Sunday Night Update

I've mentioned several times how difficult the last week or two have been. Things got even harder Thursday... I left Ft Carson at 5:00pm with a long night ahead of me. I needed to go by the shop and to set up the studio for a seminar and to work on payroll, then go to the rental house and finish moving everything out, and then go to Intel and complete my water chemistry scope. On the way to the shop, my truck started sputtering, lurching, and backfiring badly. I made it to the shop, although I really didn't expect to. I popped the hood and noticed radiator fluid bubbling out around the water pump. The problems with the truck did not indicate an overheating issue though. The radiator cap was not hot, so I took it off. The radiator was full of foam, and no water. OK, that is not normal. I knew the foam was most likely caused by oil getting into the coolant. At no time, EVER, should the oil and water in an engine mix. I filled the radiator up with water from the shop, and lurched my way home. I drained the oil and ended up with about nine quarts of watery, foamy fluid. I should have gotten about five quarts of oil only out. Not good...
I put five quarts of oil in the truck and hoped I could keep it running long enough to finish moving things from the rental house shop. I also had about two truckloads of stuff to take to the dumpster from the rental house.
I was able to finish moving things up to our house by 10:00pm, and the truck was getting worse. I skipped taking the junk to the dumpster, which really isn't a huge problem. We sold the house 'as is' for $30k under market value because of the projects and work that needed to be completed. By contract, it is OK for me to leaves some stuff behind. I wanted to leave it better for the new buyers, but that was not an option. I did not want to have the truck break down on me half way between home and the shop.
I got to Intel at 11:00pm and I got home at around 3:00am.
I was back up at 6:30 and called Ft Carson to let them know I needed the day off. I had no vehicle that would make it to Ft Carson (The Jeep started overheating again last Tuesday and won't go more than about 15 minutes...)! We also had the rental house closing at 3:00pm.

I spent the morning at Nemo's doing payroll and helping Nick, Megan, and Amanda.
We received word that the closing paperwork did not get completed and to the title company, and that the person responsible for it took Friday off. That meant no closing... It is now scheduled for Tuesday at 2:00pm.

Tracy and I took the boys to see Spiderwick Friday night. I planned to catch a nap at the movie, but I enjoyed it so much I stayed awake the whole time! I finally got to bed at 10:00 Friday night and slept until 8:00am! Woo Hoo!! Ten hours of sleep. This is triple what I have been getting! I loved it!

Tracy and I worked in the shop Saturday, and then went car shopping afterward. I was hoping the beaters (the Jeep and my truck) would last until the shop revenues would support a vehicle lease. We need to have two reliable vehicles, and decided to go ahead and take the plunge. We wanted to do the lease through the business name for tax purposes instead of a personal lease. My only criteria were:
1. I want the vehicle to have positive equity at the end of the lease. Unfortunately, that rules out GM, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, etc...
2. Enough cargo (or trunk room) for our supply runs for Nemo's. A hatchback access instead of a trunk is preferable.
3. I just wanted something that would get us from point A to point B, nothing fancy.

Based upon 'holding it's value' for equity reasons at the end of the lease, I decided on Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Subaru. I went online and checked out a few cars, and decided that the Honda Element would best meet our needs in the lower price range. As it turns out, the Element is only a four seater. There are five of us... Ethan said he does not want to ride on a roof rack.
We ended up driving an Accord (very, very nice), a Civic (nice, but small), and a CRV. Once we drove the CRV, that was it... It had lots of room, decent gas mileage, and we worked out an acceptable lease payment. I was aiming for $250 per month at the most, but ended up going with the CRV at $290 per month. The Civic lease was only $48 per month less...
So, this is what we got:





As far as how this relates to the shop budget, we need to increase our break even budget by $125 per week to cover the lease costs. When you subtract product cost from the sales of approx $500 per month, that leaves enough to cover the lease payment.

Time to get to work...
later,
JD