Time To Grind

My last post was about our home that we are building. This post will not be about selling or buying homes either but it will be about some work my wife and I have done to our bodies this year. A year ago I lost a bunch of weight, about 60 pounds. I was really happy with the ‘new me’ and I took football season off from dieting and exercising as a reward. I gained about 10 pounds back but this year we really got after our fitness. It wasn’t so much about losing weight but that was a nice side effect. My wife and I discovered that we love to run. Running has become a big part of our lives and we have done several 5K’s and 10K’s this year. We are going to be running a 12K in a few weeks and have a plan to run a half marathon in December.
All of this running and conitnuing to hit the gym has meant I lost the 10 pounds I gained last football season plus another 20. I am down now a total of 80 pounds from my all time high and I could not be happier. I love the way I look and the way I feel now. I can’t imagine my life without running. It is such a great way to get in shape and stay in shape and is something that you don’t need a lot of fancy, expensive equipment to do. I love it. I do have a slight knee injury right now requiring me to take some time to rest (driving me nuts since this is the meat of our race schedule and when I need to be doing the most running) and so lately I have been getting my bike out and riding that as well. Hopefully my wife and I can accomplish our goals in the final races of the year and finish the half marathon in December that we are looking forward to so much. One thing I have learned is that our lives are so much more productive now that we are in shape and fit. We have also learned that we are most definitely ‘runners’ and proud to be runners.

 

Time for renovations

Are you thinking of doing some home renovations this spring? Spring is a very popular time for people to remodel. The weather gets warmer, the days get longer, and people get their tax refund. All of this cabin fever makes people want to get out and better their homes. That is great and I hope everyone can improve their home this year to make it just that little bit better for themselves.

There is some caution that I would like to give to those do it yourself-ers!  Making your home a better place is great.  It brings new life to any home, it makes it more modern, and is an exciting project to tackle.  There are however financial considerations.  A lot of people believe that if they add $5000 in hardwood flooring then their home will go up in value by $5000 or more.  The same goes for kitchen renovations (new cabinets, granite countertops, new appliances, etc).  Word to the wise, do not expect to break even or profit from your home renovations!  NO!  You might be thinking of the tv show you saw last weekend.  You know, the one where they did all these wonderful things to the home, basically gutted it and rebuilt the home and bam, they sold the home and made money on it!  Yes, that is great.  That is also on tv.  Your home is not on tv and there are special circumstances to almost all homes you see on tv that get flipped.  To begin with they are usually distressed properties and being bought and sold well below market value.  Just because you see something on tv doesn’t mean it will apply to your situation.  I don’t want to discourage people from improving their home because that is not my intent.  I think home renovations are a great project and even a family bonding experience.  I do want people to have their eyes wide open going into the project.  Expect it to take twice as long, twice as much money, and be twice as aggravating.  With that said, once done your home will be even more beautiful than it was before.  Do it, enjoy it, just don’t expect to profit from it!

 

Happy Holidays

It is really hard for me to believe that Christmas is just two days away!  This year has flown by for me.  I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, happy holidays to all.  Enjoy your time with family as they are precious.  2013 will be here before we know it and off to the races again working on improving things for the year.  Have a great holiday.

 

A Day To Reflect

Sometimes you have to be slapped in the face to realize what you have.  I think today is one of those times.  Most of this blog will have nothing to do with real estate, not today anyway.  As many have heard, there was a tragic shooting in Connecticut this morning.  Many people were killed including a large number of young children.  This is such a tragedy and I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to go through an event like this. 

I certainly don’t know why the shooting happened and it really doesn’t matter because the damage is done.  Unfortunately, countless people lost their lives and so many more people had their lives forever altered by today’s events.  Unfortunately, this type of event is happening way too often.  Just this year I can think of the shooting in the Colorado movie theater, Oregon had a shooting at a mall, and now this shooting at a school.  My gut tells me there was another shooting this year as well but I can’t remember off of the top of my head.  How sad is it that there have been this many tragic events this year?  I do believe though, you have to find the good in everything.  Obviously, nothing good will come directly from today’s events.  But it does make me thankful.  I am thankful to have my health, thankful that my wife and family are healthy as well.  I am thankful to have a roof over my head, a car to drive, and clothes to put on my back.  So many people don’t have those items and many never will. 

The end of the year is always a time people look at their accomplishments and failures and figure out what might lie ahead in the next 12 months.  I am no different.  I have beat myself up lately for not making as much money this year as I would have liked, falling short of a few other goals, and overall being rather down on myself and my situation.  My wife and I are trying to build a home and I just seem to be taking one step forward and two steps back.  Today, for me, it helped me realize that life isn’t always about your home or your money or your accomplishments.  It is about enjoying the precious time we have on Earth and sharing it with loved ones.  It isn’t about letting petty little differences affect your relationship with your spouse or fighting with a boss.  We all need to be thankful for what we do have and cherish the time we can spend with family because in the end that is what it is all about. 

I will mourn with the rest of America for this tragedy.  I would never wish something like this on my worst enemy.  Having innocent, young children involved makes it that much worse.  My thoughts will certainly be with all that are affected by this.  When I go to bed tonight, I will remember to say, thank you, one more time because life is too precious to not be thankful for every moment we do have.

 

Let’s get started!

As many bloggers are when they first start, I am super excited to get this blog going.  I don’t know where this blog will take us, how often there will be new posts, or what we will talk about but we can figure that out as we go.  I know the main focus will be on real estate and Columbia, SC.  I think there are also a lot of myths about real estate agents that I want to try to debunk.  Not only will this blog be about real estate and the industry as a whole but it will also have personal opinions and real world stories as we go through the process as a husband (me) and wife (Kristen) of building our new home.