Saturday, May 16, 2009

My first full week of Self Employment

I am so behind on my reading and writing of blogs, that I figured today I would do some catch up on things. Since it is so wet here, we really can't get out and mow today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for mowing.

Our first full week of both of us working was full, ok, full enough for me. I am not going to go through the entire week with you, but for me, it was profitable and a workout.

We picked up a job to where we have to clean the carpets, clean the kitchen, scrub the bathroom and wash windows in someone's home. Not too bad, while Chuck runs the shampooer, I will clean the other rooms and wash the inside of the windows. And when he is done, we can get the outside of the windows. There were several other things that we saw that he will have to get done in the next few months. And if he wants us to come back out once a month to clean the house, well, that is not a problem. We can take care of that for him too. I don't mind doing this stuff, as long as it pays the bills and gives us money left over, I am fine with that.

We cleaned my dad's windows in the sunroom, 18 windows inside and out. It took me nearly 6 hours to get them done. Yes, 6 hours, I want them clean. Meanwhile, Chuck pressure washed the porches and concrete around the house. That was a job.

I cleaned my first set of gutters on Wednesday. If you know me at all, I hate having gooey stuff on my hands. And even with gloves, it didn't help much. I got the gutters around the house all cleaned out, a few shots of roof gravel was swallowed, gutter goo bounced back in my face from using the pressure washer in the gutters, washed the entire house with the pressure washer, climbed about 20 feet up to clean a gutter, an uneventful day all around!

We joined a networking group. I will blog about that in another blog to explain it more. But it was a good thing for us, hopefully it will get our name out there and money coming in.

We got the job to a local furniture store to clean their windows 9 times a year. Yep all 42 windows. This is another good thing for us. It helps us get our name into the business community and if they like the work we have done, who knows what is behind that.

Friday finally came, it may have been somewhat of a day off, because of the 7 + inches of rain we have had in the month of May, the ground is pretty much saturated. So, Friday gave me a chance to make my first major cake (another blog with pictures). That was enough for me that day.

Finding different things to help us stay out of the work force is the key. I love to bake and do different things, so maybe that will be a plus. Chuck is working hard in different areas to see where we can fit in too. It is hard work, and being 42 and starting this now in life is rough. But who knows where we will be in a few years. We work 6 hours a day, hard work, but there are days like today, that we can't do anything much. And weeks where we don't have a chance to do as much, we catch up the following week. We may work really hard that one week, but we had more than enough time off with the rain and the ground saturation the week before.

In April, we looked at each other and said that the month of May doesn't look good for us at all. We started the month out having to get a planner and when Chuck wrote everything down, it was then we realized that we were nearly full. The first of the month looked as if we only had about 10 days to fill. And with rain, that has put us back a little. But now we are looking that we only have about 3 more days left to fill. Our days aren't always 6 hour days, some are more, some are less. But it all works out in the end.

Yes, after a day of pressure washing, climbing ladders and cleaning windows, we are very tired. But I can't complain at all. After a shower and dinner I don't feel too bad, until I fall asleep in my chair.

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