looong weekend

As this is the Easter weekend, we here in Western Australia automatically have Good Friday and Easter Monday off.  SO and I added to that by booking last Wednesday and Thursday off, too.  So for the price of two days’ leave, we really have six days off.  I think this is a great way to maximise feeling like we’ve had more leave than we really have.  So far it’s been great, of course.

Actually, so far it’s been a heavily real estate-oriented break.  We showed a couple through one of our units on Thursday night.  (They liked it, so they’ve applied to rent it, and they’re going to get it, too.)  Today, our current tenants for the same unit had their final inspection and bond disbursement.  Tomorrow I’ll be in there, cleaning up that little bit extra that the tenants never do.  (None of them seem to have been shown the ‘toothbrush trick’ - using an old toothbrush with a cream cleanser around tap fittings gets them cleaner than new.)  Plus, at some stage over the next couple of days, we’ll be setting up a meeting for the new tenants to organise the lease and bond paperwork, move in date, etc.

Oh, and today we also bought a second-hand couch for our new unit in Glendalough.  It was a bargain!  It’s a blue, three seater couch in fantastic condition.  It cost us $150 including delivery, so both SO and I are happy with it. 

All this real estate stuff has got me thinking about our taxes again.  We only just got our refund back from last year.  This was primarily caused by my slackness with paperwork – I really held off on entering all the receipts etc into our excel program we use to track expenses and income.  I can see that it’ll be a similar situation this year too.  I just need to sit down and do it.  Sigh.

I also need to get cracking on my couselling course.  I’ve done the first unit, and I have the second one here…. it’s just apathy that’s preventing me from getting it done.  Plus, it reminds me of homework and uni assignments.  Not a pleasant memory for most people I would imagine.  Still, it’s all part of my ten-year goal to retire early and just do some part time work from home (counselling, if I ever finish this course).  I need to keep my eye on the main goal here.  Plus, in four weeks we’ll take possession of our latest unit purchase, and we’ll be up to our eyeballs for a few weeks painting, getting new flooring in, etc. so I really need to do some now while I have the time.