I do a lot of subcontracting and have done a lot of work for home remodeling companies and had a salesman who had worked years in the home remodeling business.

They pretty much look for triple the price it's going to take to get the work done and will settle for double (material included). They will look super organized and then will hire that unorganized guy to do all the work. (and tell you that he's an employee when he isn't) Easy to be organized when your entire business is marketing and making sales presentations.

It's hard to know from looking at people who the right person for the job is to get a good price. A hack can look just like a pro and vice versa. But, you're never going to get top quality at a great price unless you're talking directly to the guy who puts on a toolbelt. (still could be a hack - could fail to complete job - could be lots of problems, but could also be a pro's pro and it's the only way to get the best deal)

I'd really really like to at least be the general here (and do a lot of the work myself) but it's just not possible with my work schedule. Not to mention that the condo nazis won't let you do any work on the weekends.

I just read a profile of a woman that said this:

" I prefer that you send me an email sharing with me why you feel we will enjoy living the rest of our lives together."

She was pretty hot. Actually very hot. She had one picture of her holding a bass. I sent her a message saying "I'm not sure about living the rest of our lives together but you have a great bass!". Not expecting a reply.

In any just world, that would get you a date at the bare minimum

nice.

This?



or this?

LOL - the fish.

My only experience with major demos is HGTV, and I'm always suspicious of how little things cost on those shows. It's interesting to get an idea of how much stuff costs irl.

I was watching a show last night where there was a total gut job of a 2-story, 3-bedroom house. They had to re-pour basements floors that rats had eaten through, sister up joists that had been cut through, replace knob and tube wiring, replace the stack, frame, insulate and drywall the entire house, replace the staircase, rebuild the porch, put in hardwood floors throughout, plus brand new kitchen and 4-piece bath. Total cost of the reno: $105,000.

I met with Drew tonight. I really like him. Very personable. He told me he does about 10 of these major remodels a year. We talked a long time and he got a lot of information from me.

He does his bids different from the other 2. He bids using materials allowances. He says he uses mid range material prices (i.e. floors at $4.00 sq. ft.). He says he has quite a few suppliers that he works with. It's up to me to make selections but I'm comfortable now with doing that.

We talked about price some but he was really hesitant to toss out a number without measurements. There must be something about my condo that's driving the cost up because he sort of backed off his 70-90 range a little. He did say he was pretty sure he could get it under $100 unless I go crazy with materials.

I'm going to try to get the measurement diagrams from Richard tomorrow. If not, I'll just pay Drew to go measure. I'm ready to get this thing going.

Why is Drew charging you to get the information he needs to bid the job?

I really gotta move to FL.

C'mon down! I'll be your first client.

I can't. Federal law requires that New Englanders be of retirement age before moving to Florida.

I called Richard to get him to send me the floor plan with measurements. I talked to his assistant. I'm not holding my breath, so I called Drew and told him to go ahead and do the measuring himself. He said it probably wouldn't happen until next week due to the holidays. I told him I'd email him the diagrams if Richard decides to send them to me.

In online dating news..............

I sort of half-trolled a woman (supposedly from Sarasota) but surprisingly she got the joke and emailed me back. We exchanged a few emails and I asked her if she wanted to meet. She said she would except she lives in Canada. wtf? I'll probably keep in contact because she's pretty funny but sheesh.

I live in Canada! Hook me up.

She's mine! All mine!

So, if a woman posts pics of her college age daughters would it be bad to tell her how hot they are?

I spent the entire Labor Day weekend doing something I don't think anyone would want to do. So, I'm gonna blog about this for a while since the condo thing is seemingly going nowhere. Haven't heard back from Drew yet. Richard didn't send the drawings (surprise!). And the online dating has gone stagnant.

So, here it goes.

My family moved my Dad into assisted living a few weeks ago. There is a really long story here and I'll try to tell it in bits and pieces but I'll start with this weekend.

My Dad, until we moved him, still lived in the house that I grew up in. And it is relatively unchanged. My Dad never did anything to improve it. Same paint, same couch, same everything. Except for a lot more everything. Dad is a hoarder.

So, my job was to empty his house for sale (more on that later). It was truly overwhelming. So much stuff. So much useless stuff. Stuff inside of stuff. Stuff everywhere.

I would clear out a small area and felt somewhat victorious until I looked around to see, well, more stuff.

This is my future. Shudder.

I don't think I could tell this properly without a little back story.

My childhood seemed pretty normal to me at the time but years in therapy made me realize just how screwed up it was. My dad should never have been a dad. He isn't a bad person by any means, just unequipped for that role. Mom is a narcissist so she wasn't much help either. The reason I say this is because our family never formed any real bonds. Don't get me wrong, we will always try to do the best thing for each other but those acts always come from some moral grounding (and sometimes guilt), not from deep caring. I mention this because I sort of second guess our decision to move him into assisted living. More on this later.

My dad is somewhere between eccentric and bats**t crazy. He's always been obsessive, neurotic, controlling, irrational, and somewhat depressed. My theory is that the depression here is closely tied to the others. People that try to control the world around them seem to find the world around them gets completely out of control.

I'm really ok with my dad now. I'm somewhat sympathetic because he does have mental issues. But part of me is perpetually pissed off because he never tried to tackle any of his issues. In fact, I don't think he ever really even accepted that he did have issues. He seems to always take the road of "that's the way I am" which is infuriating to me. But I know there ain't much I can do about this now so I've been able to let it go for the most part.

As this story goes, you'll see just how "eccentric" he is. Most of the time it makes me laugh but occasionally it hits a nerve.

Drew seems to have disappeared. I left a message yesterday and he didn't return my call. I left a wtf message this morning.

I did some more googling and found some more candidates. So far i talked to three. The first said he wasnt licensed to do it. The second was pretty obvious a no way. U talked to an assistant of the third. She spouted out some ridiculously low numbers for basic remodels. I was going to explain that this was a bit more involved but decided to let it be. I set up an appointment to meet the head guy for next Thursday. It sounds promising.

Grrr, this is painful. I can't believe i decided to do this again.

Talked to a rather surly woman who set up an appointment for Saturday to meet with, I assume, her boss.

There was a point in my Dad's life where I think he just sort of gave up on life. My mom finally had enough of him trying to control her so she left. They are still married and still spend a lot of time together but the only way that she could do what she wanted was to move away.

Through the years he's become totally dependent on her, though. He calls her at least 10 times a day. It's always some minor something or other that he's obsessing about. He pretty much can't make any life decisions any more.

He's not doing well physically either. He says he has something called neuropathy. His legs periodically give out and he ends up on the floor, unable to get up. For a long time I sort of dismissed this. He has a history of finding something "wrong" with just about everything. His car was perpetually in the shop because of funny noises. Nothing he buys works quite "right". His cats are always at the vet. And he's suffered from all kinds of "conditions". But I do think he has an issue because he definitely has problems getting around and he's been falling a lot lately.

So, about 5 years ago he started having problems with his roof. About 6 months ago water came pouring in and ruined his wood floors. He was completely unable to deal with this so Mom was. She's no spring chicken. She's sharp as a tack but she has trouble getting around. While dad has made sure he stays as stressed as possible, mom has tried to do just the opposite. Well, except for dealing with dad. Anyway, they got some contractors to look at this and none really wanted to mess with it. I'll talk about his house later, but I'll just say it's an engineering challenge. And, after looking into it more they discovered both asbestos and lead paint. So, fixing his house would be extremely expensive.

About this time, dad had a falling episode and mom forced him to go to a rehab facility. During this time she made the decision that dad simply wasn't going back into the house. Ever. She talked through this with my sister and they decided to find an assisted living facility. They moved his basic necessities into it and when he was released from rehab, he went straight to the new place.

So, that left the family with a house that is crumbling and a lot of dad's stuff to deal with.

My Dad had neuropathy. In his case it was from diabetes and it was numbness and also pain in his feet.