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Category Archives: Our Team

The Rattlesnake Reno Journey Comes to a Close

The lighting makes this look sort of tan/brown, but these tiles are gray like the rest of them. This is part of the living room.

What a wild ride from the first time I laid eyes on The Rattlesnake house a year and a half ago. What became the master bath was flooded and full of mold and mildew, and now showcases a farmhouse chic theme. The floors are finished. There are some last touches on plumbing for the kitchen and some cabinetry left to build, but she is now ready for us. I don’t think that any part of this project or its deadlines have gone the way we thought it would, but we still achieved the end goal. Hermits’ Rest Enterprises, LLC has completed its renovation commitments to the house, and now it is my turn. The things that I have committed to fixing will take time. Some of it just takes time to complete, and some I will have to save money to do. The heaviest part of it is done though!

Of course we had planned to have already moved in by now, but plans change. It was more important to have the floors done and done correctly than to go ahead and move in anyway. I can be fully confident in the floors and their quality for many years to come now. An extra two weeks of waiting in exchange for many years of not having to worry seems like a fair trade to me.

I am so tired, and I have been living out of boxes in a state of constant readiness to move for a few months now. I am that kind of tired that sleep doesn’t help. I plan to not ever again build or rebuild my own house. If it ever comes down to it having to be done, I would hire a GC to do all of the things I have done.

This has been a long road for all of us and most of it wasn’t paved. To look back on what has been accomplished, we all really deserve a pat on the back. I would also like to thank you all for being on this journey with us. Thank you all for so many kind words and to those of you who have been my sounding board when I needed to iron out ideas, or vent my frustrations to get them out and move forward. I truly could not have accomplished all of this alone.

I have certainly learned way more than I ever thought I would. I didn’t even know I could retain this. I continue to learn everyday, and everyday I find more reasons that I really do enjoy what I do and the people that I work with. Some days are long and difficult. Not every person that we work with is awesome. Over all though, I couldn’t ask for a better place. The tiredness, the stress from the last year, and the gray hairs that are bound to be coming any second now, are all worth it.

We did it! The Rattlesnake has gone from being a sad house, completely unlivable, to being a bright and happy home that is just waiting for us to be there.

I hope you have enjoyed this journey with us! There will still be a few follow-ups along the way. Until next time, I hope you enjoy the pictures of the completed floors, a friendly neighbor, and me trying to figure out what to be for Halloween. This is Mandi and The Rattlesnake signing off.

This is the future dining room. It was so cloudy when I took these, but the house is so open with windows that it still looks pretty bright.

This is the hallway flooring. You can see to the right how the tiles in the living room look tan/brown, but the rest are gray. It’s amazing what lighting can do.

This friendly guy was just hanging out by the mailbox, and scoping the ditches for breakfast. He let me get pretty close to take the picture. I guess if I was a big old hawk, I wouldn’t be worried about someone walking up to me either.

Looking for Halloween costumes. I thought this was hilarious! It sort of sums up how I felt with being so tired the last few months.

 

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Three Years and Counting!

I’ve enjoyed meeting amazing people and learning so much about social media. The support of my colleagues has been invaluable! Happy third anniversary to us!

It’s hard to keep a small business up and running, and that’s why I’m taking the time today to celebrate the accomplishments those of us at Hermit Haus Redevelopment have achieved since we decided to incorporate at the end of September, 2015. We’ve workd on a good number of houses, and made money by wholesaling, rehabbing, selling at retail, and holding properties for rental income. We’re keeping our eyes open for new strategies and ways to deal with the changing markets where we work.

Working with HHR, I’ve learned more than I ever thought I would about the esoterica of running a business. There’s so much to think about: accounting (bleah!), taxes (OMG!), permits and zoning (Help!), and just talking to people (shudder). There’s a reason all my business names have the work “Hermit” somewhere in them. But the last three years have given me tremendous opportunities for growth and improvement. All that should make the next three years easier, I hope.

And of course, we remain focused on our mission to create a better life for everybody. That’s so important.

We’re a bit unorthodox, in that we have chosen to split our efforts between suburburbs of a large city (Austin) and properties in smaller cities and towns. It’s good to have a niche! And it’s been important to us to share what we’re doing in our blog, Facebook, and Twitter feed, so that we can encourage other investors and rehabbers to look outside the box for properties that aren’t being snapped up by inexperienced buyers willing to overpay for sad houses.

I came in only a year and 5 months ago, but I feel like I have been here much longer. Maybe in the theory that time is relevant I have been here much longer. Maybe we all have. I have gotten to see deserving people get to have a home that they can be proud of, and that is SAFE. I think a lot about the adults who I work with and that buy or rent houses from us. Today, it occurred to me that there are many times children who will grow up in these houses. This great song by Miranda Lambert called “The House that Built Me” is my theme for Rattlesnake, but I believe it will hold a special place with children who grow up in a Hermit Haus. That makes me look forward to working with our team for another three times three and many more years to come.

Our team has grown, and we’ve worked with some great folks along the way. Thank goodness for all of them! And YOU, our readers, followers, and fans have also been great for us. Your encouragement, ideas, and support have kept us going when things are challenging, and given us confirmation on our direction when things are going well.

As we branch out to new adventures, rearrange our priorities, and adjust to changing times, we remain committed to working together to make the world a better place, one happy house, business, or multi-family property at a time! There are more new and interesting projects just around the corner!

Opportunities abound with the Hermits!

Memories!

We hope you enjoy the thoughts of some of our team members about their experiences with Hermit Haus in the sidebars here.

You can also head down memory lane by visiting our 2017 anniversary post.

Last year at this time, Mandi was writing a series of posts introducing you to the team. That was a lot of fun! We were working on the Taylor house, Russell had started an investment club, and Lee and I were still going to all those real estate seminars.

This has been such a roller coaster ride. So many aspects to this business. It’s cool that our team has gotten good at sharing the work and the information.

In 2016 we didn’t blog about the first anniversary of the company, but we did post on Facebook. I’d like to show you those, but, do you know what’s hard to do? Go back on Facebook and find older posts. I’m good at this stuff, and I still can’t do it. Anyway, in 2016, we were experiencing a slow time, but were about to close on the Ash house, and about to close on the Travis Avenue properties where our Cameron office has been for the past two years. Wow, time really does fly!

To work with people who truly do want to help others is a new experience for me, and I can’t thank HHR enough to giving me the chance to feel good about what I do.

As we shift our goals and priorities to deal with changes in the market and new challenges, we remain glad to have committed to working with each other and getting a wide variety of perspectives on what we do.

Happy blog-a-versary to us!

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Keep Those Hearts Beating

Anita, Kynan, and I ready for last year’s Austin Heart and Stroke Walk!

Once again, I’ve come to ask for your help. I only do one fundraising activity per year, and it’s the Austin Heart and Stroke Walk. I’m in my eighth year of doing it with friends I work with in my day job at Planview, Inc., along with Anita and my son, Kynan (this year, our dog, Vlassic will walk with us).  I’m here today to ask you to please help me out by contributing to my personal walk goal. I’d like to reach a thousand dollars, and I’m not quite halfway there.

You could also join us. It’s fun. Click the link in the first paragraph, and click Find a Team, and searchfor the the Planview Plodders!

Why?

This beautiful video by Mandi from last year explains why I’m doing this much better than I could. Thank you, my friend! Even though she talks about things from last year, it’s all still true today. Continue reading →

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What’s it Like to Move Your Office and House at the Same Time?

We had a request for a better picture of the bathroom vanity lights. I love these! Very reasonable price at Lowes.

Answer:

It’s not a lot of fun.

We are incredibly excited to get moved to the church and rent the current office out (to tenants moving to Cameron, who will be a real asset to the community – more on that in another post). We are also very excited for my family to get moved to Rattlesnake and rent out the Travis house I am currently renting.

That doesn’t mean that we are excited for the physical moving part of it, though. We are partially packed up, so it makes finding things in the office a little more difficult. Plus it is very bare in my office with the shelves cleaned off, and the furniture all gone except two chairs, my desk, the futon, and a small table.

Empty office shelves. It looks a little sad. Not for much longer, though.

Rattlesnake Blues

My house is pretty well packed up. It needs a good, deep cleaning and some repairs before a new family moves in. We can’t do them until we are gone, though.

It’s really hard to live out of boxes. We’ve been all geared up to move, and things just keep happening that gets it postponed. It is exhausting and it is frustrating to be living like that for the last couple of months that have passed since we were told “two weeks” the first time.

Continue reading →

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An Update on Mandi and Moving!

Hello again family, friends, and fans! Here is an update from the desk of Mandi about what all is happening between my health and the big move to Rattlesnake!

Thank you Mama Suna for my awesome ball! I’m not scared of it anymore!

First, the health!

I have been diagnosed with a cholesteotoma and an abscess in my right ear. Cholesteotoma is a nasty little cyst like thing that presses on the nerves and can cause all the symptoms I have had. Such as:

  • Vertigo
  • Nausea
  • Migraines
  • Vision Loss
  • Hearing Loss
  • Ringing in the ears
  • Numbness and Paralysis of the side of the face that it is on
  • Severe Ear Pain
  • Trouble with Speaking
  • Sometimes even fine motor skill issues.

Continue reading →

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