Memory Lane

Southern Idaho

Outside with Uncle Duane

Behold the Sun*

Family

instructions

Experienced Flashlight Holder Helping Grandpa

Beyond Green River  ~ Morning After (a new alternator)

While I am on the subject of money, there's an aspect regarding budgeting, spending, and savings that is important in our family.  It's about appreciation. It's kind of a long story,  and I am not having much luck being concise.  So fix yourself a cup of coffee or tea.  Hopefully this story won't be too boring.  This is how we roll.

We had been married about  a year when we started a business, bought our first country home, and realized we couldn't afford the $450.00 per month house payment.  Not yet, anyway.  After about 19 months of going through our savings and pinching every penny we could, which meant not buying new socks for Jerry one month so we could buy a gallon of varnish to fix up the woodwork, we decided that selling the house situated more or less in a wind tunnel would be a good idea.  Stepping outside literally took my breath away.  After a gust almost blew me off my feet with my infant son in my arms, I knew we wouldn't be spending much time outside using the hand-me-down stroller, anyway.  We made $10,000 and got surprised with a tax bill of $2,000.00.

The wind tunnel effect finally convinced me that I didn't need to live in the country.  We fixed our eyes on an older house in town with a rental next door.  We knew that some of Jerry's relatives would carry the contract on it for a few years.  Interest rates were in the 12% range, but they had expressed a willingness to carry the contract at 10% for a limited time.  The plan was to ease the budget by having some assistance with our house payment from the little one bedroom unit that shared our yard, and fix up the house as we went along.  We had a tiny fenced yard, and a tiny but extended garage for storage.  The extra room on the back was chock full of pipe and fittings in no time, and stayed that way for the next thirty years.

 Jerry had started out doing new construction plumbing and his boiler rooms are a sight to behold with all the angles perfect and evenly spaced, all the joints shiny and free of drips.  There was a building boom going on in our area, and about fifteen plumbers in the area were all doing the same thing so it didn't take long for Jerry to realize that he was going to make almost no income on his bids to get some work and start building a business.  Since we actually had bills to pay, that didn't make sense to either of us, but in the process of pacing the floor with the temporary living quarters of our first child, my obviously growing belly, to motivate him, he decided to invest in a sewer cleaning machine.  That brought our local competition down to about three.  The best part of it was our work wasn't seasonal anymore.  Unlike the building trade, we had work during the winter.  We still had some building projects but they were not especially profitable, because the bidding continued to be competitive, so we eased out of new construction.  With a profit of $5,000.00 for our first nine months of business, our accountant had told us straight out that we needed to do something else.  This went right over my head.  Later Jerry had to remind me of the accountant's assessment.  Shows what he knew and explains why I couldn't buy socks in the same month I bought a bucket of paint.

Meanwhile we were doing everything we could to find solutions to our limited funding situation.  Buying a house in town which was more affordable was a big part of the plan.  We had placed an advertisement in the yellow pages for sewer and drain cleaning, but it took a few years to build up a clientele.  Jerry had some time on his hands.  Pacing the floor, his most frequent evening activity, he contemplated driving truck, pumping gas - anything.

My brother-in-law called us up one night with an idea.  He had just taken a class about real estate investing.  He was very excited about it and thought we might be interested.  We found out there was a seminar coming up one hundred miles away.  I wanted to take the class with him, but it was quite a big expense for us.  With a lot of trepidation we decided to take the leap and signed Jerry up for the class.   My sister was with us for a visit so she and I nervously waited through the evening for his call, wondering if it would be the breakthrough we had been needing.

I had purchased some brown and forest green embroidery floss to do some repairs on our couch. My husband had purchased it before we were married.  The previous owner hadn't used it very much and it was in great shape, but now the piping around the cushions was really getting worn.  Knowing a new one wasn't in our near future, I decided to put my nervous energy to good use that night.  I sat on the floor in front of the couch and wrapped the bare piping with embroidery thread while chatting with my sister.  My husband paces, so do the boys.  Hand work does the trick for me.  Washing windows, too.

Finally about 9 p.m., Jerry called.  Yes, he was very excited, really thought this could work to fill in the spare time while he still worked our other business, plumbing.  One of the benefits to us was that he would be able to save money doing our repairs.  Good with his hands, he wasn't afraid to try anything.  He will even give electrical repair and installation a whirl. Roofing, carpentry, tile installation and sheet rocking were all new skills he would be learning, and later flooring installation.  Meanwhile, replacing a water heater was right up his alley.  Leaky faucets and plugged toilets would not be a problem.  I would get my fill of cleaning and painting, even learning to do it without covering myself in paint somehow along the way.  Lots of practice, I guess.  But right then I was excited.  Taking care of houses was something we had done at home.  I had plenty of experience in that department.

That next year, with almost no money down, we purchased two houses.  We moved out of our house and it became one of the rentals.  We moved into a little bungalow with a cobwebby basement and plans.  We now had four rental units and a little cash flow.  The house we turned into two units had belonged to a veteran, a smoker.  At that time, anyone could assume those loans, so we did, washing away a heavy coat of yellow clinging to the walls and ceiling, and built a wall to separate the units.  We paid our Realtor over time, and she found us a local man who was managing investments for his aunt.  We borrowed from her the small down payment for our house taking advantage of some Wyoming state funds for the mortgage.  We didn't have much of a cash flow for a couple of years, so money was tight.

One day both renters gave notice on the same day that they would be moving and we thought our number was up, but new renters were found quickly.  Our down time was minimized, but our spare time was over.  Jerry's solution to our problems was always to work more, so he drummed up business and got very busy.  I was Mrs. Bookkeeper, and got busy, too.  We listened to various methods of ROI.  For a few years, while the kids were at home we felt we couldn't handle much more work than we were doing, so we didn't buy any more rentals.  Instead we focused on paying down our mortgages, and paid off two thirty year mortgages in 10 years.

One thing is for sure and that is that we all respect the hard work Jerry has done to keep us afloat financially.   He isn't afraid of spending a day with a shovel, and to use it deep in rocky Wyoming ground.  Undaunted by cold weather, he thaws pipes long into the night  even when the phone rings off the hook because it's been 24 degrees below zero for two weeks straight.  Business grew and soon we had no time off from fixing heat, thawing pipes and cleaning sewers except for the few days each year he can't find anyone sitting by their phone waiting for him.  Vacations?  We have had a couple, and several trips to see my family.   He doesn't want to abandon his customers.  I assured him that they would be waiting when he gets back, but he sure was nervous about his business when he took two weeks off to meet us in Spain.

Sure enough, he stepped right back into a full schedule when we returned.  Running our little business has been an interesting journey.  We probably haven't done things the way others would have, but that's okay.   Jerry enjoyed talking about business, meeting for coffee with a good friend, so it was a big loss when his fellow plumber/coffee buddy passed away from cancer.   He isn't the delegator type, so my promptings to interview or hire help are met with a look that tells me I am wasting my time.  His kids have grown up and now he's the go-to person for all their repair consulting needs  He has the knowledge,  experience and will to help them complete their projects and share ideas for growing business.  Meanwhile, I am so thankful for my resident repairman.

Distant Amazing Tetons

Simplify

Loaded for Home

Good Bye, Idaho

Christmas Eve

*Setting Over the Mountain