Sweat Equity

Over the past four days I have been replacing the roof on a parking structure for one of my rental properties. I've learned a lot, and I guess the point of blogging is to share endless pointless information with anyone who is actually reading. Does anyone read this? Please comment.

1. I'm not as young as I use to be. After the first day of clearing shingles every part of me ached. Not only that but my right hand kept going numb. In fact it has been four days and it seems that my right hand goes numb ever hour or so. I've started stretching my wrist and it seems to be helping, but for three nights now I've been waking up several times with a numb hand. For being numb it is quite painful. Also, my back aches. Bending over all day has got to be illegal. I think this torture can only be compared to the pain I once experienced while trying to relieve my bowels in a mosquito invested valley of Yellowstone back country. We are talking thousands of mosquitos! It looked like I had the chicken pox, but much worse. Any way, I don't know how people can do this for a living. Four days of it and I want to die.

2. Sometimes you don't want to go cheap. I figured I could use the three 90 gallon trashcans at this property to get rid of all the old shingles. Little did I know there were FOUR layers of shingles on the roof. Yeah, that doesn't fit into three 90 gallon trash cans. Now I have a huge pile of shingles and trash and no where to put it. I should have paid the money to order the dumpster. I still might.

3. Sweat Equity: what is your time worth. When it all comes down to it our time is what we sell. Whether it's a 9-5 or a 1099, we sell our time for a price. What is your time worth. When it comes to me working on my properties, should I contract the work out or do it myself? First there is my time? Is it worth it or could I make more money doing something else? Second, I like working with my hands. Whether it is on a car or a house, something about using my hands to create makes me happy. So YES. Yes it is worth it. Working on my own rental properties is the best way I can think of to create equity/money for my labor. When it's all said and done (still have the pile of trash) I love being able to look at my roof and say, "I did that."

4.  My hamsters are fighting.