Day 1

So, here are some pictures from our first day working on the new flip.


Can you spot Zach up in the tree?? If you look at yesterday's pictures you'll see the giant tree blocking the house.


No more tree! And zach isn't dead and has all his limbs still!


I realized I have a problem when I get giddy over my new shopvac! Check out the old one on the left that was a piece of crap. Now the new one on the right I bought on clearance today and could just hug it I love it so much!

Don't forget safety goggles! I learned a lesson about wearing goggles after cutting my eyeball with a nail a few months ago.

Keep checking back here. I'll have some new pictures tomorrow of the floors stripped of the old carpet.

Welcome to our next Flip Property...

Watch the drama, blood, sweat, and tears unfold here at kristajameson.blogspot.com!

i miss him....

Look at that precious face!! My nephew, John Paul, is 8 months and started to stand this week! He is stubborn and independent and loves to eat...just like his proud aunt krista! I get to see him at Thanksgiving. I can't wait to kiss his little chubby cheeks!

3 days....

until we close on our next flip property. wooooohoooooo!!

not looking forward to the whole 16 hr work days for months but still excited!!
(fyi- i work full time at a church, then go and put in another 8 hrs on my real estate projects)

be looking for lots of pictures documenting this house. i would like to include my blog readers into this project...i thought about giving a few different options on paint colors, floor colors, decorating ideas and having you decide. how fun would that be?!

Before+After

Pretty nasty huh?!





Sorry about the butt shot of Zach. As you can see this is the old tile that didn't go very high on the wall. I extended the new tile another 8 inches. It gives the appearance that the bathroom is higher then it really is. I'll put an extra long shower curtain in and it will appear even higher. The master bath is very small so doing these changes of making it appear higher and bigger then it is could bring us a bigger return.


Zach installed the new brushed nickle faucet and showerhead.

7 Things

I have been tagged, by Stephanie, to complete the following.

7 things I want to do before I die

1) Have children! I want 4 of them...and would love a set of twins.
2) Go on more vacations
3) Be on an episode of a house flipping show
4) Run a marathon, or maybe a half marathon
5) Buy a luxury car
6) Continue to lead teenagers in their walks with Christ
7) Adopt an orphan

7 things I can do

1) spend way too much time online
2) Tile work
3) Make people laugh
4) Put a baby to sleep in record time
5) be too sarcastic
6) talk on the phone for hours
7) love my friends

7 things I cannot do

1) Drive a stick shift car
2) lift weights, i'm so very weak
3) stay at the same weight...i'm always going up and down every month
4) like cats. i hate them and i'm scared of them
5) stay up late
6) play video games
7) live a carefree/stressfree life. i'm too high-strung.

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex (changing this one to 'my spouse')

1) Zach's hottness
2) Zach's killer abs
3) Zach's hardworking way of life
4) Zach's love for me
5) Zach's heart for ministry
6) Zach's love for OSU football
7) Zach hopefully letting me name a son 'Tressel' one day (osu fb coach's name)

7 things I say most often

1) Oh my gosh
2) ZACH!!!!
3) I'm so overwhelmed
4) Thank you for calling The People's Church
5) My house is a wreck
6) I want a baby!!
7) I'm fat. (see, i'm honest!)

7 celebrity crushes (in no particular order)

1) Ty Pennington
2) Matthew McConaughey
3) The Jonas Brothers-ok the oldest one because I think he is over 18!) they are so cute!
4) Troy Smith
5) Vince Young
6) David Beckham
7) Michael Phelps (have you seen his abs?!)

Anti-Anxiety

I'll admit it. I worry. I have major anxiety issues. I fret about the big things, the small things, and everything in between. I'm married to a man that is completely opposite. He never stresses, worries, ever. I have 3 closings next week. For any of you that have ever bought or sold a home its stressful. I have 3 closings at once...thats like triple the load of stress. I've been doing this for years but it still gets me all anxious. There are so many pieces that have to fall into place. I don't want to let anyone down or turn into crazy mean Realtor Krista that can say a swear word or two if someone at the finance company isn't doing their job fast enough. I woke up in the middle of the night all worried and anxious. I do the what if's game. What if this doesn't work. What if that isn't right. It was 3am this morning and I was wide awake about to have a panic attack during my 'what if's' game. I started crying out to the Lord and He gave me a scripture as I laid there.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Php 4:6

Maybe one of you is worried, stressed, or anxious about something. Family problems, relationship problems, finances, job stresses, hard economic times, etc. Maybe this scripture can help bring peace and serenity to your situation too.

Reflection

I can't believe that we are half way through August. Seriously. I swear it was just May! I know we still have a few months left in this year but I thought it would be fun to do a year in review...so far. Some really happy times, some really sad times, some just plain ol' fun times. Here's to the past 8 months of a wild ride!



OSU was in the National Championship game. Of course we fell short AGAIN, but we still made it there. A little fun fact about me, I want to name one of our kids 'Tressel' after the OSU coach.



Jessica got married and I was able to be a part of the big day. I know her mom was looking down from heaven that day so proud of her baby girl!



I met my new little nephew John Paul. I love this kid to pieces!! He was 2 wks old in this picture.



Here is John Paul at 8 months spending a weekend with his Daddy (my brother) before Shawn leaves for Iraq.


Jess and I went to the Jimmy Eat World Show. It was a dream to see them live!



I got to meet Jadd Hampton. My best friend's baby boy. He was 2 weeks old in this picture.


Me and Jadd last weekend with him being 3.5 months. Seriously, how cute is he!!


My amazing, hot, hardworking, incredible husband who has helped carry me through this year. I don't know what I would ever do without him. It's true that I really do miss him when we leave our separate ways for work each day. I love his hugs, his kisses, his free access to blu-ray dvds:), his passion to work hard, the way he loves me, takes care of me, and always tells me I'm beautiful even when I don't feel it. We celebrate our 3 yr anniversary soon. I love him so so much.

Stress!

Stress is something that I have carried around with me for years. I really don't know what it is like to sit and relax...To not always be doing something. Right now I feel like I have a million things going on. We are closing on a new property (our largest and most expensive) in less then two weeks. I have other things with my various jobs that have been lingering over my head and deadlines to hit. I was so weary two nights ago. I just couldn't get a break from all the deadlines, stress, to-do lists mounting over my head. Here I am tonight, sitting in a hotel room in Detroit for my cousins wedding. I laid in my bed here for about 4 hrs this afternoon doing nothing. Loving the cable tv (we have a good ol' antenna at our house!)..so i watched HGTV for hours and lounged around. Wow...some stress has already left...and it's only been 12 hrs since I left home.

confessions of a housewife

I don't know if housewife is the right word because I'm not a stay at home housewife...but nevertheless this is a confessions of being a wife and it involves things around the house.

If there is one thing I HATE doing...its Laundry! Ok, i don't mind actually washing/drying the laundry. That is the easy part. It's folding and putting it away. I literally despise doing this!
Zach has been begging for clean socks for days but just the thought of having all our clean laundry piled on the bed to be sorted, folded, and put away keeps me procrastinating day after day. The poor guy...he's just wanting some clean matching socks. So, any of you other wives out there have a confession about what you hate to do around the house?!

Before+After

The Master Bedroom is finally done! This room had quite the transformation!






Popcorn ceilings no more!!

A Landlord's Dream...

What is a Landlord's Dream??? To have a renter pay rent every month, not call with problems, and renew a lease. That my friend, is a landlord's dream. It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes you get really lucky. One of our properties has the lease ending next month and I just found out tonight that they want to renew for another year! This is the renter that has paid every month and has called just ONCE in the last year! Ahhh...so nice.

House Flipping 101

Zach and I are closing on our 5th property (in two years) at the end of the month. I'm so stinkin excited about this one! The house isn't in terrible condition but definitely needs updating. I have a few professional house flippers that I follow and have learned a lot from. These are some basic tips that I have learned from one of these successful people.


THAN MERRILL'S FLIP TIPS
-Knowledge + Business Systems + Action = Success!
-Marketing to find good real estate deals is the most IMPORTANT part of the business.
-Consistently educate yourself on the real estate business.
-The goal is to work in your business for a short time period and then hire someone to replace you so you can work on your business.
-Real Estate investing is a TEAM sport and the stronger your team the more successful you will be.
-Find someone who is successful in the real estate business and model what they do. Imitate then innovate.
-Failure is the first step towards real estate success.
-Don’t let fear stop you from living up to your true potential.
-Real Estate Investing is a business and should be treated as such.

before+after

Here is what I did today after work. It is the FINAL room of the house we are stillllllll working on. Hey, life gets busy and projects get put on hold! This is our master bedroom. We have been living in a spare room until this is finished. I'm so excited that I finished painting the walls today. Now, just have to paint the ceiling and finish the floor. (We scraped popcorn ceilings off...I now despise popcorn ceilings.) For some reason, the 'after' pictures came out really bad. My camera must not do well in dust!








Last week I decided to do a little surprise for Zach. We have an outdoor storage closet off our patio. It had never been cleaned out from the prior owners...who had trashed the house that we bought as a foreclosure. So, I cleaned this closet out and had to use 409 cleaner because it smelled like something had died. I went to Home Depot, bought shelving, and then decided it needed a new locking doorknob. I figured out how to get it on and ta-da a new locking door. Zach was pretty impressed that I figured it out and didn't break the door or anything! Oh and it was pouring down rain!

ankle injuries and pimples!

interesting title, huh?!

So that personal best run of 5.5 miles last week left me with an injury. After 8 days I'm finally able to walk on it without extreme pain. I started freaking out because the race is in one month and I haven't run since last week. Oh well, had to rest it up so I didn't cause more of an injury. I'll hopefully be back running Monday morning. Honestly, I've kinda enjoyed the break. It has been so hot (like 99 degrees and 50% humidity)!!

Also, pimples. yes. pimples. I had the clearest face all through my teenage years. Never had that pimple show up right before school pictures or that hot date. oh wait, i never went on a date in my teenage years. Anyway, my skin is breaking out! I'm convinced it is stress and not some delayed acne problem that my body decided to expose 10 yrs late. I don't really wear makeup so it kinda sucks.

I am excited that my readership is now up to around 4 people! A friend told me yesterday that she was facebook stalking me and came to read my blog off the link on my page. Come on you lurkers, come out of the closet and leave a comment every now and then;)