching Bible classes to junior high students, I told them if you are being harassed by a bully, remember this, that kid is a bully because his or her life stinks elsewhere. They have a hole in their life and they don't know how to fix it, so they are taking their pain out on you.

A lot of adults have holes in their lives as well. Many can't figure out what the purpose of their life is and live in despair. Many want to be loved and are looking for love in all the wrong places.

God made humans with a hole in them that only He can fill. Everyone needs to be loved and God is love. Everyone needs a purpose in life and God can give your life purpose. 

The paradox of life is you need to give everything up to gain everything. If you want a fulfilled life you have to say, "God fill me with your presence, I give myself to You."

That's the only way to get all your holes filled.

It's on the National Park registry!

When we purchased 613, the former owner had started repainting it.

He had started repairing the front porch, but had not been able to finish it. The floor, ceiling and columns, some siding and trim were missing.

We have tried to put it back to the way the original builder of the home would have wanted it. We are not restoring the house, because we want to sell a house to be lived in comfortably for the 21st century. Having stated that, we do want the outside to be as original as possible. The National Park service has designated the house as a key structure in the Paradise Block District of Oskaloosa. There are 7 houses with that designation. There were 8 houses labeled as such back in 1980. The Spencer House at 517 High Ave East was also a key structure. It was built by H.L. Spencer. When H.L. died his wife had Spencer Chapel built on the William Penn campus as a memorial. My parents and I owned 517 when a tenant's Tv had an electrical short  which caused a fire. the Oskaloosa fire department was able to get the fire out without totally destroying the house. Problem was insulation in the attic smoldered for a week, reignited and the house was a complete loss. The house was demolished in 1983. So having owned one of the key structures of the Paradise Block and had it cease to exist under my ownership, I have no desire to repeat that. 

Basil Dutton was a contractor who built several homes in Oskaloosa with his partner Henry Wetherall. Henry's son Frank was an architect. Several houses Basil and Henry built have the "belt" around the exterior of the house between the first and second floor. Basil built 613 for his own home to live in.

There are 4 stained glass windows in the house we are attempting to repair. The one above is in excellent shape. The 2 on the 3rd floor are in horrible shape. We are putting new colored glass in front of the old faded glass and missing pieces so that the windows will be double paned. The Stained glass window on the stairs between first and second floor will be taken apart and the central yellow broken pane replaced.

Although it was a shame to remove the upstairs hallway oak floor it was damaged beyond repair by leaking hot water heat radiators. We can save all the other oak flooring except about half of the kitchen.

The half of the kitchen where we will replace the flooring is not original to the house. The garage was also built much later in 1940. I would have to say that having owned a key structure in the Paradise block Historic district that was destroyed in 1982, it is a labor of love to bring this house back to it's former glory. The house just to the west, although when it was built was an identical house to 613, has had so many changes to the exterior it is not considered a historical house. I have no desire for that to happen to 613. We want to fix it up and sell it to someone who will treasure the history and architecture of the home. 

 

winter work

We purchased our winter work this week. 

I really hate the green color on this house. Next spring we will paint it.

Although you have to admire that they painted the tarp on the east side the same color as the siding. No-one will ever know it is just a tarp if you paint it the same color as the rest of the house. I think we will put siding on instead of the tarp. The way it is now might be a code violation.

That awning to the left of the door and the window to the right of the door will have to go.

The windows in the house are in horrible shape. Every one of them will have to be replaced.

Porch screens will need work.

The seller included 5 new windows in the sale to sweeten the deal. We have replacing all the rest in our estimate of repair costs.

We will need some new cupboards and the ones that are there will need repair

There was some dry wall work done. Problem is, we will have a new breaker box and electrical service installed. You really want to do dry wall work after the electrician has done his magic otherwise you might end up cutting holes in the new dry wall.  Notice the insulation I taped over one window to keep at least some of the cold air out? That should speak volumes about how bad the windows are.

The black plastic covering the studs on a wall is a nice touch. At least here we can have any new wires run that we might need.

That half wall beside the toilet will have to go and all the flooring in the house needs to be replaced.

Window behind the washer will have to go.

Access to the pipes for the upstairs full bath is through the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom. I have never seen this done before. I think we will cover that hole in the ceiling.

As I wrote the floors are in awful shape.

There are still walls to fix. 

And we are crious what is behind the mirror on the wall above the stairway. Seems like an odd place to hang a mirror unless you are covering a hole in the wall.

Most of the stair treads are cracked and broken.

Matthew was able to get the furnace running yesterday. We replaced the thermostat that was in the house with our work thermostat, replaced the fuse on the furnace switch and he said there was another fix needed before the furnace would fire. But there is now heat in the house. YEA!!!! 

Yep we have purchased our winter work.

I have been thinking this week how thankful I am that 2 of our sons are partners with us on the houses. Our oldest son Joshua works for an agricultural company and I am thankful for him too.

But I can let youth do the tough jobs.

Micah tore out flooring on the BIG house yesterday.

Matthew found some trim to fill in the missing pieces. He painstakingly removed all the old paint.

I painted the front hall and stairway.

I am thankful, I have a variety of work that I enjoy every day. Sure there are some awful jobs but most are satisfying and enjoyable. Fixing dilapidated houses is a labor of love for me.

May your life be filled with joy and thankfulness also.