Radar Blipping due to Flipping - Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 7

(Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 6 - February 4, 2026)

I realize not everyone wants to read about my past history. However, some have nudged me for more backstory, information that adds up, or is put down in a way they can use for themselves. And clearly, I’m happy to share more for those interested, enjoying the process of sifting through how the pieces of time unfolded and ended up fitting together.    

“Where do you start to fix up a house this bad?” or “How do you do it?” Those are easier questions for me to answer than, “How did you find your way onto television?” And lack of specifics can give the impression of intentional coyness. Which is the case for me since I imagine I’m most often doing people a favor being brief in answering TV questions. Rather than a dull road, that chapter of my life is hard to explain in a few short sentences.

In the early years of my renovating career, project visitors would sometimes ask, “Are you a flipper?” or if I “flipped houses.” Back then, my schedule and budget were tight, initially filled with full-time work and my attempts to save my first condemned property on the side. I was short on extra cash for cable and only took time for TV like the show Survivor, news, or something special like the Super Bowl. I’d even stopped watching This Old House because I was too busy. So, I was pretty much clueless, and these visitors started to bring me up to speed on flipping homes and different shows they saw about this.

The way I understood it, how I think I get it now, is that house flipping is a ramped-up schedule, high gear from day one. My way, salvaging what I can saves time and money in the long run, but it’s never seemed as if flippers being featured on TV operate this way. I really get into the history of my properties, the previous owners, additions, background things that I think help me make the most of what I’ve invested in. Hard core flipper schedules don’t allow for those sorts of time eaters. They’re sprinters and I suppose I’ve always been more of an endurance type of renovator. I’m mindful of how long it’s taking, but it’s a more methodical route, because for me, that’s been most practical long-term, big picture.  

I’m sure some flippers dipping their toes in the water, take it slower and try to save usable material along the way like I do. But twenty-five years ago, I could tell that the folks on television inspiring strangers to stop in and ask questions were a different breed than me, including their quantity of rehabs. I work steady on one project and most have taken longer than a year to complete. But the hardcore flippers seemed to be knocking out multiple projects per year. Production mode—Bam! Bam! Bam!

That's never been me. I don't believe I qualify as a house flipper. I think I've always been closer in approach to This Old House, even if my homes are more modest. And that just makes sense, because I really dig that show.

(Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 8 - Coming Soon)

Blog with a Dog Named Cerberus - Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 6

(Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 5 - February 2, 2026)

In the summer of 2011, I wrote my introductory blog posts to burn a few hours while my four-year-old was at VBS. Then I came up with a short list of possible titles; catchy, mind-grabbing labels that people could easily remember and find on the internet. However, one after another had already been snatched up by website founders I considered as clever, yet quicker than me.  

I kept at it though, seeking out something unique to name my blog. This thinking took me back to my early inroads into renovating when one doubt filled visitor, convinced of my imminent failure said, "You can't turn a pig's ear into a silk purse." But I found ways of saving that house, the one deemed uninhabitable after a devastating fire. And this led to something else noteworthy: my winning a contest on thisoldhouse.com, the site of the show that had fertilized the seed for my renovation dreams.  

Even with this unlikely success, subsequent jacked up house projects had also been initially seen as foolishness. But the resurrections were forged around my joy of these challenges, a passion that made it easy for me to let this work consume the bulk of my thoughts and time for nearly ten years.

Although I hadn't cried, I’d been bloodied and dripped plenty of sweat on my jobsites. So, I eventually combined that ill spoken remark with the well-known idiom, blood, sweat, and tears, and typed “Blood, Sweat, and Pig's Ears” into the on-line search box. It was up for the taking and I had this blog name.

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Before marriage and fatherhood, most of my decisions seemed predicated on the schedules and budgets and profit margins of my work:

How long will this take?

How much is it going to cost?

And How will this or that impact the property's value?

But by 2011, my thoughts had become dominated with getting our daughter ready for kindergarten, my stepson's development, and trying to be supportive of my wife in her role as a special needs mom. My life of rehabbing had been eclipsed by other priorities; beyond anything I’d anticipated.

I was steadily eating into my nest egg as I struggled to find family/work balance

, some equilibrium that was also profitable. Writing emerged as something I could do as I stood ready to fill the next need at home. Plus, it helped me cope with the end of the life I’d had before marriage.

Along with answering questions, sharing what I’d learned while trying to inspire others, I had three hopeful objectives that were the early foundation of Blood, Sweat, and Pig's Ears. The first focused on connecting with a motivated seller of an unwanted property, maybe a house with gnarly damage or issues I was uniquely qualified to sort out and address. Secondly, I was optimistic this log could help me find a client with a challenging home other contractors wouldn't take on. Or lastly, by putting myself into wider view as an essayist, I had fantasies of linking up with someone in the world of writing.

I didn't need this site to help me land more than one legitimate opportunity. I only needed one hit to make this step into murky territory feel like it was over and above a cool new hobby. Yet more significantly, I really needed BSAPE to help me regain footing on a fresh patch of solid ground.

(Response to TV View Show Viewers: Post 7 - Coming Soon)

Teaching and Coaching and Coping - Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 5

My Contractor/Family Man Standoff - Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 4 (January 30, 2026)

People have been really great about listening to my simple explanation: that this blog was the catalyst leading to my time on TV. However, I realize some have found this hard to swallow, as if I’m not telling them the whole story, which is accurate. I don’t think most people really want to hear all that much, recognizing that they’re being polite to ask, but appreciate being spared on the nuts-and-bolts play-by-play. However, some really want to know more, so they can chart their own course or maybe simply feel more satisfied with what they know of my story. So, for those after added background, I am laying out some of my history as I sort through it.

Into my new role as husband, father, and stepfather, I realized my schedule was less forgiving. I made adjustments, hitting pause on new clients. Instead, I focused on projects where I was owner and GC, so I could work and step away as my wife and I tag teamed childcare duties. In the five years after getting married, I designed and built a home to sell and renovated three rundown houses and an outbuilding. The economy was neck deep in the recession when I closed out my last two properties in Charleston, and I felt thankful to break even on both.

More than life being a little different, my career of renovating houses was on life support. During this time transitioning from full-time contractor and renovator to family man, I started this blog. People had steadily asked me how I approached my renovations, and I discovered that as much as I enjoyed answering questions, giving advice, I also really liked writing about it. Sharing my written thoughts was way outside my comfort zone and ended up being a nice rush. I wasn’t strategizing or thinking too hard about what I was doing or where the blog might lead, nor did I have an editor or co-hort. My wife was my proofreader and cheerleader, but that was the extent of my blog team. And when I hit the button on that first post, I was in full-fledged denial; the writing was in the first person, present tense as if I was still living within my rehabber lifestyle.

Although this blog has been a way to inspire and educate others, I suppose in a sense I was using it to relive some of those glory days getting smaller in my rearview mirror. I loved my family, and the new life that it created for me, but at the same time I really missed the one I’d had. On top of this, I was disappointed with myself for not being more ready to navigate through the stumps of this husband/fatherhood season. My optimism had bitten me badly and I held fear of losing that too.   

More than being intentionally disingenuous with readers, or potential house sellers I wanted to sit down with, I was being dishonest with myself. My renovating mojo had not disappeared in the blink of an eye, but had lifted up, faded away like an early morning fog; there for a long while before being suddenly gone.

I can speculate that this delivery of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences, though inadvertent and unintended, misled people. And as this was happening, I was simultaneously fooling myself with thoughts of getting back to a substantial part of that way of earning a living after my daughter started school. I was ignorant to think so definitively that it would work out that way. I suppose it could have. It just wasn't meant to be.

Blogging helped me cope, doing a work around on my own ego and identity while struggling to learn how to adequately be there for my family. Simply, yet candidly stated, I failed to confront and adjust to my new reality as quickly as I should have, leading to a writing perspective that was off the mark.

(Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 6 - February 4, 2026)