Monday, September 17, 2007

Hunting--Work and Woodland Escape


This weekend I was busy replacing a floor for a client in his bathroom. The floor had been replaced before by someone who didn't know what they were doing.They had used all different kinds of scrap lumber to rebuild the floor and had three different heights when he finish which caused the linoleum to crack and the toilet to rock every direction you moved. Being this house was built in the 1930's I knew this was going to be a chore that would take some time to replace. The existing floor had to be removed along with the toilet,a new floor system put in due to wood rot,the plumbing had to be worked on some to bring the toilet flange down on top of the new floor, then replace the linoleum and toilet along with the trim. The floor is dropping causing a swag which is going to have to be raised. All in all I finally finished the job Sunday evening around 2:00 p.m. then was supposed to help my dad with a roof leak which got put off till next weekend. All in all the floor replacement took me approximately 13 1/2 hours and will end up costing the client $425.00 for his new floor.You can make some decent money doing this kind of work but sometimes it can cause alot of headaches and get into some serious problems if you don't know what your doing or look at the entire job before you give an estimate for the work. I love doing this kind of work but sometimes I get myself in a pickle with my time scheduling.Figuring your time for a job is probably the most important factors of your estimate which is where so many people lose their profit. If the job takes longer then estimated then there goes their profit. Of course my theory is to figure extra time then give the client a refund when possible which makes the client happy with the work they received and you get call-backs for more work. Today I have to go work on my dad's roof,work on another clients roof( just extend the overhang for gutters to be installed which I'll be doing),and of course collect from the floor replacement job then anything else I can work into my schedule before the end of the daylight hours. So much work and so little time to do it all in with little help makes me tired just thinking about it but I have a cure it's called woodland escape. When I get worn out from my work I try to head for the woods to regroup if only for a couple of hours then I'm ready for another long haul of construction work again. Good thing hunting season is close then I can do so real relaxing even though my time in the woods will be limited.I probably have to bring in some help to get the work caught up by next weekend(Sept. 22,07) which is the first day of bow hunting season but if that's what it takes then so be it cause I've planned Sept. 22, 07 as my day to do nothing but hunt those dang ole smelly deer even if it kills me. I do my best to keep everybody posted on my hunting adventures and the outcome of each one but with all the work coming in right now looks like I'm going to be really busy this fall and may not get to go as much as I'd like too. The first deer is usually to fill the tag(which I figure pays for the tag) then after that it's all mainly trophy hunting for a nice rack to put on the wall. Even though the meat does cut down on the grocery bill, it's all about being in the woods just relaxing for me.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hunting is definitely a cure for too much work. Good luck hunting and get out there was much as you can.

The redneck rest stop picture is hysterical.

deerslayer said...

Thanks Arthur and good luck to you to I'll be out there as much as I possibly can be. I'm trying to add a little humor to my sites so I quess it's working.

Editor said...

come listen to your song :)

Anonymous said...

Good post! The old ranch house on my place was built in 1920 and I use it for my office and "hunting cabin". The bath room floor was replaced 2 years ago and before that, trying to get on the toilet was a scary proposition!