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.

 

Regeneration

Matthew and I finished a house this week. 30 days after we took possession. It was a bit of a mess when we took over. it had been purchased by someone else. They started a renovation and then I think they realized this was a bigger job than anticipated.

Wall paper had been removed only to find cracked and poorly patched walls

We got the walls patched some what better and put a texture on a couple of the rooms on the ground floor.

We left the cupboards, but did have a discussion about them as they are not appealing.

Can you find the drawer Matthew replaced?

The bath rooms were horrid.

They came out as well as could be expected.

I didn't want to even go into the upstairs half bath. The toilet was fairly new but there was no way I was touching that thing other than give it 2 hits with a hammer and carry it out.

Now it has a much cleaner user friendly look.

The down stairs bedroom needed some love and care.

We left the original oak floors. Do you see where someone left a hot iron?

 

The upstairs bedrooms needed some work.

They turned out pretty well.

Each one has 3 windows which makes gives them a lot of natural light.

The hall got a new floor and coat of paint.

Had to resurface the stairs as well.

I am not a fan of wall paper.

A painted wall is a better option.

An ugly room with wall paper and an old linoleum floor

Can be greatly improved with paint and new flooring.

This house even has a library

The floors are now all shiny with gloss polyurethane 

Even though it only took a month from start to finish, it seemed a lot longer. There was a lot of work to do and at times we seemed to be making no progress.

Now looking back, I can see the changes.

That is true in our lives as well. We are in a process of regeneration. We are sinners in need of sanctification. We all start out with lives that are ugly and God remakes us in His image. As long as we are in this world we will always be imperfect. Just like this house. The one drawer doesn't match. There is an iron scorch on a floor, but its better than it was. 

If your life is a mess, invite Jesus in and ask God for regeneration. He can take an unlivable life and make it livable.

 

Back to work

We took possession of a house on Monday. It was originally sold by an estate to a couple who were going to fix it up. They gave up and sold it to us.

It has several fixtures that give the house character. I am not sure what we are going to do about the piece of missing leaded glass in that cabinet door.

This is an electric fireplace. I am glad we do not have it in our home. It would be too much of a temptation to turn it on in the winter and enjoy the heat it kicks out with no ashes to deal with.

All of the walls except the living room needed to be fixed. This was the main floor bedroom.

Matthew removed the door that went to the backside of the shower (the shower is in what used to be the closet of the bedroom but is now part of the bathroom) and sheet rocked it in. He shot the walls with texture today. Maybe Monday it can get painted.

Upstairs half bath was awful.

Sink and storage cabinet are torn out. Toilet will be removed next week.

We have the vanity and a set of drawers to put in as soon as the walls are fixed, painted and the new floor is in. Chris and Julie gave us the vanity and drawers when they remodeled. Thanks guys.

It's tough to see in this picture , but there was a half wall between the living room and the library. 

That's gone. It was the first thing that went out to the pile to go to the landfill.

This is what the kitchen walls looked like when we purchased the house.

Now they have been given a coat of mud, textured and painted.

Upstairs bedrooms have had the walls improved. I wish I could say fixed but that might be a bit of an exaggeration 

They look a lot better. Today Matthew was finishing painting in this room and said "the corners are pretty rough." 

I said "Ok here is a quick, cheat fix" I ran a heavy bead of caulk down the corner and then ran my finger down it. "Now get a lot of paint on the brush and smooth the caulk out"

Mathew painted the corners and said "so that's how you do it!" 

Yep, 1 minute fix of a bad corner.

Someone smoked heavily in this bedroom. See the mini blinds that used to be white? See the walls that used to be gray?

They are now a light blue color and the overpowering smoke smell is gone.

We have a lot of work in the main bath. Matthew has started repairing walls. Yes, my daughter-in-laws can all relax. The claw foot tub will stay. There is a new shower just to the left of the door. The vanity top has been replaced already. Matthew cut it out of a solid surface top we had in storage.

Yesterday I was thinking we had not made a lot of progress on this house yet. Today I realized we have not had it for a week and many of the walls are already fixed and painted. It seemed yesterday we had been working in this house for a long time and it just wasn't so. 

A friend of mine told me today he felt the call to be a minister 40 years ago and he could not understand why he felt the call when there was no way he could make that work. The last 2 months he has been leading church services. He is 86 years old and is living out his call to ministry from 40 years ago. God's timing is not our timing. God is infinitely patient.

I want everything yesterday. I have little patience. To God a thousand years are as a day. 

We already have people asking us when this house will be ready to rent. I don't know. 3 weeks? 45 days? I don't know. Only God knows and it will be ready in His time and that is true of everything in our lives.

 

 

Put a lid on it.

We have spent the last week putting shingles on. We are finished for the year unless we buy a property that needs shingles.

We started on a garage.

 Its always good to look down the ridge and see the caps all on. Means the job is finished. This roof was leaking bad enough that the water got in the light switch box and turned the light on by making a connection with water between the poles. Not a good situation.

Moved on to a house. We almost always use burnt sienna color shingles. When we were finished and I took a picture here, I saw the paint on the foundation does not match the shingles at all does it? May have to repaint the foundation this year.

Moved on to the next house where almost every nail head holding on the old shingles was visible. Matthew took a picture of the roof before we started. I don't think he had seen one this bad before. 

The garage on this one was leaking also. When we had it inspected so we could rent it a couple of weeks ago, I thought for a bit Harrison was going to say, "fix the roof first." After making a couple of comments he walked on, but he did write a directive to get it roofed by June. Well, we made that dead line.

Last house on the list. This roof was so bad it made the last one look good. You could see the wood showing through in places. When we took possession last winter I climbed up on the roof and patched leaks with 'Through the roof" and tar. When we finished this roof we had 1 and 1/2 shingles left. That did make us a bit nervous when we were getting toward the finish as they were special ordered in and there were no more available. Next project with this house is to paint it. I am thinking gray with white trim. Ok, since Joe gave us exterior gray paint I know we will paint it gray.

I found out I was approved for Unemployment in Kentucky. 

Seems they have a little fraud going on down there. I have tried to contact them several times and in several ways. I am on a return call list, and I keep getting robo calls I am still on the list for call back. I finally went to their on-line site to report fraud and reported myself. I do hope I don't get arrested for fraud now since I HAVE BEEN REPORTED. Someone has my SS number and is using it. I found out I have also moved to 25 prince haven road, apt 3 Plymouth NH Feb 12. So if anyone visits Plymouth NH stop on in and say hello. Send me a picture of me if you do so I will know what I look like. 

I have spent time placing a Identity theft and fraud alert with the Federal Trade commission and with the credit bureaus. One helpful lady told me ,"don't worry, its probably just a mistake. Happens quite often." Yea, not sure I am buying that right now.

So we have more or less put a lid on the houses and garage we bought since late last fall. they should all be rain tight now. I do hope I have put a lid on who ever is using or selling my identity, but I doubt that is finished yet.

Putting a lid on it can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. "Put a lid on it" is a rude way to tell someone you don't want to hear what they have to say. In our country we have become a people who don't want to listen to anyone except those who agree with us anymore. You say something I don't like "put a lid on it!' We don't seem to want to hear both sides and realize everything is not black and white. It's much easier to choose our own "truth" and tell everyone else "Put a lid on it". 

The other day I was in conversation with a woman about all the Amazon packages left on door steps and I said "almost everyone is honest" and I meant it. If you have a point of view I disagree with I promise to listen. I may quote facts and statistics back at you and all I ask is for you to listen and consider what I say. Let's stop telling each other to "Put a lid on it"