I mean other than dispensing the humour and wisdom of the ages here at Breaktime
Today I went out to take care of some miscelaneous items.
I did some foundation repair and deck framing with PT this summer just before reading that this new stuff ruins the hardware pretty quick . So today, after waiting awhile for them to arrive, I refastened it for the nice folks with some SS Screws. I don’t have to lose any sleep over anybody getting hurt because of failure now.
After another bit job, I went down to a cemetery where my wife is an officer and helper by trimming out some dead wood and trees to make ready for a stump grinder to clean up a little. The poor gal is absolutely buried in work – you’d be suprised to know how many people shun their family burial plots.
Then I went up to another customer’s house to replace a pane of glass. They have been very good to me – one of the best customers I have ever had – so as long as I was in free mode, I threw it in gratis.
Excellence is its own reward!
Replies
hey pif...I think I just figured out why youre only making $12.50 an hour up there.
Why isn't piffin my neighbor...?
I poured a seven yard concrete driveway, but it was my driveway does that still count
Good topic. I think a lot of us can relate. All the friends and family kind of want to be on the list, maybe want a deal, would just as soon have it free. We came upon an idea that seemed to me to be a win-win. All of my extended family lives here. This spring, one cousin joked that we ought to have a cousin work day. Everyone pitches in on a Saturday, and every family gets one Saturday out of the summer. So when it was my turn, the crowd came out and I had all the materials, we relandscaped things. Coffee, doughnuts, no real timeline, just a bunch of folks doing those odd jobs that we don't really ever get the motivation for. It worked out like a champ. We've gotten to see each other more this summer, our kids got to play while we worked, and everyone got to use my tools to get things done. If they want more than I can swing on a Saturday morning, then they're just like any other customer.
We finished them all up and one cousin said we ought to do one more. This morning we all showed up at our grandmothers. She's in her eighties and nearly blind. We washed the windows, took down the summer awnings, and finished painting the garage that my aunt had started working on earlier. Fixed the clothes line and got the bird bath standing straight again. That one probably felt best of all. We ought to make it a yearly event.
"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
RW that is a super idea, and one our country used to have.
I started early this morning with my chain saw in the utility easement/common area behind our homes. The hurricane had left a lot of pines and oaks from yards, across the easement (50-60'), to the yards behind. Underneath the horizontal forrest, smashed cable and telephone boxes were buried. Thank goodness the power transformers were intact, just covered up with branches. As my chain saw woke up the neighbors, they came out and began pitching in.(we have an association, but they will take a month or two to get the lowest quote from some part timer, and then insist he has $1,000,000 in insurance coverage)People who have't or don't speak to each other worked side by side for hours. Yards that people dared not walk on, soon had pick-up trucks backing across to haul out the wood and branches.I went through 3 chains and no idea how many gal of gas. I cut, they hauled. By sun down we had it pretty well cleared, and people thanked each other for the effort. When I arrived home,there was a neat stack of about a cord of oak stacked at the back of my drive way. I wasn't aware where the truck loads were going. I figured the branches and pines were headed for the dump. It was a good day. Tomorrow, I have to attack my own yard.Four biggies are snapped or leaning and have to come down. Good night.Energy Consultant and author of
Practical Energy Cost Reduction for the Home
I like your idea. Might have to give it a whirl with my fam damily. My sister still owes me for a doggy door install.
My parent's had an kitchen/dining addition put on their house a couple of years ago. Wanting to save money of course they decided to do as much work themselves as they could (Especially when the cabs came in at 12K+). Saving money=free labor from your oldest son. They figured I still owed them for all the grief I caused them growing up. Grief, what grief. It was alot of fun actually. I knew they appreciated the help and it felt good to give it.
I think a little free stuff now and then is a good thing. I think it's bought me a few years out of purgatory at the very least and referral or two.
I was working at a condo about a month ago. One of the owner's neighbors came up to me and asked if I was an electrician cause she had a "stuck plug". Maybe I could take a look at it. I told her I wasn't an electrician but I would take a look and could even recommend an electrician or two if she needed one. Went in and she said to pull out the couch and take a look. She had a table lamp plugged in to a receptacle and couldn't get it unplugged. I had her throw the breaker and I pulled on it. It was stuck pretty good. Bent prong. Not sure how she got it plugged in in the first place. Straigtened it out with a pliers and plugged it back in. No charge ma'am.
I guess I can call myself a professional plug unstucker now. Or would that be a stuck plug remover technician ;)
If purgatory is here on earth, I know some advance action has kept my stay here more pleasing.
I remember a few years ago meeting an old deaf-mute couple who badly needed a new roof but couldn't afford it. I arranged for the Community Fund to pay for amterials and I spoent a couple days doing the work. It bought me some good advertising in the community as well as a good freind relationship with the owners. They were a good influenmce on our kids.
And - it kind of shamed their own children from away into starting to take care of Mom and Dad a little better. Since then, they come up every summer to visit and tackle another job on the old house.
Finally she died and he has had to move into an old folks home but they were able to remain part of the community here for several more years interacting in their home because of a mere couple days work at the right time.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
I remember a few years ago meeting an old deaf-mute couple who badly needed a new roof but couldn't afford it. I arranged for the Community Fund
There can be some pretty intense theological debates as to the degree to which "good works" help get ya thru them pearly gates, but I'd say you've got at least a pretty solid reservation{G} (Be sureto take your WD40 with you when you go, the gates might squeek!)
For anyone looking to rack up some points, lots of (all?) churches know of people with needs like that, and can probably round up some parishners (esp youth) to help out. Win-Win-Win!
_______________________
The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important C. S. Lewis
Your mileage may vary ....
Edited 10/6/2003 10:44:48 AM ET by Bob Walker
I'll cross-thread just a little here. Your post on the old couple reminded me of a job when I was in my early 20's. It was at the local nursing home in the town where I grew up. One of the updates that we did was to glue carpet to the lower half of all the residents room doors. I got assigned that job by my boss because no one else wanted it. Nor did I. Turns out I had the time of my life. Once I got started it became apparent that many of the residents would make it a point to be in there rooms when I started on their doors. They would share stories, photos, candy. Got to meet some very interesting and unfortunately very lonely folks. Turned out a job I really hated at the start turned into one that I was sorry had to end. It was a good life lesson for me and it was free.
Rugby, great story. In the 60's I had a landlord who was fairly ancient. When I moved in, my apartment-mates made me take the rent check down, 'cause he loved to talk, like you said.
He'd tell stories for hours. Usually they didn't have any point to them, and he'd get well into a new story before you'd realize he was finished with the earlier one.
I had access to some video tape machinery at a nearby school (this was pre-consumer camcorder days) and taped a long session of his "act."
I sure wish I had those tapes - but they were lost in the 71 floods in central PA.
One thing I remember was that he was a mule skinner in the army in WWI, and worked before that on some of the early power generation stations on Long Island.
A mule skinner in France! Whew!
Listening to old folks can be a real education - and can be a heck of a lot more interesting than watching TV.
(Side note - Prospero's spell check knows about WWII, but not WWI.)
_______________________
Why Don't Blind People Like To Sky Dive?
Because it scares the bejabbers out of the dog
Your mileage may vary ....
About a year ago HardiBAcker had a fancy new flyer that read real big .... now approved for over vinyl flooring. AS i had a big kitche tile job coming up .. I took it and read for the "buts"... didn't find any .. and left the vinyl.
Next week I'm going to trim out their basement while the plumber is on the current job ...
Then the plan is .. when the drywallers come in ... I'm going back and tear out that tile floor I laid over the vinyl/ hardibacker ... and this time.... tear out the vinyl!
Hardi now has another flyer out .... sayd for all vinyl except cushion backed!
That cushioned back part is real .... real big now.
For some reason .... I don't recall reading that last year when I was studing the fine print?
Guess what brand I'm never using again?
Called then and got a bot of the department run around .... then a "maybe" the cost of the backer would be covered ..... second time "maybe" the cost of materials....
Luckily it was basic tile the HO's picked out from HD .... and it was only about 180 ft sq ......
So I'll be there again ... this time free labor AND materials.
Just very slight cracking .... seems to be at 3 x 5 intervals?
Odd .. that's the same size of the hardi seams.
They didn't even call on the first crack ... said until 4 different sopts cracked did they think it might be a problem! They asked if I'd just patch in the spots with the tiles I left them ....
Said sure .... as long as they didn't mind me coming out to do the same thing every year!
All customers I want to keep happy .... some like there people I don't mind!
I told they should get better about calling with their concerns ... I kinda like my jobs to look the same a year after I leave as it does the day after I leave.
Guess what.... the basement trim job( bid it last year too/labor) will just about cover the cost of the tile redo!
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
That's one reason a legitamate builder has to figure in a little profit. Things like that happen sometimes and you need to be covered.
I never shy away from recall items because they almost always result in more work for profit or referals to good customers. "Say, While you are here..."
Look at it as part of the advertising budget..
Excellence is its own reward!
I was driving my daughter to a friends house, her friend lives about 35 minutes from our place. We were going through a somewhat rundown section of New London. It was raining and we went past a house in the middle of a re-roof. Sure enough, the tarp had flipped over the ridge and the rain was hitting the naked decking. Not ply, but 1-by decking. Lots of cracks for water to get into.
I stopped, knocked on the door, but no answer. Could hear foortball on the TV or radio, but still, no one came to the door.
Got back in the car and I continued down the road. I got a mile or two past the house, but then I started thinking it's Saturday and nobody may look at the house until Monday, so...I turned around and went back.
Knocked on the door, still no answer.
Walked around the side, there was a ladder, still set up, so...I got up in the roof and started setting the tarp, trying not to slide on the wet wood.
"GET THE HELL OFF MY ROOF!" sez a voice.
I look down and there's the man of the house (I suppose) with a handgun pointed at me.
Okay...I talked to him a bit... "the rain"..."your roof"..."the house"..."water damage"...
"I SAID GET THE HELL OFF MY ROOF!"
I got down, gave him a wide berth as I walked across the yard, got in the car, and drove off.
My daughter saw the man in the yard, but couldn't see much else due to the rain on the car windows. As we drove off, she said "I can't believe he didn't get up on the roof and help you...but at least he was nice enough to come out and thank you".
no good deed goes unpunished!
JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
I see how something like that would keep you awake until 2AM
;).
Excellence is its own reward!
Some framing for an expansion to the women's shelter.
Designed, built, and installed a cooling system for the blood bank.
A few times a year, I'll go hiking with the chainsaw and clear blowdown. (But only to hiker/skiier width - those snow machines mess up the ski trails).
Most recently did a box-beam ramp on rollers to connect a fixed dock with a floating one. For the in-laws.
I am just finishing a 60' x 80' log fort for our local boy scout camp. My Rotary Club is behnd this and I have for the past 52 Saturdays spent my "time" managing a bunch of amateurs a la a Habitat for Humanity in building this fort. If this thread goes on for a while I will try to get a photo.
Bing
That's a hard one. Volunteers can behard to motivate to produce and co-operate. Everyone is an expert and has different ideas..
Excellence is its own reward!
I went to help my boss install a microwave at an older gentlemans home. Found out he wasn't charging the guy for it, so I didn't bother to put it on my timesheet. Besides it only took me 45 minutes or so door to door.
Started a new spec house this summer. I figure by time I get it finished, the price increase in sheet goods (ply and OSB) will eat up all of my contingency money and potential profit, rendering my 8-9 months of grunt work, trim, flooring and painting free work.
Formerly BEMW at The High Desert Group LLC
Built a ramp for an old WWII vet. Materials paid for by a local business and I gave my time. When I finished he put his hand in his pocket and asked what do I owe you? I said just a handshake. He then insisted I join him and his wife for supper. I did and I enjoyed the old timers stories at the supper table. "One measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions"
I try to share my abilities from time to time. It does me more good than the recipient. Two weekends ago I helped my wife's friend redo the tile in her shower. She is the type that deserves a little freebie. Single mother, full time job, full time college. I guess people help those who help themselves. Anyway, bragging about my good deed takes away from the goodness of said deed.
"I helped my wife's friend redo the tile in her shower"
Then you might like a local GC's tale: He's months into a whole-house make-over and the client wants to try her hand at some things, like tile. Tim the GC and the women are in the bathroom and he's showing her how to lay them out, etc. The phone rings. The woman hears her young daughter get it. And tell someone, "Mom can't come to the phone, she's in the shower with Tim". And hang up. Then the woman is frantically trying to figure out who called so she can correct any mis-impressions.
David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Hopefully it wasn't Tims wife. lolCARPEnter DIEM
One of the things that I love about these threads is the way they turn and get cross-threaded.
Excellence is its own reward!
As a self employed GC for about 40 years I can truthfully say that I've done lots of free work (usually unintended) - does that count?
Ten hours per week to Haitat for Humanity.
You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv