Hey grandpa, what's for dinner

[highup]

Egg salad and home cooked beans, hamburgers and hot dogs hot off the grill with all the fixins. Yum, yum.
Ha, I don't care if it doesn't rhyme. I got to eat it and you didn't. When I got to my job yesterday, the home owner asked if I wanted to stick around for dinner. He said nothing special, just home made egg salad and beans and said he was gonna barbeque some burgers. His wife was out of town but a couple grand kids were there. I finished up my prep work just after three, and he already had the bbq fired up. I just love these kinds of customers.

 

[Ernesto]

Egg salad and home cooked beans, hamburgers and hot dogs hot off the grill with all the fixins. Yum, yum.
Ha, I don't care if it doesn't rhyme. I got to eat it and you didn't. When I got to my job yesterday, the home owner asked if I wanted to stick around for dinner. He said nothing special, just home made egg salad and beans and said he was gonna barbeque some burgers. His wife was out of town but a couple grand kids were there. I finished up my prep work just after three, and he already had the bbq fired up. I just love these kinds of customers.

Awesome when that happens. I got some Elk burgers an beans a couple weeks ago.

 

[highup]

Super nice fella. His wife will be happy to have a working bathroom when she returns home soon. She's been away assisting her elderly mother.

Got there today about 10:30 and the guy had just pulled some lemon scones out of the oven. I had done some leveling and a final skim coat yesterday, so by the time I got the skim coat ridges scraped and vacuumed up ready to make a pattern, the scones had cooled and coffee was awaiting.

Got the pattern made, the vinyl cut out, and by then it was time for a late lunch of leftover BBQ goodies. Same stuff, but even better reheated.
Happy customer, happy highup....................... and I spent as much time chatting as I did working today. So in all, it was a very cool day.
I wish everyone had customers like mine. You wouldn't always get a lot of work done, but you'd sure enjoy your day.
Yesterday was prep, so with filler drying, I couldn't make a pattern............... a short day, and ending with a full belly.
Today could have been a shorter day, but I got scones and coffee, a great lunch, good conversation and even got the vinyl installed. Made for a pleasurable day.

The owner retired from the (BLM) Bureau of Land Management, so with all my years roaming the local hills with my camera, we had a lot of common issues and places to chat about.

 

[FloorMaven]

Yesterday was prep, so with filler drying, I couldn't make a pattern............... a short day...

If possible I try to pattern prior to final prep.

 

[highup]

If possible I try to pattern prior to final prep.

I'd do that if I was installing the vinyl the same day. I don't like patterns sitting around overnight. It was a two day job, so ending the prep on day one was the best thing to do since I don't like to roll up my pattern and let it stay that way overnight. The warehouse I cut it in has high humidity and my pattern material doesn't like that, so making the pattern and getting it cut out was best done in one shot.
I'd rather have enjoyed the job than finished 3 hours early both days and missed out on the food and company. This 'family time' with the customers has probably won me a lot of referral jobs. ...........because they like me .....they really really like me.

 

[Jon]

I'd do that if I was installing the vinyl the same day. I don't like patterns sitting around overnight. It was a two day job, so ending the prep on day one was the best thing to do since I don't like to roll up my pattern and let it stay that way overnight. The warehouse I cut it in has high humidity and my pattern material doesn't like that, so making the pattern and getting it cut out was best done in one shot.
I'd rather have enjoyed the job than finished 3 hours early both days and missed out on the food and company. This 'family time' with the customers has probably won me a lot of referral jobs. ...........because they like me .....they really really like me.

I make patterns as well but never take it away from the job. I always find somewhere to cut it out even if its on the lounge carpet. I have a part sheet of MDF which I move around under the vinyl so I can kneel on the vinyl while cutting it. The MDF also comes in handy for shifting appliances back over the new vinyl
I like you as well even though we have only shared emails and spoken to over the phone a couple of times

 

[highup]

I make patterns as well but never take it away from the job. I always find somewhere to cut it out even if its on the lounge carpet. I have a part sheet of MDF which I move around under the vinyl so I can kneel on the vinyl while cutting it. The MDF also comes in handy for shifting appliances back over the new vinyl
I like you as well even though we have only shared emails and spoken to over the phone a couple of times

The warehouse was only a couple miles away, so it was easier to take this one there to chop up.

 

[FloorMaven]

I'd rather have enjoyed the job than finished 3 hours early both days and missed out on the food and company

There's not a lot of room for enjoyment in this business, gotta take it where you can get it.

 

[highup]

There's not a lot of room for enjoyment in this business, gotta take it where you can get it.

Work has been so slow for so long, it's not really all that enjoyable anymore. I don't see things picking back up for quite a while.
Customers like this one brighten the day.

 

[FloorMaven]

Work has been so slow for so long, it's not really all that enjoyable anymore. I don't see things picking back up for quite a while.
Customers like this one brighten the day.

A depression like you describe makes it necessary to whittle down ones lifestyle to the point where the opportunity to transition into a different line of work becomes a welcome reality. Sounds like you're in an enviable position.

 

[highup]

A depression like you describe makes it necessary to whittle down ones lifestyle to the point where the opportunity to transition into a different line of work becomes a welcome reality. Sounds like you're in an enviable position.

It would be more enviable if I had already changed to another job. Slim pickins here.
On and off since last October, I have been working on a job for a friend, converting an 11 by 11 building into a sewing room. She's retired, but has a commercial sewing machine and wanted a place to set it up...... a warm, dry place so she could actually use it.
This out building sets behind the garage, and the previous owner used it to store rakes, shovels etc. It had no window. It sets about 3 feet off the ground, it isn't level and the bare studs inside were not plumb, and some weren't fastened well.
The door opening was moved so the door now faces the yard. I installed an exterior door frame kit and a nice used door that's mostly glass. Her husband wired in outlets and a wall heater.
I did most everything else. The roof was framed in simply as vaulted, but I made a flat area 4 feet wide down the middle because visually, the vaulted roof looked too tall in such a small room. The center is now8 feet high, and both sides slope down to 6 1/2 feet now. I did the insulation, sheetrock, sprayed the texture, flattened the floor and installed the vinyl, wood trim, and painted it.
Later, I made a 6 foot by 12 foot deck, with a railing and 2x2 pickets, stairs with handrails and the roof is a smoke tone polycarbonate.
An open shed connected to the side of this building, now has a polycarbonate roof, and a large window on the back end of it.
It had a metal roof, but was too dark. It's now a gravel floored potting shed. It turned out pretty cute.
I can't think of wanting to do any specific part of this job full time........especially the sheetrock. The deck work was probably the most fun. But overall, I liked doing the entire project. I'll have to get some photos next time I go down to visit. Pay was crap, but that was my side of the agreement. Wen I had nothing to do work wise, I went down and tinkered on it. Food was excellent. Her hubby is a fantastic cook.

 

[Jon]

Work has been so slow for so long, it's not really all that enjoyable anymore. I don't see things picking back up for quite a while.
Customers like this one brighten the day.

Even here at Auckland, biggest city in NZ, they are still laying people off. I think Telecom are going to lay off a thousand odd staff. Where a new supermarket opens 500 odd apply for jobs of which a few years ago nobody wanted to work in a supermarket.
Until the staff lay offs stop not much is going to change.
Some will still do well while others will just survive with Gvt hand outs

 

[highup]

We used to have mills which supplied family wage jobs. After WW II and into the early 60's, our tiny little town was billed as the worlds largest lumber shipping port.
Probably 20 to 50 ships per month came in.......... I suppose we have less than 6 to 10 ships per month now, and they mostly load wood chips. One dock is almost continually loading logs for China and Korea. It takes a week to load one, but by then, another is waiting to take it's place.

Moms back then didn't have to work to make ends meet. They stayed home and raised the kids and made sure they kept out of trouble and did their homework. I grew up in the Leave It To Beaver era. I think the quality of kids was better back then with all of those nosy moms in the neighborhood keeping an eye on us.

Today, it takes two people to make a living wage. Sad.

 

[Floorist]

Have you considered moving? I drove 100 miles today to the town where I lived for 15 years before I moved back to my hometown. It is booming. I know I could stay busy, but I don't know that I can move 2 hours away from my grandchildren. Some of the store owners that I worked for are still there, but my friends are gone and my in-laws no longer live there.
My house here is paid for, so I would need to rent there. And my sister lives here. It's a tough decision.

 

[highup]

Naw, I ain't moving. It would be ridiculously risky to move unless a good paying job was guaranteed. I certainly wouldn't be looking for anything flooring related...... I'm that burnt out.
On the bright side there will be a natural gas shipping terminal import facility built in the upper bay. The beginning phases are probably a couple years off.
Many years of whining from the environmental wackos, ie:
CAVE people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything)
has finally come to an end................ the Feds finally told em to go fly a kite.
There will be many hundreds if not a couple thousand job openings during construction of this facility and it's lengthy pipeline to California.
The LNG (liquid natural gas) tanker ships will be by far the largest ships that will ever come to port here. Our bay is currently dredged and maintained to about 34 feet for the current ships that come in here to load logs and wood chips. I think those LNG ships need closer to 40 feet in channel depth.
The environmental wackos are worried that the whole county will explode in an inferno when Osama followers find out we have gas here.
..........well, after years of filing lawsuits, we're gonna burst into flames some day 'cause the feds OKed the project for the 20th time.
We lost most of our mill jobs over the past 20 years, so it's nice to see that something new and positive is gonna finally happen here.......... and not some $9 an hour jobs either.

 

[Floorist]

$9 an hour would be more than many of the jobs here pay. Most start $7.50 to $8.00.

 

[highup]

These jobs will probably pay $30 to $60 grand if I had to guess.

 

[highup]

Here's an estimated local impact.

http://portofcoosbay.com/publicrecords/2011ECONWreport.pdf