How I Ended Up in the Slums

I moved to Austin from California in July. I have worked in real estate for a little over five years. So basically, I made lots of money in California and then rapidly lost my house, my car, and my dignity when the market collapsed. Now I work for a cool start-up company in Austin where I deal with rehab properties all day, every day. I earn slightly more than a high-school dropout.

No matter, I still have Rodney The JRT. I found Rodney, or rather he found me, when I was showing a house in LA. I pulled up to the curb, opened my door, and he jumped in. My clients and I shooed him away, so he just jumped in one of the other car doors. The rest is history. I LOVE this dog. If I had to pick between my house, my car, or Rodney, I would choose the dog every time.

One day I was at work in Austin and I thought, hey, I'm almost 30, maybe I should move out of my mom's house! So I started searching craigslist for an apartment, or duplex, or something under 850 a month that had running water, electric, and a little patch of grass for Rodney to pee on. I looked for hours and hours and hours and... the only place that fit that description was one of the townhouses across the parking lot from my office. LOL. Right in front of my face.

So I went to look at it, and it was obvious right away that the owner had not touched it since 1982 (I looked up when the place was built -- 1982). She lived 2 hours away and she had been habitually renting it out to UT students the entire time. She was desperate to cover her mortgage, so a deal was struck. The place was a DUMP, but I knew I could make it look nice. Well, really, I knew if my mom helped me we could make it look nice. This blog is about making my sadly neglected townhouse look a little better, a little cleaner, and a lot hipper.