How does Big Al do it???

My wife and I have been working months on just doing what really is only minor repairs to a grand old 102 year old house and it's about to kill us!! I see these beautiful homes that Al has built and I can only wonder 'how' because I can hardly type because I'm so tired and my freaking thumbs hurt so bad!

I'm honestly reasonably proficient at hanging and finishing drywall. This old home has a lot of little, a couple larger but only two, places in the old lathe and plaster walls that need repairing and some general refinishing of some beautiful hardwood floors, 12" tall baseboard, crown molding and door moldings. The trouble seems to be that it's never ending and the walls are 10' tall. It has a "man cave" in the basement that won't require much except a little plumbing and electrical work to bring it up to code and it includes a wet bar and a place for a 60" flat panel TV. There are also 2 bedrooms in the basement, meeting code with window exits, 2 bedrooms on the main floor and 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor.

I think I've decided that refurbishing a 5000+ sq. ft. home with 10' ceilings with thousands of little places to fix in the walls is just too much for me. At first I was buying "low dust" drywall mud by the gallon. Now I'm picking up two 5 gallon buckets at a time! Now it's started raining and the full acre yard is starting to grow again.

How do you do it Big Al???

Maybe he is a secret mule and brings a bunch of help up from Panama. Notice he is real lacking on pictures at times. Probably has to screen his shots so no helpers show up in them.

I do a little bit each day . The jumpping up at the crack of dawn and busting my ass caught up with me . I average about 5-6 hours a day of actual work . The rest of the day is spent trying to figure out what the hell I am doing .

I did "Hit the wall" last week and my old heart shut me down for a couple days . I knew it was coming .

Today was a road trip to the big city to pick up more building supplies . Thats a 12 hour trip .

About 2 more months should have me finishing up the new Mini Storage and then I am going to sit on my ass and quit this nonsense.

It has become a great investment but I really forgot how much older and slower i am now at remodeling .

I get distracted very easy and early last week I found myself over at a nieghbors doing tractor work instead up working on finishing the the last two apartments .
Next week I pull the underground fuel tanks and I hope to be done with goverment " RED TAPE".