Anyway!! Since that project had to be put on hold I put Adam to work painting our family room a lovely light brown. It is not as dark as the kitchen but in the same color family so it really is pleasant. It makes the whole room brighter. We spent Christmas night painting the family room. Had it all knocked out in about 3 hours. And no taping off. (Man we're good!)
Fast forward to January. We started doing some initial research/preparation for selling our rental house this spring. We know it's not the height of the market but we know it's the right time to do this deal. We spent about three weekends in a row putting tile in the entry and one of the bathrooms. There is more work to do but it's easier to do some things without tenants underfoot. We have scheduled new carpet to be installed the first week of March and plan to have the house ready to go on the market a week later. This has been such a HUGE (and I mean HUGE!!!) learning and growth experience for us. We've learned the most from our mistakes and are grateful that we did enough things right through sheer naivete to keep us from being wiped out like many friends of ours. I recently read "The Richest Man in Babylon" which I have had in my library for years but never got around to reading it. Wow!! The reasons we succeeded in this investment are all outlined in that book. Nice to be able to finally identify what those are! Here's a couple that were pertinent: 1)Set aside ten percent of your monthly income for emergencies, 2)Live within your means and use a budget, 3)When investing don't take on more risk than you have emergency funds to cover, 4) Never invest in things you don't understand or with people who are unscrupulous or naive about the investment. There's more but I don't want to put anyone to sleep.
Now onto February. Our brand new (to us) van started having problems a few weeks ago. Since it's so technologically advanced, the security system is tied to a microchip in the engine deactiving it when the alarm is active. For some reason the alarm has been going haywire whenever we unlock the door meaning that we couldn't start the car. Up til yesterday we've been able to shut off the alarm eventually (after ten minutes of humiliation in a parking lot) and start the car. But not that day. We finally had to disconnect the battery, call a tow truck and have it hauled to a dealership to have the blasted thing repaired. This morning they called and said that the problem was an after-market car alarm that a previous owner had installed. It was messing with the original wiring and causing it to go off at random times. They removed it and the car worked like a charm. YEAH!!! So here's a bit of advice to anyone out there who is thinking about installing some nifty gadget to their car. DO NOT PIMP OUT YOUR CAR! YOU WILL LIVE TO REGRET IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WALMART PARKING LOT WITH THREE KIDS WHO ARE TIRED OF WAITING FOR TWO HOURS!
Stay tuned for more CREZY adventures . . . !
