[chicken steve]

About 2/3'rds of my former 'ski bunny' GC's have either gone t*ts up, become one man renovators, or retired since the housing bust.

We've gone from $8K chandeliers in 30' great rooms of exotic woods to the dregs of humanity wiring a slums this month

oh how the mighty have fallen! .....

Nobody works in this particular turn of the century house/barn hacked into 6 units. The lady upstairs spends all her time playing solitaire on her 'puter. The dude downstairs is usually visited by the other dude out back by noon w/6 pack to watch Gilligan's Island reruns

I can't get into any one place before 9a.m. , the basement is a dumpster with a hint of dead feline as ambiance , the attic has all sorts of unmentionables.

There might be a few pieces of actual plastic jacketed nm , but it's mostly pre60's era

I've definitely taken a step back....

~CS~

 

[wendon]

About 2/3'rds of my former 'ski bunny' GC's have either gone t*ts up, become one man renovators, or retired since the housing bust.

We've gone from $8K chandeliers in 30' great rooms of exotic woods to the dregs of humanity wiring a slums this month

oh how the mighty have fallen! .....

Nobody works in this particular turn of the century house/barn hacked into 6 units. The lady upstairs spends all her time playing solitaire on her 'puter. The dude downstairs is usually visited by the other dude out back by noon w/6 pack to watch Gilligan's Island reruns

I can't get into any one place before 9a.m. , the basement is a dumpster with a hint of dead feline as ambiance , the attic has all sorts of unmentionables.

There might be a few pieces of actual plastic jacketed nm , but it's mostly pre60's era

I've definitely taken a step back....

~CS~

Chicken Steve in Detroit City...................:whistling2::whistling2:

 

[chicken steve]

My own private Detriot Wendon.....where i'm single handedly degrading the good name of the entire trade .....~CS~

 

[360max]

CS, its the 'trickle down' effect your experiencing :laughing:

 

[chicken steve]

I'm roosting a tier lower .....

~CS~

 

[nrp3]

Which branch are you sitting on. I was crawling through overflowed drain water, dead mice/poo yesterday. Overtime kept a smile on my face.

 

[360max]

I'm roosting a tier lower .....

~CS~

:laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[sparky402]

I hear ya there. I was doing big custom homes for a builder for the last 4 years. The only problem was my patience with them was wearing thin. Waiting 6-12months for pay and the hoops i was jumping through to try and keep them happy was getting smaller and harder to get through. I finally made the decision after a convo i had with one of the GC that rubbed me wrong, i started telling them no and putting them on the back burner. Now they are trying to give me a bad name and im stuck wiring flipped houses. Im happy in the mornings knowing im not getting a call from them telling me where the daily emergency is that wont be ready for weeks but im expected to drop everything to be at the job.

 

[chicken steve]

Which branch are you sitting on. I was crawling through overflowed drain water, dead mice/poo yesterday. Overtime kept a smile on my face.

$$$ helps the feces smell better :thumbsup:......but i don't think i'll tell the lady upstairs that her missing cat might be in the crawlspace....:no: ~CS~

 

[sbrn33]

Those kind of working conditions suck ass but it also know a ton of the competition out.
I really believe there is more money to be made in crappy working conditions. The only real rub is that you had better give them a price ahead of time or they will whine and not pay.

 

[wcord]

I hear ya there. I was doing big custom homes for a builder for the last 4 years. The only problem was my patience with them was wearing thin. Waiting 6-12months for pay and the hoops i was jumping through to try and keep them happy was getting smaller and harder to get through. I finally made the decision after a convo i had with one of the GC that rubbed me wrong, i started telling them no and putting them on the back burner. Now they are trying to give me a bad name and im stuck wiring flipped houses. Im happy in the mornings knowing im not getting a call from them telling me where the daily emergency is that wont be ready for weeks but im expected to drop everything to be at the job.

Been there
5 years ago, I made the decision to expand our commercial work.
Prior to that there was 1 custom home builder who consisted of 50% of my cash flow, but seemed like 75% of my time. He paid within a week and never complained about the pricing, which made it easy to plod along.
Problem was, his scheduling sucked and it felt like I was an employee, jumping to fix his problems, which most of the time were not an emergency.
Once the commercial work started to pick up, we couldn't jump like we used to, so he dumped us and went with a new guy, who was hungry for work.
Can't say I miss the housing, as the profit was substantially less than now. A lot less thinking and risk when doing houses , but also less fun.
I think we tend to get stuck in a rut and need that push to look outside of our comfort zone.
Look around, find that niche that you can fill.
And yes, it is a lot nicer waking up in the morning now.

 

[chicken steve]

~CS~

 

[wildleg]

just be happy you are working (and hopefully getting paid). it beats the alternative.

 

[hardworkingstiff]

Cheer up guys, Harry and his cronies will get the R's in control of Congress next year, then the Presidency in 2 more years. Then we can cut spending on welfare and social security, put healthcare back to where it was in 2008, cut taxes for corporations and wealthy. Then we can get the economy going again and everything will be honky-dory. Just hang in there.

 

[chicken steve]

There's always a bright side.....maybe i'll learn to speak crackhead.......:thumbsup:~CS~

 

[chicken steve]

. Just hang in there.

up the regiment !


~CS~

 

[MTW]

And here I thought Vermont was all Rockefeller money, ski lodges, dairy farms, and Burlington hippies. :whistling2::no::laughing:

 

[Semi-Ret Electrician]

I'm roosting a tier lower .....

~CS~

Reminds me of the dog teams in AK. Only the lead dog has a change of scenery:laughing:

 

[nrp3]

Money, its a gas...

 

[Rollie73]

You gotta ask yourself chickenman......is the money worth it?

I guess the ambience of expired feline in the crawlspace sure beats the smell of an empty checking account:laughing: