So You Bought Your First Rental Property… Now What?

Those following along will know that my wife and I purchased our first rental duplex in October 2019. There was a complete list of items that needed to get done. There was a lot I wished I knew ahead of time, so I'm going to chronicle as much as I can here so other folks will have a leg up and also so I can selfishly come back to this post and learn from my own mistakes or successes. Your handed the keys. Congratulations! If you've gone this far you've made a huge step towards your own personal financial independence. First things first: Start a Spreadsheet Start a rental spreadsheet. Before you spend another dollar you should be keeping track…

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First Boil of 2020

I constructed my sugar shack - Hobby Sugar Shack version 3.0 with the help of a pop-up Coleman tent from Target and tarps for side paneling. It is amazing how much heat it helps retain and cutting down on the wind. Hobbiest Sugar ShackSap ready to boilNow with Aluminum Foil Upgrade! I never did get around to fully upgrading my two burner propane stove with an insulated table to drop it into. I have an idea and plans to make this much more efficient, but this prior year I found myself concentrating on other issues and this fell to the back burner. I was able to boil down 12 gallons of concentrate to get close to 1 gallon of finished…

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Back Yard Curling

The CRCC club is back in full swing this winter! CurlingIn the HouseDead StonesLots of guards While our curling club (CRCC) tends to be a great excuse to have a drink, stand by the fire pit and smoke a cigar, it is a great time and we all look forward to Thursday night curling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC2dpuP9g4s

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I Really Hate Wallpaper

Removing wall paper from our old duplex has become a weekly Saturday task. I go up, tackle half a room. Eventually get fed up, hungry, tired, and sore right shoulder and head home semi-exhilarated for what I accomplished and semi-defeated for what still lies ahead. I have tried everything with steamers and different types of spray on wall paper remover. Honestly there just isn't a good way to do it. Especially when you have multiple layers. One of the down stairs rooms had about 5 layers of wall paper on it. No, that little rolly wheel thing didn't work either for perforating the paper. I mean it worked, just not as advertised. Stripping multiple layers of wallpaper Look at all…

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First Tapped Tree of the 2020 Season

I tapped the first three this year Feb 2, 2020. About two week earlier than last year. It's running too! The next day I went out and collect 32 gallons of sap from my 50 buckets. The 2020 Maple Syrup season has officially begun! Buckets hung, now need to add the lids I honestly forgot how much work it always is. Had to get out all my gear and despite cleaning it before putting it away, some looked as if they needed to be cleaned again. So I did. Had to order all the new filters that I needed for both the filtration and also my reverse osmosis setup. Then I had to run water through the reverse osmosis to…

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First Tenant Troubleshooting was a Success!

It happened sooner than expected, but we got that first dreaded phone call that the heat was out only a month into owning the place. Thankfully, I knew the company that serviced the furnace and called them up, they came over and quickly diagnosed and fixed the furnace (a malfunction in the thermometer, so just a replacement was needed) and the heat was back on and running! This scenario made me realize that while I knew exactly who to call, my wife would not. I will be on a work trip sometime next month and if I wasn't around I'm not sure this would have been handled as quickly and easily as it was. I started to make a list…

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