Thursday, July 31, 2008

Property Manager

We have friends that own some rental property near us but they live about 2 hours away. I had told them that I could show their house for them when they lost their last tenant. It saved them the hassle of having to drive down to show the place everytime. I showed it 2 or 3 times and we were able to get another renter in there relatively quickly.

Onsite Property Manager offers rental property management software for landlords. The 60 day free trial allows you to print lease agreements, notices to renters,and bank deposit slips for rental payments. Also automatically posts late fees and rental fees on the days you choose. The software makes managing rental property a lot easier and my friends might benefit from using a service like this.

This was sponsored by Bloggerwave.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Work is Never Done

It's been about 6 days since I had been to the doctor's and still have heard nothing back on the referral. Now I have to call them to find out what the hold up is. In the meantime, I have been keeping busy. I finished painting my closet doors, painted ivy over the French doors. Put up some pictures in the remodeled bedroom and I am prepping the family room for painting.

I will call the cabinet makers again this week to see where they are and if they will ever install my vanity. Had some frustrations at Lowes. I spent a considerable amount of time looking at blinds. Made another trip back to order them and they couldn't bring them up on the computer so I couldn't price them. They found all the other blinds just not the ones that I wanted. After I went back home, I did get a call back and it turns out that the people helping me did not know how to use the system. My blinds were found but now I have to go back in to order them. After the Lowe's paint and tile debacles, I am tired of making the 60 mile round trip to fix the errors. It is getting a little old.

Right now, I am eyeing my bookcase that will go back in the remodeled bedroom. I had painted all the bedroom furniture a thyme green and now I am thinking that the book case will not match. I am going to have to paint that too.

My husband thinks that I am making too much work for myself but at this point, I need the distraction so I welcome it.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Another Delay

Just got off the phone with the cabinet makers and they said another delay, possibly 2 weeks before they can come and install my double sink vanity. I had called them 3 weeks ago and they said it was going to be another 2 and 1/2 weeks. I had put a rush on my sinks so that they would be here for installation and now I find out that I didn't have to do that.

My patience is really running thin. I just priced airfare to fly out my in-laws, however, we need to get the remodel done so they can stay in that room and now it looks like the month of August is going to be shot.

Can't put the flooring in until the sink vanity goes in as I don't want the workman to scratch up the wood floors and also can't put the tile in until the sinks are in. Can't finish the walk-in closet until the wood flooring is in.

First it was the contractor not showing up 9 to 10 times likes he said he would and now I have to deal with the cabinet makers. I ordered the vanity over 3 months ago and they said it would be done in 3 months or faster. I wish people would not make promises they can't keep.

This was supposed to be a small remodel job. Now we are into the 4th month and may be
only 1/2 way finished. It's going to be a long hot summer!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Teeny Weeny Studio

Still doing remodeling although things should rev up here when my bathroom vanity is put in. I have been waiting for them to get this done before we put in the floors and tile. I just cleaned the French doors and grilles and will stain them as soon as they are dried. It will be tricky as I am using a stain for fiber glass and my test stain right now is too light. I am supposed to leave it on so many minutes and then brush it. The longer the period between brushing, the darker the stain. I can always wipe the stain off but at $50.00 a stain kit, I don't really want to waste too much.

There is a section of my bedroom that I am thinking of putting a tiny studio to store all my art supplies and sewing items. I still don't know how I am going to fit so much stuff into a little space. My husband is concerned that it will look messy so I am going to have to buy a lot of organizers to do the job right. Right now my drawing table is out in the kitchen taking up a lot of space. It will be nice to move everything back to the master bedroom.

I took some before pictures of the room and bathroom but I am waiting until I am totally finished so that I can show the before and after shots.


Anyway, that's it for now.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Destination Based Tax

My state just started doing destination based sales tax for those that ship goods here. I thought the idea was to make the tax system less complicated! Sales tax will be based on where the item is shipped, not where the seller is located. This is just crazy!

The shopping cart on Etsy was not set up to accommodate this type of change so I am going to have to manually look up the tax rates and charge customers accordingly. Fortunately, most of my sales are out-of-state so for now it should not have a huge impact on my business.

After some reading, I have found that my state is the 22nd in the country to switch to this kind of tax. This is supposed to level the playing field between internet companies and the brick and mortar businesses but all I can say is , there has got to be a better way.

I found an article, Why Congress Should Not Authorize a State Sales Cartel, which gives good arguments against having a destination based sales tax and I totally agree with it.