There is a time for everything

Tis the season to purchase houses. Picked this one up this week. Need to get our work for next year purchased now. 

This makes the 3rd one we have purchased this Fall to remodel in the next 6 months.

Our neighbors are remodeling their house. They did not want their cabinets to go to the landfill. They kindly gave them to us. 

I hauled them to the garage of the house we are working on. It took 8 trips with the pickup. Later they will have to go into our storage building, but I am going to want help to unload them there. Now we need to buy a house that needs cabinets. (we do have a couple that if the tenants move out we may need to replace some cupboards.)

We still had a house and garage that needs to be shingled this fall. I don't like to put on a roof this late in the year but last year we waited till spring on a couple that needed shingles and we had a leak that caused a a chunk of ceiling to fall. Don't want to do that again. 

I got about 2/3 of one side of the main part of the house done on Tuesday and on Saturday Micah and I finished the east side and got the west side on. Still need to do the porches on the north and south side of the house as well as the garage. Looking at the weather forecast we may be waiting a week before progress is made.

Had a tenant move out yesterday. I do wish she had taken all of her stuff.

I am left with a full bedroom set in one bedroom and a king size bed in another. 2 kitchen tables and 10 chairs. 

 Plus at least 2 pickup loads of junk for the landfill, including everything that was in the fridge and freezer.

My week reminds me of what the author of Ecclesiastes wrote

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,  

 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 

a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 

 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

There is a time to buy and a time to fix houses a time to keep cabinets and a time to throw away someone else's stuff.

I received a phone call this week from a woman I did not know. She shared about a tragedy in her life. I could really offer no advice. It was a horror beyond imagining. All I could do was listen, commiserate and be appalled at the evil in a man's heart.

There is a time to talk and a time to listen. This was a time to listen. I often tell people that Job's 3 friends in the Biblical story of Job did right as long as they sat for 7 days with their suffering friend. Once they started speaking, God became angry with them for their words. This week I think I did good. I just listened and said "I understand your anger". I often speak too much when I should say little and say too little when I should speak and share the truth of God's love and forgiveness because of Jesus sacrifice.

I missed a chance this week. I had another woman ask if I was going to stop by on Sunday. Then she said "no, you won't, you will be in church." (We have had conversations about God before) I should have told her why I go to church. I believe she thinks God is like a big vending machine that hands out good things occasionally if you are good or pray just right. It was a time to speak and I didn't. I should have told her I don't go to church to get things from God. I go to church because I have gotten something from God. Forgiveness and eternal life. A time to speak and I missed it and the sad part is God was yelling in my heart "Tell her!" but I didn't.

A time to be silent and a time to speak. I got the silent part right this week but not the speaking part. 50% is not a very good score.

Don't sweat the small stuff

On Monday we were supposed to close the sale on a house.

USDA had foreclosed on the house and we had the high offer a month back. On the offer you need to disclose how you are going to pay for the house. I had filled in that we were paying with funds from a Line of credit. A bank officer had given me a letter and printout of the account to send to the USDA that the funds were available. On Monday my agent informed the USDA that I would be bringing a cashiers check to the closing. Well that stopped the sale right there. This is a no financing sale but the form says he is getting the money from a LOC but if he is bringing a check it is a cash sale. I don't think the USDA understands how a Line of Credit works. You can either transfer the funds to your checking account or if you have checking privileges on the LOC write a direct check. You write a check and the bank gives you a cashiers check. But the USDA was not taken in by that incomprehensible line of reasoning. I had changed where the money was originating from and they would have to back the closing off till Wednesday as they considered the astounding idea that the house would be paid for with, horrors of horrors, cash. (well, not really as the funds were coming from the line of credit as I had filled in on their form originally) I did begin to wonder why they cared as they were going to get the money. 

So on Monday afternoon I went down and put the sheet rock up where it had fallen in the house we

purchased 10 days earlier.

 

I hate screwing up sheet rock and mudding over my head, but it is done. On Tuesday I went back to that house and put the insulation back up in the attic where it had fallen through with the fallen sheet rock, and put the 2nd coat of mud on the new joints.

As I was driving through town on Tuesday I went past 1 of the 3 houses we have that have not had an inspection yet. I saw this flight of 4 steps down by the street. I thought , oh no, 4 flights means it needs a railing. I did not want to have an inspection get scheduled in January and find out I needed to get a railing on those steps when everything is frozen solid. I sent a picture to Harrison and he replied "No you're good." That was a real blessing. I didn't have to decide if I was going to try to drill holes in the concrete and attach a railing or dig post holes. Nope, job done with no work.

On Wednesday, they were ready to sign off on taking a check for the house. Except, wait a minute all the paperwork will need to be redone. The months and days on the forms are not all 2 numerals. How will anyone know it is September 7 if it just reads 9/7/2019 when the offer was made. No that all must be changed and all the paper work resubmitted with all dates 09/07/2019. Good grief, give me a break. Wednesday afternoon they signed off on the closing and I handed over the check. Went over to the house and first thing out was this lovely carpet. 

Then all the tools needed to be moved in.

The former owners had used drywall nails to hang pictures. This is the handful I pulled out of the walls of just 1 room. That is a lot of holes to fill with caulk before painting.

Needed to get the gas turned on and I wanted the "dead" gas lines removed before it was live. Removed 4 pipes going across the basement to previous gas appliances that were either gone or had been moved.

Gas on and furnace running we could get the water turned on. The house had been winterized but that does not mean that it was done before the pipes froze. It had not. First I found the leaks one at a time by cracking open the water line, fixing the leak and then crack it open again. When the leaks stopped, I checked the faucets. Yea a couple had no pressure. Galvanized pipes fill up over time, so new pex lines replaced most of the galvanized pipe. Fortunately just a couple of long runs were galvanized and most of the complicated turns and short runs were copper.

 

I was surprised when the water heater lit and fired up. I figured it would have problems as it was still full of water when I turned the water on. Yea, well as soon as the heat kicked in it blew a hole in the top of the water heater tank. The pressure from it freezing had weaken a seam. A new one was in the budget so no real loss.

I took all the partial cans of paint I had in our basement and started mixing them together. I was able to empty 9 buckets.

Painted the largest bedroom Friday afternoon.

See the part I missed while trimming around doors?

We did not get a key to the 2 padlocks on the doors on the back of the house. I took my universal key Saturday morning and removed the padlocks. My universal key is about 2 and a half foot long and has a curved end with claws. Yea, a crowbar removed both locks efficiently.

Painted over the lovely brown in the middle bedroom.

Micah started laying floor Saturday afternoon.

I started painting the kitchen. I know those are some lovely colors, but not really generic enough for a rental house.

Yea that might work better.

I got it covered with 2 coats.

I do hope the red and blue don't show through on Monday because I used all of the paint I mixed, except for enough to do touch up.

I was reminded this week that some people spend their time making sure all forms are filled out exactly so. I don't think they realize that they contribute nothing to society. The earth will not crumble if funds from a Line of Credit go through another bank account and show up as payment in the form of a check. It will make no difference if September is noted as 9 or 09. It just made a small minded person feel important to slow down a sale till all their petty demands were met. She could not see the forest for the trees. USDA did not get their money for 3 days so they lost interest possibilities on the cash and USDA had to pay 3 more days of Real estate taxes. She was looking at minutia and missed the things that matter. 

Once her demands were met we could begin to make some quick progress on the house and USDA stopped losing money on the property.  Sometimes we can all be like that. We cease being goal orientated and become process orientated. We can become bogged down in making things just so and forget that God calls us to love others first. We get caught up in the details of our daily life and don't think about the souls headed for eternity without God, yea going to Hell. As a church sometimes while we argue over the best Bible translation or if we are singing the right hymn, we do not share of the gospel.

I don't want to be like that. I want to be goal orientated. I want to not fret the small useless stuff and concentrate on building the kingdom of God. Starting with me and everyone I meet. Souls for eternity with God first everything else second.

Fix it and throw out the junk

John asked me if  I knew what color I wanted the shutters and awning painted on his house.

He had asked me that last year as well, but he has some time on his hands right now. He lost his job and is looking for employment. I appreciate that he wants the house to look nice and well kept.

I brought him  a gallon of Mars Clay paint and he got right at it. I have to say the house looks pretty sharp. Thanks John.

The big job this week was making the last house we purchased water tight. Previous owner had nailed tarps on the roof at some time. All but 1 were blown loose and flapping in the wind.

That was causing a real problem with the ceilings.

I laid shingles this week. Remember Monday and Tuesday when there were wind warnings? Yea it was windy on a roof. There was a time or two when I grabbed a new shingle as it was blowing past me and nailed it down. I was pretty happy Monday afternoon when I had the area covered that was leaking. 

I have a rule. No-one puts satellite dishes on our new roofs. We remove all the ones that are on the roof when we put on new shingles. This house had 2. I have removed as many as 4 from a roof on houses we have fixed up. 

Tuesday afternoon the north side was finished and I had found out why there were tarps nailed over the new roof on the south side. Whoever put the roof on did not know how to cap a roof. You have to buy the hip shingles that are made to cap a roof. It wasn't that way with the old 3 tab shingles but times have changed. The roof must have leaked because of poor workmanship on the hip of the roof, so he tarped the whole thing instead of fixing the problem.

At the end of the week it was a great feeling to look down that roof and see it finished. It was also fantastic to find out we had enough warm sun to stick the shingles. I was afraid we were too late in the year and we would be patching or redoing the roof in a few short years. We take possession of a house on Monday that needs a roof and I have seen the weather forecast. We will need to be ready to go as soon as we have a forecast of 50 degrees and sunny.

We have owned this house for a week. There is a new roof and a lot of junk piled outside the house. Micah spent most of Saturday afternoon carrying stuff I had torn out in the basement out to the junk pile. I was tracing electric wires and cutting out the unnecessary ones and those that would need to be replaced with new wire. I am sure the owner was doing his own electrical work. I am also sure he should not have been. Outlets in the basement ceiling. Nope, those are cut out and gone. Wires spliced in mid run to add another line. Nope, those are gone. 

Can lights energized by extension cord wire. Nope, those are gone. I like simplicity in rental houses. If there are 10 electrical outlets in a garage and it needs electrical work, there will be 3 outlets when I am finished. In this house there were outlets in the basement every 3 feet. We have to remove the paneling on the walls of the basement and there will now be half as many outlets. Code is every 6 feet in new build and there is no way I am going to cut around outlets every 3 feet. Nope, not going to happen! Ever! 

Fixed problems and threw out junk this week. John did some painting that was sorely needed to make the house look better. We stopped the damage being done by a leaking roof that needed attention. We carried a lot of doors and paneling and old shelves and electrical wire and florescent lights and studs out and threw it all in a pile for the land fill.  

The shutters and the awning John painted did not become faded and peeling in a short time. The roof did not degrade and start to leak right away (OK the bad workmanship didn't help). The wiring was mistakes made over a period of time. Every "repair" and additional light or outlet was done over a course of years.

We can be like that. We live our lives and don't notice that we are not as faithful to God as we were at one time. We ignore the slow slide away from putting God first.

Jesus says to the church at Ephesus "You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary, yet I hold this against you, you have forsaken your first love."

I have to take a look at my life and ask myself am I still loving God first. It is too easy to let your love of God fade. It is too easy too let added things get in the way of serving God first. That is when it is time to ruthlessly remove all the stuff keeping us from focusing on God. If my life gets too cluttered by what I keep adding to it, I need to remove some things and throw them on the junk pile.

This house we worked on this week will be a better and safer home once we get it finished (we will move away from it and work on the one we close on tomorrow first). It needs to be brought back to the state it was when it was first built with some improvements that have become available since then. GFI outlets and laminate flooring for example.

Sanctification, not only holding on to your first passion for God, but becoming more holy as you grow in faith.

You gotta be kidding

We took possession of a house late Friday morning. I started tearing out the flooring that afternoon.

The pad under the carpet must have been a quality item. 4 foot wide pieces 12 foot long must have weighed over 70 pounds.

With the carpet gone I could see that at some time the owner of the house had put stick down tile on the floors of the entire house. 

I removed all of the interior doors and we are ready for new ones as soon as the walls are all painted and new floors are in.

There was a broken storm door on the back of the garage. The front door needs to be replaced. When there is duct tape on the door to try to hold out the cold air, you know the door is past its useful days. I took the good storm door from the front and installed it on the garage. This morning I thought , "boy I did not get much done on that house this week". Then I realized I had only worked on it Friday afternoon and 5 hours on Saturday. We close on another house on the 28th and it is first on our list to get ready to rent. This house needs new shingles and that is the priority for next week.

I thought the electric was turned off at the house. As you can see above it needs a new breaker box to replace this mess. Rich stopped by earlier last week to look at what it needed before we had the keys and he told me the current was on in the house. On Friday I was able to get most of the outlets working and 2 light fixtures. At least it allows us to use power tools until Rich gets the new box in. I am sort of amazed the house has not burned in an electrical fire from the workmanship I am seeing.

 

This is the wiring that runs to the air conditioner. I am not sure why they made those lovely connections right there, sort of in the fuse box, when the wires from the AC look long enough to reach the fuse screws without the splices. Maybe they were looking to make a sale of the house to the insurance company.

I also started finding when they wired lights in the basement the wiring was extension cord wire. I do not know if that is cheaper than Romax but I do know it is a fire hazard and not code.

That is not an acceptable short cut under and circumstances.

Then there are connections like this. Just a bunch of wires spliced in the open with out wire nuts or even electrical tape. Live wires sticking out from the joists. That could be a shocking experience if you were to reach up there in the dark.

And then the dryer cord. First of all that wire is not rated for a dryer, second you can't just have 6 foot of loose wire with a box on the end.

I saw an extension cord running across the garage ceiling and I wondered what they had it there for. 

Well it went to this fancy cord. Love that spliced wire running through the wall that could be plugged into the extension cord. But being inquisitive I wondered where does that light weight cord run to.

Well lookee there. There was once an outside light between the garage doors. You just had to plug it in to make the light come on. So much easier than mounting a switch in a box, I guess.

I walked past the furnace and thought I would see how bad the filter looked. Uh Oh, no filter. I opened the doors on the furnace and found that the missing filter was the least of our problems. The furnace fan was missing also. We had $3000 in the budget for Furnace and AC repair. This will have to be the only repair we need to make that line item stay in budget

There is an egress window to a bedroom in the basement. A grate is over the top of the window well. I saw there was a chain and a padlock on one side of the grate. OK, not real smart, but I suppose you could tip the grate over and still get out if there was a fire.

Um, no. A chain and pad lock on the other side also. This kinda defeats the purpose of an egress window. If you padlock a grate over the window well it is no longer an egress.

When we did the walk through to estimate costs I did not climb on the roof. I knew the north side needed shingles as it was leaking and there were ripped up tarps on the roof. I did climb in the attic and could see the sheeting was still in excellent shape. When I climbed on the roof to measure the north side for shingles, low and behold what did I see? Some moron had nailed tarps on the south side over the new shingles. The tarps had blown off so it could not be seen from the ground there were slats nailed through the new shingles. Now we have to reshingle the south side as well because the new shingles will have nail holes when we pull off the slats.

A storm came through while the house was for sale and broke out the front picture window. It was a good idea to cover the broken window with plywood on the outside. But why, oh why did they screw a 4x8 sheet of OSB board to the window trim in the inside of the house as well. I am still wondering why the 2 short pieces of deck board were screwed above the OSB Board.

Look inside board gone and window is still sealed shut.

You know they do sell shorter screws. You don't have to run them clear through with a sharp point sticking out. That is especially true on a hand rail.

I was not planning on replacing all the windows until I got a close look at them. The outside wood was clad in aluminum. Yea, I know every one thinks that is a great idea. Never have to paint again right? It may be a good idea if you keep the moisture from getting behind the metal. Yea, this crew didn't.

I started pulling all the metal off and I will need to cut out a couple of the sills and replace them. 

Usually aluminum pulls off around the windows quickly and with ease. Oh not here. They had covered the windows with plastic at some time to keep the windows from leaking air. They used a nail gun to nail the slats holding the plastic. They nailed it every half inch. The nails are close enough you can not get a pry bar or the claws of a hammer between them. It is going to take a long time to clean up around 11 windows. I have 3 done and 8 to go. Each one seems to get harder with more nails in the slats and through the aluminum. I must be working backwards of the direction they put the plastic up. More nails in every window as I go along.

There have bee a lot of "you have to be kidding me" moments the last 2 days as I went through this house. Some of them I knew before we purchased it, some are disappointing finds (after reworking the budget we are pretty close to where we started on costs which is a very good thing). I keep thinking "whatever possessed them to do that?"
Floor your entire house with stick down tile.
The electrical work, Come on, who wants to live everyday in a house that is a fire waiting to happen?
You took the fan out of the furnace? What was that about?
Locked a grate over an egress window? How could you ever live with yourself if someone was trapped in the basement and died in a fire?
Nailed a tarp over a new roof? Why? Just why?
Sharp screw ends on your hand rails? That is one way to punish guests.
And then the windows, oh so many bad ideas.

We are going to have to undo a lot of the previous owners work. The unsafe needs to be made safe. The repairs and fixes that were made which are causing the house to rot need to be repaired correctly. This was definitely a case of  owner done repairs where a contractor would have been a good idea. Someone who knew what they were doing. They may have saved money by doing the repairs themselves but lost a lot of money in the long run. The house sold for $45,000 less than the value should have been. Twice there was an accepted offer that fell through when an inspector walked through the house.

Shortcuts in life seldom work out well. Living for the pleasure of today costs in the long run. Do the right thing the first time. That is a lesson in life I need to keep learning, because it is too easy to take the easy road. That is a recipe for disaster later.