What did you do today?

[C.J.]

Prolly not nearly as expensive either. Seems the closer you are to water the more you’re gonna pay. I wonder how many more houses I’m gonna have to fix the way I want them to be just to end up moving after I get them the way I finally want them. Living in a skoolie does have some appeal to it. When you’re ready to move you don’t have to worry about remodeling again. Some day.

 

[Mark Brown]

Not making mortgage payments is the reason I will tolerate this insanity. I'm 37 and my house has been paid for for 2 years now. My whopping whole house renovation will barely run me 10K so I can afford that.

I really hope by skoolie Chris, you mean a school bus because then you really are my hero.

 

[C.J.]

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.

Cities change. Neighborhoods change. No house payments is the way to be but I do understand that sometimes that’s just not how things work out.

Mark, I’ve dreamt of a skoolie for some time now. Half the fun will be turning it into your home. A lot of detail in a small space. I would be in heaven working on that thing. Makes my brain hurt just thinking about all the details though but it would also be a dream come true to build one then travel in it. Don’t think I’ll ever have a house payment again if I can help it and a skoolie fits that bill with the ability to travel yet always be at home. I’m already lookin for one. I can park it at my NC home and work on it when I want according to my schedule.

 

[Mark Brown]

Some days I long for the time when I lived in my 92 civic man. I have every thing I needed to be happy in that little car AND a djembe. It was rather liberating to know that you were beholden to nothing.
I think that is most the reason I bought the one I am working on now, there was a love there that couldn't be replaced.
I look my my sprinter a lot and think I would be better served using it as a camper than a work van, but that just sounds crazy.
I hope you get your bus someday man, your wife will probably leave you.... but I'm surprised she hasn't already
When mine comes to her sense we can travel together and park in as many planet fitness parking lots as our hearts can dream

 

[C.J.]

My wife tells me she has too much training invested in me to leave me. That and she’d be hard pressed to find another dude that would put up with her shit. I ain’t leavin her cus I got a lot of training invested in her. Two way street. We got each other right where we want each other. Killing me is a different story though. She already told me that if I got the Rona she was pullin the plug after 10 days.

She’s all on board for a skoolie. We thought about a tiny house but the reality is those are stupid. You can get a real house for less than a tiny house costs. We’re just done with payments of any kind although she did buy a new car a couple years ago but that’s our, her, only payment. Debt is slavery. Having no payments besides typical monthly’s allows me to wait for the paying jobs and pass on the turds. Otherwise I might have to do tile.

 

[Mark Brown]

Amen brother!
I dont mind the sprinter, I put the money for it in an account and it comes out once a month because the lease writeoff is better than the capital expense write-off and I dont have to think about it. That money is already gone. I do regret buying it, I could have spent 70K on something a lot better... oh well.
I kidd about your wife leaving you, it just made for funny commentary. Hell I can't even leave you and I hardly know you lol


I cannot convince my wife of any of my crazy plans... might have something to do with the 3 kids under 8 that we have, so I still have hope. I wouldn't mind living on a boat.... but that would mean owning a boat and thst sounds like a stupid idea too.... other than the fact you could circumnavigate the globe, thst would be swell.

I bet you get your bus someday buddy, your still young and never out of time until you are out of time and hell you know what, if it doesn't work out I got a 92 civic hatch you could live out of, ill show you the ropes

 

[C.J.]

The wife n have had to hash out some differences over the years so one of us leaving the other could have happened, but luckily we made it. That and we kinda like each other most days.

I had to wait until my youngest son joined the army before we really had the opportunity to start doing things. It’s a whole different ball game once the kids are out of the house. If the old man didn’t make it we were gonna take a year off and just travel. Work will always be there.

As far as a boat goes I also have a dream of making a shanty boat. Get a pontoon boat or an old house boat and fix it up like I would a skoolie and float some rivers n lakes. I got dreams. Until then I’m just sitting here lookin like this.

 

[zannej]

I think since there is a door, the tiles won't be as obvious when it is closed.

Today is my sister's anniversary. I think she and my BIL have been married 11 years now. Maybe 12. They didn't really have a wedding-- just a quick thing of saying "I do" in front of an officiant with only my mother and one of her friends as witnesses. They didn't even realize what day it was. If they had, they would have done it the next day.

I remember we had just made it back from overseas a couple of days before and my father had just started at his new job. We were in Spokane & my dad called. I was the only one who woke up so I picked up the phone and he told me to turn on the news. Since he worked in INS and they were afraid there would be more attacks, he sent all of his personnel home. He mentioned how unreasonable the district director was with wanting to have a 1 man station near the northern border manned 24/7. He said "Ok, I need you to send me more people" "No". "I can't have ONE person working 24/7 seven days a week!"

I got my friend out to help me do some measurements, look at the wiring in the shed to figure out how to fix it up and put in a new float, and he helped me cut a board that I will sand and paint before mounting it to my wall.

I got a bit miffed because he let the guy who does yardwork for him use my rake and the guy broke it. It's a metal rake with fiberglass handle and it was not cheap. Not sure what the guy did to break it, but I told my friend I want the guy to replace it. He wants to just replace the handle. But part of the reason I got that rake was because it has comfort grips on the handle. I don't think they sell replacement handles anyway.

I am exhausted now and will take a nap after I eat something.

 

[highup]

Always the win
I have avoided working on this house for the past 5 or 6 years, its a shit 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.
View attachment 12898

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

Is that a wall or a puzzle?

 

[highup]

The wife n have had to hash out some differences over the years so one of us leaving the other could have happened, but luckily we made it. That and we kinda like each other most days.

I had to wait until my youngest son joined the army before we really had the opportunity to start doing things. It’s a whole different ball game once the kids are out of the house. If the old man didn’t make it we were gonna take a year off and just travel. Work will always be there.

As far as a boat goes I also have a dream of making a shanty boat. Get a pontoon boat or an old house boat and fix it up like I would a skoolie and float some rivers n lakes. I got dreams. Until then I’m just sitting here lookin like this.

Cities change. Neighborhoods change. No house payments is the way to be but I do understand that sometimes that’s just not how things work out.

Mark, I’ve dreamt of a skoolie for some time now. Half the fun will be turning it into your home. A lot of detail in a small space. I would be in heaven working on that thing. Makes my brain hurt just thinking about all the details though but it would also be a dream come true to build one then travel in it. Don’t think I’ll ever have a house payment again if I can help it and a skoolie fits that bill with the ability to travel yet always be at home. I’m already lookin for one. I can park it at my NC home and work on it when I want according to my schedule.

https://images.app.goo.gl/qgRDmK7y4URjzoa6A

 

[highup]

I got my slightly out of town job done finally. Just 25 miles away, but anymore that's far enough.
It was just a 56 foot roll, but the layout wasn't user friendly for a loop pile. If it was fuzzy stuff, I could have given the carpet a 1/4 turn and put seams in different places. The stairs determined the carpet direction. 13 stairs and two landings. Glad its done. I billed out almost $1100 bucks and they tossed in another $50 with instructions to use it for a meal at a new restaurant they had just visited for the first time.

 

[zannej]

It looks nice, Highup!

 

[highup]

Thanks Zan. I've worked for this couple a few times before. They bought homes and beautifully updated them and sold them. You could call it flipping houses. This couple however does everything first rate. Any improvements they make are 100%, they don't skimp on anything.
For me the basic idea is the customer needs to be happy. This couple is very happy and I was reminded what I left.
"You'll be doing more work for us"
Customers that are happy like these people are are pretty much the only thing that makes this line of work worth doing.
The box stores and the big name shops only care about their own profits. In smaller towns, your name gets around, you're reputation gets around and at some point it seems to feed upon itself.
I feel so fortunate to have so many customers that don't even ask the price before I start. They know that I'm going to be fair and they also know that the job is going to end up being done right.

 

[Mark Brown]

Is that a wall or a puzzle?

I am fairly sure that it was a puzzle of a drunken lumberjack at one point in time. It use to be an exterior wall some 1000 years ago or so because when i tore the drywall off of it to my surprise there was solid fir tongue and groove boards, a framed out window and what at one point was a door. Not to mention an old tin chimney. Oh goodie!! Then up in the attic I discovered that they just roofed over an old existing roof and turned the pitch perpendicular to the existing one. So very much fun. Then there is the "puzzle" that is the framing on that wall. I do not know what exactly someone was thinking but I do know for certain it must have involved a lot of alcohol.

When I went to do my bathroom and I tore out the existing tile that was there I discovered an old vertical swing window that was wood framed and single paned, so that was a good one too. Windows would make sense in a bathroom and all, but not on an interior wall. Turns out there are only 2 walls in this whole house that were not at one point exterior walls. It has been so much fun to play with!

 

[Floorist]

Thanks Zan. I've worked for this couple a few times before. They bought homes and beautifully updated them and sold them. You could call it flipping houses. This couple however does everything first rate. Any improvements they make are 100%, they don't skimp on anything.
For me the basic idea is the customer needs to be happy. This couple is very happy and I was reminded what I left.
"You'll be doing more work for us"
Customers that are happy like these people are are pretty much the only thing that makes this line of work worth doing.
The box stores and the big name shops only care about their own profits. In smaller towns, your name gets around, you're reputation gets around and at some point it seems to feed upon itself.
I feel so fortunate to have so many customers that don't even ask the price before I start. They know that I'm going to be fair and they also know that the job is going to end up being done right.

With the stores it is "just get it on the floor".

 

[highup]

If the weather here was like it was yesterday, all year long, the population would double.

 

[Mark Brown]

We are rocking a perfect day here right now.
Ita so perfect im gonna waste it working on my car.

 

[C.J.]

If the weather here was like it was yesterday, all year long, the population would double.

The wife n I considered the southern Oregon coast. Climate is nicer than northern Oregon but the problem is you’re still in Oregon. I hear the national anthem on the radio every day at noon in AZ as well as I did in the morning in the Carolinas, pledge of allegiance in the Carolinas too. I like that. Let’s me know I’m living somewhere that appreciates and respect the country I, we, live in despite whatever faults it may have.

I grouted my tile this morning. Got a couple pieces of base to hang and caulk then I’m done.

 

[highup]

Portland, Salem and Eugene are where they don't like flags. I'd bet over 98% of the people I've worked for in the past 10 years love our flag, the anthem and Rush Limbaugh. The crazies get all the press time.

 

[C.J.]

Portland, Salem and Eugene are where they don't like flags. I'd bet over 98% of the people I've worked for in the past 10 years love our flag, the anthem and Rush Limbaugh. The crazies get all the press time.

Problem is the majority of the states population is in those three areas so they control the vote. That’s why the rest of the state wants to break off and become part of Idaho. Good luck with that ever happening.