Paint!

Well after a few evenings of drywall mudding and sanding, tonight I did the final sand and gave it a coat of primer! Wow it looks awesome. I haven't done drywall for about 15 years and I think I over did it. My auto body days had me making stuff perfect for cars, well houses are much more forgiving. The few spots I thought were questionable disappeared once I put the primer on. My walls look better than the rest of the house, lol.

Then just before finishing I knocked over my paint can and lost half a gallon on the floor. Good thing it needed carpeted and was just wood. There is a little 12x14 opening where the plumbing is, so I just shoved all the paint down the hole into the crawlspace, lol. Any bugs down there are now swimming in white primer. I was pissed, but whatever. This little place is going to be done in a week or two, aside from the outside which needs siding. But just getting the interior done and ready to rent to me is the big hurdle. It will be nice getting it cleaned up and done, and shut the door and start rocking outside again. I miss working outside since the completion of my fence. My tan is fading, grrr... I'm just glad I'm done drywalling. Sanding that stuff is nasty, it gets in your hair and skin and dries everything up.

I'm excited to be making good progress on this place though. Maybe I can get it rented by September if all goes well, but I'm thinking by Oct 1 I'll have someone in there. That will be nice to have it go from negative cash flow + expenses repairing it to positive cash flow :)

Construction projects galore!

Constructing a fence

Ok I have tons of contstruction projects going right now. I've been working on my rental lately, but tonight I'm going to talk about my fence. Before I had a lousy wire fence that was pretty old and rusty, and generally nasty looking. We had puppies and they were very small so they were escaping through the broken wires here and there along the bottom. So this winter in the bitter cold I went out there and reinforced the whole thing with chicken wire. My fence is huge so it was a long and lame process of weaving wire into it and tying it to the fence with vice grips and old bailing wire. It made it even uglier.

Why I needed a fence
That stopped the puppies for the time being but they got bigger and this spring they were just climbing right over the top of the fence like little spider men. So that went on for a while and I just let them run around all over the place. I mean I'd go run them down and put them back in, chain them up etc, but you can't do that 24/7. So I'd let them run wild once in a while. Then one day someone complained about all the dogs I have and called the police. They came over and said I was only allowed 4 dogs and that I had to get rid of some. I blew them off but the dog catcher guy kept driving by all the time. One day I think he was just standing there and my dogs were barking at him so they just climbed over the fence to harrass him, so then I get nailed a 150 dollar ticket. I told the cops its bullshit and that he provoked them. Then they are on me about getting rid of some dogs again. So I told them I'd build a privacy fence and then nobody needs to know how many freaking dogs I have.

Construction begins
So construction began. First off I needed to remove the wire fence, yet keep the dogs contained. So I pulled out the old fence post using a tractor jack and a log chain, and then I would baracade an area off with some old doors and bricks, boards, whatever I could find. Then I'd dig a post hole and set an 8' treated pole in the ground and then set it in concrete. The next day you fill it back in with dirt and on you go. Once you have two up, you can hang a premade fence panel with some big long screws.

What a learning experience
Well I'd never really done much of this kind of work but I learned a few things along the way.
1. Get a post hole digger. I started out using a trench hoe thing or whatever its called. Its like a giant pair of pliars. This thing is worthless. I was telling my farmer friend about it and he said he had a hand post hole digger. This thing is like a big drill bit so I used it for the rest of the fence. It works really good and cuts through the dirt pretty fast. It can even chop through small roots. It makes a nice round even hole and holds the dirt well.

2. use an 8' 2x4 and screw it into your next post as you set it. This ensures its exactly 8' from your last pole and makes leveling it easier too since its stable.

3. Use a string and run from your corner posts to make sure your fence is straight.

Anyhow it took me 2.5 months to tear out the old nasty fence and build the new one. There were many tree roots that grew into the old fence and made removal of anything near it or digging post holes near these things almost impossible. I had one 8 hour saturday where I was just chainsawing and smashing roots out of my way with a big hammer and an axe. It was insane. But little by little I got the fence done. Here are some pics:

Here is the old nasty fence:
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence01.jpg

Here's how I remove the old poles. Some came out easy, others were impossibly hard to remove.
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence02.jpg

Heres a picture of the finished product. My yard seems huge now with a fence in it. Its insane how defining the edges make your yard seem much bigger than when its basically open.
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence03.jpg

Heres the view from the deck:
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence04.jpg

Speaking of the deck, thats my next project once I get this rental done :)

Are the god(s) punishing me?

I thought I didn't believe in luck

Ok well I've had my share of shitty luck for one week. First my dog escapes and after a grueling 2 day rescue attempt she winds up gibs all over the highway and was barely recognizable, then I get the wonderful news that I may be losing one of my biggest contracts. Add in the fact that they keep forgetting to pay me and I really am getting nervous. Finally to top it all off, the local fair is here and my 8 year old daughter who was supposedly with some friends ended up missing. We had a big manhunt going on with the police and everything freakshowing to the max, and then she calls me and the whole thing was a giant miscomunication, so thank GOD she didn't get abducted or some thing horrible. Add in the fact that my girlfriend doesn't handle stress very well and you've got yourself one fucked up week.

Dear God stop shafting me
Ok now that my daughter is safe and sound, I have to contemplate why in the hell things can go from smooth sailing, everything going pretty good to getting plagued like this with "bad luck". I say my prayers every night, use the secret to try and visualize everything all sweet. It was all working wonderfully until this week. I didn't even mention ALL the freakshows. But whatever. I guess life isn't always a bowl of peaches. But for God's sake, stop shafting me already. All I want to do is make a frugal living and slowly invest in real estate and make 6 figures and build a solid retirement plan with rentals and other investments. Is asking for 100k a year or so coming in a huge sin? I made over 100k a year before and I've been inching my way back to that, fighting tooth and nail, working very hard, all the time. Then I get busted down over and over again. Its getting old, so Dear God, stop shafting me. Most my money goes towards my kids and helping people out anyway. My idea of a treat this year was to replace my dog eaten worn out nikes with a new pair.

Ok I'm done whining now. (unless I keep getting shafted)

Real Estate Update
Well I got off to a slow start on my rental this week. I did manage to start building a corner drywall piece to cover up the vent pipe on the new toilet install, and I installed half the window and got the air conditioner put in so its not 110 degrees over there. Tomorrow (God willing?) I'll get over there and finish the window job and hopefully get some drywall over my framing I put in on that corner, and slap some drywall mud and tape on it. There is a LOT to do, but mostly its a bunch of little stuff. No way can it be as bad as putting up a privacy fence and fighting tree stumps and pulling out an old crappy one. I'll post some pics of that one of these days :) Stay tuned. I promise not to be so negative in the future, really I'm not a big ball baby. What a way to start off a blog, heh.

Goodbye Ruby

My little puppy Ruby died today. You can never really be prepared to lose a loved one, and the sting of death is the worst. Why bother loving when it just gets taken away from you? What bothers me the most is I have been building a 6' privacy fence because the dogs would just climb over the old wire one and get out all the time. I was ONE DAY from completing the new fence. Sunday I had it done. Saturday she disappeared. I spent all day Saturday driving around looking for her, yelling for her, etc.

Anyhow I better start from the beginning. I got up Saturday and noticed 3 dogs were gone. Arnold, Honey and Ruby. Arnold is the big one and must have knocked down the temp walls I had made where the last of the fence was yet to be completed. Since I had to remove the old wire fence and replace it with new wooden fence, There was always a spot that was unsecure where the old fence was spooled up and the new fence ended. I'd baracade it with boards and bricks and stuff, but the storm or Arnold knocked it down and they were gone.

I got in the truck and drove around, asking neighbors if they had seen them, and people outside in the neighborhood. Finally I expanded my search and found Arnold and Honey on the highway. Ruby wasn't with them. I got them in the truck and took them home. I went back and after 3 hours I found Ruby on a pretty busy road. I stopped traffic with my truck, jumped out called her name and she took off running. I ran after her but there was a field with deep weeds and she just disappeared. After seeing cars piling up behind my truck and a minute or so of looking I drove ahead a bit and saw here yet again. Same thing, she ran. She must have been spooked. She was only about 4 months old and had never been on a walk yet so she must have been freaked out. I searched until after 7 pm with no luck. I told people in the area about what had happened, and gave a lady my phone number who lived right near where I saw her last. I figured I had better get the last fence post set before the sun went down, I didn't want any more dogs lost.

So I ran home tore the last metal fence post out and then dug the hole and planted the last wooden post and set it in concrete. It was probably record time for a job like that, and I was out looking for Ruby again that night before dusk. No luck. That night at 3am I went to the edge of the field and called for her with a whistle sound I make.

Sunday I looked for her with no luck. I went home and worked hard on the fence, and put two whole sections up. The lumber company ran out of the pre assembled panels so I just made my own. They look better anyway since I can make the gaps straight and level, and pick out nice straight boards. On breaks I drove looking for Ruby. Nothing. Finally I finished the fence and I made lost puppy posters with her picture on them. My girlfriend and I drove around the country stuffing mailboxes with the posters. Just as we were done with that my phone rings and the lady spotted her in that area again. I floored the truck and got there in under 2 minutes. She disappeared again into the thick weeds. At least she's still alive. My girlfriend went back to get Arnold, I figured maybe we could track her with him. I ran all through the cemetary looking for her with Arnold running full speed. Nothing. Then I formed the plan to get a live animal trap, but the human society was closed until Monday at 2.

I call the police again and they said that someone had called and saw her on that road again. So I was sure we'd catch her in the live animal trap, or at least I felt optimistic that she was staying confined to that one area. I had looked off and on in the morning with no luck. Finally at 2 I go get the trap set it and load with food. On my way home I recall seeing a dead deer on the highway and thought maybe she could smell it and was eating it or something. I then saw her on the highway all splattered. I turned around and got out and looked very carefully at the mess to make sure it was her. It was. I was totally devastated and cried like a baby.

What pisses me off is I had this feeling that something bad was going to happen to the dogs before I got the fence done. Like I knew it all along. I hurried as much as I could though, building a large fence takes a lot of time and work, and there were tree roots and other crap that slowed me down. One day later, and this would have never happened. I also prayed and prayed. I never prayed so much in my life I don't think. Then God hands me a raw deal like that. I mean I DID EVERYTHING to find that little puppy. Any idea that popped into my head I acted on. Yet she still got smashed into nothing on the highway. Usually my prayers are always answered. At least the ones where I really feel it, and feel I really need it. I guess I didn't need 8 dogs, but hey, and 7 is still too many, but I still feel like I was ripped off and that shouldn't have happened.

Why is death so hard to cope with? I know I'll be fine in a day or two, but wow, talk about a huge emotional deal. My girlfriend and I have been wondering what the reason is for this to happen. I mean, they say that everything happens for a reason. Should I have built the fence faster? I mean in order to go faster I'd have had to buy flood lights and work at night or something. I spent ALL my spare time I could on it. I never took a day off unless it was just raining non stop. One day a post hole I dug was totally full of water. I tried shoving dirt in there but it was not happening. So I took maybe 2 or 3 days off.

Back a few months ago the dogs would get out all the time. I let them run the neighborhood. I sort of didn't give a shit. But after I started on the fence that all changed. I took pride in the fact that I did something for them. To keep them safe. So tragic that the day the fence is done it failed its purpose. I mean we were going to celebrate and this whole death just took all the wind out of my sails. I feel like it was all for nothing or something. Like even if you kick ass, you get screwed. I guess I should be happy I still have 7 dogs who all love me. But Ruby was one of my favorites. Honestly I'd have to rank her in the top 3 probably. She was such a lovable good little dog. It just kills me to have done everything I could and then she still got flattened, where a while back I let em run wild and they were fine, they always came back. So when I do care, I lose something I love? I mean we had planned on selling all these last puppies, they were a total accident. But day by day I fell in love with the little thing, she was such a fun loving little dog. We basically decided to keep her and then something like this happens.

Anyway, why am I blogging about this? I guess writing helps me cope with stress. I feel like I'm getting a lot off my chest. I wish I understood things better. Heck I think I met jesus in a car crash when I was younger, ( I was revived obviously) and I know there is something after death. But this was just wrong. I felt like it shouldn't have happened. Yet I had a feeling it was coming. I wanted to be the hero for my girlfriend. The guy who built the fence and kicked ass for the dogs she loves so much. No my glory and the little sweet puppy are now gone forever. Its like why bother? I guess I've had a REALLY good run of decent luck the last year and a half or so. So I should have expected something bad was eventually going to happen. I mean seriously life has been improving a lot.

One message I got from this whole thing is I should really just slow down and appreciate my kids and loved ones more, and the animals I do have. Death is such a shitty teacher. It doesn't give you any second chances. So one thing I want to do from this is just really love and protect whats important in my life. That is something I've BEEN doing, but I guess not enough. At least I know in my heart I did everything I could to save that puppy. I didn't even list half the things I did, this read is too long the way it is. Anyhow, I'll get over it. It was just a taxing 3 days. At least I found her, and got closure on this whole thing.

I'll be starting to renovate my rental soon. Stay tuned.

Does Affiliate marketing actually work?

Google "non cents"

After google adsense or "non cents" as I like to call it burned me and shut down my account, I was left with a web site that had empty banners everywhere and a lot of wasted effort on the site. That was a year ago, and once you sign up for anything like that you will probably get a lot of spam and offers. I've seen a lot of pie in the sky offers, and success kits on tv being offered. Yet I never actually knew a single person who's made one penny from affiliate marketing before.

Secret Society or Secret Scammers?
So to me the whole thing seemed like a big scam, or a big secret where only a few people are raking in the cash. Most the time I'd email someone about it who was supposedly making it I'd never get a reply. Anyhow, giving up is a sure fire way to fail, so I've decided to try the opposite spectrum of google adsense, which is google adwords and the whole clickbank deal. I've got a program and mentor which are training me on how to do it, and I think that is critical in anything you do, GET A MENTOR!

Get a mentor!
My launch into the real estate world has been amazing, all because I have had a mentor. Someone to answer all my questions and get me making money ASAP! That is the name of the game. So this time around, I've got a real mentor to help me with affiliate marketing. With someone who's actually making money at the business to answer your questions, in any business, I think that is critical. There are just too many road blocks which will slow you down and then you'll end up quitting or deciding its not for you without a mentor. Sure its all possible without a mentor, but who wants to read and research and struggle when a mentor can tell you probably the best way to do something instantly?

Power in inspiration
One thing I've always noticed when having a mentor is I get inspired, and when I'm inspired all limits, negative feelings and preconcieved notions are all wiped away and removed. Confidence is instilled and then action is taken, and when you take action with confidence, most the time results will come through for you, and I'm a very results driven person. So once again GET A MENTOR. Once you know the ropes you won't need a mentor but they are always handy to have in your back pocket.

So stay tuned and we'll see if affiliate marketing actually works!

Taking action and measuring results

Nothing Beats Action
I can sit and think about things, talk about them, contemplate the possible results, research until I'm blue in the face, but nothing replaces good old taking action and then measuring the results.

Yesterday I was a bit negative in my blog because I was considering signing up for an affiliate marketing program. This is not the normal me. Also I missed a day of fence work and just sat on the computer and I think that affected me as well. There is something about getting off your ass and working hard and taking risks that excites me.

I took the Affiliate Marketing Plunge
Well I did it. I signed up for an affiliate marketing program. People are obsessed with making money online from home. This might as well be the next dot com thing. Will it crash or is it real? Well one of my self help gurus whom I am subscribed to was really pushing a program. I'm not going to talk about the program, until I actually get a check in the mail from it. I don't have a lot of time either, but I was playing games a couple hours a night so I figured I'd replace that with something potentially constructive and see where it goes.

What sold me on it?
How can I go from negative and biased to sold? Human beings. All these success kits you see online seem to be some page that sends you a success kit and then your on your own to make it work. This one came from the leading affiliate marketer and the guy who sold it to me is helping me make it work. THAT is why I tried it, because in this day and age of scams and shafters out there, you need a mentor to help you get off the ground. My real estate business is launching flawlessly, because I seeked out a mentor. I think they can make all the difference in the world in wether you succeed or not. (musclenow anyone)?

Learning how to write selling campains
Not only will this program supposedly make you profit, Its already shown me how to write more effectively and how to write a product campaign to make it sell. So even if this whole affiliate marketing scheme falls flat on its ass I think its been worth it already from what I'm learning about writing and promoting products. This can translate into 4D Rulers and other businesses I have, and if I can learn how to market my games and services more effectively the long run could mean millions of extra dollars, as we all know a hit game will make you rich faster than you can say bling.

Don't let past mistakes limit future success!

People have a tendancy to let a setback or previous failure permanantly change their thinking about a subject. It's very hard to recondition your mind to new possibilities when it has a predispositioned way of thinking.

For example, I signed up for Google Adsense about 14 months ago and come payday they disabled my account for invalid clicks. I appealed to them twice and to no avail. So that one bad experience has tainted me forever about online money making ideas. I see all kinds of opportunities come my way and veto them automatically because of the bad experience I had.

Like I got a guy whom I believe is pretty reputable trying to sell me this google nemesis program where the guy was making 1500 a day. Is it real? It costs 67 dollars a month to use the program and then you are having to buy adwords ads to drive traffic to your site to get referrals. I know the whole affiliate marketing thing works, but I'm still skeptical and tainted from my previous experience with Google.

Another example is investing in games. After investing millions into Gore and losing it all in the dot com crash, I'm scared shitless to invest into my own products. I have a hard time even investing time! I mean its free. Why can't I get excited to work on Gore Special Edition or the AMP II engine that I own? These projects both have a lot of potential. I think its because I'm results driven. I am completly compelled to work by results. Maybe I'm scared to fail again? Is it because the products are not selling right now?

I think one reason is that its difficult to get excited about projects that have failed. Yet I didn't build 17.5" arms and a 48" chest and a 315 for 4 reps bench press by quitting. Maybe that was because when I was at 16" arms I felt like I was 80% to my goal. Being close to reaching a goal makes it easier to keep working towards that goal. So when I want to make a hundred thousand dollars on a software project and it hasn't made its first 5k yet, maybe I get a little disappointed.

I don't mean to sound all negative. Certainly some things in my life are going very well for me. In fact, I'm the one man machine right now. Joel Huenink Enterprises is doing very well. 4D Rulers on the otherhand, couldn't afford to hire a part time floor sweeper. That disturbs me. So should Joel Huenink Enterprises pump money into 4D Rulers? I think that 4D Rulers should grow on its own time and dime. Its sucked enough money and energy out of me personally for many lifetimes.

I think that its natural to gravitate towards what is working. Yet I'm stubborn and don't like to give up on ideas I find interesting. Like I would love to have 20 + guys working with me on our projects again, and I would love to make money online doing ad sense or whatever the trends have going. To me those things get me excited. Yet without action there is no reaction, and my past negative experiences are sometimes keeping me from taking action. Its a vicious circle I'm doing my best to break out of.

Real Estate - my new passion

After studying the rich and successful extensively, I noticed that most of them even my original hero Arnold Schwarzenegger had made their success or augmented it with real estate. Why real estate? Because it makes total sense for a LOT of reasons, here I will list just a few:

You get the largest return for your money. The typical person shovels their money into 401k or mutual funds, savings account, etc. After a whole year of not being able to touch your money, you might earn a whopping 10%. Then you have to pay income tax on all those earnings. So what if you only have 5k to invest? After a whole year your 5k grows to 5500, minus taxes you might have made 350 dollars.

Now lets take that same 5k and use it to invest in real estate. For 5k you can buy a 20,000 dollar house by getting a loan from a bank. Around here 20,000 can get you a decent 2 bd fixer house which will rent for 400-500 a month. So bank payment if you set it up right would be around 100 a month, taxes on a 20k property are 25 a month or so, and insurance for 30k cost 25 a month. So lets say you get a mid range rent of 450, after PITI (principal, interest, taxes and insurance) you have a positive cash flow of 300 a month! Not to mention, someone ELSE is building your equity! So in 10-15 years when your loan is paid off, someone else paid for your house, not you. So its like someone else is stuffing money in a piggy bank that = the value of the house, which should appreciate quite a bit in 15-20 years.

So after a year you've got pretty much all of your investment back (3600 income) and you've slugged 12 payments into your piggy bank (equity). On top of that sweetness, if you buy a fixer house, you can get ALL your money back and then some if you want. How is this possible? You buy a house for dirt cheap that needs work, do the work yourself, or get a contractor to do it, then after its all polished up you get an appraisal on the house for a higher value, and then refinance your rental for an amount that would still provide positive cash flow and get your initial investment back. So say you put up 5k, borrow 5k and buy a 10k fixer. You put another 5k into it, and have a total of 15k in the place. You then refinance it for 15k pay the original note off, get all your money back and still have a high cash flowing property. Now your money is free to go do another one. Depending how motivated you are, I think the average weekend warrior could do 1-4 of these a year.

Anyhow, I could go on and on about real estate advantages over other investments. For me they make sense because I am mechanically inclined and I'm not scared to fix toilets or hot water heaters, construction, etc. What I don't know I'll figure out along the way or hire someone if I can't. Its really a decision.

For me my first two projects in real estate are a single family rental home I bought, and flipping my own house. The rental needs siding put on, a good cleaning and a lot of little odds and ends. My house needs updated, landscaping, and new floor covering pretty much everywhere. Stay tuned for progress pics!