Hotter than heck out today, so while I am inside with the AC on I figured I would make the June All-topic thread. Yes, it is a day early. Sosumi.
Beeter early than late.

Jim

 

Well, I'll jump in early..... Howdy Jim.

 

I patiently awaited until the month of June.

 

I have no formal training..... in anything practical in life. I'm kind of a self taught person. I might look at a repair manual. In the old days, I would go to the library and look through books...... or read an article in Popular Mechanics. I was too poor to even have a magazine subscription. I watched my Dad do things. Mimicry. Monkey see, monkey do.


I did some more plumbing this week. Simple job. Replaced the shower valve stems and seats. Luckily, I knew to turn the water off first. Then from there, it was just looking at it, and deciding what to do next, since I didn't have any kind of manual.

My Uncle's girlfriend just spent $$$$ on plumbing. Same thing I did. I did it as a preventative maintenance. Things are old. Better to change out a faucet, before there's a real leak. Within the last year, as time permitted, I changed out the water heater, kitchen and bathroom sink faucets, shower tub faucets, shower head, added arrestors........ All simple bolt on parts.

My Uncle's girlfriend was upset. She wanted to know why I didn't help her do her plumbing, since I knew how to do it. She got even more upset when I told her why. Because she wanted me to "help" her by doing the work for free. I don't have a problem with helping friends and family out. And I do much more work on other people's homes, than I do on my own. She has rental properties. She's profiting from these properties. She should pay a professional as a cost of doing business. Or at least pay me for doing the work, instead of expecting me to do the work for free.


It reminds me of the time she wanted me to serve legal notices. I told her that she would have to pay her attorney, then have her attorney hire me. Legally, I would be an agent of her lawyer, a legal investigator. What if I trip and fall on her property while evicting her tenants? Or one of her tenants became aggressive, and I have to get physical with him? Some people like to scare off process servers with a shotgun. Maybe I just wanted to be paid the prevailing wage, have my mileage reimbursed, and be legally protected in case I shoot somebody. I wasn't dumb enough to get myself in hot water, for free.


If she owned a restaurant, would she expect me to wash dishes and wait tables for free?

 

Howdy Tim.
Well, no tri-tip this time. Just hot dogs, nachos, chips and fruit. I heard they cooked 1,000 hot dogs for the event. That is a lot of hot dogs.
I remember as a teenager taking dad's land yacht (1970 Chevrolet Kingswood station wagon) To the nearest public library and reading Popular Mechanics. I also read Car Craft and hot rod magazines, as well as Road & Track and my favorite Car & Driver magazines. Dad used to bowl in a Postal League at a bowling alley near his route. Once a week I would tag along and go to the nearest liquor store and buy one of those magazines. Gave me something to read while he was bowling.
Sounds like your uncle's girlfriend expected free work. I don't mind helping people either when I can, but if they have the means to pay then yeah, I would expect something for my help. Of course, now it is a moot point as I can't do much of anything anymore except give computer advice or help a novice setup their system.

Jim

 

This is where our beloved short ribs come from.

You Tube

I help plenty of people. Friends, relatives, etc. I don't charge for my help. But that usually means that they're there doing the job with me. As in: I'm the third pair of hands, I am guiding through the process, and I will usually bring whatever special tools if they don't have it. I don't charge my friends and family for work. I will accept a meal. I'm sure we've all helped someone move, paint a fence, clean carpets, or whatever; and got a beer and a pizza. I'm not a professional. So I'm not going to say, "a plumber would have charged you $2,000, so give me $$$XXX."



But we're not talking about the home she lives in. She lives in a rent controlled apartment, where she has been since she was a child. She's paying locked in rent from over 50 years ago. Her rent in San Francisco, is probably less than what you pay. That's how she has the money to buy rental property. Properties. Save enough for a down payment. Collect rents to make the mortgage. Leverage the equity, buy another property. Collect rent to pay for the next property. Repeat. Every so often, flip the properties. Over the course of many years, you accumulate a small handful of rental units.

It only makes sense to me, and maybe only me, that since her properties are rentals, I shouldn't be doing the work.

One of my cousins operates a livery service. There's no way that I'm going to service his fleet vehicles for free, to save him a few thousand dollars. I have an uncle with a restaurant. I'm not there cooking, washing dishes, unclogging the grease trap, or doing anything for free.

 

Makes sense to me.

Jim

 

As a contractor I donate my time but I pick my battles for elderly or low income clients, I don’t give away bones all the time with them , but I also don’t over charge either, my wife is good at telling people, oh Scot can come over and help you or he has all the tools to fix that , my Tools are my bread & butter, they cost me a lot of money to get certain jobs done easily, client tell me oh that didn’t take very long to get done , no but if I didn’t have this $400 tool it would have cost you double in labor .
i glad to be home , went to my grandsons wedding in nor cal , once I hit Sacramento I realized why I moved out of California, fuel is high , people are crazy, food is expensive, at least in Oregon fuel is low , people are still crazy and I can make my own food at home,
no rain in our forecast but the temps are mid 80s , for now .

 

Fuel costs in California are ridiculous... It doesn't help that we have the highest fuel prices in America. Thanks to the highest gas taxes imposed by our governor.
Haven't driven the truck since last Thursday, but tomorrow I need to go to the bank to get the rent check, and a roll of quarters for the DIY car wash and laundry, so, I might as well take the truck.

Jim

 

Thanks for doing that. Plenty of old people and poor people can't find honest contractors. I don't even know where to find one. Someone who doesn't take shortcuts, does the job right, and prices fair.






I'm still eating tri tip. Any combination of meat and veggies is considered Chinese food. I'm your basic Panda Express knockoff.

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Looks good. I'm going to sue the weather guessers. They said there would be a high of 92 today, but it is already 93.
No other news to report down here in the armpit of Cali.

Jim

 

Rob from the City, I'm with you on not working for your uncles girlfriend.

Jim, Washington is right behind you on fuel tax's, our new governor just signed a bill that is going to add 6 cents to gas and 12 cents to diesel, I think it goes into effect on July 1st.

 

If I could afford to move out of California I would. However, unless I win the lotto (which I don't play) there is no hope of that. Food prices going up, rent goes up 10% every year (my SSN doesn't go up 10% every year) fuel prices going up, and with the refineries closing it is predicted to raise fuel prices to $8 a gallon. I sure hope that doesn't happen.

Jim

 

We spent a week with my brother & his wife in Sun City, AZ a few weeks ago. Everything there is about half the cost of stuff here. of course, Sun City (just NE of Phoenix) makes Fresno look like a cool spot.

 

Yeah, I would love to move to Arizona, but I would move to the Flagstaff area. No desert heat there.

Jim