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.

 

cheap fixes

We are painting the interior of the BIG house. Started by repairing past mistakes made by previous owners.

At some point nail holes were filled with joint compound. Filling holes with joint compound is a good idea, but... This is not the way we do it. See the flat spot where a mud knife was used to put compound on the wall. It should have been cleaned off with a wet cloth until only the hole was filled and the texture of the wall was not compromised. Usually we just leave past mistakes and repaint. In this house details matter so we are sanding all these spots down with an orbital sander.

There was one crack running up from a window to the ceiling that had the last couple of paint layers pushed out. I started up the angle grinder to grind down the ridge before sanding. Matthew came flying into the room and asked "Is the grinder your new sander?" I think he thought the old man had lost it. A little later I showed him a 45 degree corner that was poorly done and would need to be fixed. He wondered out loud how he was going to get the old joint compound scored back. I pointed at the angle grinder. Yea, looks like the old man wasn't so crazy after all.

So we sanded down previous repairs,

sprayed new texture,

and painted with primer.

Seems like we had to redo about 30% of every wall.

The finished product was worth the effort.

2 bedrooms done and only 2 more to go, oh and the hall way upstairs and down stairs, the entry way, the living room, the dining room, the extra formal front room, the kitchen and the back entry room. I don't think we are quite finished yet. 

Sometimes, we try to hide our sins under a veneer of self righteousness. Cover up what we do wrong by justifying it to ourselves. Maybe it is like a quick ugly patch. If we look at what we do wrong as God would, it is obvious we are not fixing it the right way. 

I know I have to be careful I am not just covering over my sins and I am allowing God to fix my life. The blood of Jesus is the only way to fix past sins, and allowing God to direct my life going forward is the only way for my life to be done right in the future.

 

getting rolling again

We put up quite a bit of tile. Most of the houses we buy have cheap tub surrounds. The glue is usually letting loose and they are just grungy.

We like to have tile, it goes up quickly and looks nice. I tiled a surround today. It still needs to be washed and grouted.

The problem is, when you put up a lot of tile, you notice other's work. I always look at the tile in hotel bathrooms and fast food restaurants. Then shake my head and ask, who are they getting to do this shoddy work. It's not the difficult to do it right, and it is seldom done right.

The house had some lovely carpet when we took possession. They always do. First thing out the door and off to the landfill.

Matthew and I had started laying floor on Wed. I worked on it on Thursday

and Micah finished it off today.

One of the selling points on this house was the "wonderful" kitchen. Yea, that countertop did not get within 2 inches of any of the walls. What was with that open space in the middle? Place for the trash can? The cupboards were still raw wood, absolutely never finished.

                                        

We took them all out. Put polyurethane on them and reconfigured them. At least they are now flush up against the walls.

Then there were the steps to the front of the house. 

A bit overwhelming for a small house.

Matthew took them apart and rebuilt them. A much better look.

When we are finished with this one, we have another rental purchase to remodel and after that we are going to try something new.

We have purchased a large old home that needs some love and care (needs the light blue paint gone as well).

It has some lovely old oak floors and interesting features.

And some floors that are ruined. Our plan is to fix it up and resell it. Our first expense coming up is about $18,000 in new HVAC systems. All those old radiators need to be cut loose and hauled out of the house. A metal recycler told me you could break them apart with a sledge hammer so they would be lighter to get down the stairs and out. NO, NO, NO, there will be no sledge hammering cast iron on those oak floors. They will have to be man handled out as they are.

People are begging for rental housing right now. Part of it may be unintended consequences. The CDC put an eviction moratorium in place last year because if tenants were evicted they might spread covid. Some rental property owners I know have sold houses. Either they needed to sell because they were not getting an income and needed the money or they looked at the situation and asked why are we risking not getting an income. Sell the house in  a buyers market and lose the risk of being denied income. So the CDC put a moratorium in place to keep tenants in their homes, now there are less rentals and the rent is higher. That didn't work out so well did it? To make matters worse the small landlords in the larger cities are being bought out by corporations and they have no mercy for anyone who falls behind on rent because of circumstances beyond their control. You are late with rent because you were hospitalized and couldn't work. Evict, no mercy. Thanks for the help CDC, the unintended consequences are making rental housing more expensive and harder to find.

I have a bad habit of jumping into things without always thinking it through from every angle first. That can often lead to unintended consequences. It seems to be built into my DNA. I just can't seem to stop doing it. What I have found out is that if I just stay in touch with God and keep praying, If You want this to happen make it happen, if You don't want it to happen don't let it happen. Takes the burden off me and sometimes even when it seems  have made a bad decision, it turns out for the best in the end if I have asked God to be in charge. 

It's what makes the difference in life. On my own my life would be filled with what is the same as bad tile jobs, old carpeted floors, and unfinished cabinets installed wrong and steps out of proportion. Maybe a bad decision to help people like the CDC one. Instead either God keeps me from making mistakes or uses the mistakes I make to create something better.

I have found it to be a grand way to live. Let God be in charge!

 

Forgiveness

I have to confess the last 6 months it has been difficult for me to keep my anger under control. Last year we had some tenants who could not pay the rent due to covid. The State of Iowa set up a program where they could apply for aid and in just a few days the funds were directly deposited in our bank account. it worked great and it not only kept tenants from falling behind on their rent, it kept the owners of the property paid as well. Then the funds ran out. 

The federal government allocated funds the end of last year and the beginning of this year to pay for rent of tenants who could not pay. That would have been a good thing for landlords as the CDC mandated tenants could not be evicted for not paying rent. Problem is the states who were to pay out the funds have only paid out 6% of the allocated money as of the end of July. 

Then the state of Iowa in their "wisdom" began to deny applications for rent assistance. If the tenants can not provide documentation of prior wages or cannot show their loss of income is covid related, they are denied. No, as a landlord you can not evict them but we are not going to pay you either. 

We had 2 tenants who were in this situation. If you look around now, you can see that it is difficult to be unemployed, as everyone seems to need employees. They couldn't find a job and when they finally did, it seemed no money was available to pay rent. Neither the present rent nor any back rent. One of the two moved out end of June. They saw that the rent moratorium was going to end so they packed up and left because I promised them I would not pursue litigation for the thousands they owed us.

That left us with one problem tenant. When the moratorium was extended through July, they were going nowhere. "But Royce, we need a home for our children." That play for sympathy was falling on deaf ears since there were two adults who "couldn't" find a job living in the house. 

Last week it looked like the Feds were finally going to let us evict, so we started the process. Monday the tenants were running and hiding from the deputies trying to serve the papers. Tuesday they said we will leave by noon, Oh wait we will leave by 2pm.

Shame they handed over the keys 2 hours before the CDC lengthened the eviction moratorium till October 3. Yea, I am crying about that one for them.

Once we were inside the house we found out we could have evicted anyway.

They only took what they could pack into the trunk of their car. 

Every window covering in the house was ripped to shreds. 

All the flooring is destroyed. Matthew pulled it up today.

$1000.00 of flooring pushed off at the landfill.

Doors shredded. they used a closet door to attempt to corral dogs in a room.

The dogs had not been let out of the house for a month.

Holes in walls and fist size holes in doors.

Yes that pile on one of the bathroom floors is exactly what it looks like.

After 6 months of dealing with tenants who refuse to pay rent and trash the house, I was having trouble with forgiveness. We are told to forgive. Jesus makes it clear that if we do not forgive, God will not forgive us.

I'll have to admit it is easier today to forgive than it was yesterday. That is self centered on my part, because now we can put the house back together and get a decent tenant. That is not forgiveness, that is just writing off a bad experience and a bad debt. It is easier not to be angry today because it is over, they are gone. 

I believe they are homeless today. Truth is I don't care. We have never done that before. We have always helped tenants in financial trouble figure out another option. I could talk to them and help them see they needed to move in with a family member or a smaller subsidized apartment. I could do that because if they didn't listen to me they could be evicted. The CDC took that option away from me. I had no threat to make any tenant look for a viable option. 

I am still left with a problem. I need to forgive them for trashing our house. I need to forgive them for taking 8 months rent from us. Doesn't mean I need to let anyone continue to steal from us, because yes they stole from us, but it does mean I need to say, "I forgive. Go in peace, you owe me nothing . May you learn from this experience and change your life style."

 I'm not there yet, but I am working on it.