It's time to get the house set for the colder weather

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It's time to get the garage-cum-office finished and all the little snagging jobs in the house find before the weather turns. Before long Autumn will turn Wintry and it will be too late to get any outside jobs done, so that's where I will start the focus.

It looks like it's list time again…

I'll have to go round the house and trek a look at all the areas that I feel need attention. From there, it's a case of setting up sons time to ensure that I can get everything done. I'll probably start the list this afternoon and from there I'll have an idea of how much time it will take me to complete.

If like the setting up if the estate agency for next year to follow a similar path but there are do many aspects of it that I have no idea about timescales. I'll just have to leave more time than I think possible and take it from there.

I'm one of these people that likes to have everything planned to the finest detail with accurate timings but it's just not possible when setting up what will be a new business. The current thinking is to finish my current job at Christmas, take a couple of weeks off and then start in earnest during January. From there I'll step up through the gears to be opening after Easter with a view to building stock levels for this time next year. I follow the cycles of the market and it appears that there are two main markets in my part of the world. The first is taking on property in January and February for sales in March and April. The second phase is taking on property through the Summer to sell after the kids go back to scho in September for people that want to move in for Christmas. I'm looking to catch the tails end if the first market and be really up and running for the second.

Wish me luck!

Just when I thought I'd cracked it - the rain came

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I flew through my list of jobs yesterday. The walls and ceiling of the 2nd garage that I'm converting into an office are painted and ready to go. I've painted the fascias of the garage and checked out the roof. A few small holes in the felt lining were found, but I've now filled these and it will be watertight for the Summer at least. Other odd bits around the house have been completed and I was ready to tackle the garden today. A man with a chainsaw took down the hideously overgrown tree in the front that was blocking the light and would eventually cause issues with its roots. The first job today was (and in all likelihood still is) to remove all of it to the local tip.

And then the rain came.

It's rained quite heavily for most of the night, so jobs like mowing the lawn, weeding, edging, etc just can't be done. Other jobs today included laying more stones at the peaceful spot at the end of the garden and putting up wall planters. This probably can't be done in weather conditions like this and I'll have to see if the rain stops later on in the day.

This was going to be the two days when I got everything for the house sorted for the coming Spring and Summer. Now the garden stuff and the outside cleaning (fascia and outside upstairs windows) has fallen by the wayside. There are always things to do and with the recent collapse and rebuild of my PC, I have plenty of things I can be getting in with - but none that complete an area of concern fully and allow me to move on. The next day set aside for this will be Sunday, and this is dependent on how the recovery from Saturday's wedding goes!

I'm still moving forward with the next thing method of compartmentalising my life, but there seems so much to do and so little time to do it in, as has been said before.

I'm not 100% sure whether I have mentioned this in my blog before, but one of the ways I generate an income is to complete online surveys. I'm signed up with 5 of these survey sites and they send me surveys several times a week each. You answer some basic profiling questions at the start and these filter you in or out of the earning part of the survey. Each survey company has a different way of packaging the rewards (points, £'s, vouchers, PayPal income, prize draws) but basically they all add up to money in your pocket. I'd say I probably earn around £250 to £300 a year from this and it's great for Christmas and birthday presents. Well, I've got around 30 survey invites in my inbox, so there's a few hours if my time this afternoon.

If you're interested then give it a try.