Madness.
That is what it has been like around here lately. We were getting a
new roof, new front door, and ceramic tile in our kitchen all at once by
a contractor hired by our landlord. I have never been happier to NOT
be a homeowner in all my life. Honestly, this is something that God has
been changing in my heart. I want to be a homeowner. We did own our
home when we lived in New York,
and I loved that. I didn't love all the maintenance that we had to do,
but I enjoyed that it was our home. The past couple of months I have
found myself wanting our own home very much. Then I realized just a
couple weeks ago that God may not have that planned for us right now.
Maybe some day, but not now. Besides that, I don’t really need to own
my home. God is more than providing for all my needs, and this house has been a true blessing to us. And, as I said, I've never been happier to not own my home. Here's why...
On
Sunday, August 5th, it rained. It was a nice, gentle rain off and on
all morning, the kind that makes you want to curl up with a good book
and enjoy the sound of the rain against the roof...unless you don't
actually have a roof. Sometime mid-afternoon, we discovered water spots
in two places. The contractor had left the roof unfinished and
uncovered. The landlord was here within 20 minutes and the contractor
was here in 10. It was not a nice conversation that the two of them shared.
On
Monday, the contractor worked on the roof throughout the day and came
back on Tuesday for part of the day. The roof was still not finished,
but he decided to lay the tile in the kitchen. We left the house and
came back a few hours later to find the floor was also half finished.
From the day that all this work started, which was July 30th, he knew
that we were having company for the weekend arriving on the 10th. This
did not seem to bother him in the least even though we were living with
my dining room table and dish washer in the living room, and the pantry
cabinet, stove, and baker's rack in the dining room. When I called to
ask him what his plans were, he was not very forthcoming and tried to
dance around the details.
On
Wednesday, he didn't show up. He wouldn't take our calls. He wouldn't
take the landlord's calls. He ignored the landlord when he knocked on
his door. And yes, he was home. He later admitted that he couldn't
answer the door because he was inside smoking rock. Seriously. With
that knowledge in hand, everything started to make sense. And...on
Wednesday night, it rained a lot more than it did on Sunday. So the two
spots of water damage are now more like about 15 spots in 4 different
rooms.
We
are blessed to have a phenomenal landlord. He hired someone else to
finish the roof, and they worked 14 hours on Thursday(it was 100 degree
here on Thursday with stereotypical midwestern humidity) and part of
Friday to finish it. They are here now working on my kitchen floor and
plan to replace the door later (no more unsafe plexiglass in the front
door). Tomorrow, the landlord will be here with an insurance adjuster
to take pics of all the water damage, so that should be taken care of
soon as well. Then, life should get back to normal around here. Of
course, I'm not really sure what "normal" means, but it should be normal
for us at least!
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