Just Why

There are times you buy a property and see the work that was done and you have to ask just why.

We tend to put in 3/4 inch quarterounds, perhaps go as far as 15/16 but to use 2x2 lumber? Just why? I pulled them all up and yea, the normal 3/4 inch quarter round would have covered any oak flooring that didn't meet the wall

Railings on stairs are required by code, but using 2x4s? That is a bit of overkill plus you still didn't meet code. You have to be able to grip the railing. 3 and1/2 inches deep, is way to deep unless you have huge hands.

I realize that walls in old houses tend to not be straight and true, but setting the base cabinets 1 and 1/2 inches from the wall doesn't seem like a good fix. I peered behind the countertop and sure enough they attached a 2x4 to the wall and then screwed the cabinets to the 2x4. Just why?

and then there is the siding. Goal of siding is to keep water out of the house. If you leave an inch or more open around the water spigot that is a fail. Just why?

No outside or inside corner pieces and butt jointing the siding pieces instead of lapping them. That will allow moisture in and rot the sheathing. Just why?

I am going to guess the work was done by someone who is clueless about building standards. If  don't assume that, I would have to think the awful work was done purposely.

Sometimes we see how other people act and assume we know why they are acting that way.

I was approached by a man this week that I had seen walking around town in the past few months. I assumed he was enemployed by choice and was minimally housed at best.

He asked me if I had any part time work for him. He has just finished his cancer treatments and needs something to do. Ah, so I was wrong when I saw his life style and was asking "Just Why". Why don't you have a job, Why are you living this way? The answer is it, was out of his control because he was fighting cancer. Most common cause of financial distress in our country is health issues.

Jesus said "Do not Judge or you to will 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."

I need to look at others and realize many do not have the advantages and blessings I have or their life is under duress and that explains just why they do the things they do the way they do them.

 

Finally done

We finished a house today. There were times it seemed we would never get to the end of this project.

The paint was pealing off the house when we started.

Tested the paint for lead so we knew if we could even work on the exterior.

Was a real moment of relief ewhen the paint tested no lead content.

That allowed us to fix the exterior without a lead abatement contractor.

The house has all the amenities tenants are looking for. Fenced yard

and attached garage.

Kitchen cupboards were saved but needed paint and back splash tiled.

New counter tops and all new flooring in the house.

Spacious dinidng room as well as eat in kitchen.

exterior doors were painted and resealed.

Plenty of natural light from the plethora of windows. 

Short hall that has storage on each side leads to the living room.

Living room has a ceiling with cross beams.

The ceiling had holes in it from upstairs toilet leaks when we purchased the house.

That was one of the jobs I was not looking forward to fixing but it was actually an easy fix.

There was an extra living room that we put in a door so it could be used as an office or 4th bedroom.

The master bedroom on the ground floor .

needed a total redo.

There is a bathroom just outside the master bedroom. Matthew tiled this shower. 

Matthew also built this vanity.

It was a horrid bath when we purchased the house but cleaned up well.

Laundry room just outside the master bedroom

with a closet.

Removed the filthy carpet from the stairs and they look much better.

At the top of the stairs is a area that can be used as a reading nook or for toys.

We removed the broken plaster and exposed the brick on the chimney.

The larger bath is upstairs

Once again Matthew tiled the shower.

A bedroom to the right

with closet

and a bedroom to the left

with 2 closets.

It has been a long complicated and time consuming job, but the house turned out well.

We have crossed the finish line, the house is rented and now we can move on to the next house.

I suppose I could say something about how our lives at times can seem as though we are making no progress and one year just leads to the next when in reality we are growing in wisdom and righteousness it's just hard to see the difference unless we are able to step back and see the work of God in our lives, One day we will be able to look back and see that God was turning carbon into diamonds, but I am tired and just going to let it slide and say nothing.

 

Just do it

We have a house scheduled for a rental inspection. One bedroom had 2 small windows in it when we purchased it. Jason the inspector let it pass 7 years ago because he said, although it was not an egress window, he could get out through it if he had to. Then 3 years later Harrison was the inspector. He was not pleased with the size of the window but he passed it because it had passed once. 

Now the couple using the bedroom has a baby. the baby sleeps in the room with them. We put in a much larger window. Even if we might have been able to call the "but it has passed twice" argument, there is no way I could live with myself if the couple had a fire and didn't get out with the baby because we didn't want to change the window out. We didn't have to reframe it because at some point in distant history an owner of the house thought this room should have small windows and just filled in most of the space of the old larger windows.

We hired a roofing company to put shingles on this house. There is an almost flat roof over the kitchen and the attached garage. We are going to put steel on that portion so just asked for a quote on the shingled part. When they were working on the roof Matthew asked why they weren't putting shingles on the porch. Oh, our bid was just for the steep roof, doesn't include the low pitch porch. Yea, I did that the next day. That little job made me think I am not getting any younger. Boy was I tired and sore and it was only a square and a third. Not that many years back I shingled several roofs like the steep part in a year.

We also found out we have a house with a shared private sewer line. Our house is the lowest on the hill. Our poor tenants had other's sewage in their basement one morning when the line plugged just past their house. 

Irv dug it up and pumped out the, oh, lets call it waste water. Cody cleaned out the plug and the line is open. We provided a free service to the other houses on the line because well, their drains were flowing real good down into our house's basement.

Matthew called me and asked me to go look at a bathtub that was leaking. Fiberglass tub looked good when we bought the house but had a crack in it now. We had to cut the tub and surround into 2 foot pieces to get it out.

We put in a new steel tub on Friday afternoon and tiled the surround today. I cut tile while Matthew stuck them to the wall. I could hardly keep ahead of him. we were finished in an hour and 15 minutes. Grout it on Monday and a much better tub and surround.

We had the tree this limb came out of trimmed a few years back. The tree service said the tree was in good shape and we didn't need to be concerned about it. That might have been a bit optimistic. We cut up the limb and hauled it away. the garage will need to be taken down as well. It not only crushed the roof, it also moved the garage over about 6 inches. The rest of the tree is scheduled to be removed

The tree company we use now removed another one for us this week. Took right at an hour to cut it down, slice it up, load it on trucks and haul it off.

This tree died 2 years ago. It is right on the property line of my yard. About 2 inches of the trunk is on my yard the rest on the neighbor. Our neighbor is concerned it is going to hit our house if it falls. I think it will be close but not quite a solid hit. We are going to split the cost and take it down. He wants to pay the entire bill but I keep arguing that it is my gain not his, if the tree is gone.

We could have argued that the window was large enough. We could have argued that the roofing bid was on the shingled part not the "steep" part. We could tell the neighbors whose sewage we cleaned up, Hey this is your bill. We could have told the tenants, look I don't know how the tub cracked but we are just going to patch it and do it cheap. I could go after the tree company that told me the tree was solid, but I think they did their best. I could let my neighbor cover all the cost of taking down the tree that is 80% on his property. 

We could do all those things, but would it be the right think to do. Not asking if it is the legal thing to do. Is it the moral thing to do?

This is a picture of some of our grandkids. That is Caleb hanging onto his dad's hand and reaching back pulling Ella along. I want to be like that. holding my father in Heaven's hand and pulling others along with my father and me as I walk through life. Some days that might be a bit expensive in dollars but I trust my Father to take care of that, and He does.

 

No such thing as a free lunch

I found 3 mice caught in sticky traps in our commercial building on Thursday morning. Thay came for the free food but it wasn't free. There was a high cost for trying to get that fish oil infused grain.

That seems to be a fact of life, there is no free lunch, everything has a cost.

I got the second and final dose of the shingles vaccine this week. I know people who had shingles, including my mom and Sharon, and have no desire for that pain. But once again everything comes with a cost. First dose was pretty easy with just a sore arm for a day. Not so for the second dose. Lets see, headaches, upset stomach, fatigue, low grade temperature and the really fun one was hallucinations. Took me  a bit to figure that last one out. Only lasted for about 2 hours, 18 hours after I had the shot. I kept trying to think through what just happened and then realized after 2 hours of that, that none of it had happened, my mind was creating fake memories. Was it worth it to get the vaccine? Yea, in my opinion that sort of lousy day was a lot better than what I have seen others go through when they have shingles.

There is no free lunch. Life is a series of trade offs and choices. 

I installed laminate flooring in closets today. I used flooring that we had bought cheap because it was what was left at a local store.

It was difficult to get it to lock and I had to fight every plank to get them locked. 

This is the laminate we use in most houses now. It is a cheap laminate that has lasted in one house for the 10 years since we bought the house. It really goes together easy (must be why it is called EZ plank). It is a cheap product but not as cheap as the remnants. But I paid for those remnants in time, work, and disgust today. No free luch and a cheap lunch usually isn't cheap if you look at the whole picture.

Sometimes cheap fixes do work. I needed to get into a couple of our lock boxes at the bank. Neither one would relock when I was finished. The bank staff called a lock smith, but he didn't answer his phone. The bank staff didn't want me to leave until the boxes were relocked (just a stack of abstracts in each box, sure about $18,000 value in each box but no value to anyone but the person selling the properties, which no one can do with out a deed signed by the owner). One of the staff found a can of WD40 and sprayed the locks. Worked like a charm and the boxes locked. Not quite a free lunch because there was the small cost of the oil, but pretty close.

I fixed this ceiling last week. Part of it had collapsed because of a leaking toilet upstairs prior to our buying the house. It was an easy fix because of the way the ceiling was finished. I could just cut out and replace 2 sections between the boards. No mudding and sanding, no uneven edges needed to be dealt  where the new met the old. Just the cost of a 4 foot by 4 foot peice of dry wall. 

I mixed a bunch of  paint remnants together. I have been aiming for a blueish grey the last couple of years (never add any red, the bucket is going to always be purple no matter how much you dilute it.)

I'd like to say this was a free lunch since all the paint I mixed was free from others trying to get rid of paint, but it takes a lot of work to get the paint all in one bucket and then get it mixed. There are times when you still find a dark blue splotch will show up on the wall as you paint and then you have to go back and repaint. Cheap (good for the environment as it didn't go to a hazardous waste landfill) but not free.

My point is that nothingin life is free, except that's not true. I know people who say they are going to heaven because they are good people. Yea, that's not true either. You don't have to live a good life to go to heaven because you can't live a good life. No one can. Heaven is paid for by Jesus paying your way in. It's free.

Matthew 20: 27-28 Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave-- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransome for many.

So yes, salvation and eternal life are given to you for free, but if you accept that gift the price is high because you have to become a servant to God and all those around you. Jesus said to love your enemies.

That is tough and it is no free lunch, but worth the cost.