Wednesday

Today and tomorrow left of Staycation - though I only go to work 1 day and then back to 2 days off via the weekend.

I'm getting concerned, I guess I will call it, that my ex-tenant who moved back in has paid nothing in rent yet. He was NEVER late on paying, and he's working 12 to 14 hours a day, paying the rent should not be a problem. At the same time, he is putting a huge chunk of change down for a retained for a lawyer to fight for custody of his son.

One thing's for sure, I did not agree to staying here for free. I know he gets paid on Fridays - but I don't know if he gets paid every Friday or every other Friday. I'm going to let it go until Saturday, if I see no money and hear nothing about money coming my way, then I'll have no choice but to sit down with him and have a discussion. He makes excellent money, this really shouldn't be an issue, especially with all the OT he gets.

I'm still not THAT concerned, he's made references to hours and suggestions - in an ever so subtle way - that money is coming my way. We'll see. Meanwhile, the loan mod is a go, I just have to have the money in before the 1st of the month and have to keep doing that for 3 months running. I will be sending that payment out next week via USPS Priority Mail. That will get it there within 3 days max, WELL before the 1st of October.

I really want to stay current permanently if at all possible. My credit score will go back up and if I had been current right now, I could have refi'ed to a lower interest rate and had something like $250 per MONTH taken off my monthly payment. I kick myself when I think about that, but - it is what it is. I'm looking at about $100 less per month - I'll take whatever I can get and run with it.

I was going to go visit Ken and take the mail over there today - to his new place, he was moved yesterday back to the nursing care facility - but I am going to head to Scottsdale instead. My last painting adventure - I again offered obnoxiously low amount on a huge, beautiful painting and the person has called me 3 days in a row now wondering if I would get it.

I didn't want to drive to Fountain Hills - this person must be hard up because they are offering to meet me half way today. This painting is 3 and a half feet by 4 feet - again, it's very large and it will go well either in my bedroom or in the living room. Probably the living room - walls are pretty barren in there.

That will end my painting fun for a while - maybe quite a while - as mortgage payments kick back in and "extra money" is kept as reserve. Because of the 2 month delay in making payments, I was actually able to maintain the level I had when I got the 401k loan a few months back. Yes, all of that money is sitting in my bank account right now and then some. I will fight to keep it in there, too.

I had originally taken it out when my AC went out, I spent my last nickles on getting it fixed and was facing some seriously BAD financial stuff. I got that money and then the loan mod went through - putting of mortgage payments for 2 months. With 3 tenants, PAYING tenants I should say - I won't have to dip into it at all and I will have something to fall back on if anything ELSE happens. It's very reassuring to have that kind of money sitting there for any kind of emergency.

Actually, with 3 paying tenants, I get ahead - slowly of course, but if I'm frugal enough, I do make gains. I was doing so when the last 3-some of tenants was here, I was about $500 ahead and getting more and more ahead with each paying tenant's rent payment and my paychecks. Yes, I have spent some dough on paintings in the last few days - but again, I'm not offering much for paintings that I like the look of. I have been finding a lot of people stuck at $60 or $65 and finding out that several of these people are wanting to buy video games for their kids with that money. I lowball that and if someone bites, well, I'll be at their house takinalookit what they got. Sometimes the pics on CL don't do justice, other times it makes the painting look way better than it actually is :(

Yes, it costs that much and more for some system's video games, it's crazy. Even crazier that the kids around HERE go through those things in a couple of days. I haven't bought a video game in - what - 2 years? I stopped buying them for a couple of reasons. First, the boys would leave the discs laying on the floor, they would get scratched up or broken. $65 laying around for the dogs to trample them - infuriating, literally.

Second, the price tag. I don't play the damned things, I have no interest in supporting that kind of habit.

Third, they go through them too fast. It's MUCH cheaper to just rent the new games for 5 days - that's more than enough time for those kids to conquer a game. I don't rent them very often, either, but I will occasionally if they want to do a project around here to pay for it. Yes, I force them to work for whatever money I give them, excpeting Caleb when it comes to school stuff. I make him do chores regardless of whether there's money involved or not, same for Michael. My demands to do things around here are on an almost daily basis now.

Michael does stuff around here when I ask him to - and anymore without all the BS. He is currently BANNED from the computer, so the BS may come back. If it does, he can take it to his family's house, they're ALL full of BS, birds of a feather.

Speaking of birds, I started putting out hummingbird mixture again - after months of not, the hot weather spoils that stuff quickly - and they have already found it. Those little birdies are quite resourceful in finding food, I'll give them that. They are fun to watch, too. They pretty much just stick around during the winter, I'll have that stuff out there all winter long.

I have no clue why none of my honeysuckles are blooming. The giant one I used to have here before my house burned down used to put out blooms for the hummingbirds to feed on all year long. They WERE blooming last year, but for whatever reason, there is nothing now.

I'll have to start reading up on them things to find out what, if anything, I can do to get them to start putting out their pretty flowers that the H-birds are totally attracted to.

As for today, I went to Home Depot, exchanged the now-broken doggie door for yet another one. They put a 3 month warranty on it, the doors are lasting maybe a month, month and a half. Cheap plastic junk. The price tag isn't that cheap. I was going to get a better one and pay more for it, but it's not the one I really want. The one I want costs about $200 and has 3 flaps on it, is made of very sturdy construction and will keep the cool in and heat out or vice versa depending on time of year. If I really wanted to go haywire, they also sell one that is not only good for the weather, the dogs get collars that signal the thing to unlock when they get close enough.

Yes, they have an automatically locking doggy door. But I think that excessive and the price tage is closer to $300. I'll take the model that cuts energy costs - but - I'll wait until I feel like actually cutting out a much larger hole and spending the extra $125. For now, this one works, it's in the utility room that has no AC vent in the floor anyway (which really tees me off - another story). Anyway, it takes all of 2 minutes to get the screws out, remove the door and the same in reverse putting the new one back in. I figure in a month or so, I'll be back at Home Depot exchanging yet another one.

Oh, and I have one more thing I want to obtain for my bathroom before I close the financial doors on it - for now anyway. Some shelving. I saw some absolutely gorgeous, all glass shelving in a circular somewhere yesterday. I want that shelving! I do not, however, want to pay their price. So I am going to start searching CL yet again for someone that might be ridding themselvs of such - perhaps someone taking everything down in their house in a foreclosure situation. Hey, if YOU put up that shelving, there's nothing wrong with taking it down. I don't think I'd want the "loot" from a house that it's owners are totally gutting, taking things they shouldn't be taking because of being foreclosed upon.

That's it for now, I'm headed outside for a while to do some minor things out there besides watering.
ben