Welcome to Chez Cliff!

Holy Cow. It has been one year since I started this blog.  Happy Blogoversary!  Have a piece of cake.

This actually is my second blog.  The first blog I started was this little site called "Baguettes and Spam".  It’s still out there.  But it was quite different.  I decided to  start yet another food blog.  It was fun while it lasted BUT the houses became the central focus of my life.  Thus, this blog was born.

Yet "Changing my Direction" is the second incarnation of this blog.  This was once called "Mes Maisons:  My adventures as a Slum Lord".  View the header  This was done kind of "tongue in cheek".  The houses were in really really bad shape when I purchased them.  My friends and family were affectionately calling me "The Slum Lord" which I picked up and ran with.

At first, it was only my closest friends and family who read my blog.  I wasn’t interested in promoting my blog and getting millions of hits.  My point: tell my story but only tell it to those who wanted to listen.

Along the way, I started having more pride in my houses.  With that, the vehicle to express that pride, this blog, improved as well.  My writing became better.  I think my stories have become more interesting.  Then the moniker of "Slum Lord" just didn’t fit with the spirit of the blog.  I changed it and thus "Changing my Direction" was born.

Then something interesting happened.  You came.  On average, I have 50 consistent readers.  These readers are not only US based.  Readers from Canada, France, Germany, Romania and Malaysia visit me daily.  Plus on the eve of my one year anniversary, I sailed past 15,000 hits.  That’s not too shabby.

But it’s not the numbers that have touched me.  It’s the feedback, comments and emails that I get from you.  I read every email; I post every comment (good and bad); and I’m happy beyond words that you give me a few minutes of your busy day.  In exchange, this next year I’m going to work harder to not only improve my blog but the content in it.

I wanted to let everyone know where I was with my book.

Most of it has already been written.  A retired creative writing professor has elected to help me polish it up before it goes off to the printers.  Also, a graphics person has offered to help with the design of the cover.  Both are welcomed!

I know I originally gave this summer as a delivery date.  At that moment, I honestly felt that the house would have been done by now.  But delays, snags and life in general happened and the date has been pushed back.

I’m now looking at the end of September before the book is released.

The bathroom is complete.

I know the two most important items when viewing a home are the kitchen and bathroom.  The tile work in the bathroom was, to my surprise, well done when I purchased the home.  I didn’t see the need to change it out.  My changes to the bathroom were purely cosmetic.

With a few minor bumps, I installed a sliding glass door.  This I felt was necessary to make the bathroom look bigger.  And it does.  A shower curtain essentially cut the bathroom in half.

The next item on the list was replacing the really small sink/cabinet fixture.  Lowe’s carries a great selection of pre-fabbed sinks, counters, cabinets, mirrors, lighting fixtures, etc. that go quite well together.  I elected to go with white in an effort to try and brighten the bathroom up.

I selected a larger cabinet and the mirror is actually a medicine cabinet.  With these two items, the storage space in the bathroom nearly quadrupled.

The most important change to the bathroom was the color.  I originally had it painted a light green color.  This worked well until I had the new lighting installed.  When the new lights were turned on, the green would vibrate at this frequency that would make the fillings in my mouth vibrate.

On top of that, WonderWoman pointed out that the green would actually reflect onto the skin.  This would be bad for any woman putting make up on her skin.  Fortunately I stopped wearing makeup a few years back so I don’t have to worry about these things.

JUST KIDDING!

To round out the improvements to the bathroom, I had WonderWoman install recessed lighting above the shower.  A nice, large vent now sucks the steam right out of bathroom.

All in all, the bathroom renovations ran me about $900.  I saved a bunch of money, doing the 80% of the work myself.

What’s next?

A realization came to me last night.  Anyone who reads this blog, or picked it up in the past few weeks, probably thinks that I’m rocking back and forth on my couch, Rain Man style, saying:

The plumbing no working.

The plumbing no working.

The plumbing no working.

Well let me put those rumors to rest.  Progress is being made.  Let’s see the snowball effect of having the sink connected.

This . . . .

leads to . . .

which leads to . . .

OR this . . .

which makes me . . .

Last night, I took the night off to rest and relax.  The stress from all the plumbing took its toll.  After working through the weekend, I decided that one night was in order.

I watched this show called "Flip this house".  Has anyone watched this show?  For those that haven’t, it’s a television show regarding the "flipping of houses".  Investors buy these run down houses, fix and repair these houses, in a matter of weeks, and sell them for a hefty profit.

The one investor, Richard, has that entire process down to a science.

Without going into much detail, I watched as Richard purchased this home for $522,000.  He hired a contractor, set the budget, and gave a deadline of three weeks.  About a dozen workers descended onto the house and started working. 

About four days into the project, Richard came by the house.  Out of the original dozen or so workers, only four were there.  And they weren’t working.  One climbed into his truck and started to leave.  Richard asked him where he was going.  The guys response was classic.

"Fishing."

It’s nice to know that even professionals experience these same problems.