Over the last three blog posts, I have been describing my life story in my younger years. So far, I graduated college with two undergraduate degrees, had a temporary job, and bought a real “fixer-upper” house. Now what? I kept mumbling to myself, “how am I going to afford to have this place fixed to make it habitable by more than mice and roaches?”

Starting with throwing tarps on the roof, I began doing what I could do to prevent more damage and clean up. The cleanup was daunting. The house was exceptionally dirty, smelly, and in awful, awful shape. I tried sleeping there one night in a sleeping bag and air mattress, but the smell was so bad, I got sick. Turned out that there were three dead and decomposing, maggot-ridden rats in the basement… yep, this place was as awful as I was describing. Blecchhh!

And I was working 70-hour weeks. Where would I find the time to do repairs? What to fix first? How to set priorities? I was overwhelmed.

I then contacted someone for whom I worked during a student job at my university. I worked for the maintenance department in an administrative position (aka “student labor”). The Director of the department was a civil engineer and also was qualified to do home inspections. We had become friends during my student years, as I volunteered to help him with some of his Boy Scouting activities when he was Scoutmaster.

I invited my friend to the house and he went through it, top-to-bottom. He grunted a lot, but didn’t say much except, “there’s a lot to process. I’ll send you a report.”

A week later, he called me. We met over an ice cream at the university’s dairy. My friend understood the pressure that I was feeling with not knowing what to do next. His report laid out a very organized plan of attack. It made a lot of sense and respected my very limited budget.

In turn for his highly valuable services, I offered to develop a sorely-needed training plan for his department. The school year was just ending and I was again without a job. My friend brought me back to work for him during that summer where I more fully developed that training plan and began to implement it. I explained to another permanent staffer how to do the implementation because I was hired as a full-time “real” teacher and returned to work that autumn in the same school where I had taught as a long-term sub.

Meanwhile, as soon as I received my friend’s instructions on organizing the home repairs and remodeling, I got to work. I began with a thorough top-to-bottom cleanup. I invited my family to help, and that they did. I had some 30 family members cleaning up that house and in two days, you wouldn’t recognize the place. My Mom, brothers, sisters, and cousins all chipped in to help. They provided all the cleaning supplies and even pizza. I am so blessed with such a generous family!

After the cleanup was done, I was then faced with the very daunting tasks of repairing walls, ceilings, floors, the roof, as well as plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and much more. I was generally handy with tools, but I did not have the skills to make the more difficult repairs myself. For a year, I lived with one working electrical outlet on the first floor from which I rotated one plug for a lamp, radio, microwave oven or vacuum cleaner, while the other plug was reserved for the fridge. (Even back then, I was loathe to use triple-taps.)

I continued to work as a teacher and enjoyed it, but found it exhausting. 70-hour weeks of work were becoming a norm. Dealing with helicopter parents or parents who worked 3 jobs and didn’t have time for their kids was troubling. The highlight of the year included being selected as “teacher of the year” for the school, so I must have done something right. 🙂

Come the next summer, I was again without summer employment. My friend at the university asked me to work for him again. Turns out that the guy who was supposed to implement my training plan for the maintenance department did not do it. I began to organize training activities myself. For purposes of “quality control,” I attended some of the training courses on skilled trades. I learned a lot that helped me do my home repairs.

Another school year came and went. I even was selected for one of 10 “teacher of the year” recognitions for the entire school district that year. My Mom was so proud… I still see her smiling face there in the audience.

I returned again to what was becoming my regular summer job at the university’s maintenance department. This time, however, the school district was facing a decline in enrollment, and they couldn’t promise that I would return to the same school or grade.

That summer, I began to implement a formal apprenticeship training program for the skilled trades for the maintenance workers at the university. I continued to take their classes for purposes of quality control, but also to learn those trades. I was becoming much more confident as I did more repairs on that old fixer-upper house. In fact, I applied for and received a journeyman’s plumber’s license and electrician’s license. That summer I replaced that house’s entire electrical system and much of the plumbing. No shocks, no circuits tripped, no leaks!

With the money I saved by not hiring contractors, I was able to put it back into the house for supplies and materials. I even bought a new motorcycle as my first one had gone ka-put; it would cost me more to repair than to replace. Heck, I even splurged on not one but two more pairs of boots to wear to work (at school and in the house as I did repairs.) I took a loan in my own name for the motorcycle as I had begun building an excellent credit history with my on-time mortgage payments and not carrying any balances on credit cards.

By mid-summer, I was getting worried. I was not given an offer for a permanent teaching position for the Fall. When I inquired, I was given an interview at a zoo of a school and turned it down. My name then was moved to the bottom of the “eligibles” list.

Meanwhile, by late summer (still no offer of a teaching position) things were working so well with the new apprenticeship program at the university, my boss offered me a permanent position. I thought long and hard, and decided to accept it. The hours would be much shorter, the pay was 20% better, and best yet, I would no longer have to wear no stinkin’ confinin’ neckties! The job also came with a significant additional benefit — university employees could take graduate level classes and get a waiver of tuition. Wow — a Masters degree was again in sight!

I accepted that job and formally resigned from the school district. Again, I do not regret that decision, but am sorry that I had to move on. Circumstances being what they were, opportunities were better elsewhere.

The summary of this stage of my life is: no regrets to change jobs and finessing my new job to teach me skills that I needed to finish remodeling and repairing my house. So now I just turned 25. Will I now have some free time? Will I begin to have a social life? Why am I not interested in women? What is it about men that attracts my attention?

Stay tuned for the next installment of “don’t live regrets: make it happen.”

Life is short: move on when you need to and make things happen.