I always shovel the front side walk and stairs to create a way of entering and exiting.

Of course, the island is also smaller, easier to care for and uses less water.It would not be horrible to undo, kill it off and then shovel it out back down to dirt.

So, if you could keep that gig and eventually use it to shovel money at real estate projects while maintaining a modest lifestyle in the short term, seems like a recipe for a really cush life in the 10-20-year timeframe.

Her parents, who live in FL, are planning to move-in with us to watch our daughter while we both work (avoiding $20k+ / year in childcare services plus higher development opportunity in early-life). 

Do tenants there pay for snow shovelling? 

The outcome was a beautifully renovated house that appealed to a modern buyer with the new finishes and color schemes, etc. but that's also timeless and neutral enough to allow the purchaser to put their own touches in and add their own flare to make it theirs.

I'm not knocking anybody's hustle, but I don't believe in just shoveling out money to just anybody who says they can show me the way.

I'd work and move forward like I didn't have the property and just use my bigger shovel to build up cash faster.

well you need to think like a developer.. and back into what the land is worth.so how many lots can you get  that depends on what is standard for the area  are they 10 k sq feet or 5k sq ft.. you have about 70k sq ft to work with.. take out about 30% for roads again depends on design standards  .. so maybe you have about 40 to 50k sq ft  now lets say they want 10k sq ft lots so you have 4 to 5 lots.. now lets say shovel ready lots in that area are worth 50 to 60k each.. which is probably not to far off for MI .. and in our area we pay 35 to 40k per lot to bring in all utls and pave the roads then you have to demo the house.. 

@Hunter McDonald  Things like cutting the grass, shoveling snow, weeding the garden, etc are things I would expect tenants to do.