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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!

 

Creative Parenting (Amanda Wall interview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Last Sunday I shared a preview of an interview with an illustrator and graphic designer who I’ve known for a quite a few years. She is one of my personal inspirations and she regularly sets a high standard for commitment to her craft.

When I become a parent one day, I can only hope to be as gracious and dedicated to parenting, married life, and art making as this lady does. And she’s a few years my junior to boot.

That’s right, with an exclusive shoot, I’m ready to share the full length and well documented official interview with Amanda Wall.

In case you missed it last week, I wrote about a specific example of Amanda’s skill, which benefits greatly her ability to delegate regularly. No matter what she’s in the midst of this lady is committed – Amanda is a full-time freelance designer, who also stays at home with her son. She is passionate about life. That might seem super vague, but let me explain in greater detail; Amanda loves to produce work related to health and wellness, life events, social issues and the eclectic. She services clients from home, whether a business or an individual.

A graduate of Grant MacEwan University with certification in design and a diploma in illustration, she has been working in the industry for almost decade. And if you were to ask small Wall Riley, there are a set of credentials there that justify the title of Mom too.

Also, I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to try out on location interviewing for the first time ever with Amanda, so don’t be surprised at the different environment, embrace it. Her kitchen and dining room are really nice, and well lit. Don’t believe me? Hit the picture below to check it out for yourself.

Told you that was going to be a good one. Aesthetically pleasing, mentally inspiring, and otherwise entertaining, I couldn’t have asked for a better hostess my first time off campus. And Riley was very accommodating too, can’t forget to thank him for his patience.

But what did you think? Did you enjoy the theme this time around? Are you a creative professional with something to say? Hit me up for a chance to do your own interview and get your voice heard, because timotheories isn’t just about me, it’s about you too.

And special thanks for Amanda for being amazing, appropriate, and available to meet!

Tim!

Stop To Smell The Flowers (Amanda Wall, preview interview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Outsourcing has become a major way to do business in the age of communication.

And as Ferris Bueller once said,

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once and a while, you could miss it.

What that means for artists, is that it’s actually in our best interest to embrace the idea of outsourcing. Finding ways to trade off certain tasks for the sake of other ones, like making our art, for instance.

But what if you’re a parent AND an artist? Well, you have to figure out optimal ways to live for both of your passions.

Amanda Wall is a full-time freelance designer, who also stays at home with her son. She manages her business and keeps her son Riley engaged with all sorts of different activities, while her husbands works a day job. She is the kind of artist that finds double duty is the best way to accomplish her goals. And she is more than happy to delegate duties out when needed. Whether its meeting a deadline for a client in the service industry or finding time to go to the park and play with the kid, Amanda has a vice grip on life and she won’t let go of either of her two loves.

She’s figured out how to get the most out of her work, family time, and other responsibilities without sacrificing one for the other. It might help that she sometimes likes to think of Riley as a desk-mate, one she works with rather than against.

It’s an inspiring conversation, and this is just a small sample of life as an artist with a small Wall. So take a peek and learn what Amanda has to say when I ask her about outsourcing aspects of her business versus her household responsibilities.

She really does make things optimal, without having to stick to a rigid structure. Like so many of the moms I’ve met in my life, Amanda is an expert juggler with a great sense of empathy, and she’s happy to bring out the flowers when opportunity strikes.

Another week knocked out of the park my friends, and stay with me this week while we explore the city, get some inspiration from figures associated with Space, take a safety dance, review an album by Wilsen, and then dig into the real meat of this Amanda Wall interview, it’s gonna be a fantastic leg into the finish of May. What a week for theories!

Tim!

Sloth-like Behaviour (The Secret To Apathy)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

I’m not a big proponent of statistics, dear readers; for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is that statistics are incredibly difficult to substantiate in the real world. The stats are always changing, and in general, I suspect a lot of people may not trust them. For that reason alone, I hesitate to use stats myself.

Unless it’s convenient or validates an already existing belief.

Then I can very easily see the need to jump on the statistics train. But so can most of us.

 

Which is why it’s so fascinating for me to witness cultural trends that either celebrate statistics like the “50% of married people get divorced” one, or that are ignored like “1 in 3 people experience depression in their lifetime” one. Because we will probably use this information to our advantage or simply ignore it, then we can continue along our path of non-resistance.

The other reason I am kind of against statistics is that the effort it takes to cite written sources (read: any sources) is already a lot of work, and with the Internet, what you say or do can come back to haunt you later. Sometimes mere moments later.

Wait a second timotheories, that last statement looks like you are saying it’s okay to just run on autopilot when it comes to fact finding… Sounds like you’re lazy.

Good point my friends, good point.

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This is why it’s fun for me to hide my references and ideas behind pop culture. We all recognize pop culture references, whether we love them or not is another matter. But it’s easy to recognize them and what they represent a la satire.

Take this one from the show Family Guy. I always found the scene below both really funny and really excellent, because it sums up almost perfectly the suffering most people put themselves through by simply not challenging themselves with a little bit more uncertainty and risk in life.

Hate to break it to you, but you’re gonna have to click on this 2 times to read it all. It’ll be worth it. I promise.

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We constantly do this to ourselves.

We go to bed with the best intentions, but never wake up when we say we will. We head home with the expectations that we’ll clean up the house and prepare for the next work day, but instead we plop down on the couch to a favourite show and order pizza. We avoid going out when invited because of the challenge to find a sitter or deal with people we don’t know, so we opt to stay in instead and say that we have the option to go out but are choosing not to exercise it.

Which is exactly what this TEDx talk by life coach Mel Robbins starts off by saying. Though I think she can speak more clearly for herself, so I’ll let you watch the clip yourself.

But for the sake of time and convenience, I’ll skip ahead to the part I am most interested in sharing with you. You can probably watch for 2 minutes, but the last ten minutes are great, and the full 21:39 are even better. Ready?

That’s the big secret.

We are never going to feel like doing the thing that is the most important thing in order to make a positive change. Activation energy is incredibly difficult to put together, and according to Mel, all of these decisions are determined within the first five seconds.

We have to say yes to the impulse within the first 5 seconds, otherwise we won’t make the change. And we have this problem from the time we are children to the time we expire. Parents understand this concept, but may not be able to articulate it properly.

You see, parents make you do everything you are supposed to do, but when you become an adult, you stop having someone there to tell you to do it.

So what’s an adult to do, especially if they want to do something difficult like starting an art project, getting into the recording studio, or sitting down to write the fifth chapter of their novel?

It’s simple,
(but not easy):
FORCE Yourself
OUT Of Your Head
PAST Your Feelings
OUTSIDE Of Your Comfort Zone

You have to stand up, fight that impulse within the first five seconds and get going, and always remember, you are never going to feel like it.

But hey, that’s just a theory right? Some food for thought. What do you think though? Have you tried this? Do you want to? Please leave some comments, and subscribe to the feed. See you tomorrow friends, with something timely.

Tim!