Quote Originally Posted by Whooptee
Dam Tug!

Congrats on the new arrival.

The loss of a job always sucks. I'll bet it turns out to be a good thing though, as others have said. I had my own software business for many years. I was forced to close it a few years back. Since then I've made a living doing several different things. Mostly I've done computer service work through a classified ad in the paper. I've just started trying to do some other things that I hope will make me a little more money, because I've just barely been scraping by with the computer work. I'm building some furniture and hopefully I can sell it. And like Jim Clark, I'm fixing up my current house and hope to sell it for a profit and then buy another to do the same. I'm not sure if this is all going to work out, but for the time being it beats the hell out of any other job I've ever had and if a good job presents itself, I can take it with no problem and continue some of this other stuff on the side.

My dad and granddad were both carpenters. In fact my dad had a really good corporate job for a Fortune 500 company when he decided he wanted to do something else. He started building houses. My grandpa acted as a mentor for my dad and taught him the ins and outs of construction. We did pretty much everthing carpentry-wise on the first several houses, and then later he settled in to doing the trim carpentry and building the decks. So, I think you should go for it and I wish you luck and hope that you're very happy doing it.

John
Not that it really matters in the long run, but my address will remain unchanged! I had bought and been working on another house, although mine always seems to need a little something done to it. I'm seriously looking at doing the same with a duplex however I may try to hold on to it and see if I can make some money renting it out. Being a landlord isn't something I have any experience with and I'm not sure it's going to be worth the hassle but you never know.

jc