Well folks it has been a while since my last post.  My SkyBall review seems to be helping a lot of folks not waste their money on that useless toy and instead save the $15 dollars for something else.  Let’s fast forward to today, my then 6 year old is now almost 9 and his love of sports and outdoors has not wavered in the slightest.  We recently moved to a new house in the country with a swamp in the back yard.  My plan was to build a personal oasis filled with tiki hut and firepit, the focal point of it all being a gorgeous pond.

I worked with all the local authorities to basically rebuild an existing pond and dam that the seller had broken.  I decided early on to try and do this in the most affordable way possible.  I called the family friend with and excavating company, he gave me a fair price and away he went.  Built my pond in 9 days.  Made the shape an interesting and acceptable position in the yard, stuck a pipe in the drain and away we went.  A few rains later and we actually had something.  Snagged some fish from a local friends pond an my pond was complete…or so I thought.

In much the same way that a sports team is great when they are winning, and when they lose all the problems bubble to the top.  In the world of ponds, everything is great when the rain keeps coming, but when it stops..look out!

I quickly realized that my friend excavator had no idea how to build a pond, and instead was very good at just digging a hole. I decided to make a second mistake and enlist another family friend excavator (I know, I know) who charged me a mortgage payment just to dig some little holes, fill them in and leave me high and dry, LITERALLY!

Finally I decided to trust my instincts and my love for Google searches to find a replacement.  I stumbled on Western Pa pond builder Phil Hay and Sons Excavating.  I dropped them an email through the web form and was having a real conversation with Drew in a few days.  He literally told me that his days are filled with my exact story and he was there to help.  This is not a shameless plug, the guys really care about what they are doing.  If a man of his word wasn’t enough, and it is for me, I asked around.  Turns out two different local friends of mine were using or had used Phil Hay and Sons for pond work themselves.

I cannot recommend Drew and his pond building expert gang enough.  They have transformed my money pit in the back yard into the beginnings of my personal oasis.  Improved the property value for the entire area and did it all with a smile and handshake.  These guys use and I quote “old farmboy” methods to build and fix ponds, and it works.  They are so good they are listed with Pond Boss magazine as a resource as well.

Here is the contact info, if you are in Pa or Ohio and need or want work done, I’d give them a call I wish I had originally.

Check them out www.philhayandsonsexcavating.com

The post Phil Hay and Sons Excavating Review – Thumbs Up! appeared first on HomeDaddys.

I just got finished reading Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, which has sparked a thousand ideas. The way they talk about business is the way I think about business. That is, my little hobbyhorse operation isn’t going to turn into a multi-million dollar corporation. I’m not going to get acquired. No one will invest money in my operation (nor would I really want anyone to).

Yet what I do is a business all the same, in that it brings in money for my family. Books like Rework help me put that into perspective. This is a business just as much as any operation, and so I should treat it as such.

While the business is, and likely always will be, just me, my tools, and my hands, that doesn’t mean I can run it without a little help. Perhaps it’s not a human who will provide that help. Maybe I’ll scale to the point where I need a virtual assistant to help run the administrative side. Even if I don’t, I still need some help with that.

Help doesn’t always have to come from another human being. It can come from software that helps keep us organized. With a few easy-to-use applications, a few of which are free, I’ve been able to keep everything in order. Here are my little secrets.

Freshbooks

We’re not all John D. Rockefeller, impeccably managing the books. I’d venture to say that the great majority of people running small businesses have minimal, at best, accounting skills. Furthermore, many of these small business owners can’t afford a full-time accountant, and might think of better ways to spend money than on a part-time one. Yet those books still need managing. A miscalculation here and an error there can absolutely screw up your business.

I’ve taken to Freshbooks as a simple solution. I can link up my business bank account, and then use the software to manage my money and send invoices. (I actually got into Freshbooks after using their free invoice template and getting hooked.) Every week I take a close look at my books and make sure everything lines up. Unless I catch some error, which to date I have not, there’s not much else to worry about.

Highrise

Look, I don’t need Salesforce or any enterprise-level customer relations management (CRM) software. I don’t even need a CRM designed for small business. Typically that kind of software has too many features. That’s why I get by with a free plan on Highrise. I’m not dealing with hundreds of customers, so their contact limits work just fine for me. If I ever needed more, I’d definitely pay to upgrade to their solo plan.

Why Highrise? Well, it comes from 37signals, so you know it’s a useful product. It’s also devoid of features I don’t need. It allows me to keep track of people I’ve talked to, when I last talked to them, and what we talked about. I know when to follow up, and when to leave the situation alone. That’s the entire value in a CRM for me, so I don’t need anything that does much more.

Basecamp

Yes, I’m sticking with 37signals here — if they had accounting software I’d have to at least consider my loyalty to Freshbooks. Basecamp helps me keep projects managed, because lord knows I couldn’t keep them all straight in my head. Nor could I use the pen-and-paper method. What I would have done if I were born 20 years earlier, I have no idea.

Basecamp gives me great tools that help me keep my projects in order. Not only do I list my active projects, but can lay out my step-by-step plan and check off things that are done. Another feature I love is the project template. When I bring on a new project, I have some intake tasks that are pretty standard. With Basecamp I can create them every time I create a new project. It’s pretty convenient and ensures that I’m on the right track to start.

Google Apps

We save the simplest for last. Google Drive means I don’t have to buy Microsoft Office, or deal with all of the features they provide. Not that I don’t appreciate how powerful Word and Excel have become, but I just don’t need all that. What I need is a simple document editor and spreadsheet application that can perform basic functions. Everything gets saved in one place, and I can access anything anywhere.

The best part, of course, is that you can save in MS Office formats, so you can share with people who us that software. That’s come in hugely handy for passing along quotes and plans to clients.

The post Tools I Use for Running My Home Business appeared first on HomeDaddys.

Okay so this has taken me way too long to post, but I built a nifty little toothbrush holder for Tanya over at the wonderful twelveOeight blog. Yes, this is another piece of rustic minutiae that will be going in my new bathroom. Yes, it is super easy to make. Yes, you should stop what you’re doing and go check it out RIGHT HERE AT twelveOeight.

Since Tanya is awesome,  I’m going be contributing projects like these on a semi-regular basis to her blog. So keep your eyes peeled for more stuff in the future!

Also make sure you check back here as well. I’ve got something big planned. I can’t tell you what it is, but I can tell you that it involves lumber and power tools and that your family is going to love it.

Best,

Matthew

Matthew

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I’ve got another cool industrial pipe tutorial for you guys! This time I built a nifty Industrial Bathroom Shelf out of recycled pipes for Katie, who runs the incredibly cool Upcycled Treasures blog. Not to toot my own horn, but this thing is like the Rolls Royce of bathroom shelving. It’s got a big towel rack, it’s got a distressed wood shelf, it’s got a paper towel holder and it’s got another rack thing that I haven’t even figured out how to use yet. This was a really fun build and it felt really good to help spread the gospel of upcycling. Seriously people, if you want rustic stuff then check out a junkyard before you go check out Restoration Hardware. You’ll save about $500 and you’ll have a story to tell.

Now, stop wasting your time here and go check out my DIY INDUSTRIAL SHELF on Upcycled Treasures immediately. And leave a comment letting Katie know how wonderful she is, because while you’re just sitting there twiddling your thumbs she’s out in a workshop somewhere, decorating the world with stuff most of us would consider junk.

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So we needed coasters for the house. We probably should have purchased some. In fact, some of you might say that purchasing coasters is really the only intelligent choice here. But I had some leftover flooring samples from the hardware store, some cans of metallic spray paint and a few hours to kill this afternoon this afternoon so I figured to heck with it, I’m gonna make my own.

That’s right. I stenciled my own coasters. Deal with it.

I wasn’t really expecting much from this project. Even though a million women have done it successfully on Pinterest, my painter’s tape skills aren’t what you would call “competent.” On top of that, I’m much more likely to cut myself with an X-Acto knife than I am to cut out the stencil I’m trying to make. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the finished products not only looked acceptable, they actually looked pretty darn cool.

And you guys, seriously, these are so easy to make.

Start by grabbing a few tiles or pieces of cork board or free floor samples from your local hardware store. Then, cover those samples in painter’s tape or electrical tape and cut shapes out of that tape using a craft knife. Then spray paint them and wait half an hour before you peel the tape off.

I tried a few different techniques here. For the first coaster I tried to layer the gold paint first followed by black and silver. For the second I tried to block out colors on a single layer and for the third I just kind of gave up and went with an ombre-style fade job, also known as “spraying everything everywhere.”

Ironically, I think the cop-out fade design ended up looking the coolest. If I ever make these again I’m definitely going to go that route. You might also notice that some of the coasters have some tape bleed. I think that’s my fault for using old painter’s tape. This should be easy enough to avoid when you make yours. Just use new tape and press it flat with the edge of a credit card before you spray paint.

At the end of the day, are these coasters the manliest thing I’ve ever made? Not by a long shot. But they’re a neat little quickie project to do for your spouse or significant other. They also make a fun project for young children. I flew solo on this one because my little dude was too busy saving our backyard from the tyranny of squirrels but that’s another story.

Stop back soon for even more cool tutorials and DIY tricks. And please bear with me as my wife and I continue plowing through our bathroom renovation. My posts may be sporadic for another couple of months but hopefully the projects I’ve got lined up for you guys will be cool enough to compensate.

Take care,

Matthew

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