Dr says "maybe well done"

5 weeks ago my blood pressure was hovering around 148/92 on the good days. The Doctor was a bit sceptical that I would be able to make some life changes and bring it down without medication.

This was the reading this morning and yes it was calibrated so it is accurrate.

This is the average of the last 2 weeks. The doctor now tells me I do not need blood pressure medicine. Was it easy to make life style changes? Not always but I had a goal. I also lost 12 pounds in the last month. No caffine, less meat and smaller meals do make a difference. Now I still have the extremely high cholesterol levels to deal with. That test was also a month ago and the doctors have been telling me it is hereditary. There is no way diet changes are going to bring the LDL levels down by 70%, which is what they want to see. They are also telling me medication will not bring it down 70%. I am told if the numbers improve it will be a combination of a couple of drugs and staying on my current diet, unless I am one of the 10% who are not impacted by high cholesterol. I am having a calcium score test run in January to see if I am one of those lucky 10%. Also rerunning the blood test in January to see if diet has lowered the LDL cholesterol. 

We are getting closer to finishing Wild Flower cottage. This was a bedroom when we purchased the house.

At noon today this was the same bedroom, cleaned out and fixed.

This was the 2nd bedroom upstairs when we purchased.

Same room this morning.

I would have to say we have made quite a difference.

The hallway upstairs look a thousand times better as well.

This was the tub and shower when we took possession.

We have put in a tile surround (by we, I do mean Matthew although I did grout the tile). We should be wrapping this project up in the next week.

Then it is on to the next house. This is a picture that was on the wall in that house. All the stuff inside the glass of Dad'a best friend are dead roaches. Who was dad's best friend the dog or the roaches?

In life there is almost always room for improvement. I thought it would be really hard to stop drinking coffee. It was a major part of my life. When Tony was living with us he once asked me, "do you drink any water or just coffee?" He had a point but, hey coffee is just water with caffine added right?

We were traveling down to Murray Iowa to see our grandkids in the Christmas program on Sunday morning. I thought I would stop and get a cup of decaffinated coffee on the way down. Wow, that was awful! After 5 weeks without coffee, I don't want it anymore. Same with most of what I was eating. 

It is possible to change and change can be good. look at how the house we are working on changed. A real mess with terrible wallls and filled with junk, to a house I am proud to be one of the owners.

Sometimes we need to have a life changing experience. The man who lived in the house we are going to start on next was trying to get rid of the roaches. I know that because there are a lot of insecticides in the house. But insecticides still in the containers don't kill roaches. Good intentions don't change lives. It takes work and commitment. 

 

Give away

We buy houses from estates. Sometimes the heirs don't want to remove the contents of the house, that's where our offer of "as is" buys the house. We take responsibility of getting rid of the contents.

I found one of these plugged into an outlet in every room of the house we took possession of this week. I read online that they will keep pests away including roaches. I think they might have some false advertising going there.  When the roaches are dunging on the Pest Reject, I think the roaches are making a statement of what they think of this little item. Good news for us is the weather had gotten cold and the furnace was shut off in the house so almost all the roaches are DEAD. That's right the miriad bug sprays and devices the poor man had purchased didn't kill the roaches but cold temperatures nailed em.

A rule of thumb of mine is the dirtier the house the more cleaners we will find in the house. We are to the place we can hardly store all the cleaners we have gathered up. That goes for houses tenants move out of as well. If they leave the house filthy, you will find the cuboards full of cleaners. Good intentions I suppose, just no actual work involved.

We find a lot of "valuable" stuff in these houses. Not quite sure what we are going to do with the drum set yet.

Sometimes the house are so full of stuff, it's hard to even navigate from one room to the next.

On a previous purchase, I was told there are valuable antiques in the house. My reply "good get them out and sell them because if you don't we will set them on the curb or send to the landfill. This piece was picked up by someone and delivered to a charity in Pella. I hope they get a high price for it and use the money to help someone in need.

I don't know antique values and have no desire to learn.

We did think that buggy had value. matthew was going to sell it for $50 when Bob offered him a "crisp twenty dollar bill". Matthew said SOLD.

Once in a while we do save a piece for ourselves. This dresser is now refinished and in our house.

Usually we just start setting stuff by the curb and let anyone who wants it have it.

It would take too much time and effort for the dollars return to sort and try to sell what I see as junk

Sometimes tenants move out and are not quite honest when they say, "House is empty." Then we start stacking the useful stuff by the curb.

and more to the curb

and more to the curb. Hmm, wonder why they were unable to pay the rent and the electric bill. Maybe too much stuff was purchased that wasn't needed??

So I have started moving some of the smaller stuff to the curb out of our last purchase. Sharon has been loading out to give to a thrift store.

It's part of the buisness we are in to have to dispose of other's stuff. Some tell us we should try to sell it. I'd rather just let someone have it for free if they could use it. I don't want to price it. I don't want to have to meet someone to make the deal and then have 70% fo the buyers not show up. It makes my life easier to just give it away and if it helps someone else, that's a bonus, although I sometimes wonder if we are just adding junk to hoarder houses.

We looked at a couple of houses this week and took a pass. The next day we found out the owner was angry at the neighbor for having a trailer parked partially on the lawn while he resided his house. So he left a note they owed him $300 per day as long as the trailer was partially on the lawn of a house that has been vacant for 14 years and then called the cops on the contractor for having it parked there.

I would have gone over and asked them not to pull the trailer out if it rained so they wouldn't leave ruts and been happy we could help at no cost to us.

I think if we all treated each other as we want to be treated it would make life a lot more pleasent. Especially for the person who able to be the one helping others out in small ways.

Give and it will be gievn to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured in your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured to you