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Home Improvement (My New House and Other House Keeping Thoughts)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Where I came from, holding a door open for a stranger was absolutely necessary (especially the elderly), and minding your parents wishes at all times expected, but I also had the great privilege of choosing my career path, focusing on creative acts and experimenting with belief systems as I grew up.

A strange combination of conservative Christian roots and post-modern ideals indeed, dear readers.

Now, in case you are wondering what my interpretation of that lifestyle could possibly look like, I’ll start by telling you some of my thoughts on living life. I have strong tendencies towards moral relativism and pluralistic truth-finding, while my creative energy is highly self-referential and irreverent – this is likely why I gravitate towards satire. And satire is best represented in popular culture (in my humble opinion of course). Also, my humour is starkly dry, and I hate injustice of any kind, so satire lends itself well to those values. But on the other side of that coin, I am fiercely loyal to maintaining family traditions, believe in the importance of a cultivated education that never ends, and I will happily defend that etiquette, discipline, and spirituality have their place in properly developing a human being. Even more-so as I step off the singles ledge and into the deep-end of parenthood.

It might seem contradictory to have those combination of beliefs, but I think of it this way, we should carve out what doesn’t work, always holding onto the core pieces that give us structure.

Also, there is an old adage about sweeping your own front door before you sweep the entryways of others, which make perfect sense to me. It’s a universal truth about minding your own business, that we shouldn’t assume to know the first thing about someone. We live in a world today that is very quick to judge or pass judgment on others without looking at ourselves first. We are quick to judge people based on gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, how they make an income, what their income level is, based on where they live and even based on their past life experiences.

But life is way too involving to waste time and energy on what other people are working through. I really can’t see how you would ever run out of things to do to improve yourself, which is likely why I happen to think of houses as marvellous objects and excellent metaphors for change.

Tool Time

As you may know, I’ve been making lots of changes to this brand ever since I started this timotheories business back in November 2014, and for many, it seems like a natural progression to buy property after a certain period of time renting a space. Many people rent for a few years and then pick up a mortgage when they’ve tucked enough savings away.

I decided to to buy a property too. But I did it because I want to have more freedom over my daily life

Buying a house meant finding a mortgage broker who would approve a loan, searching through hundreds of listings, and then viewing more then twenty of them, before finally making an offer. After I put my offer on the table, I was approved. Which meant I could move forward with the next step – I had an inspection of the property done, I put down a deposit,  worked with my insurance company to set up the house insurance, got the lawyer to draw up some paperwork on the sale of the house, and finally closed on the deal.

As I mentioned already, I bought this particular house for a few reasons, one of which was to convert the bi-level bungalow property into two rental units. And I’ve already started that process by replacing the old furnaces and hot water tank with brand new energy efficient models. You see creative cuties, I want to rent both properties and luckily the house came with two furnaces; furnaces that were 20 years old mind you. So rather then continue a string of repairs and having to coordinate with handymen, I signed up for a lifetime warranty plan and replaced those machines. That way I can just give any heating and plumbing concerns over to Always Heating and Plumbing whenever a tenant has an issue. For free. No surprise bills, and the annual maintenance schedule should help keep them alive for many years.

theories Summarized

I also want to pay off the house faster, and turn the house into a source of passive income. That way, if either Mysticque and I lose our jobs, we still have money coming in which could be used to buy another property, build a studio over the garage of our primary residence, or any number of big expenses. It’s a lot of work, but as I’ve said before, home improvement is essential if you want to make a difference in this world. You work with what you’ve been given, but each of us has an opportunity to improve on what came before, by mixing the old and the new.

And if you can keep up that habit, you’ll find you don’t even have time look at your neighbours house, let alone try to sweep up their front step. Leave that mess to the Jones’ and start planning to put in your hot tub instead. Just a theory to consider.

Tim!

 

Well, That Was Easy (A Return To timotheories Form)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

If you can believe it, I have been quite busy these past few months, dear readers.

I’m sure you’ve noticed this fact, given that timotheories effectively shut down in the month of August and didn’t return back to form until December, a solid four months later. This is largely due to two key reasons –

  1. I bought a house in September
  2. and then I got engaged in November

On top of that, I spent the better part of August searching for the house I have now bought, and once more in October shopping for a ring and planning how to propose to Mysticque on the eve of our anniversary. And spoiler-alert, she said yes to me. Which was both exciting and terrifying for me.

You see friends, I’ve never done either of those two major life things before, but it was finally time for me to take the plunge and make a financial decision that would further my ambitions AND more importantly secure a future for my fiancee and I. But it feels terrifying because I’m making decisions that don’t just impact me anymore. They impact the woman I love, and her son, who will also become my child too. Also, I’m hardwired (just like you) to resist change because it could hurt me.

This is why I consciously decided to carve out those months to complete those major goals and then get back into the rhythm in time for Christmas.

Fear of failure is where the terror comes in. Obviously I don’t want to let them down, nor do I want to put them into a bad situation. But to do nothing is worse because I know what I am capable of, and failure is simply an opportunity to learn.

When we are children, we are given many chances to learn, and as we learn we improve. Riding a bicycle, using a lawnmower, and wiping with toilet bowl cleaner all come with some risk. But if someone who is trained to use those items instructs us properly on how to use those items ourselves, then we can better prepare ourselves to complete those tasks too.

I guess my point, creative cuties, is this – Life will continue to be as it always is, difficult and beautiful. Which shouldn’t stop anyone from pursuing their dreams. Dreams are what make life so interesting after all, they motivate our waking life, it’s that easy. And that’s my major theory for the week.

Tim!

 

The Ideal Artist Home (Housing)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

We’ve all done it.

Dreamt of the perfect home and what it would feel like to have it. What it would do to make our lives more constructive, comfortable, and creative.

Friends, let me assure you there’s no harm in fantasizing about what this situation looks like (read: the law of attraction), you dear sweet readers, because you should always gravitate towards healthy environments, the ones that will truly satisfy you. And if you’re like me at all, which I suspect you are, you’ve stared down tons of DIY photos featuring custom housing solutions and pretended they were your property.

Images like this.
blu-homes-origins-1

And like this.
artists-home-sao-paulo

Sometimes like this.
joseph-dupuis-shipping-container-home-wood-burning-stove-537x358

And definitely like this.
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These settings inspire us to actively think about how our environments should look and operate. Which is a good thing. Function combined with aesthetics is a honourable endeavour.

Teenage Art Throb

When I was a much younger artist, I had this ideal artist home all laid out in my mind, it featured so many cool functional elements that it was difficult not to get lost in my own imagination and stay there for hours at a time. Daydreaming my life away. But c’set la vie, as I was quickly course corrected. You see creative cuties, as I went through art school and then got my first adult job, I quickly learned what was possible on my budget and I also learned to put a lot of things on standby. I instead focused on the most important components of my visual empire. We make do with what we can right?

This is after all the first post in a continuing series which was inspired by my Postconsumers post on health and wellness. Which was thankfully a good experience and not a demotivating one. You see friends, what I learned from that website is that sometimes we forget just how good we truly have it.

We live in an age where most people in western society have more than enough. If you really stop to think about it, all we require to live is air, water, food, and shelter – everything else is unessential.

But the astute artist would argue otherwise, stating that the purpose of life is to live it, which means contributing to society in a healthy way – and what better way to contribute than to make excellent art? Thus, the question of shelter is elevated to include elements for the artist. Which also means that finding affordable housing and a sustainable workspace becomes all the more important in your journey to success.

Art & Start Homes

I realize this is a challenge as you start out, but let me offer some words of encouragement, this is not about having the biggest and the best right out of the gate, though many would argue that millenials expect the best. It’s about having better than the constant threat of eviction – you work hard to share your work with the world, but discipline is needed to maintain the basic level of shelter. This means being realistic about what kind of rent you can afford, and then dumping leftover resources (time and money)  from your income earning and shelter providing job directly into your passion.

It might sound like madness to some of you, but I’m not advocating you stop making your art, I’m offering an alternative where you keep yourself out of debt and able to do as much as you humanly can to make your art. You don’t need permission to make or sell your art, but you do need housing.

I have a confession to make – I’m not an award winning, world famous, globe trotting artist folks. Yet. But my intent is to keep at it until something gives, whether it’s fortune or skillfulness, I’ll get there. And you can too. But that’s just a theory, until you make it a fact.

Tim!