Looking Back and Looking Forward

Happy New Year Everybody!

If you have ever spent 5 minutes with me, you know that New Years is my FAVORITE time of the year! I am a planner and a goal and resolution junkie so New Year's Day is like opening day of deer season for me. (If you are interested in reading more about my love for New Year's Resolutions you can click on this old blog post.) I am not going to bore you with my entire catalog of 2017 resolutions this year but I thought I'd share with you some of the goals I have written down in my "rehome" section of my list.

BUT before I do I thought it would be fun to look back at 2016.

I am calling 2016 the YEAR OF MARKETING! Anyways that is the positive spin I tried to sell Rory when he looked at rehome's year-end profit/loss spreadsheet (so far he has not shut me down so I'm thinking he bought it). It's true, from a financial standpoint rehome completely flopped last year with 1 project losing money, 1 project breaking even, and 1 project that scored a profit slightly less than what I paid the plumber on the same project. BUT if you measure success in FB likes, blog reads, and overall nice comments we were a HUGE success! I mean as I sit here and write, rehome currently has 1306 FB friends, over 18,000 page views on the blog INCLUDING 3 readers in France (bonjour) AND and I had someone tell me they would wear a rehome t-shirt if we had them- um, I'm pretty sure that would technically make that person a groupie. Aaaand our little Ash Street project was just featured in this month's issue of Women's Inc. Magazine- so that is like real legit marketing. Soooo in 1 year we went from being completely unknown to having friends around the world, published, and 1 potential groupie- yeah I would say it was a successful year.

Here are a few of the highlights from 2016:

Favorite Exterior:  Lee Street

Favorite Kitchen: Ash Street

Favorite Master Suite: Irby

Facebook Post with most views and comments:

 Followed closely by:

While I might not have been nominated for Business Woman of the Year in 2016 I am proud to say that I was the recipient of a few very prestigious awards this year- created, nominated, and presented by Rory Thompson at our corporate Rehome Christmas Party (attendees: 2).  

"The Best Looking Girl on the Job Site"

While I am honored to have won this award it is only fair to mention that I am the ONLY girl on the job site.  Regardless, it is especially impressive that I won this award considering award number 3.  

"Hardest Worker with the Worst Vehicle"

Rusty the truck is the "before" mascot of rehome. We bought him used over 10 years ago and has been past his prime for the last 5 years.  From the bumper held up by a zip tie, and the door that flies open while driving, to the dance you have to do in the front seat to get the ignition to start up, Rusty really does deserve all the credit for this award.  

This is a picture of the year Rusty grew a tomato plant in his bed.

Inside of Rusty

"Is she Homeless?" 

Not exactly proud of this one, but it is well deserved.  Ironically, "don't leave house looking homeless" was one of my 2016 New Year's Resolutions so this award kinda highlights my fail. Not that I have anything against the homeless, I can not imagine the day to day challenges someone without a home must endure and realize fashion is the least of their concerns, it is just that I do have the resources to dress nicely (or at least match) and I still arrive at the job site most days with clothes that look like I pulled them from the dumpster.  I really tried to be more mindful of how I looked when I first started working at the Donaghey project where there are tons of drive-by observers, but after the first month I got over it.  Here is a selfie I took a couple of weeks ago during demo:

"We have no Money"

I'm not sure if I won this award because it is the most used statement I make when looking at our project budget or if this was a backhanded way for Rory to pinpoint the blame of rehome's financials on me.  But either way, an award is an award- I'll take it!

Kidding aside, I am sooo grateful that Rory continues to support this little business venture and the fact that he has not shut me down shouts louder than words that he believes in me and what I am trying to accomplish.  THAT my friends, is what motivates me more than anything and is what sparked the following rehome Goals/Resolutions for 2017:

1) I will make AT LEAST minimum wage on all projects.  

Disclaimer: Donaghey doesn't count.  It was technically started in 2016 and at this point best case scenario we are on track for breakeven.  But after this one, it is on! 

2) Live out James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, 

because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and 

complete, not lacking anything.

I have claimed this as my theme verse for rehome for the past 2 years but I have not done well to live it out. Challenges and surprises come up EVERY SINGLE DAY at a construction site and all too often I let them get me down, ruin my day, and dictate my mood with my family. Unacceptable. This year I want to approach every trial as an opportunity. An opportunity to learn, an opportunity to serve, an opportunity to bring glory to God.  

3)  Update rehome FB/blog weekly.  Oh, I'd like to think I will do this.  You wouldn't believe how many times I write you guys in my head- It's just hard to find the time to get it on the computer.  

4) Re logo rehome! Ok let's just talk about the elephant in the room. Our rehome logo looks remarkably like re forms logo. Without fail someone ALWAYS leaves a nice comment for Lance Johnston on every finished home reveal I have posted. Don't get me wrong I love Lance and it is a huge compliment to get confused for reforms work, it's just that the nice comments are often my only pay off at the end of a project so selfishly I'd like rehome to get the credit  (I'll work on humility in 2018). I thought about challenging reform to a duel to see who should keep the logo but they already have t-shirts and stickers, so it is only right for rehome to rescind.  (rescind \ri-sind\ v. to take back; to make void. January 3, 2017 word of the day. 2017 Resolution #46 "increase vocabulary")

Here is a picture of my FAVORITE Painter and captain of the rehome dream team sporting the reform logo while finishing up a rehome project. See what I'm talking about?!?

Anyways, I'm in the process of trying to come up with a logo that I love and captures the essence of what rehome is all about.  If you have any ideas, send them my way.  My goal is to debut the new look at the completed Donaghey project. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, if you are looking for a great team to redesign and remodel your own home, give Lance and Michael a call at reform.  They do fabulous work.

5) Get on Instagram.  Apparently, this is a big deal.  I can not imagine having the time to manage yet another social media site but I've been told its a great source for new friends, so it's on the list.

6) Complete 5 homes! The biggest obstacle that stands in the way of this goal is finding the homes to flip. The flipping business is VERY competitive. There are a ton of flippers in our area and because we basically gut our homes to the studs we can not afford to pay what others can pay for a rehab so we lose out on a lot of homes.  Soooo I'm offering up a $250 reward to the first person who tells us about a house that leads to a purchase.

There you go! Bring on the New Year!!!