I thought I would post progress pictures of the bathroom remodel. I’m having the master bathroom done first because its shower is not usable. So once they get it working, they can start on the hall bathroom. This bathroom is very small, with a shower at one end, a vanity that I installed several years ago and a toilet. Before I moved in, the inspector noticed the shower pan was leaking so I had that replaced by the owner. Unfortunately they didn’t do a very good job and within a year or so I wasn’t able to use the shower because it was causing the plaster on the other side of the wall to peel and the new tiles around the bottom of the shower were coming loose.
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First Quarter Results
Overall I sold 149 things for $3,986.25 with commissions of $186.39 in the first quarter of 2007. In January I had my best month with Amazon ever with $93 in commissions. But a big part of that happened when someone bought an XBox for $400 and instead of getting the 4% electronics commission, I got the full 6.5% allowed for computer and video games. That’s $26 on one sale, the most I’ve ever made. I also sold one movie through Amazon’s Unbox movie download service, which they are offering a promotional 10% commission on (so I made $1.50). The most unusual thing I sold was a book, Federal Prison Guidebook, which sold at the same time as a guitar pick, guitar bag, and several CD’s. I guess someone was planning a trip. That was good for me because the $80 book and other things all got 6.5% commissions.
To Do List
This is the list of things I asked mom to turn her attention toward, in order. Until I run out of money or get tired of it.
Master Bathroom: Replace shower and shower tile.Reglaze remaining wall tiles white. Install a new toilet. Install new floor tile. Repaint walls and repair plaster in the hallway and bedroom where the shower leaked.
Main Bathroom: Replace sink with either a pedestal or hanging sink. Replace medicine cabinet. Replace the toilet. Replace or refurbish the existing tub and tile. Install new shower/bath plumbing and fixtures. Reglaze wall tile white. Paint walls, repair ceiling damage. Replace bathroom cabinets or at least fix them up. Replace attic pull-down steps.
Replacing carpet in back room with tile or wood flooring (Susan has some tile I can buy). Replace back door with full glass door. Reinstall other back door and finish trim. Replace linoleum flooring in the bay window. Remove old “window” air conditioner and patch over the hole. Replace all the vent registers in the house.
Replace flooring, countertop, and sink in kitchen. Replace refrigerator and dishwasher. Remove wall paper and paint walls.
Refinish floors in all 3 bedrooms. Replace wood paneling in guest bedroom with drywall (may need new trim and doors as well).
Mom the Builder
Mom has been on me for years to fix up my house. So she called me one day with what she thought was such a great idea that she was surprised she hadn’t thought of it earlier. She would act as my General Contractor and find people to do work on my house and all I would have to do is pay and make any necessary decisions. She would research contractors, get estimates, meet people at my house, etc. Since I was really needing my roof replaced I agreed that would be a good test and then we would evaluate from there. She would charge me a commission for the work she was doing.
The Archos Lives
Now that he has an 80 GB iPod, Jeb returned the Archos after three years of borrowing it. Also it didn’t work anymore. 
Well, kind of. If I hooked it up to my computer (had to install the drivers since my current computer had never seen the Archos before) it would act as an external hard drive, but by itself it wouldn’t spin up its hard drive and seemed to freeze while trying to boot up. I could turn it off and it would flash HD FAIL before turning off. So it was useless as a music player.