By Heidi Dahlke
About five and half years ago, I reached out to my brother who was flipping houses for a friend. I had always been interested in flipping and remodeling houses and I knew that I would enjoy working outside of the home while my kids were in school. I jumped right in and got to work. Five years later and 20 or so houses later, we started a flip for an acquaintance who we had done some work for earlier.
The job involved adding a bathroom to the basement, opening up doorways, changing the kitchen footprint, and renovating the upstairs bathroom. New floor, new paint, and new trim would finish out the project. Plenty of work to do with a timeline of about 2 months. We’d done it plenty of times, so I was not concerned.
The job started out pretty well, but quickly started to lose speed. My brother and his special needs son were learning to live without their wife and mother who had passed away the year before. Some days were rough and they couldn’t emotionally or physically be present at the job site. There were times that he would show up for an hour and then leave. His son had started many forms of therapy to help since his diagnosis.
I had planned a family trip for Christmas break after my missionary returned home. I was nervous to leave but I had been working and manifesting this trip for a year. We went on our trip, made many new memories and saw multiple blessings and miracles. Upon our return home and my return to work, it became very apparent that nothing had been done while I was away.
I quickly got back to work, but many delays and frustrations kept showing up. Our sheetrock guy just never came back to finish his work and the work that he had completed had to be redone. The flooring that I had special ordered was lost and had to be reordered which caused a month long delay. I would show up to work and do everything I could to keep moving forward but I was getting quite discouraged as I felt like much of the work I was doing alone. I started bringing my missionary son with me so I had an extra set of hands and another mind to talk through issues and projects. There was a break in at our tool storage unit and many of our tools were stolen. The further we got into the project the more issues arose. The stairs had to be rebuilt due to a shoddy build previously. My brother had been out of the industry for a little while mourning the loss of his wife. So when he bid this job he was not aware of the price increase of some of the supplies that we had always used. Money was short and months were flying by. There were a couple weekends that I was burning the midnight oil trying to hit deadlines for carpet and inspection.
My family was suffering at home, with me having to work so much to keep up with the demands of the job. I would rush home to pick up kids and rush off to practices or games. My husband’s job and church calling are very demanding of him and he needed my time and support too. I had no down time so I was getting really burned out. I was doing my best to keep my brother afloat as well through his struggle. All the while I was trying to keep up with my Rare Faith courses. I was definitely doubting the timing of it all.
April 30th I walked out of the job site for the last time. I had put my heart and soul into it. The owner didn’t have to list the home. It was sold from a facebook post. Thankfully, there were moments of clarity through the process as I was listening to the recordings with my Mindset courses. There were days when I would just ask, what can I do? What is my next step? I learned many things through the process. Things that my brother had always done in the past, he wasn’t around to complete, so I tackled them. I realized how capable and skilled I am and I took pride in knowing that if I didn’t know exactly how to start or complete a project, I could figure it out. I realized that this is truly a gift of mine and I do a good job. I am an extremely hard worker and I do what I say I will do. I loved having my son learn from me and have him work by my side. I have grown so much through this experience. All the difficulties that arose were handled or managed and we grew through them. I get to decide how hard a situation is, observe it objectively and decide whether I should assign meaning or just let it be.The less emotion I assign to circumstance, the quicker I can work through it. I feel so blessed to have been able to learn and prosper my life and mindset.
For more on this topic, click here to read Hidden Treasures: Heaven’s Astonishing Help with Your Money Matters FREE.
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