I am executrix of my father's estate which is very small with limited funds but there is a house worth about $150,000 free and clear. Due to limited funds I have spent close to 120 hours during the past two months doing the cleaning, yardwork, hauling, painting and repairs myself in order to make it more appealing to sell. (These hours do not include the duties of being the executor and handling the bills, banking, paying bills, selling items to raise cash and hire handyman type people to do the work I cannot physically do,paperwork, phone calls etc.

I do have a sibling who is unhappy with the terms of the will and feels he is being shortchanged and does not agree with a few other wishes our father had which will reduce the amount of money he gets and he refuses to assist with anything and I do understand as a beneficiary, he is not required to. He has hired an attorney and hasn't contested the will but more or less is watching that I comply with the probate which I have and continue to do with prudence.

My question is, can I be paid for doing the manual labor and who would determine and approve the hourly rate?

Are you the only one named or are their others that were also named in the estate?

My brother is also an heir but getting less than I will.

Have you offered him the opportunity to do the work or part of the work ( offer in writing) for the same amount of money you would pay yourself.

Often the work you named is done and contractors paid and the estate pay the bills for normal clean up.

The painting and repairs, where they discussed with the other heir prior to being done.

He is well aware of the work that needed to be done and I discussed it with him on the lines of I was not physically capable to do the work, needed his help and if he chose not to help I would need to use money from the estate to pay for the work. The bottom line is, he is unhappy about the terms of the will, I will be getting more and in his mind it justifies not helping and watching me struggle and work for what I will receive. It is on the verge of abuse in my mind to sit back and watch a woman struggle like this because he feels slighted. That is the bottom line here.
My initial intention was not to be paid or make money from personally doing the repairs, but to save money as there are limited resources and the taxes, utilities, insurances etc. need to be paid until the home is sold and to work together toward the common goal of cleaning out the house and making it sellable.
Finding people to do the work at a reasonable rate is very difficult and there are not enough resources to pay full price to contractors, thus the reason I continue to do it myself but after several months I feel I should be compensated a reasonable amount for my efforts of painting, cleaning and yardwork while the other beneficiary is getting satisfaction from it, that's all.
I would not wish this situation on anyone by the way.

What you should do is submit "bills" to the probate court for the work. If the court feels they are reasonable, they will allow you to take them out of the estate.

However, some of the things, like cleaning and yardwork may be disallowed. Trimming shrubbery, raking leaves, mowing lawns are all standard maintenance. Some of the work, if it involved improvements, might be used to increase your cost basis for when you sell the property.

But the bottom lime is you have to submit any such bills to the probate court for approval.