Those cheesy videos got me the "rough in" inspection passed, approved for drywall.
I have a tremendous energy to get what I want. If only I wanted great riches and fame. I said, 2 days ago, I totally want that sexy old panel that I had never seen before. well now I have another service change booked for Dec 8, with a crazy old panel I have never seen before. Not as cool as the one pictured below, they resemble standard breakers from a distance, but still an interesting bit of history. If only it was worth something more than 5lb of scrap steel.
Chickens are laying crazy eggs, like 2 a day, but we only have 2 chickens.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Work, Work, Work
et, I have never seen a panel like this. I love it. I want it. I want to add it to my museum of old panels, though this is the only unique one. I haven't got the job yet, but I put a fair price on it, and it is in Lamont County, where it seems impossible to get an electrician to actually do work for you. So if they have the money, I'm sure I have the job.
Kijiji seems like a good place to find an inexpensive electrician. I get a lot of calls from that, and everybody is getting 3 quotes. Rite now I couldn't care less if I get more work, but today was a fun quote. The landlord obviously put the service in himself, and needed a permit, plus $2800 more work in the commercial building. I broke it all down for him, with the first thing being the permit, for $600, so we can get power, the last thing being a $400 discount, if I do all the work, and the bill is paid same day the job is finished. I didn't get my masters to pull permits for work that other people have done, and been paid for. He was quick to point out that the $600 was unreasonable, if I can adjust that, he would like me to go ahead with the rest of the work, except some outdoor electric sign work I wanted $800 for, he said it was out of his budget, and it could be done any time, for much less in warmer weather. Before I could get back to him to say, "Consider the $400 discount for paying quickly, a discount from the permit fee", He emailed me to say another quote came in and he has given the job to them. Now I have emailed to see what the winning quote is, if he will tell me.
The whole lot of work I have is messing with my cheap relaxed self. Spending $50 a day on gas, for the Astro Possum van, getting $10,000 Visa bills for materials and gas. The van, with a failed block heater, barely starting some mornings. Driving to work with an accident, and police on every fifth corner, and a few hairy black ice maneuvers my self. I can't wait to get the Possum Voyager Diesel van done, so I can save like $40 a day in fuel.
Michelle wanted and got Guinea pigs. In negotiatoins for them, she loses the mice. I tried to give the mice away to a big snake owner on Kijiji, but they pulled my add saying "in Ontario you can not feed found rodents to snakes." That was the official answer, when I complained that my add "Mice for snake food" was unfairly pulled. Its not illegals, you simply "can not" feed snakes wild rodents.
Andrew is one of very few towns north of Reddear, that still use Permit Pro. Permit Pro is out of Calgary, and they come out to Andrew less than once a month. We need a rough in inspection to do drywall. So they are now accepting pictures for the rough in. I made them a couple of videos for fun. they are nothing too exciting, but I will post them here anyway. This is for the duplex in Andrew, I have been wiring.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Iphone Is Still Smashed
My touch screen on the Iphone 4 works surprisingly well still, wile all cracked. It is only $220 to have Apple replace the screen for me, but it takes an hour, and they are at West Ed Mall. I hate the WEM. The thought of spending an hour there, even if I had an hour, I think I just swallowed vomit.
Had a sweet black ice recovery in the old astro van last week. Hauling the big trailer, and trencher, up the hill out of Fort Saskatchewan's river valley, I hit black Ice and did the van ever kick out, wile the trailer helped push it along. A little excessive fish tailing, and I recovered. There was no other traffic at the time. I had to use all of my lane, half of the oncoming lane, and the shoulder to regain control of the old rear wheel drive piece. That's with feet rite off the pedals, and going up hill. Good times. The trencher was tied down, somewhat poorly, cause its in a fully enclosed trailer, but it was still exactly where I tied it.
I went out hunting w a friend from Andrew, Saturday morning. Rifle hunting is only for the month of Nov out here. I was surprised how many people were driving around early morning hunting for dear. We scoped out a couple of Doe, but wanted a buck, for the rack I think, and only had one tag. So no bullets fired.
Its darn cold here now. Somehow a lot of my jobs are outside. I am going to change that rite away. I think I will just have to charge more to do outside work in the winter, cause it ends up being really slow, and uncomfortable. The trencher stopped digging last week, cause the ground froze. It really happened over night, would dig one day, then not the next. I have got 2 weeks of work ahead of me, and still more coming. I would like to shut it off for some time to go to Mexico, but I don't quite know how to turn it back on again. The flow of work that is. I haven't gotten to do anything cool lately, besides wire stuff, for other people. Thats not that cool. I am taking Monday off, and I still have to meet a difficult inspector. Maybe I can get my "proximity" alarm wired in the driveway wile I wait for him.
Had a sweet black ice recovery in the old astro van last week. Hauling the big trailer, and trencher, up the hill out of Fort Saskatchewan's river valley, I hit black Ice and did the van ever kick out, wile the trailer helped push it along. A little excessive fish tailing, and I recovered. There was no other traffic at the time. I had to use all of my lane, half of the oncoming lane, and the shoulder to regain control of the old rear wheel drive piece. That's with feet rite off the pedals, and going up hill. Good times. The trencher was tied down, somewhat poorly, cause its in a fully enclosed trailer, but it was still exactly where I tied it.
I went out hunting w a friend from Andrew, Saturday morning. Rifle hunting is only for the month of Nov out here. I was surprised how many people were driving around early morning hunting for dear. We scoped out a couple of Doe, but wanted a buck, for the rack I think, and only had one tag. So no bullets fired.
Its darn cold here now. Somehow a lot of my jobs are outside. I am going to change that rite away. I think I will just have to charge more to do outside work in the winter, cause it ends up being really slow, and uncomfortable. The trencher stopped digging last week, cause the ground froze. It really happened over night, would dig one day, then not the next. I have got 2 weeks of work ahead of me, and still more coming. I would like to shut it off for some time to go to Mexico, but I don't quite know how to turn it back on again. The flow of work that is. I haven't gotten to do anything cool lately, besides wire stuff, for other people. Thats not that cool. I am taking Monday off, and I still have to meet a difficult inspector. Maybe I can get my "proximity" alarm wired in the driveway wile I wait for him.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Work Crazyness
You know you've made it when you get the haters, they say.
I am putting a bid on new house construction. Talking to the builder, I knew exactly where he was coming from. He said he used to do renovations, but he just got sick of opening places up, finding lots of crap, pointing it out, saying he'll fix it for extra, then the customer doesn't necessarily feel ripped off, but isn't happy about giving up a lot more money than he or she had budgeted for. Its so much nicer to bring people joy, by taking them out on dune buggies or something.
A fine example was a panel box I moved for a friends sister. I gave her a fair estimate, high enough, to account for a little unexpected. Well the place was full of unexpected time consuming BS. That all just takes time, if I end up only getting $20 an hour for the gig, oh well, I'm still making some money. Then I need to call Epcor to disconnect the power. After I change the supply conductors over, I need to get an inspection, and have Epor come and reconnect. Little did I know, Epcor won't reconnect the crappy old meter bases. The customers mast is too low, which I did know, but we weren't messing with. Now we need to put a new meter base in, we had better put a new mast in, or it probably wont pass the inspection, and won't get hooked back up. Well that is $500 in materials, I charged $300 to put it in, a total of $800, really cheap. Well did I ever hear about that, from her, and her brother. I had told her before hand, $500 extra in materials, I will put it in for $300, normally that would be $1500 installed. "I thought you said the extras were $500". This was already practically charity work, but I know she doesn't have a lot of money, so I took another $150 off, whatever.
Almost the same day, after 2 weeks of calling a contractor I did work for, to get paid, I get this email:
Mr. Smith,
As per the recommendation from my solicitor, I am forwarding this response to this invoice. As of this date, this invoice has not been paid for the following reason:
- Wiring for under cabinet lighting run outside of cabinets, and it was stated as being incorrect by the customer.
- Differing plug heights, which was stated as being incorrect by the customer.
Due to the above comments, we have not been paid for the job yet, and until the electrical is fixed by a licensed contractor, at our cost, we will not be paid. The amount for the invoice will be paid within 30 days, as stated as the timeframe in which to pay on the invoice. A GST number and WCB number shall also be forwarded to our office as well, before payment will be processed.
That ruined my night. What the hell do I need a WCB number for, with no employees. It was never specified to put the under counter lighting wires in the cupboard, where you can see them, and where plates will rock on them. Or maybe the lighting wires were supposed to magically disappear, like wireless under counter lights. The plug height difference must be an eighth of an inch or less. I offered to fix it, I offered my furniture buddy to buff out any staple marks from under the cupboards, who I would happily pay the $80 an hour to. He said "the tile back splash hid all the staple marks, don't worry" That means the wires would have been easily hidden in grout. With just short of offering my soul to make this better, the contractor admitted these were just 2 complaints on a long list, which the customer wants fixed before he pays. That is to say, my responsibility is minimum. Customer is being difficult. But I still think he has every right to have it made the way he wants it before he pays. Its not a big deal to put the lighting wires in the cupboards, or adjust the plug height. But you know if I had put the wires in the cupboard to start with, that would be a complaint, only then I had drilled holes in his new cabinets. I feel I did the best job I could.
Then I have a big trenching job, out near Andrew, and the trencher just won't dig through the hard soil. We were standing on it, and all kinds of sketchyness, it just rides up and out of the hard soil. I put it down to dull blades. In 2 days I can get back out there, replace the teeth, and try again.
The ultimate upset, bothered me very little, as I have a half dozen checks in my vehicle safe, waiting to be deposited into the bank. I was at a crappy little service call in Andrew. "my husband pulled the light fixture down in our bedroom, it sparked and now nothing in that room works, no plugs, or anything." I said I would look at it for $60, if its an easy fix I would have it fixed, if not, I still expect $60 and I will give a quote and how I would go about fixing it. I am already late for another job at this point. the wife is happy with that. I call the husband, I have to make sure he's home, and has $60, this is Andrew. He says "I'll give you $60 if you fix it" I explained the deal, and went ahead anyway. he had pretty much disconnected everything in the ceiling JB, so it was just a matter of figuring out the switch leg, power wire, and feeder wires and connecting them all accordingly. Then he brings me a monsterous ceiling fan, the cause of all the problems, he wanted to put a fan up. I pretty much put my hand out for $60, "your not going to put the fan up" he says. I simply said I don't have time for that, I would be happy to come back, but I would never put a fan in a ceiling like that, above your bed, without first going in the attic, and backing it up with 2x4 blocking. I got away with that excuse, and made $60 in 20 min, but dropped my Iphone in the driveway, which shattered the touch screen, grr. Cost of doing business, but it upsets me because it was at irritating job, that I probably should have said no to, but I somehow sadistically enjoy the challenge, and entertainment of their cheapness. Had I not stopped there, would my Iphone be broken? Had I dropped it at the job I'm making $6000 at, the profit margin is still there.
The previous Andrew service call, to "disconnect a dishwasher" you wouldn't believe. I should have taken a picture. About 4 layers of flooring up to the dishwasher. She has got it wedged up at an angle, over the flooring but stuck against the counter. I got distracted, and tried to help, I actually tried to cut the old dishwasher in half for her with a sawzall, but got too close to her precious cupboards and aborted that mission. then I focused on the disconnect, yup, rite in front, just on the edge of the raised flooring. Good luck getting the dishwasher out, your going to have to remove the counter, or the flooring, neither of which were an option in her mind.
I am utterly disappointed we can't shoot the bow in the back yard in Edmonton. I was joking when I mentioned bb guns, but it got Michelle excited, so I bought us BB guns, that were on sale at Princess Auto. She got a pink one, and I got a camouflage one. So there are bb's all over our basement floor now from Michelle missing the target. I am surprised they don't penetrate drywall. Our basement drywall already needs a lot of love, and redoing, so no harm done.
I am putting a bid on new house construction. Talking to the builder, I knew exactly where he was coming from. He said he used to do renovations, but he just got sick of opening places up, finding lots of crap, pointing it out, saying he'll fix it for extra, then the customer doesn't necessarily feel ripped off, but isn't happy about giving up a lot more money than he or she had budgeted for. Its so much nicer to bring people joy, by taking them out on dune buggies or something.
A fine example was a panel box I moved for a friends sister. I gave her a fair estimate, high enough, to account for a little unexpected. Well the place was full of unexpected time consuming BS. That all just takes time, if I end up only getting $20 an hour for the gig, oh well, I'm still making some money. Then I need to call Epcor to disconnect the power. After I change the supply conductors over, I need to get an inspection, and have Epor come and reconnect. Little did I know, Epcor won't reconnect the crappy old meter bases. The customers mast is too low, which I did know, but we weren't messing with. Now we need to put a new meter base in, we had better put a new mast in, or it probably wont pass the inspection, and won't get hooked back up. Well that is $500 in materials, I charged $300 to put it in, a total of $800, really cheap. Well did I ever hear about that, from her, and her brother. I had told her before hand, $500 extra in materials, I will put it in for $300, normally that would be $1500 installed. "I thought you said the extras were $500". This was already practically charity work, but I know she doesn't have a lot of money, so I took another $150 off, whatever.
Almost the same day, after 2 weeks of calling a contractor I did work for, to get paid, I get this email:
Mr. Smith,
As per the recommendation from my solicitor, I am forwarding this response to this invoice. As of this date, this invoice has not been paid for the following reason:
- Wiring for under cabinet lighting run outside of cabinets, and it was stated as being incorrect by the customer.
- Differing plug heights, which was stated as being incorrect by the customer.
Due to the above comments, we have not been paid for the job yet, and until the electrical is fixed by a licensed contractor, at our cost, we will not be paid. The amount for the invoice will be paid within 30 days, as stated as the timeframe in which to pay on the invoice. A GST number and WCB number shall also be forwarded to our office as well, before payment will be processed.
That ruined my night. What the hell do I need a WCB number for, with no employees. It was never specified to put the under counter lighting wires in the cupboard, where you can see them, and where plates will rock on them. Or maybe the lighting wires were supposed to magically disappear, like wireless under counter lights. The plug height difference must be an eighth of an inch or less. I offered to fix it, I offered my furniture buddy to buff out any staple marks from under the cupboards, who I would happily pay the $80 an hour to. He said "the tile back splash hid all the staple marks, don't worry" That means the wires would have been easily hidden in grout. With just short of offering my soul to make this better, the contractor admitted these were just 2 complaints on a long list, which the customer wants fixed before he pays. That is to say, my responsibility is minimum. Customer is being difficult. But I still think he has every right to have it made the way he wants it before he pays. Its not a big deal to put the lighting wires in the cupboards, or adjust the plug height. But you know if I had put the wires in the cupboard to start with, that would be a complaint, only then I had drilled holes in his new cabinets. I feel I did the best job I could.
Then I have a big trenching job, out near Andrew, and the trencher just won't dig through the hard soil. We were standing on it, and all kinds of sketchyness, it just rides up and out of the hard soil. I put it down to dull blades. In 2 days I can get back out there, replace the teeth, and try again.
The ultimate upset, bothered me very little, as I have a half dozen checks in my vehicle safe, waiting to be deposited into the bank. I was at a crappy little service call in Andrew. "my husband pulled the light fixture down in our bedroom, it sparked and now nothing in that room works, no plugs, or anything." I said I would look at it for $60, if its an easy fix I would have it fixed, if not, I still expect $60 and I will give a quote and how I would go about fixing it. I am already late for another job at this point. the wife is happy with that. I call the husband, I have to make sure he's home, and has $60, this is Andrew. He says "I'll give you $60 if you fix it" I explained the deal, and went ahead anyway. he had pretty much disconnected everything in the ceiling JB, so it was just a matter of figuring out the switch leg, power wire, and feeder wires and connecting them all accordingly. Then he brings me a monsterous ceiling fan, the cause of all the problems, he wanted to put a fan up. I pretty much put my hand out for $60, "your not going to put the fan up" he says. I simply said I don't have time for that, I would be happy to come back, but I would never put a fan in a ceiling like that, above your bed, without first going in the attic, and backing it up with 2x4 blocking. I got away with that excuse, and made $60 in 20 min, but dropped my Iphone in the driveway, which shattered the touch screen, grr. Cost of doing business, but it upsets me because it was at irritating job, that I probably should have said no to, but I somehow sadistically enjoy the challenge, and entertainment of their cheapness. Had I not stopped there, would my Iphone be broken? Had I dropped it at the job I'm making $6000 at, the profit margin is still there.
The previous Andrew service call, to "disconnect a dishwasher" you wouldn't believe. I should have taken a picture. About 4 layers of flooring up to the dishwasher. She has got it wedged up at an angle, over the flooring but stuck against the counter. I got distracted, and tried to help, I actually tried to cut the old dishwasher in half for her with a sawzall, but got too close to her precious cupboards and aborted that mission. then I focused on the disconnect, yup, rite in front, just on the edge of the raised flooring. Good luck getting the dishwasher out, your going to have to remove the counter, or the flooring, neither of which were an option in her mind.
I am utterly disappointed we can't shoot the bow in the back yard in Edmonton. I was joking when I mentioned bb guns, but it got Michelle excited, so I bought us BB guns, that were on sale at Princess Auto. She got a pink one, and I got a camouflage one. So there are bb's all over our basement floor now from Michelle missing the target. I am surprised they don't penetrate drywall. Our basement drywall already needs a lot of love, and redoing, so no harm done.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Swamp gas
Do people really believe "swamp gas" blew up potentially the most profitable hotel in Mexico. We were supposed to be at Rons wedding at that very same resort in march. Pretty happy we didn't go for the advance purchase "deal". We'd have tickets to stay in the crater or something.
Yet another strike against staying at all inclusive resorts
Yet another strike against staying at all inclusive resorts
Sent from my iPhone
Friday, November 12, 2010
Buggy's Last Day In The City
We recieved our parking passes today, one for the van, and one for the trailer. They are strict, limit 2, non transferable, licence plate printed on them and all.
We successfully towed the sand rail out to Andrew, dispite a wheel falling off on the highway, and having to chase after it on foot It would have been a brilliant video. I said "oh shiznit, the wheel" (thought I had a flat acctually), and I pulled over. As I pull over, Michelle says, "its OK, I can see the back wheel in the mirror." I said, "its not the rear wheel I am worried about, THATS OUR FRONT TIRE PASSING US" Stupid VW lug bolts, they are always too tight and break, or too loose and falling off. It made a very graceful journey at 90 km/h crossing 3 lanes of traffic, getting rite up on some unsuspecting rear bumpers, but no contact as it crossed the lanes.
A pic of buggy's last day in the city
We successfully towed the sand rail out to Andrew, dispite a wheel falling off on the highway, and having to chase after it on foot It would have been a brilliant video. I said "oh shiznit, the wheel" (thought I had a flat acctually), and I pulled over. As I pull over, Michelle says, "its OK, I can see the back wheel in the mirror." I said, "its not the rear wheel I am worried about, THATS OUR FRONT TIRE PASSING US" Stupid VW lug bolts, they are always too tight and break, or too loose and falling off. It made a very graceful journey at 90 km/h crossing 3 lanes of traffic, getting rite up on some unsuspecting rear bumpers, but no contact as it crossed the lanes.
A pic of buggy's last day in the city
The "racist" town of Andrew just threw a big surprise party for a black Muslim store owner who just got his citizenship to Canada. That was very nonracist of them. Tho there was one lady that obviously didn't realize the party was for "the colored boy" as she put it. I think she was a bit horrified. It was amusing for us to watch as she would play musical chairs. Once an "undesirable" sat at her table, she would pick her chair up and move to a new table. It got difficult for her cause half the business owners are not white Ukrainian, and being social. .
No time to make an action packed vid. some 3 days after I started this post, I have my, larger, astro van packed with materials, top to bottom, and passenger seat, just for the next weeks installs, then another week of worked booked after that too. I have lost all comprehension of "what I'm doing tomorrow". Check the calendar. Going out to Andrew to get the trailer next week, I can't even get to my tools currently, without pulling out a half dozen rolls of wire, 20 pot lights, cases of electrical boxes, ridiculousness.
No time to make an action packed vid. some 3 days after I started this post, I have my, larger, astro van packed with materials, top to bottom, and passenger seat, just for the next weeks installs, then another week of worked booked after that too. I have lost all comprehension of "what I'm doing tomorrow". Check the calendar. Going out to Andrew to get the trailer next week, I can't even get to my tools currently, without pulling out a half dozen rolls of wire, 20 pot lights, cases of electrical boxes, ridiculousness.
Monday, November 1, 2010
City Life
City life is soooo busy. To top that off, I have the dead "possum van" in the Andrew driveway, and I keep getting calls in Andrew. So much for enjoying my weekends off, in Andrew, putting the Ranger back together and stuff, I have to work. I pulled my Kijiji adds, when the van died. I am not putting them back up any time soon either. Oh one guy, in Andrew, saw my van, remembered the catchy name, but not the phone number. He googled me and got my website, possumelectric.com, and emailed me (no search engine optimization needed with a name like that) I haven't updated that website in like 12 months, and I wasn't really serious back then.
I got a $50 ticket for parking in front of my house last weekend. I had asked the realestate agent, if the previous owner would pass on the parking permit, he said we didn't need one, but I'll be getting one this week
I got the stickers made and put on the new "possum van". I just decided to get it done one night, and emailed a dozen places online late at night. The first two responses, at 7am were the greatest. One was $135, and another $200 installed. After 7am the quotes went for a crap, they ranged from $300 to $650. Truly amazing. I got top quality 7 year vinyl and installed them myself for the $135. I'll be getting many more stickers made by this guy.
I am not allowed to build a garage behind the Edmonton house, cause frankly The ere isn't room, and it will be up against the living room window, or kitchen window, and probably the back door. So I just built a garage, a temporary one anyway. It went over surprisingly well. The new sand rail is in the new garage rite now, but I will drive that to Andrew, as soon as I get plates on it, and bring the ranger motor to Edmonton, where I can plan some time to work on it. I have told myself, "no working on the sand rail until the Ranger runs". Its only been like 5+ years and $4500 to get this far on the Ranger, I should get it together already. It will be a great trenching truck. Almost needed a 4x4 to pull the trencher out of some mud today.
We were really excited about Halloween this year. We bought apx 300 individual candies for the trick or treaters. We dressed up and hung out in the living room at our new dinning table. We got 4 trick or treaters, and one of them stole the cool skull ornaments in the front yard. Here is us in costumes, with our friends we had over. I am in the alien mask.
I got a $50 ticket for parking in front of my house last weekend. I had asked the realestate agent, if the previous owner would pass on the parking permit, he said we didn't need one, but I'll be getting one this week
I got the stickers made and put on the new "possum van". I just decided to get it done one night, and emailed a dozen places online late at night. The first two responses, at 7am were the greatest. One was $135, and another $200 installed. After 7am the quotes went for a crap, they ranged from $300 to $650. Truly amazing. I got top quality 7 year vinyl and installed them myself for the $135. I'll be getting many more stickers made by this guy.
I am not allowed to build a garage behind the Edmonton house, cause frankly The ere isn't room, and it will be up against the living room window, or kitchen window, and probably the back door. So I just built a garage, a temporary one anyway. It went over surprisingly well. The new sand rail is in the new garage rite now, but I will drive that to Andrew, as soon as I get plates on it, and bring the ranger motor to Edmonton, where I can plan some time to work on it. I have told myself, "no working on the sand rail until the Ranger runs". Its only been like 5+ years and $4500 to get this far on the Ranger, I should get it together already. It will be a great trenching truck. Almost needed a 4x4 to pull the trencher out of some mud today.
We were really excited about Halloween this year. We bought apx 300 individual candies for the trick or treaters. We dressed up and hung out in the living room at our new dinning table. We got 4 trick or treaters, and one of them stole the cool skull ornaments in the front yard. Here is us in costumes, with our friends we had over. I am in the alien mask.
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