The Rumors of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated

It’s a bit strange to be posting a long-overdue update on house renovation projects in Texas from Las Vegas, but hey, there you go.

I’m here in Vegas from June 30th to July 15th, working my annual freelance gig updating the bwin poker blog for the fine folks at bwin. It’s the third year I’ve been out here for the Main Event working for them as a blogger-type for what’s a pretty sweet gig (especially since I play a lot of poker myself), as we’re staying at the Palazzo this year, so the accommodations are, umm, pretty nice.

My only mixed feelings are that I had to leave the Creek House about a week or so from being finished, and the last few weeks on that project have been pretty hellish. I’ve been killing myself the last few weeks trying to finish it up before I had to leave, and, despite all efforts, it just didn’t get done. Pretty frustrated with my contractor at the moment, as he started strong on this project but just completely dropped the ball the last month or so. I’d go into all the gory details, but, for the next few weeks, I’m just going to let that stuff go and enjoy myself in Vegas, as there’s not a damn thing I can do about it and I did everything I humanly could (plus some) the last 3 weeks or so to wrap that project up.

Even with the delays and being way over budget, I am pretty happy with how the Creek House has turned out. A potential huge profit has dwindled to a potential big profit to a potential decent profit, but I’m pretty confident that it’ll move quickly when it’s finally listed, as it really is head and shoulders above comparable stuff on the market, and I at least bought right when picking it up, so I’ll still likely make some money when it’s all said and done.

But yeah, major changes in the future if I continue to work with our contractor, as this current project went way over the line as far as what I can accept and deal with as part of doing business with small town contractors. I’ll bend over backwards more than your average monkey in an attempt to keep things friendly and smooth, but even I’ve got a breaking point.