And I saved by DIY -maybe

[Neighbor]

I did it myself. Am I pleased? Well I could be, the floor is looking pretty nice and I saved all that labor cost too! Perhaps a couple grand more or less is still in my pocket that would have  gone to pay for labor to install flooring in the mother in law unit.

 Of course if  I deduct the medical costs and factor in the incredible amount of time it took me with the rooms out of use maybe I didn't do so well. 

Let's see I have black and blue toes, my knees are like ripened cantaloupe, I paid the spinal doctor $1800's,  was laid up pretty much for eight months in the middle of the job to be done that should have taken a couple weeks tops. I am having to consider getting the knees worked on as one has been re-injured and locks up and one ankle just screams out with each step.

Oh yes, the chiropractor and the kinesiologist have gotten their share of my saved money on my DIY too.

Oh the price of  the sin of my pride. The determination that I can still do it, I can still work the work of the young, probably has cost me three or four times the cost of having it all done for me, and I carry the pain with me to boot. 

What's the line from the movie Forest Gump- Stupid is as stupid does?

 I am seriously thinking- put the for sale sign out on the old homestead, it is way to big  for an old man's needs. Besides I just selected a retreat mountain chalet for my younger bride's security should I pre decease her. Perhaps I should have been looking at congregate living quarters- but pride it won't let me.

My own mother stayed in her home till she died at 93, course she stopped putting in flooring herself long before that age.

Isn't is wondrous the lessons God allows some of us to learn the hard way?

[Michael37]

1 hour ago, Neighbor said:

I did it myself. Am I pleased? Well I could be, the floor is looking pretty nice and I saved all that labor cost too! Perhaps a couple grand more or less is still in my pocket that would have  gone to pay for labor to install flooring in the mother in law unit.

 Of course if  I deduct the medical costs and factor in the incredible amount of time it took me with the rooms out of use maybe I didn't do so well. 

Let's see I have black and blue toes, my knees are like ripened cantaloupe, I paid the spinal doctor $1800's,  was laid up pretty much for eight months in the middle of the job to be done that should have taken a couple weeks tops. I am having to consider getting the knees worked on as one has been re-injured and locks up and one ankle just screams out with each step.

Oh yes, the chiropractor and the kinesiologist have gotten their share of my saved money on my DIY too.

Oh the price of  the sin of my pride. The determination that I can still do it, I can still work the work of the young, probably has cost me three or four times the cost of having it all done for me, and I carry the pain with me to boot. 

What's the line from the movie Forest Gump- Stupid is as stupid does?

 I am seriously thinking- put the for sale sign out on the old homestead, it is way to big  for an old man's needs. Besides I just selected a retreat mountain chalet for my younger bride's security should I pre decease her. Perhaps I should have been looking at congregate living quarters- but pride it won't let me.

My own mother stayed in her home till she died at 93, course she stopped putting in flooring herself long before that age.

Isn't is wondrous the lessons God allows some of us to learn the hard way?

I'm not sure what to think of this...a warning perhaps.

[Neighbor]

3 hours ago, Michael37 said:

I'm not sure what to think of this...a warning perhaps.

I think it is warning not to hold on to what once served well, but now is a bit of an albatross, make life simpler easier, provide for my wife with a easier to maintain smaller place that pleases her.

It is also just plain reality of what one's pride can do, for it is  a bit of pride if not a lot that gives birth to stubbornness. I could have shared of my funds with a laborer or two, instead I share much more with many medical people. Ha, a false economy on my part for sure!

Not growing old gracefully, I guess.

On the one hand I am so very grateful to God and delighted, mostly for my wife's pleasure that she now has a place to call her own should I predecease her- a high probability; on the other hand, I haven't quite put the for sale sign out on the old place that is way too big for us today so that we will have some funding security for future needs. And there is the conflict within, the new place came with a non contiquous property that just screams out to me - develop me, build, make me a model home, get back into building once again. Yeah, like I need that grief? Probably not.

More likely I am just "losing it". Or I just can't have the personal grace to accept that hey it has all worked out by the hand of God to date, I can accept that I do not have great need to meet Friday's bills with friday's paycheck anymore, least not for a little while anyway.

Anyway, if I can just limp on to finishing a couple more projects on the old homestead it will be ready to sell, or to keep. Yep perhaps stupid is as stupid does- might even be Biblical.  

[GandalfTheWise]

9 hours ago, Neighbor said:

Not growing old gracefully, I guess.

Transitions are hard when they involve giving up something we've done for a long time.   After I left my last job, I tried to start a consulting business with my old skills.  Over a year with no bites whatsoever in spite of a lot of industry contacts and I should have taken the hint God wanted me to do something else.  Then when something did finally come up, it would have required carrying E&O insurance for many years and probably the rest of my life, and my stress level went through the roof trying to work out the NDAs and other stuff.  Hundreds of bucks to a lawyer to look over the documents and the whole thing was a net loss.  It made me happy to drop it all.   I sent an e-mail to those guys and withdrew from the opportunity and then a few minutes later changed my LinkedIn profile.   It did feel really weird when I rewrote that out of my main LinkedIn profile and went to something new I'd not done before.   This coming summer I'm finally dropping the maintenance agreement on technical software I've been using for over a decade.  When we moved last year, I got rid of about 1/2 my technical library and have most of the remainder still in boxes.  It really feels weird to leave these things behind but God seems to have better plans for me than that.

[Michael37]

14 hours ago, Neighbor said:

And there is the conflict within, the new place came with a non contiquous property that just screams out to me - develop me, build, make me a model home, get back into building once again. Yeah, like I need that grief? Probably not.

I'm in a similar frame of mind about developing and landscaping our place now that we are both in the early stages of retirement. I remind myself that I don't need to do anything major, and I literally have to pace myself so I don't rush around trying to meet imaginary deadlines or standards of quality. Pottering and tinkering is the order of the day, and very satisfying it is too! 

Great thread, Neighbor.

[Blood Bought 1953]

21 hours ago, Neighbor said:

I did it myself. Am I pleased? Well I could be, the floor is looking pretty nice and I saved all that labor cost too! Perhaps a couple grand more or less is still in my pocket that would have  gone to pay for labor to install flooring in the mother in law unit.

 Of course if  I deduct the medical costs and factor in the incredible amount of time it took me with the rooms out of use maybe I didn't do so well. 

Let's see I have black and blue toes, my knees are like ripened cantaloupe, I paid the spinal doctor $1800's,  was laid up pretty much for eight months in the middle of the job to be done that should have taken a couple weeks tops. I am having to consider getting the knees worked on as one has been re-injured and locks up and one ankle just screams out with each step.

Oh yes, the chiropractor and the kinesiologist have gotten their share of my saved money on my DIY too.

Oh the price of  the sin of my pride. The determination that I can still do it, I can still work the work of the young, probably has cost me three or four times the cost of having it all done for me, and I carry the pain with me to boot. 

What's the line from the movie Forest Gump- Stupid is as stupid does?

 I am seriously thinking- put the for sale sign out on the old homestead, it is way to big  for an old man's needs. Besides I just selected a retreat mountain chalet for my younger bride's security should I pre decease her. Perhaps I should have been looking at congregate living quarters- but pride it won't let me.

My own mother stayed in her home till she died at 93, course she stopped putting in flooring herself long before that age.

Isn't is wondrous the lessons God allows some of us to learn the hard way?

 

I too know the shame and disgust of having to put up with a lazy Mom.In her early eighties, she absolutely refused to put up as much as 5 squares of shingles a day.I was in my fifties , and not once- not ONCE — did I gripe about having to move the ladder !

[Neighbor]

10 minutes ago, Blood Bought 1953 said:

 

I too know the shame and disgust of having to put up with a lazy Mom.In her early eighties, she absolutely refused to put up as much as 5 squares of shingles a day.I was in my fifties , and not once- not ONCE — did I gripe about having to move the ladder !

Ha!

 

[Neighbor]

2 hours ago, Michael37 said:

I'm in a similar frame of mind about developing and landscaping our place now that we are both in the early stages of retirement. I remind myself that I don't need to do anything major, and I literally have to pace myself so I don't rush around trying to meet imaginary deadlines or standards of quality. Pottering and tinkering is the order of the day, and very satisfying it is too! 

Great thread, Neighbor.

Thanks, and thanks for sharing, it helps to hear that each  of us is not  so much alone as we are just transitioning. It is a privilege now to be able to do anything while still on this side of the grass I guess. Praise God  for the privilege of each day's adventure.  My wife reminds me of - self meanification - don't beat myself up for not being all that productive at the end of the day; be kinder to myself. Yes a great idea is to pace, maybe even  shackle like a trotter. Trouble is once the "bets" are placed I want to get around the track not eating dust all the way.

Here it is four AM and I am trying to figure what I can start on without waking my spouse or the neighbors. I used to laugh about a church friend that was that way. He would show up at all hours of the night or day  doing some church  or missions related project. He would call people at 3 AM as he got confused about time zones as he was working with missionaries from all over the world. I'll never get so ambitious but now  I better understand. Oops, I just woke up the cat.

 

[Neighbor]

7 hours ago, GandalfTheWise said:

Transitions are hard when they involve giving up something we've done for a long time.   After I left my last job, I tried to start a consulting business with my old skills.  Over a year with no bites whatsoever in spite of a lot of industry contacts and I should have taken the hint God wanted me to do something else.  Then when something did finally come up, it would have required carrying E&O insurance for many years and probably the rest of my life, and my stress level went through the roof trying to work out the NDAs and other stuff.  Hundreds of bucks to a lawyer to look over the documents and the whole thing was a net loss.  It made me happy to drop it all.   I sent an e-mail to those guys and withdrew from the opportunity and then a few minutes later changed my LinkedIn profile.   It did feel really weird when I rewrote that out of my main LinkedIn profile and went to something new I'd not done before.   This coming summer I'm finally dropping the maintenance agreement on technical software I've been using for over a decade.  When we moved last year, I got rid of about 1/2 my technical library and have most of the remainder still in boxes.  It really feels weird to leave these things behind but God seems to have better plans for me than that.

Thanks for sharing it is very helpful.  I also gave up  a business due to the State's changing of liability laws that made any "professional" personally liable for eternity forward regardless of company corporate structure. A professional being anyone with a State business license. 

But hey  it has worked out pretty well, God had a very different plan for me that has been perfect for securing the provisions we were to have need of going forward. Truth is I am on the warm and sunnyside of the hill for now. Strange how when that happens  I start looking  for a little shade and deciding  what trees to buy and plant. Reading  of your adventure is helpful, thanks.

Praise God for his provision is always perfect for our progress in  our own sanctification.