What did you do today?

[Mark Brown]

Even our supply store sucks the nuts.
I dont know how many times I have to hear ".... but we can order it in" before I get frustrated. I can order it in guys... im here for the service.

 

[C.J.]

Even our supply store sucks the nuts.
I dont know how many times I have to hear ".... but we can order it in" before I get frustrated. I can order it in guys... im here for the service.

I tried to explain that to the manager of the supply shop I worked at for a couple months. You gotta have the product in stock so people can buy it when they want it. If you have to have it ordered, why don’t they just order it themselves and save whatever bump that the shop adds on to the order. And then it’s delivered to your house so now you’re saving on a return trip to pick up whatever they ordered for you. It’s not rocket science, it’s business and if you want people to spend money at your business you should prolly make it easy for them to spend money. Amazon sure as hell is easy!

 

[zannej]

One of the local hardware stores here has very rude employees and they are supposed to close at 4:30 but they often lock the doors at 4. Very condescending and take a long time. The other hardware store has very nice people. They are always willing to help you, will give advice on how to do things, ask how you're doing, and are generally very friendly. They will even give discounts on things sometimes. Friend was buying some electrical cable and was going to leave them with a tiny amount that they'd probably never sell if they cut it to size. He said he'd take the whole thing off their hands so they discounted it. Also gave him some roof trim for free bc it was in their scrap pile.

CJ, how much tile do you have leftover? Maybe you could cut some rectangular pieces the width of the doorway and lay them out next to the other tiles to see how it looks? You could also cut up the tiles into smaller squares (I know that would be a pain) and see how it would look to do that pattern. You could try all sorts of different patterns with the same tile depending on how much cutting you're willing to do-- but rectangular strips might be easiest. Some of the pictures I posted look like the tile was about the same color on at least one side. Then the tile would be the same thickness as the other tile so it would not be a tripping hazard.

Went to Sams to get water and some groceries. Popped in to see my friend. The kitten over there needs to go back to the vet. I brought him back inside (he was on the porch) and when my friend wasn't looking, I watched his girlfriend literally kick the kitten and shove him outside. He told me she knows she's not supposed to put that one out, but she's a b****.

I'm a bit miffed because he let the guy who does yardwork for him use my tools & he broke a rake I just bought. He had to have been really mishandling it to break it. We were all marveling at how he must have abused it to break it like that. Now I need to get a new one. Should make that guy pay for it though. I'm gonna have to take all my yard tools home so that guy can't touch them anymore.

I'm about to go pick my friend up so he can come out here and help me identify cables in my well shed and help with some stuff.

 

[C.J.]

I said heck with it and just ran the two patterns into each other. I broke it under the door so if I ever demo the bedroom I can just go right up to the grout line. My tile saw is in my shed in NC so all the cuts were made with a grinder with a tile blade on it. That kinda ruled out anything fancy or that requires precision. Hoping that after it’s grouted and I’ve looked at it a thousand times that it will just look dumb and I’ll forget all about it. Besides, it’s my brothers room. Lol

 

[Floorist]

Did you ever wonder if them attacking on 9/11 is because we dial 911 for emergencies or was it a coincidence?

 

[Mark Brown]

I said heck with it and just ran the two patterns into each other. I broke it under the door so if I ever demo the bedroom I can just go right up to the grout line. My tile saw is in my shed in NC so all the cuts were made with a grinder with a tile blade on it. That kinda ruled out anything fancy or that requires precision. Hoping that after it’s grouted and I’ve looked at it a thousand times that it will just look dumb and I’ll forget all about it. Besides, it’s my brothers room. Lol

View attachment 12896

Man... I cant look at that. It looks like it was really poorly photoshoped lol

I mean, you did what you could and I think it was the right call but holy hell brother. You gotta get home

 

[Floorist]

I have actually seen worse.

 

[Mark Brown]

I have actually seen worse.

Hell i have done worse
.....thats not my point. It always sucks when you get forced into something. There is no win for this.

 

[Floorist]

 

[C.J.]

Man... I cant look at that. It looks like it was really poorly photoshoped lol

I mean, you did what you could and I think it was the right call but holy hell brother. You gotta get home

I’m makin a trip to NC in a few weeks. Gotta get new tags for my van. Gonna grab my tile saw and a few other things then but I’ve really been in no hurry since most shops here only pay $2.50/ sq ft for basic tile. ****, I was getting $3.50/ sq ft in the ‘90’s for tile. I’ll throw my saw off a bridge before I work for what they pay here.

 

[Floorist]

Almost all tile and laminate is DIY here. And since vinyl-backed vinyl, much of it is too.

 

[C.J.]

Did you ever wonder if them attacking on 9/11 is because we dial 911 for emergencies or was it a coincidence?

I thought that the date 9/11 was chosen on purpose because we dial 911 for emergencies. I was heading back from a job that wasn’t ready a couple years ago and went right by the Pennsylvania memorial site so I stopped in and checked it out. People see it on TV and read about it n such but when you’re right there in person it has a whole different reality that you just don’t get without being there in person. Seeing the exact place where the plane went down really brings it home. Haven’t been to NY since the ‘90’s so the towers were still standing then. I remember going to the top of them. There was a helicopter ride simulator at the top of one of them. Didn’t think much of it then but now that they’re gone I don’t really know what to think of it now.

This really got me thinking of that day. I was in L.A. and the BIL woke me up and turned on the TV. The first plane had already hit. I remember flipping the channel thinking I was watching HBO or something cus it surely couldn’t be the news. Then the second plane hit. I didn’t know what to think, was just thinking WTF is this real? I was supposed to hop on a plane later that day but I knew that I wasn’t flying anywhere for a while. Had to call and cancel my jobs for a week or so till I eventually ended up having to drive home but people were obviously understanding. Things were weird after that. Work was hit n miss. There was still work but people were hesitant to spend money because nobody knew if we were going to war or what the hell was gonna happen.

 

[Mark Brown]

I’m makin a trip to NC in a few weeks. Gotta get new tags for my van. Gonna grab my tile saw and a few other things then but I’ve really been in no hurry since most shops here only pay $2.50/ sq ft for basic tile. ****, I was getting $3.50/ sq ft in the ‘90’s for tile. I’ll throw my saw off a bridge before I work for what they pay here.

I know you know..... but in gonna say it anyway lest someone take it wrong, I wasn't trying to say YOU did a bad job, I know you better than that.
That clears that right up

 

[C.J.]

I know you know..... but in gonna say it anyway lest someone take it wrong, I wasn't trying to say YOU did a bad job, I know you better than that.
That clears that right up

No worries. I’m just getting the room ready for when my brother shows up Tuesday. If nothing else I’ll loose lay a wall to wall rug that goes right up to the grout line under the door. I mainly did it that way so when that room does get redone I don’t have to worry about taking out a threshold and filling in tiles a second time.

 

[Mark Brown]

Tile can be the worst. There isn't anything that really hides blending it and when you get tired of it, its a bloody nightmare to deal with.
That being said, me, bathroom tile....nothing else.
Getting ready to do hardwood throughout my whole house pretty soon... its about time to replace those carpet tile lol

 

[C.J.]

Hardwoods for the win.

 

[Mark Brown]

Always the win
I have avoided working on this house for the past 5 or 6 years, its a **** hole. Problem is with 3 kids now I have to do something to get more bedrooms which means removing the wall I took down, that way the kitchen we have and the dining room I walled in and accessed off the porch that was outside can be two rooms.
So now with the walls down and a bunch of other crap getting ripped out, well I need to do something and that something is the whole house.
If we are being positive its only 1000 sqft and the 80 sqft of the bathroom is already done and the 100 sqft mudroom isn't getting done. Nothing I drive wheelbarrows on needs to be pretty.

That wall is all gone and the beam is up and holding. So here we go!

 

[C.J.]

Living in a house at the same time you’re remodeling it is definitely an experience. You need chickens.

 

[Mark Brown]

Living in a house at the same time you’re remodeling it is definitely an experience. You need chickens.

This will be the second home I gutted from top to bottom. Last one was a complete tear down to stud of the whole thing and the best part is I did it 3 months after we had our first kid. To clarify, we were living in it at the time. That whole thing started because we had water come into our ceiling via the roof and an ice dam in the gutters that kept building up under the soffits and traveled into the roof cavity and then melted. I will never forget waking up from sleep, laying in bed and saying "Why is it raining inside".
I cannot say the timing was ideal, but the wife puts up with me. What sucked with that home is that we sold it just as I finished it and the wife never even got to live there. Oddly enough, after our kid turning 6 months old, she decided she wanted to move back home to be closer to her family and I could not really argue. Turns out Saskatchewan is not nearly as nice as the coast.

 

[Floorist]

I lived in Kansas City from 1972 to 1992. Did not want my kids in school there. The transition back to my home town was easy. I still knew enough people to get my installation business up and running. We bought a house in an all owner occupied neighborhood. House was paid off years ago. Three years ago,we sold and moved to the other end of town. The area we bought that house in 1992 had become all rentals and in bad shape. Even several drug houses. We were the last of the owner occupied. Sometimes, you just have bad luck. Back to making house payments again.