Monday Motivation, 8.10.2020

Written by: Kevin Long

Every Monday, The Rogers-Long Team meets for one of its two weekly meetings. The Monday meeting always ends with “Monday Motivation” in which a few minutes are spent listening to one team member presenting a quote, a quick reading from a book, a scene from a movie, or anything else they find motivating to provide a “spark” to the whole team on a Monday morning.

Yesterday was a long day. I was out in the backyard around 8 AM. For the last two weeks (and then some!), I have spent a lot of time out there. I am in the process of tearing down my 40 year old screen porch, rebuilding and expanding. This is a project I have wanted to do since I moved in 5 years ago. However, there were quite a few other projects that have taken priority. I made my focus for this year, to get my back porch and back yard finished.  Two weeks ago I started digging the footings for the new porch. The ground was rock solid, as it had not rained in almost a month. I could have set the posts on top of the ground, it was just as hard as concrete. Trying to dig inch by inch took its toll. Over the course of 3 full days, the holes were dug. They were done on Thursday. Before I could fill with the concrete, the county inspector had to come look at the holes to approve their size and depth. The inspector could not get out until Monday. After some light rain on Saturday, I tried to cover the holes with tarps and trash bags to prevent water from filling them in. On Sunday, it poured. Water has a way of finding the lowest spot. It had seven new low spots to occupy. I was up at 6AM Monday morning, before heading into the office, to suck the water out of the holes, re-edge them so the inspector would grant approval. I was able to clear them well enough for him to pass them. Now I was ready to pour to concrete except for it rained again on Tuesday. Not just any rain but the remnants of a hurricane. The seven holes may have just turned into one giant pool. After 2 days of sucking up water and redigging the holes, it rained again. My yard looked like a tent city with its tarps and trash bags,  but this time with more infrastructure, complete with hand dug canals and mini dams to force water away from the holes and into the yard. Some water still found its ways into the holes but it was much better this go around. Early Sunday morning we had the holes cleared out enough to pour in the concrete. Thirty, 60lb bags of concrete later and the footings were set!

It felt great to know that they were finally out of the way. From there my dad and I started demolition of the adjacent, old screen porch. Screen down, posts and pickets down, fans down, lights down, ceiling down, insulation down and two loads to the dump. It was late in the afternoon and as we were finishing up we decided to jump up on the roof and take a look at the shingles. We decided to go ahead and take those off to make the roof lighter before we dismantled that. Another hour and a half of scrapping shingles off of the roof. The day was finally over. We sat back and looked at all we accomplished. We had done twice as much as I thought we would. My dad went home, Hannah was out, I showered and was able to sit down and throw some dinner in the microwave and turn on the last of the PGA championship.

Not 5 minutes after I sat down to eat…thunder. Then lightning. Then an absolute downpour. I was tired and cramping but could not let all of the work go to waste. I left my food on the table and went back outside in the pouring rain and try to protect the newly poured concrete. Slipping in the mud and waterlogged myself, was covering the holes, digging canals to divert the water. It didn’t help much and when I had done all I could do, I sat in a chair, in the rain and looked at the entire project. I had a very porous roof with 250 leaks, mud piles and tarps and I was soaked.

When I looked at the disarray, I smiled. Because I had a vision of what I wanted and I was making it a reality. It wasn’t pretty right now but I could envision what it was going to be. So when the rain finally stopped I got the shop vac out and started sucking water out of the holes knowing that all of this would be worth it in the end. There are always setbacks and disappointments but we need to have a vision and goals in mind, to keep the faith.  

Kevin Long, The Lead Agent for The Rogers-Long Team, has been in the real estate business since 2012. In 2014, he and Ben began The Rogers-Long Team, which produces $25,000,000+ in volume annually. In addition to selling hundreds of houses over the past 6 years, Kevin also serves as a mentor to less experienced agents on The RLT and in the company, and he spends most of the little free time he has working on his own personal home renovation project.