Do it well

 

We bought a piano for Matthew many years ago. It has been stitting in our living room unused except by the garndchidren who find great joy in pounding on the keys. Oh, the lovely sound it makes to their ears. I know we are called to make a joyful noise but still, oh, the pain it brings to my ears.

Friday both Matthew and Micah were at our house for lunch. We loaded out the piano to go to Matthew's house where it will be played and used to make music, not just noise. When I was a boy many long years ago, my sisters and I took piano lessons. I did learn the basics, but I spent most of the practice time lying on the piano bench watching the clock slowly move till the half hour practice time was over.

My parents were adamant that every child needed to learn a musical instrument. I asked if I could learn to play the guitar instead. They bought me a guitar and a year later bought me an electric guitar with an amp. A few years back I looked up what it would cost to replace that guitar and amp I sold cheap in the 80s. Well, my parents bought me that set and it became known as a quality guitar and amp. I decided about $15,000 to buy the set back was out of my price range. I was injured in a farm accident when I was 15 years old and have permant nerve damage in my right hand. I had to relearn to play the guitar, but as with most damage we do to our bodies when we are young, it gets worse with age. I tried to pick up the guitar a couple years ago and I could not pluck the strings well anymore. I gave up instead of getting a pick and settling for just strumming the chords. I wanted to play well instead of just "strumming" the chords. That was probably a mistake, in a quest to do it well, I made my life smaller.

We are cleaning up a house now where it seems the tenant had no ability to do things well and he did not ask for help. We do not allow tenants to do electrical, plumbing repairs, or paint. It seldom turns out well. Just call us, we'll fix it. In the picture above we found he had removed an outlet and left the box open with small children in the house. That is a real danger of electrical shock and maybe even death. Do it well or don't do it is really important in electrical work.

Sometimes doing it well is in the eye of the beholder. He painted a couple of the rooms a very dark grey. It made the house seem so dark. I chose a much lighter grey and repainted the whole interior.

I realize there is a difference in brushes and I buy good cut brushes, but still wouldn't one know they are not doing the job well when you simply paint an inch in on the cupboards. Give me a break and don't paint our house if that is the best you can do.

In this picture I have the wall painted the new grey, because the blue he painted was full of holes and scratches. Once again, it's not that hard to cut in paint along a ceiling and do the job well. Either do it well or don't do it.

Another house we are working on, that we just purchased, is called Wildflower Cottage. Seems like a cute name until you find out the reason she named the house. Years ago the city officials were citing her for not mowing her lawn and keeping the broken tree branches cleaned up. She named the house "Wildflower Cottage" and offered to sue the city if they made her do upkeep on the lawn because it was wildflowers. No, it was just weeds and now there is no grass after we mowed off the weeds, just dirt which will be mud when it rains. She did not care for her lawn at all, let alone do it well.

Life is generally better if you do things well intead of just the minimum.People will respect you if you do things well. Your finances will be in better shape if you do things well. Your health will be better if you do things well. Serve God well and not just the minimum and you will live with joy.

What to save

What do you save and what do you throw away? We buy some houses from estates. The deceased usually stayed living in the house longer than they should have. I understand change is hard and if they were content and cared for until they died, I call that success.

Sometimes we buy the house with all its contents. That usually mean the contents have little to no value. The house we are cleaning out now was owned by a woman who evidently could not throw anything away. A young woman who had cared for her stopped by and walked through the house. She asked me what had happened to all the valuable papers. There were 5 filing cabinets and many boxes full of papers that the woman had told everyone were valuable. She had a copy of every letter she had ever written. She had every envelope of the letters her parents had sent her. The envelopes were empty, the letters saved in another file. I asked the young lady, "valuable papers? Valuable to whom?" Then she said "ah" and walked away.

We let people walk through the house and take what they wanted, We set furniture by the curb and then took 7 loads to the landfill! 

A lady told me we should save the kitchen cupboards. Yea, a nice thought but we are renting the house not creating an unlivable museum. They are now gone.

She had new garden tools she used 20 years ago and her parents old garden tools stored in the basement. Why does one keep what they keep? We found the old tools a new home. hopefully they will be displayed and not just stored in another basement.

This note above her stove reads that it last worked December 1999. She kept it. I have no idea what she cooked with. There was an electric skillet. Was she unable to get a new stove because the old one belonged to her parents? They passed away 44 years ago. That's a long time to keep an old kitchen stove.

Some things are not worth saving and other things have value. Usually it is the reason you are saving it that matters. Our son Joshua came and loaded up his great-grandfather's tractors today. His grandfather has kept them till now. Joshua and his grandfather restored the one tractor when Joshua was a teenager, the other tractor needs a lot of work. They have no value to me (sharon's family tractors, wouldn't want them even if they were my grandfather's) but to Joshua they are precious.

Joshua and a neighbor were looking though the book and invoices from when the tractor was new. Joshua's son Ethan who already wants to be a mechanic looks on.

We save what we see as valuable. We are willing to work and use space to save what is valuable to us.

What is valuable to you?

To me, my most valuable possession is my relationship with God. Am I willing to work to save it? Am I willing to use space in my life to save it. Am I willing to use my assets to maintain it and make sure it is in excellent shape?

Things can have value. Things can be saved and at times probably should be, but most important, things should not be what we are most interested in saving.

Our souls are what we need to make sure are saved for eternity with Jesus the Savior.

 

Judge not??

We had a tenant move out. he let Mathew know that we could set everything they left by the curb for anyone to pick up who wanted it. Matthew asked me how bad do you think it is?

                                                

,Well not good when you pull into the drive way and see garbage strewn around.

We started hauling stuff out of the house. Anything that looked salvagable we set by the curb and loaded the rest to take to the landfill. Several loads went to the landfill.

When they moved in, they were told no screws in the walls. I guess that didn't apply to deck screws.

Patched screw holes on a 5 foot section of wall.

So many screws in the wall in an 8 inch width, I didn't even try to count them.

Cleaned the toys out of one furnace duct. We repainted the entire interior and tore out all the floors.

                                                 

All the walls are painted and the floors are getting close to replaced.

                                                 

About 3 foot of flooring left to install in the great room and we can get to work on the small fixes.

I have so many questions. Why would you remove a bathroom door? Just doesn't seem smart. Why would you complain you were out of money and have a room full of children's toys that appeared to be stored in that room and never used? Why would you leave behind unopened packages of diapers and a pickup load of food? When the electric was going to be shut off and I said I would pay for 2 days so they would have lights to move out, why do you set the AC at 64 and have the doors open as you move out  the stuff you are taking with you? 

I have so many questions, but no real answers. I could judge them from what I see, but do I see the whole picture? I don't know everything that is impacting their lives. To me it looks like they have a lot to learn before they will be successful in life, but what do others see when they look at my life.

I would like to think I am not making obviously bad descions, but what do others see when they are looking at my actions? Do they judge just by a glimpse of my life and not the whole picture.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you".

Ok I will try to work on that.