Not our best day...

My bossy older sister  told me that I cannot post a blog about how my weekend has the potential of being awesome or catastrophic and not have some sort of follow up blog!

Let's start with the good news first. 

1. Sell the black cabinet. Check!
2. Sell the antiques. Um 1/3 of a check?!  Aka- we sold one of the three antiques!
3. Be awesome. Check!

Now onto the not so great news.

It is the 27th of February and our tenants are in breech of contract in multiple ways.  First of all rent is due on the first of the month.  That puts them 27 days late.  Secondly we are required to give them 24 hours notice when we plan on being inside the property and we gave them over 48 hours notice to let them know that we were going to have the realtor show the property.  They refused to let us in on the grounds that it was the tenants birthday.  There is no birthday clause in the lease agreement.

When Hotsauce posted the eviction notice he knocked on the door and both he and the police officer that accompanied him heard the tenants tell the dog to "Shut up."  But, they refused to open the door.  So Hotsauce taped the notice to both the front and back doors.  We waited four days to go to the Clerk of Court to file paperwork for their forcible removal.  There was other paperwork filed so that we can receive payment owed to us. 

Our tenant hired a lawyer and discovered that if we post an eviction notice we must also mail an eviction notice to them via regular mail and certified mail!  We honestly had no idea.   The case was dismissed. Since it was dismissed it also means that we pay the court costs.  =(

Ugh.

So we will start the process over.  And we started by going to the Sheriff's office to have them serve the eviction notice.  I think we might also have to send them the notices via regular and certified mail and post it to their door.  Just to make sure that we have all of our bases covered this time!!

We were told at the Sheriff's office that this isn't our tenants first rodeo and they know all the loop holes. 

It was a frustrating day to say the least.  Keep us in your prayers please!

Anything you want.

Just a short little post today. 
I hope this inspires you just a wee bit!

Photo Credit

"You know what you can do when you don't have any payments? Anything you want."

I love this!  No, I lurve this.  Actually I completely totally lurvesauce this.

I know some people believe that Christian's shouldn't be wealthy, something I utterly disagree with, but I think we can all agree that the borrower is slave to the lender.  And I don't know about you, but I'd much rather not be a slave to bill collectors, the bank and other financers.

Last night while picking up our Turkey Bottoms from Awana I overheard one of our elders talking to a high school student about his new (to him) truck.  I also heard the student (we will call him Bocaj) tell the elder (we will call him Tnilc) that he had to keep working so he could pay his $70 a month payment.  Bocaj said he had three more years before it was paid off.  Because I'm not one to keep to myself I told Bocaj that we should sit down sometime and talk about his finances. 

He's already enslaved at such a young age.  It breaks my heart.  How much better would it have been for him to save the $70 a month until he could buy a reliable vehicle that wouldn't require paying interest.  I wonder what would happen if this truck needs new tires, a new transmission, or needs a full tank of gas at $4 a gallon???  In short what happens if he can't make his payments and the lovely Repo man comes to his door?  There are heavy consequences for someone who's not even 18 years old yet!

Guess what he could do, what you could do, what I could do if we didn't have any payments? 
ANY.THING.WE.WANT!!

Thank God Friday - The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

Thank.God.Friday!

This weekend could be absolutely stellar in the world of finances for us.  It could also be absolutely catastrophic in terms of finances for us.

Talk about a roller coaster of emotions! 

Here's the skinny.

First of all my friend, Emily, from the Pickin' Shed let us know that we might have sold a cabinet that we Hotsauce made!  Here's a couple of pictures of him...

 Isn't he wonderful?  It's the first cabinet that he's ever made and so selling it would be a big deal for us! 

I would also like to say that I think Hotsauce did an amazing job.  I love the bead board.  I love the entire look of it!  I really wouldn't mind if it didn't get sold and had to come home to me! ;)

As much as I would really like it to come home I know that my gazelle intensity says that we must sell it.  I'm sure that he will make another one for me someday ... (I can't wait for someday!).

Also we have a few 1920s antiques that have filled up our piano room and need a new home.  So we listed them on Craigslist and the end result was a.lot.of.spam.  Holy Spam Batman!  Thinking that we may be stuck with these antiques for awhile I started to get pretty anxious. 

Everything that we purchase for Turkey Bottom Haven comes out of our blow fund.  It doesn't come out of the regular budget and so we don't have a lot of "extra" money on hand.  And I would really love to have a little extra money in my pocket!

Also in order for Turkey Bottom Haven to make more money, we have to sell the items that we have on hand in order to buy more inventory.  If we're not selling, we're not buying more items, if we're not buying more items, we're out of business.

Today a lady called who is interested in a couple of our antiques.  If we sell these three items this weekend we will have made a profit of around $1,000.  One.thousand.bones.baby!

I would be OK with that.

So how could this weekend be catastrophic for us you might ask?

Last night Hotsauce called our renter who is occupying our house that we have on the market to let her know that the realtor would be bringing a potential buyer to look at the house.

Said renter, who has never been known for her cooperation, told him no.  She will not let the realtor in.  She also hasn't let the realtor in to take pictures of the house, other than the kitchen, because her husband sleeps 12 hours a day (her words, not mine) and cannot be bothered.

This could turn into a really long story.  Let's just say this renter is also 15 days late with her rent (and has never paid on time), started swearing at Hotsauce on the phone and has absolutely refused to cooperate.   Let's also just say that she woke her sleeping beauty of a husband to tell him that Hotsauce "was out of his [dang] mind" and was rude to her.  So the hubby called back and took a turn at swearing at him also. 

Now, for those of you who don't know my husband, he HATES confrontation and if it's up to him he would never fight with anyone.  But, he's also not one to run from trouble.  And these folks are trouble. 

Needless to say the Sheriffs Department will be at their doorstep with an eviction notice today.  And in the great state of Iowa you get three days to pay your rent before the Sheriff comes back to help move your stuff out on the curb.

Three days is a lot of time to do a lot of damage to the property.  And this will also delay the time when the realtor can show the house. 

This weekend truly is in God's hands.  The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.  It's good to have a God that can take care of these things for us!!

Sick and tired.

I saw this today and had to share it because it's so true for Hotsauce and I.  Well, actually since I had always been more of an ostrich when it came to our finances, I rarely got sick and tired.

Unless I wanted new shoes or jeans and we didn't have the money.

But, Hotsauce spent a lot of time being sick and tired of juggling bills, fees and overdue notices.  And not only was he sick and tired of it, he was sick and tired of feeling like it was never going to get better.

If you've ever been in a bad crisis situation and had the feeling that it was never going to get better you have an idea of how he felt.  And not only did it feel like it was never going to get better ... it was, in reality, getting worse.  The earth was crumbling beneath him and though he would take a step up here and there, for the most part he was sliding further and further into a trap of our own making.

And while he was sliding and unable to get a firm hold, I had my head stuck in the ground and couldn't see how fearful he was nor was I in any position to help him get out of the mess we'd made.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of our Total Money Makeover journey is that we are finally united in mind and heart.  We're walking the same path hand in hand.  He's not dragging me along kicking and screaming and I am finally able to be a helpmeet in our finances.  We truly are a wonderful team.

And though right now it seems as though we are slowly trudging through the muck and the mire of our debt, we are doing it together able to mutually encourage one another.  We have full confidence that though it may take more time than we would like, it will happen.  It is getting better.  We are fully committed to this and there is no going back to our old ways.

Because we're both sick and tired of being sick and tired!  I will not go back to that place. I.Will.Not.Go.Back.To.That.Place.

Anyone else sick and tired of being sick and tired???

Thank God Friday! - Press On!

It's Thank God Friday and it's actually Friday and I'm actually blogging!

I'm thankful for that.

Whew. Done for the week!

:0)

I seem to be writing about Turkey Bottom Haven and the Great Shelf Explosion in every post.  I'm sure that the rest of you are getting pretty sick of it.  But, I tell you what... too bad! ;)

This week we were on a mission to complete 6 shelves (4 small and 2 VERY large ones).  The most we had completed before in a week was 4 ... 2 large and 2 small.  Last week we only did 2 large ones.  It was not an easy task and to be quite honest it wasn't always easy.  We have 2 more to complete when Ben gets home tonight, but for the most part they're done.

I spent a lot, and by a lot, I mean no less than 6-8 hours a day, in the dungeon that is our workshop.  My fingernails are chewed up and dyed with stain and paint.  I haven't brushed my hair since sometime last week.  We still managed to have 4 days of school this week... though we did spend our read aloud time in the dungeon.

By Wednesday I was positive that we were getting no where and that I would die in the dungeon.  I had a huge meltdown. IT.WAS.NOT.PRETTY.  But, if you live in a dungeon, no one expects you to be pretty. ;)

I wanted to quit.

I kept hearing my friend, Dave Ramsey, saying, “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”

I think I might make myself a sign that says that.  A nice sign made out of scratch paper and marker.  Nothing that would require paint.  I'm sick of paint.  :)  You know what, that's a great idea.  I'm going to do that right now.

But the thing about dungeons is that if you keep working eventually you make your way up into the castle.  In my reality the castle isn't an drafty ancient sign of wealth ... but instead it's a picture of my freedom. 

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love our shelves.  Hotsauce and I make an awesome team!  We have a good time working together.  We compliment each other in ways that only God could design.  I just get overwhelmed from time to time.  I'm reminded though that handcrafted items take time.  They are special because they didn't come off an assembly line in China.

And just in case you missed this guy you have to see my new favorite shelf...

He's still done in the dungeon... but he'll be breaking out soon!  Seriously that keyhole and lock are so amazing.

I keep calling him the gorgeous black guy that lives in my basement.  I think Hotsauce is getting a little jealous! ;)

We will keep plugging away in the dungeon working towards our financial freedom all the while making wonderful items!

Press on friends!

Dear Winter, I hate you. Sincerely, Me.

It is a balmy 0 degrees out today with a wind chill of -20ish.  Holy frozen snot Batman! Welcome to the Tundra formerly known as Iowa!  The good news is that we should have some cloud cover tonight which will warm things up to around 29 degrees on the positive side in the next few days.

Heat wave!! ;)

I despise winter.  It makes me sad.  Seriously, I think I smile less in the winter.  We have neighbors who call the cops to come and check on us to see if we're still alive because they only see Hotsauce leaving the house to go to work. 

OK, that's not entirely true. 

But, our neighbors to the east did ask our neighbors to the west if we had moved because they never see the kids outside playing anymore.  My neighbor replied, "It's winter, they never come out in the winter!"

Here's the thing.  Every year winter comes to Iowa.  Some years are worse than others.  Winter 2011/2012 was wonderful.  Do.not.tell.the.farmers.I.said.that.  There was very little snow and really quite warm.  I loved it.  But, history tells us that every year winter comes and every year I will whine and complain. 

I have lived in Iowa my entire life.  I have moved more times than I would have liked, but always in Eastern Iowa and never more than an hour and a half from where I grew up.  I expect to live in the town that I'm in (or a short distant from town) the rest of my life... and every winter I will complain for the rest of my life. 

So what does this have to do with our financial journey?  Before we read Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" every year we would go further into debt.  Every year we would complain and think that perhaps in a few years when Hotsauce was making more money, or when the kids grew up, or even when we win the lottery, things will change. 

Things never changed.  Except that we slipped further and further into debt.  Some times weren't as bad as other times, but things were never really good.  We grew frustrated with ourselves, with each other and at times with God.  We prayed for blessings. Would God ever answer our prayers??

We all know the saying that if you feed a man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish he will eat for a lifetime.  So God took us fishing.  He made us bait our own hook.  He taught us to be patient instead of impulsive.  He taught us about ourselves and each other.  He used Dave Ramsey's teachings to change our lives.

He brought our financial winter into the hope for a financial spring... and someday perhaps a financial summer!!!! 

Oh, how I long for summer!

What a crock... pot!?

I received a text from my friend, Danielle, today asking: "I haven't checked the blog for awhile, but was wondering how your snowball is coming?"

Photo by Kamshots

I laughed to myself a bit and thought, "You could check the blog, but it wouldn't do you much good! I've almost completely fallen off the blogging wagon!"

What I actually replied was, "It's melting every week!"

I just wish that it was a smaller snowball or melting faster... maybe there should be a January thaw for my debt snowball?  The good news is that it's melting and not growing, so that's good news!


I am reminded that Dave Ramsey likens this journey to cooking a meal in a Crock-Pot vs. cooking a meal in a microwave.  It takes time and isn't a get rich quick kind of journey!  Shootfire!  I'd really like it to be the other way around!

It seems as though building a business is also more of a Crock-Pot journey!  Turkey Bottom Haven is growing in "likes" weekly.  January has the potential to be one of our best months.  We are crazy busy, but we are constantly pouring our "blow fund" into it.  We have a lot of money wrapped up into 2 projects ... one that isn't quite finished yet and another that doesn't seem to be going any where fast!

It's hard not to grow frustrated in the process.  Especially since there are some definite highlights!  For instance, we only had time to make 2 shelves last week.  We dropped them off at The Pickin' Shed on Saturday.  Before we made it back home one of them had already sold! That truly was an answer to prayer!

How are your snowballs coming?  Is your debt growing or melting?  Anyone have a story to share with us?  Any frustrations?