“Jim Class” is a feature that airs within The HomeFix Show. Writen by original charter show listener Jim Forrer from Caldwell Idaho, Jim shares his observations, life experiances, and lessons learned in life. Joe Prin reads these at various times in most of the HomeFix Shows. Here is the original written text.
Pasteurization realization
The house and property had been empty and neglected for two years or more. The yard had a growth of weeds higher than my youngest son, who was three at the time. The family dog thought he was in heaven, for he romped and played in the back yard ‘till he was completely exhausted. The tall growth afforded many hidey-holes to explore. The house itself was pretty bad. A good paint job, (after sand blasting 20 coats off the siding), was in order and the cedar shingles were dry and curling. The interior was where it really got bad. Someone had run their fist through the back wall by the bathtub. They wadded up a couple coat hangers and jammed them in the toilet. The entire house was strewn with trash of all kinds, including syringes, pills and beer cans. I guess the place was a kind of local ‘club house’ of sorts. It’s no wonder the realtors had so much trouble turning the house.
Pat and I talked it over for quite awhile, then jumped into that mess. We could not get financing to purchase the property in it’s current state. So, we rented it, with the stipulation that the rent monies would transfer as earnest when we got approval for a loan. Moving in with three young children into that wreck of a house may not have been the smartest thing that I’ve ever done. After all our hard work fixing the place up, we got the FHA approval and the loan. We purchased the place for 1/5 th. of the value after making all the repairs.
In the subsequent years, we have made many improvements. I doubled the size of the living room by knocking out the North wall and adding another room. I also removed a wall of the utility and added 4 ft. to the kitchen, built new cabinets, and totally replaced everything, including the kitchen sink. I removed the roof and rebuilt the structure, new decking and all. I rebuilt the shop and doubled it’s size including a new roof. We accomplished many more little things , too numerous to mention.
Yesterday I was sitting on the porch steps watching the young man I had hired to power rake (thatch) our front yard. When, all it once it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. I had become that old guy that always watched me when I had contracted to do a job. I no longer was doing for myself, but rather, having someone doing it for me. I had become the old guy, old enough to be put to pasture. Definitely a pasteurization realization.
When did all this ‘growing old stuff’ happen??????