Personal notes and a request for help.

Like a large portion of the population 2020 & 2021 has been more than rough but slightly less than devastating for me.

My son's two jobs shut down early in 2020 as they were both forward facing and heavily customer interactive and he had to move back home.  It took most of a year for him to find a new steady job but he is now an apprentice mortician--no end of work in that field.

 

My daughter's college was shut down most of last year so her job prospects got delayed, but by the end of this year she will be a fully certified welder--can't off shore all of that.

 

Need I say the old roof went spectacularly?

The new roof is much more solid.

The roof failed in the Spring of 2020 and I found out when the bathroom floor suddenly became very soggy from water finding its way down the inside of a wall.  So my daughter and I with some help from my son--he still had odd jobs--removed six layers of shingles and replaced them with a steel roof--roofing was donated but hey, it all matches!

 

During roofing and bathroom remodeling my spouse lost their job as the company they worked for began to implode and much like that company so did our 30 year marriage.  Their new job requires they relocate by roughly the end of this year--I won't be going along.  Yes as some in my twitter feed already know I am getting a divorce.

 

I have some big issues at this point.

• I am currently 51 years old.
• I have arthritis--amount of debilitation depends on the weather.
  
• I have diabetes--diet controlled but it is still there.
• As many of you from twitter know I am somewhere on the trans gender spectrum, I identify as a woman but can pull off a decent male performance when I need too--like all trans women being a guy is an act.
• I was an Assistant Building Superintendent for 25 years.  My duties qualify me for what they now call a Facilities Manager, but I have no business degree and everyone wants an expensive piece of paper saying I can do what I say I can.
• I "retired" three years ago to raise my grand-daughter (aka Buttercup) so I need an income, but no one is hiring--I am applying as a dude with my dead name so it isn't the trans part causing the issues.
• The three year gap in my resume also nails me the same way it does many women who leave the labor field to raise children.
  

 

So, no job, no job prospects, and a house that needs loads of cosmetic work, so what do I do?  I come to you dear reader.  I know you can make a living doing YouTube videos, I have the skills and knowledge to use in them, what I am lacking is a shop.  The challenge by my estimates--as a professional--is that it will cost about $20,000 to overhaul an old building here on site and equip it to do the work.  The upside is I can do the work myself with some help from friends and family.

The old building.  When I bought the place two years ago you couldn't see it.

Now do to the current costs of building materials the bulk of that money is actually going into the structure of the building.  Like everyone else I have daily living expenses too, electric & gas, water & sewer, phone, internet, etc, that I need to cover until I am making money off the channel plus the initial goods and power needed to supply the channel with content, so an additional $30,000 on top of the $20k for the building would be nice to hold me out a year--probably a bit less could do it but a few bills change as things split up and the loss of discounts on some--no multi phone, no multi car on insurance--add up fast.

 

What kind of video content do I plan to put up? 

The most obvious is home remodeling videos.  Beginning with the shop.  The original house is 70+ years old and has been added onto twice, but it's last remodel--based on a date stamp under the kitchen counter--was about 1971!  I have wood paneling in random places as accent walls, the kitchen counter is harvest gold, the stove and ovens were avocado green but for safety reasons they had to go already, plus they were propane and house is natural gas--don't ask me how that even worked. 

Have I mentioned my kitchen floor is harvest gold and avocado green?

Suffice to say I have walls to remove because the house is choppy, a kitchen that needs replaced, flooring that is long past it's expiration date, a full bath that needs beautified--it has a pink tub and toilet--and adding a washer and dryer, oh and the electric needs updated too before I can start adding modern appliances.  So as you can see I have several seasons worth of "Remodeling with Maura" to film along with continuing the series "Cooking with Maura" That is already begun on my YouTube channel.  My goal is one or two videos a week and to make everything I possibly can for the house right here on site including the kitchen cabinets and maybe even the stainless steel kitchen sink--yep I can weld too.

 

So to wrap this up, I'm broke.  I'm desperate.  I need money.  I'm starting (literally) my own home business, but I need the assistance of strangers and some friends to pull this off.

 

My donations page is here I can currently take cash App, Venmo, and Crypto, more on the way as I set them up!

 

YouTube corresponding video for this post is here.

My go fund me has been deleted as their system dead names you.

it was untold mental anguish to even do this in the first place and then to see that just made matters worse.  I need the money to get on with my life but I do not need or want my dead name out there.

-Maura