I agree, prices everywhere are nuts. But I think they’ll just continue to get worse. Sort of wish I would have bitten this bullet 5 years ago but nothing I can do about it now.

happy to help pay a living wage to the trades who fix my house
the pipe dream is broken for others somewhere downstream between the wage and mortgage coupling

A crew of 6 is a lot of people. At times doing solar I had maybe a max of 5 people working on a residential job but learned more and more that fewer people are better. You're talking about repiping some plumbing? I haven't done that, but I would think 2 or 3 people would be significantly fewer person-hours for the project.

There's often pressure to just get jobs done quickly though, so more people may be added for that sake even if they are occasionally in each other's way.

guessing on a crew of 6 at least one, if not two or more, are apprentices getting experience.
mostly pitching in, but often wander around without direction
less efficient hence found towards the bottom of the pay scale

My tile guy sent four guys to lay my shower pan but after talking with them two were apprentices and two were seasoned. He was working off a quote so he could have sent one or ten as long as the job was done right.

This really comes down to personal preference and situation. If you itemize tax deductions, your effective interest rate is lower than the face value interest rate of the loan by the equation that is (annual interest paid on principal up to 750K- standard deduction)/principal outstanding.

So 5.75 sounds like a lot, but it could be 4.5% in practice. A guaranteed 4% return from paying loan off into home equity pales in comparison to historical investment performance. But of course, investment performance is net of taxes, and both are net of inflation (inflation in this case is more beneficial to the debtor than to the investor).

Personally until you're on a trajectory to have a safe financial independence number by steadying the course, I would recommend pouring all your funds into the market. Having an invested lump sum in 15 years that allows you to pay your loan, if you want, would be a nice problem to have.

If you have an APR loan, or unsteady income, the equation is more complicated. And it's impossible to quanitfy the peace of mind you'd have from paying off your mortgage. Given that you plan to move in 5-10 years, I don't see a ton of value in paying down the loan.

As far as you're concerned sure. The tile guy would probably rather have it different. Only one person fits inside a shower. I can't imagine one seasoned and one apprentice wouldn't be better, but he probably wanted to keep them busy.

The GC for our bathroom reno four years ago sent a redneck (not in a derogatory way) husband and wife team to do our shower tile (among a couple of other things). The husband was the brains and the tile guy. His wife was his helper who anticipated damn near everything he was about to do--and offered some helpful suggestions along the way. When we figured out they were taking their breaks in their car to smoke a joint, we had a few concerns. We eventually decided that gave the guy a steady hand and kept him from rushing his work--and it seemed to help their marriage/work relationship. We quit worrying about it. I have high praise for their results!

I don't doubt that. His company regularly takes on the 3+ million dollar homes here in Boulder and usually does 4+ bathrooms, floors, fireplaces, etc. and all I have him do is one small bathroom at a time. His crew was working up the street at the time so it's possible he had idle people so he sent them over to my place.

With the current standard deductions, this is far less valuable than it was before. My wife and I can't even itemize anymore.

We've been telling kids you can't make a good living in the trades. Now so few kids go into the trades you make a VERY good living at it.

Jobs in the trades sound very good when you talk about dollars per hour, but a real steady job, like getting 2000 hours a year with normal benefits is a pretty rare thing. For most it's a roller coaster. Years are up and down. In many places there are whole seasons every year with no work. Many jobs only last as long as whatever project you are on.

seeking education in 'the trades' was portrayed as plan b by many counselors when i was in school
the only option for those who aren't mentally gifted enough to incur a six figure college tuition loan to forever remain a bachelor of arts
meanwhile, others learn trade basics for a couple of community college months then connect with a general contractor working on public projects paying prevailing wage
find the mentorship to advance from apprenticeship to journeyworker and you're on your way

I've never met a poor plumber. Maybe my sample is skewed in some way.

I doubt you often knew much about the finances of whoever fixed your sink.

Almost none of the people I've known in construction had good finances, including the business owners.

I did know one guy who had a lot of money and used to be a plumber, but his dad has started the business a long long time ago, it got pretty big, and he sold it. But for that one "plumber" (really business owner) there were probably 100 people working for him.

It really is a hustle. I pay my guys $30 an hour and they get all they can handle for 9 months of the year.

If theyre smart about it 12/15 rolls around and you haven’t used all of your vacation and get a big fat check before you go on unemployment.

If they’re real smart about it they’ve got a cash job lined up to supplement their unemployment.

They’re not smart about it.

My plumber sample is likely atypical, but about the half the plumbers I have had do stuff in the recent past (3 of 6 that I recall) have spent all of the small talk portion of the encounter subtly bragging about how rich they are. You're right they could be the plumbing equivalent of Trump. The first one I remember was talking non-stop about his vacation home in Thailand among other things.

One of them was an owner of company, so we can exclude him. He obviously knew his stuff, but didn't get his hands dirty for the most part. The others clearly weren't owners, they were just plumbers doing some plumbing.

As mentioned, had to replace a couple fence sections. Got them taken apart, started smashing the concrete with sledge and (not sure what it's called, but the smasher) big iron or steel bar.

Got started, took an eclipse break, then went back to it. First 2/3 or so came out relatively easily, but the last bit almost feels like I've run into a huge stone. Not breaking up very easily, can't get a stress line going to take chunks.

I may be getting too old for this. Doesn't seem like it was this hard 3-4 years ago the last time I was doing fence work.

Digging bar?

https://www.grainger.com/product/20C...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

I was going to suggesting drinking some (not too much) beer. That is good for manual labor. From your location it seems like maybe you already know this.

When I was working a repair crew/digging ditches in Tempe for the phone company many decades ago, we called that the Texas toothpick. Sharpened steel bar. 5+ lbs.

Something very similar, if that's not it. Enough mass to swing it by itself, or place it and smash with a sledge.

It'll be fine, just take a while. Fortunately for me, time is on my side.

microbet should be a weatherman or something. 100% chance of beer with the national finals tonight.

I plan on replacing my front porch. I have a coworker that has quoted me a pretty sweet price. He said to just buy the material and he'll start rocking and rolling. I asked about a permit and he said "nah, don't worry about that."

What are the odds that the porch permit police come a knocking?

slab on grade or raised?
if raised, how high?
safe to assume a roof?

Raised. 5 feet high. Yes it has a roof.

I know I need a permit. Just wondering what the chances are I'll get "busted." I don't think any of my neighbors will blow me in since I get along with all of them.