mid-july ~ what's new and exciting...

We've been taking a break from painting the cabinet doors.  We've really got to get back to it since there are 27 doors and the island still to paint.

We've been washing things and putting them back in the cupboards.  It's nice to finally have a bit of a working kitchen again.  Still no sink.

So other than that we've been really taking it kinda (too) easy.  We had a new roof put on at the house on Riverside.  Plus the tenants said that the furnace seized up, so we had to get that looked at and fixed.  At the Breezeway condo, there was an issue with the water line going into the fridge and at that same time, we finally met up with the guy to pay him for the new AC condenser.

So to this point this year, we've spent $6000 on the house on Riverside and $6200 on the condo on Breezeway for improvements.  This does not include the money we had to spend on Riverside in order to get it rented again after our last tenant decided to skip town.  At this point, we've pretty much broke even on Riverside and we are losing money on the condo...hopefully next year we'll make some money.

Another thing that has happened is that we had our first guests for our Airbnb.  They were a very nice couple - early retirees on a trip across the country (from Colorado to Ontario Canada).  It was nice to host them and Jerome made a lovely breakfast on Sunday morning where we finally sat with them and chit-chatted.  They have invited us to stay with them at their place in Tarpon Springs, Florida.  We just might take them up on that as we will be heading to Florida for Thanksgiving this year.  As far as Airbnb, we've had a lot of inquiries but up until this time we were turning them away because of the mess with the kitchen remodel.  Now we can really start hosting.  And pretty much as soon as our first guests were gone, we received another inquiry for the end of August.  That should work.

My oldest sister came for a short visit this past weekend.  She's the one that always asks me what's new and exciting.  She got to see first hand and she claims to like it.  I have not completely learned if I can believe what she says or if she was just being nice.  I am the baby of the family and while having a conversation during this trip, my sister mentioned how I seem to express my views / speak my mind a lot more now, when I used to be so easy going when I was younger....Yeah, I'm 47 - they just aren't used to the baby having an opinion AND expressing it.  What can I say?  It's new to me too.

While she was here, we brought my mom (actually, it was my mom's idea) to Harsens Island for lunch.  You have to take a small car ferry over to the island and then you can drive everywhere.  We ate at Sans Souci Bar.  We had a beautiful view of the South Channel.  Sans Souci means Carefree or without care - and yeah, I guess I felt a bit that way on that day.  Hakuna Matata!