One of the beauties of husband and wife working from home is that we get to feed off of one another’s energy. And that’s all well and good when the energy is of a happy, positive, productive nature…
Today? Not so much. Dear Filipes was rudely awakened with two wretched words from office on East Coast.

No, not: You’re. Fired. Although that would have probably been better received.

Rather: Server. Crashed.

OhmiGod. Don’t these gals in Delaware know that he isn’t himself, and certainly not up for the demands of technical crisis, until he’s sufficiently coffee-ed, watered and satisfactorily constitutioned?

Hold on, chickens! Stomping around in underpants. Yelling at unfortunate tech support flunkie on speakerphone. Soothing ‘hold’ music. Underpants visibly bunching. Creative use of expletives.

Ensuing mayhem lasted until almost noon. Now we wait for equilibrium to be restored. T (effing) GIF!

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Yesterday was a day like any other… OK, not really.  The kids were home from school with buses not running, we had four inches of wet, sticky snow, I was out of Cream-o … and six months of stress had come to an end. 

It was over.  The partnership had been signed away. HellHouse 2007 had come to a quiet close.  It didn’t spontaneously combust, exploding into a bazillion, tiny smithereens.  It wasn’t set ablaze by some crazy, n’er do well teenage arsonists. It didn’t wash down the valley in a freak, flash, rocky mountain flood. It didn’t get crushed by a lone, cottage-sized boulder hurtling down from the mountainside beyond.  None of my vivid and dramatic fantasies of summer manifest.  No, the lawyer’s office merely called and quietly stated that it was done, registered and money to be deposited in my account.

The most intense, emotionally and physically exhausting, uninspired and demoralizing undertaking of my life was finally, officially over. 

House Flip 2007.  From ignorance to… less ignorance.  What I learned:

• Afraid to be on roof.  Any roof.
• Drywall. SUCKS. Hire. Period. 
• Can use just about any tool.
• Despite it all, still like building things. 
• Capable of building more things.
• Project has to speak pretty damn loudly to me before I take that much time away from my family again.
• My home and family is sanctuary, oasis.
• Partnerships can be crazy, in fact, downright friggin’ freakish- must be thoroughly and thoughtfully considered. 
• Borrowing money, from other than bank, adds buttloads of stress. Also to be thoroughly and thoughtfully considered.
• Acting out of desperation only perpetuates desperation.
• Opportunities abound, there’s never, EVER, just one.
• Worry = complete waste of time and energy because… 
• Everything works out.  

We didn’t sell the house itself, but our half of it.  To the partners.  We didn’t make a whole helluva lot of cash-ola.  But we are Happy. Happy. Happy. To be out from under and done.  Out from under and done with not only our shirts, but a whole new perspective on how we want to live and earn our money.  Vision, creativity and inspiration.

Do it again?  Absolutely.  Differently.

While This Day wasn’t nearly the ecstatic, joy-apolooza I would have expected given the trauma that these past months had seen, we feel a quiet satisfaction in all we have learned.  Time and distance does heal all.  Strange, in it’s anti-climactic end, but we did manage to celebrate.  Food of course:  a fresh, homemade loaf of french bread and a big bowl of bubbly, runny cheese -OMG.  Heaven.  Topped off with a big, ol’ margeereeeta!

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