Our Mountain To Climb

About 9 months ago, we purchased a house that was about to be foreclosed. We followed a program that is working great for our other 2 rentals, and rented it back to the people that were already living there.
This place has been nothing but trouble from almost day 1.
The people are liars.
They were absolutely filthy.
Not to mention the utter ruin that they left the house in when we evicted them

Ryan has this week off work.

We had to rent at 40 yard dumpster. 40 freaking yards. It's full by the way. That's construction grade.

Anyway, we've known for awhile that the day would come when we would have to evict these people. So we've been praying for awhile that God would help us out with this mistake that we made.

We can already see Him orchestrating things.
It's kinda neat to watch.

For instance.
In our initial depression of the state of this house. The neighbors were ecstatic to have them gone. They were literally throwing a party and gushing all over us in thanks.
Have you ever seen "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"? Hasn't everyone?
Well they had a motor home that was identical to cousin Eddy's.
And they had that old decrepit thing parked in the driveway.
So...
needless to say.
the neighbors were ecstatic.
So it was hard to be sad and depressed when there was so much laughter and celebration

Also, one of the neighbors gave Ryan a tip on a metal recycling place that was right up the road. So he dedicated an hour and separated some metal and came back with $125 dollars. Sweet.

So he found some more and took it back, pulling in right behind a guy that said he recycled refrigerators. It was going to cost us an extra $40 to put the fridge in the dumpster, this guy was free. So Ryan hopped out and talked to the dude. He made another $28 on the second round of metal, but the real jackpot was finding that guy.

In the meantime, I was scouring craigslist for different items for the bathroom. Since the bathroom has been gutted. (due to the toilet almost falling through the floor) I found a beautiful pedestal sink and a toilet. Wouldn't you know that the guy with the sink was only a block and a half away from the house? So, we got the sink and the faucet for $60. The toilet was only $20 and that was only 20 blocks away from the house. So Ryan went and bought those and only spent a little over half of the money he got back from the metal.

Our family came out last night and helped Ryan fill up that dumpster. It was full. Did I mention that?
The backyard was full of junk.
The basement was full of junk.
The garage was full of junk.
The driveway was full of junk.
The front yard was full of junk.
The only thing that was amazingly almost empty was the house itself. (besides the basement)
The pictures are good, but they don't begin to do justice to just how much there truly was.

Oh...I don't think I mentioned that they had a grow operation set up in the basement as well.
Nice huh?

Anyway, I couldn't be in the work party last night, because there wasn't anyone to watch Wyatt for me. But I saw the "after" video that Ryan took, and wow does it ever look better.
All that junk was what was really daunting for Ryan.
I think he might enjoy the projects to come in the house.

We've hired someone from church to do the bathroom. It was the worst.

There is still a long way to go.

But there is hope.

If you think of us...please pray for us, because this is a mountain.