Making progress

I've been diligently going to my physical therapy as well as doing my physical therapy at home.  I took around 3 weeks off completely from running and only biked twice.  Sunday I did my first pain free bicycle ride.  I still feel a bit of pain here and there when I climb stairs or kneel.  The doctor thinks I should wait an other week or two before I start running.  She said I can bike to extremes as long as I'm very diligent about stretching and foam rolling, etc.

I've been pouring my energies into the building purchase lately instead.  The darned bank is asking for documents written in blood, documents to support the documents, documents to support the validity of the blood, and so on.  It's such a pain in the ass.  The current owner hadn't been renewing the leases of the people which basically makes them month to month rentors.  The bank required leases so I had to work with all of the rentors to setup leases.  Of course they were all scared I was giving them the boot or raising their rents or pestering them about their cats (that aren't permitted) or any other number of things.  I like it though.  It's better than IT work.

I travel there this weekend for the inspection.  It should take 8 hours.  The inspector likes to have the buyer accompany him so it'll be a good chance to see all the details of the building.  We'll get up on the roof, check the masonry that's worrying me, etc.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'm also going to try to talk the owner, who has the law office on the first floor, into a zero dollar lease.  Instead of giving his asking price with a mandatory 2yr lease, I'll lower the per month rent price, take that off the offer, effectively giving him a free stay for 2 years.  I have a few things in mind like that.  We'll see.

Last time I was home I started the process of getting my mom's place ready.  The house is done and for sale so now I'm on to my aunt's place and the apartment my mom was thinking to use.  I did about 70% of the insulation last trip and that was a tough but rewarding job.  I re plumbed the bathroom sink and bathtub and ran a better drain line in the kitchen.  This trip I'll finish that insulation.  Going to need to tear up a board in the attic and blow in insulation there.  Then the nasty job of climbing into the small attic, feeding the hose in there, turning it on, and slowly dragging it out as it fills...over and over for each run.  That'll be a tough job.

My mom, aunt, and I used my works meeting software to go over our plans for the layout of the place.  My mom decided to just stay on my aunts side and they'll rent out the apartment instead.  They have some agreement worked out.  I'll need to add a wall to make it a 2 bedroom apartment.  It's an awkward space so I'll need to stand in there and think a bit.  I'll also add a wall on the east side of the house because it's only the concrete wall there with no insulation on either side.  Brrrrr!!!!   My mom found my nail gun and compressor so I'm all set with that.  Non weight bearing walls go up quick.  Then insulate and drywall (ugh...mudding, taping, and sanding sucks!)

The living room has original hardwood floor I'll need to refinish. The kitchen and laundry room will get cheap laminate "wood" flooring.  The bedroom needs a layer of plywood and then new carpeting.  I'm going to get away with not raising the exterior door by leaving it just concrete there and shaving a board to cover the 1/2 inch step up.  It's not ideal...but it's an apartment.  After that mom will paint and get it rented.  My aunts mortgage is $480 a month and I researched rents in the area and we should be able to get around $350-400.   My mom's really into this property management stuff.  She's really enjoying helping me, planning, and reading all the information I send her about how to manage tenants.  I think she sees investing in real estate with me as a ticket out of the factory before she's 90 so she's really soaking it up.  It's awesome to work with her.

I've had some interesting dates lately.  My binders full of women seem to get out of hand or I get frustrated, then just when I decided I'm done chasing women it seems they turn to chasing me....so I can't get out either way.  Last week this Russian girl I'd been flirting with for an entire year called me out of the blue and asked me out.  I found myself sitting across from her on our date in total awe.  She's the absolute most beautiful woman I've ever been on a date with.  I usually never lack confidence with women but I found myself sitting there thinking I'd never land this chick....





But she's continued to text me.  So we'll see.    I also got an email on my dating website from another Russian girl.  She hadn't filled out her profile or added a picture or anything, so I was reluctant to even respond.  She asked me out and then seemed frustrated that I was busy.  Then sent me a nasty email saying she wasn't on this site to find a penpal and if I wanted to meet I better hop to it.  I explained to her that if she couldn't even be bothered to put in the effort to fill out her profile or correspond to people....or even share her picture....that I'd just assume she was a fat hairy Russian man.  I'm not into fat hairy Russian men....so she needs to do some work on that profile, be nicer, or move on.  Seems she has taken the last option.  Dasvidania

I've also been talking to a friend from high schools sister.  It's actually a sort of funny story.  I was there for the Grape Jamboree and was helping out at my buddies bar when this cute blond came in.  My friend Jennifer came over and introduced us and I used the both of them to assist me with standing.  Before too long it seems my hand found its way into places that it shouldn't.  She didn't seem to mind but there was another young man in the bar that wasn't excited with my tactile exploration.  Luckily her brother, who is my friend, got rid of the fellow for me.

Anyways, turns out a few months later she went ahead and got rid of that fellow for good.  She found out I was in town recently and asked Sonny for my information, and has been writing me.  She's an interesting character.  I'm enjoying corresponding with her.