Week 22 of Self Employment: Sink or swim?

This entire process has been refreshing - as in, jump in Lake Superior in April, refreshing. It's allowing us to shoot for the stars which is amazing, but every day is an exercise in cost/benefit for life and business. I love it, no matter how stressful. I know Angie would love a big cushion (who wouldn't) but it's not in the cards right now. The good news is that things are coming to a head. We are getting close to having Hudson come online and there has been a ton of interest in our Building 5 in Houlton seeing that it's heated and people are starting to think about winter. So, in the meantime we'll keep it together with binder twine and chicken wire. Okay, I'm being a little dramatic but some days it feels like this. I think the top of the hill is near! I feel like I could go on like this forever but it's not really fair to continue putting the family through this. 
So with the drama out of the way, on to the good stuff.
Storage Garages of Hudson: At least one wall is up. Building contractor is making serious progress. Grading contractor is all but done for now. They are waiting to put gravel on everything until we dig the frost walls on the next building. Otherwise you end up digging up gravel you just put down. No need to waste perfectly good gravel. Otherwise we have gravel between Building 1 and 3 and that driving area is ready for aprons. Once the aprons are in and complete we can get the pavers in there to do the parking lot. That always makes things look awesome. I'm really looking forward to that. With Labor Day behind us, people are calling us on Houlton Storage Garages and a few don't need something that big. Storage Garages of Hudson might be perfect for them. I'm sure as we get later and later into fall, we'll have more and more interest in both facilities. The nice thing is that they can be cross-marketed pretty well. Renters can rent up or down depending on their needs and budget. 
Houlton Storage Garages: I got the easement over to Xcel for burying the overhead line. That looks to occur in late September, early October. Grading contractor finished things up so the grade is ready for pavement. However, we still need to get electric and gas run under a couple of our driving areas. Then it's on to getting pavement in. I've included a before and after pic of the parking area. It looks nice dressed up. 
Other things: Made an offer on a warehouse facility with another investor. Should be a fun project. This one is in MN for the first time. If things go as planned, my investor friend should see a handsome return. Plus it's close to home. More details coming on this. We're hoping to hear back on Monday (today). Still waiting on a mini storage I made an offer on. Not sure that one is going to happen. I need to revisit the numbers to see if we can bring our offer up a little while also getting solid returns. There may be a little wiggle room left in there. I'll definitely be reporting here if anything changes. 
See you next week.