tbobst Daily Journey

The water pipes continue to test the patience. We worked all day and just when we thought we were done, turned the water on to check again, when another area of pipe burst. We will get it together soon. Dan is going to work on it tomorrow, I need to rest my leg it's killing me. I start therapy on tuesday that may delay progress a little bit. But I'm keeping positive because next friday is the start of spring break for my girls and the will be a great help to me.

Progeress is going forward all the time and as well as can be expected, we think.

The water connections all held today, good pressure and no more leaks... But now we found a broken drain in the wall, of course it is not where we already have access holes already in the wall. But Dan is working on it tomorrow. We keep plugging along.

Everyday is an learning experience, The guys and gals at home depot seem to know me when I go in, we laugh everytime I make a second or third trip in for supplies, when Dan and Dave found another place that broke. But it's all good. They explain what parts I need and how they go together when it was something I didn't know. I really appreciate the fact that they were very patient while I was learning the type and sizes of connections I needed to purchase.

Wow, the water is finally done. The water heater works well. We will fix the drain in the aprtment this weekend. Now I can make a mess sanding off the paint they put on the hardwood trim. Clean walls , paint and clean the carpets. I'm so excited.

everyday is one step closer to the move into my new home, and my tenants moving into the apartment.

It is so nice to make a mess and clean it up. No more problems with the water. So I am working on sanding off the hardwood trim. Work this morning came back to town did my PT for my knee, pickup my girls took them back to the house. Becky cleaned her room and Jamie painted her ceiling red. I worked some more on the trim. Dan came by after work and worked on the bathroom upstairs. We had a good time, Becky was trying out my new tool, she loved it as much as I did. The dremel multi-max oscilating tool is so great. It is so light but really sands off the layers of paint and stucco they put on the trim work.

Taking the day off tomorrow, my sister in law and I are taking my mom out to lunch and to get her hair done. I might make it out to the house afterward but it will depend on how much strain is put on my knee doing all that walking and having to push my mom in the wheelchair.

Life is good.

Today we had a lady's day out with my mom, sister and sister in law and my 6 year old niece. We went to lunch then went to get grandma's hair done for Easter. It was a good day. But not much time spent on RE or working on the house. I know I need to balance family and Real Estate, so I'll start fresh tomorrow and read more this evening to make up for the day.

Today I research new properties in the area. Sanded on the woodwork, helped my youngest plan out the paint arrangement for her bed room and where she wants her desk and dry ease paint. She is thinking it through so when she home schools next year she will have a board to write down her asignments and due dates, have a magnetic board for tips and learning practice sheets. She is really looking forward to the new challenge. We are taking the girls and a friend to see Alice in wonderland tomorrow, then everyone is working all weekend at the house and all next week because it is spring break. Give them a treat then work them to the bone. (hehehe) The more we get done next week the less I have to do while they are in school. It is so nice to have teenagers, I don't know how the mom's with young ones get anything done. My hats off to them.

I was down on myself because I have to go to PT twice a week and not getting as far as I wanted this week, when Dan reminded me to give myself a break without the guilt, so I don't get overwhelmed and want to give up completely. So I'm taking his advice and enjoying my day out with the girls tomorrow, but I have scheduled some time to drive by properties I looked up today for in the morning and reading more tonight and tomorrow. I'm almost done with the first book, and want to move forward but Dan wants to take it slow and steady so It wait until after the move then you can try new things. But we planning to go to our first REI club meeting on 4-13-10. Pushing my baby steps.

love your journal. what an exciting journey you are on. the house looks huge! lots of room? keep up the good work. you are awesome!

Thank you Linda, For your comments, they are very encouraging. I enjoy this adventure can't wait to see what happens next. Tammy

We worked all day at the house, Becky and her friend painted her ceiling, Jamie worked on her room, Dan and a friend fixed the garage door, while I worked on the trim work.

It was a lot of fun working with my family and firend. we really like working together. I taught Becky and her friend to use a palmm sander today, they both did really well and enjoyed learning to use it.

Can't wait to finish the house and start moving.

We are taking Grandma and my siter and niece to dinner with our family. Next year we will have a house big enough to have everyone over. Looking forward to that again. But for now it is out to dinner. Real Estate is on the back burner today. Start fresh and hard the whole next week, my girls will be off and we should get more done. Then we can pack stuff out to thier rooms.
So Happy Easter to all.

sounds like you had a wonderful day. i love that your girls are working right alongside you and your husband. you are getting more done on your house every day. that is so awesome. i bet you sleep good at night! let's see what we each can get done with our investing this week. have fun.

We have such a great time working with the girls, Jamie's room is down to the trim work, Becky's room is a little more complicated dry ease paint and magnetic paint and the walls needed to be sanded which we didn't know until today. But we will get there. Good Luck in your investing this week.
Tammy

The trim working is coming along downstairs, between sanding the flat surfaces and citrus strip paint stripper on the grooved sufaces , it wil be done in a few days. Jamie is almost done with the paint in her room and I have to admit the black and red looks better than I thought it would.

Becky has choosen some specialty paints , magnetic and dry ease paint which needs a sanded, smooth surface so we started sanding the area for those this evening after Dan and Jamie went home. My girls and I all have asthma so we use mask to do sanding and chemicals, but Jamie has the hardest time so we waited until she left today to work with the sander. I think this will take us a few days to get the walls prepared for the specialty paint but it will be worth it in the end. Besides I get to test it in Becky's room before I get to my office to see how hard it is to put on.

We got the ceiling and walls painted in my room today. I used samples on the walls, ceiling and trim before I went to buy the gallons of paint. But I mixed up the paints at the counter( should have labled them ) so I bought a gallon of trim and a quart of wall color, so I switch my color plan. Hubby was ok with it. live and learn.

I will read somemore in my book before bed, do my knee exercises, I have PT tomorrow and the girls and thier friend are going back to work at the house with me afterwards. Everyday,there the next step and one more job off the to do list, which makes us one more day closer to moving home and moving onward.

AWESOME!!! i'm so excited for you all.

Thank you Linda, It is always nice to hear from you.

Went to PT, he really worked the knee today. Then took becky and her friend back to work on her room(sanding).
I worked on stripping the trim, this is taking much more time than Dan thought it would, but I figured it would take a few time to get it all off, there was a lot of layers of varnish and paint on the hard wood, but I got a lot off today. It is a beautiful dark color. I saw the flaws and why they painted it. There is a few areas of damaged split wood, but I think it adds to the charm of an old house. Nothing so deep or long that it would matter. hope to finish the living room set of trim tomorrow and start on the kitchen set by thursday.
Jamie is almost finished with her room, she stayed home with the dog for the first trip.
When we took the friend home Becky stayed the night with her so, Jamie came back out with me to finish off what we could get done this evening finished up around 11:00pm and will be back at it early tomorrow take use of the time with my girls help this week.

Things are progressing as well as can be expected.

i wouldn't worry about the damaged split wood either. i actually bought heavy furniture made to look worn and antique with all kinds of marks in it. i have a bad habit of running the vacuum into my furniture, so this way i don't know if i did it or it came like that. ha!

Linda, I thought I was the only one who ran into the furnature. I like the look of old wood. Brings out the character of a house. Good to see ya. Taking tomorrow off to give the girls a free day on their spring break. I have PT again so I am going to rest up and go back at it hard on friday with Dan and the girls. Dan is taking a day off with us to make a 3 day weekend. He is getting fed up with the polotics at work, so taking his vacation days to get a break one day at a time. I like it when he thinks more of the house and working with me, maybe he's thinking of diving into this with me. I don't know have to wait and see. Whatever he wants I'll support. Tammy

I love my dremel multi max tool. I bought the scraper attachment blade to help with the stripping process and it worked great. Maybe a little to great, had a bit of trouble adjusting the position of the blade and dug into the wood farther than I needed to. If my arms and legs were up to what my mind says I can do this task would have been over by now. But I know my limitations and know the damage that I can create by not listening to my body when it says slow down or stop. So I go for awhile and rest for awhile. Slow and steady is my montra... slow and steady working, studying, learning, Investing. It may take me longer to get there, But I will Get there!!! I remind myself it is not a sprint it is a lifetime choice.

Taking tomorrow off to let the girls enjoy a day off from school during their spring break, Going to PT for the knee and I will drive the nieghborhoods to scout while they rest. That is my plan for tomorrow. Going to read somemore in my books tonight. I like to read at night when everyone is asleep and the dog is put away, it is my time for me and I enjoy the uninterupted peace and quiet.

i understand totally that getting fed up with politics at work. it gets old. although, this might lead to him working with you. that is really exciting. i kind of got a little upset when chuck started in on me about investing this morning before he headed off to work (lots of crap going on there daily). he thinks he is helping, but i'm the one who knows about investing; he knows about construction. i get frustrated because i feel like he is against me and what i'm doing. makes me defensive and i sure don't need to go there. every time i feel like i've made a step forward with him, it's about 20 back. ha! i guess i'm venting. but, i would really like to have him be my partner and do this with me. we would make a great team. so, when i hear that dan might be heading that way with you, i love it. it sounds like you 2 would make a great team, and your daughters sound like they would be a big help too.

just had to comment on this post too. i've had serious thyroid issues for years and hopefully am heading forward toward health. but, i also know my limitations and have to be very careful, or i will have days of not being able to function. i have taken alot of flak for that over the years, so i am glad that you have such a supportive family. you are an inspiration to me!

Linda it is ok to vent, sometimes it is the only way to get the frustration out of your mine. At least it is that way for me. How long have you and Chuck been together? If you don't mind me asking. Dan and I have been married over twenty years and going on 26 years of being together. We work well as a team now, but we had a few years where we didn't communicate to well. Now he grips at me and me at him when the stress is to much, because we know we aren't going anywhere. But I have to drag information out of him, but it seems like the more we talk about getting our house done and real estate the more he is opening up and talking about the future, it seems he sees one now where before he was waiting to retire to start a future. But He is back to work is ok for now and we will see how it goes for now. (hahaha) I knew he would settle down and be the responsible one. As much as I want him to be with me full time, I know he will not until he has enough saved to provide a good future. He watched my brother blow through his retirement money in a years time trying to get his business off the ground and hasn't gotten it opened yet.

If you feel pressure from Chuck, It may not have been his intention to give you stress, so when everything is calm ask him about it and let him know you feel added pressure when he says the things he does before work. It might have been his way to motivate you. Some guys are all about the get in get it done, not the slow and steady pace needed to build confidences.
I hope I didn't upset you here. I know life will get better the more action we take, the more confidence is gained, the stronger a person we become.
Just remember, action everyday no matter how small builds the future actions of tomorrow, next week , next year... to the best life ever. Tammy

Dan took another day to work with me, a long weekend off for him, but no rest. We were up early and I am still stripping the trim work, there is deep grooves in the trim that is about 6 inches wide double door width. I have a hard time gripping on to any tools for any length of time before my hands go numb and then the tools get away form me. So it is work for half hour sit and rest it for half hour. Makes for slow progress. Dan helped with some of the stripping today, fixed some odd and end jobs, you know the many little things that seem to get left off the to do list, like changing shower heads, toilet seats and check for loose bolts. But he also got to take a nap on the couch that was left in the house. We sanitized it and put our blanket over it so we would have a place to sit while we were working. But everytime he closed his eyes the noise from my dremel would startle him. He would go back to working on something else. I told him he should rest if he was tired, so we called it quits early and went shopping for a mattress so we can build Becky's bed this weekend. So He will be able to really rest up next weekend.(hehehe)
Becky took a couple days off to be with her friend that had been helping this week. Enjoying a little on her spring break.
I will be so happy when we get all the work done and start moving. But I have three more weeks to work before I need to start moving things to the house. I have my white pad with my to do list (Dean's Tip) Keeping me on task, getting done the important things daily, moving the needed done to the daily as I remove something that is finished and adding what we come across as the day goes on. This has been one of the best tips and tricks for me. It really keeps me focused on what I need to do, when it needs to be done by and shows me what I have finished daily. My right hand corner always has, My readings, my journaling, my websites(DG.com&realtor.com) as a reminder of the most important daily task I have to do.
More work tomorrow, Read another chapter today. Small actions daily!

i can't tell you how much your posts mean to me. chuck and i were high school sweethearts for 2 years, then broke up and dated a little while i was in college in MO. i ended up marrying someone else, despite chuck begging me to marry him. long story short, my mom told me i had to marry the other guy and the other guy's mom kind of threatened me if i didn't go through with it. so, at 20 years old, i did what the 2 moms told me to do. chuck came to my wedding to take me out if i changed my mind, but i didn't feel that i had a choice. he kept track of me through my mom for 27 years of marriage and he married someone else. we raised our families, ended up divorced and back together. he always told my mom to tell me that he loved me and we'd be together someday. talk about faith working.....anyway, we've been asked to write a book about it many times. maybe one of these days we'll get around to it. believe me, you didn't upset me. you are able to be alot more objective than i am. i need that.

Linda it is a great life story, I have a cousin and his wife that did the same thing, It is truely wonderful how love last through all the years. I'm here anytime you need to vent or share the great stuff too. Tammy

Dan and I spent the night working on the house. The girls were busy doing their own thing. He helped me work on the trim, there is several layers of really hard paint that just will not come off. I am so limited to what chemicals that I can use with my asthma I am afraid of some of the strippers being so hard to handle. When my dad used paint thinners and strippers I had to leave the house, maybe it's all bad memories, but I don't take chances. Today Dan and my brother Tim worked on the apartment drains today.One more project off the to do list. I worked on the trim some more. Life is good and the house is coming along.

I just got caught up on your post, I glad you are taking action. That's 90% of the battle. It sounds likes the house you bought was without power for a while before you got it. Been their and done that. but look at all the experience you are getting for the next one. Good luck.

Randy

sounds great. you are moving right along and so busy every day. it really makes a difference when you are following your passion.

best thing to use is natural alcohol for wood. Use a putty knife, clean cloth, and dip into the alcohol...run it over the wood...works very well. Good luck.

Masscash, thank you for the information. I will have to try that.