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skittles said:
@Chris handyman work is a lot more profitable and reliable than fooling around with crafts that people may or may not buy. they need their house fixed they certainly don't need another trinket.

No I don't want to mess with ebay either lol.
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Handy man work can be good. I did that years ago before I became a contractor and did ok. Now I couldn't afford to do handyman work. It's funny how times change. I'd like to keep myself busy doing tractor work. I have a fleet of equipment.
 
@Spikedriver

Good to hear about someone not far from me. I like the jobs like put in a window. Put in a door. fix this hole. fix the stove. all that little stuff no one cares about. I've gotten some big jobs that way. I have several clients with vacant houses who have had me come into a house and do bathroom renovations, repaint the whole interior, rebuild whole front porches, etc. Some of them were 2-3 month remodels by myself.

Right now the primary handyman vehicle is a 2005 prius but am on the hunt for a cargo van for under 2K
 
Spikedriver said:
I'm in central Iowa near Ames. I hear you about the contractors, lots of guys doing it, although around here there's so many subcontracting on all the new housing that a guy might be able to sneak in for the small jobs. One of my hunting buddies is semi retired at age 63 and does some painting and little repairs. He doesn't hit it too hard. Just enough for gun money, and lets his college educated wife bring home the bacon.
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I got into a specialty and that's what made me money, I jumped into what others didn't want to do or didn't know how to do. I do mainly industrial and commercial work. Distribution centers kept me busy through the low times. It was rotten work but paid good
 
skittles said:
@Spikedriver

Good to hear about someone not far from me. I like the jobs like put in a window. Put in a door. fix this hole. fix the stove. all that little stuff no one cares about. I've gotten some big jobs that way. I have several clients with vacant houses who have had me come into a house and do bathroom renovations, repaint the whole interior, rebuild whole front porches, etc. Some of them were 2-3 month remodels by myself.

Right now the primary handyman vehicle is a 2005 prius but am on the hunt for a cargo van for under 2K
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Find a dealer that sells old municipal vehicles. You will get a good van for cheap. I know tgere companies in California that do it. All my work trucks are old gas company trucks.
 
Chris said:
Handy man work can be good. I did that years ago before I became a contractor and did ok. Now I couldn't afford to do handyman work. It's funny how times change. I'd like to keep myself busy doing tractor work. I have a fleet of equipment.
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I intentionally keep myself small. I don't want to be the guy left high and dry with a crew to pay and lots of bills when times go bad. Now again, I wouldn't mind being a subcontractor to a regular builder doing finish carpentry or something like that.... or a specialty as you just mentioned.

Probably the dream job would be something like air compressor repair. I know a fellow in the next town over that makes a real good living doing that. Incidentally, he bought the one and only business sign I ever did. A mighty simple sign but it gets the message across. Embarrassing to look at it now, but he got what he wanted and I got what I wanted and made a profit after everything was said and done.
 
skittles said:
I intentionally keep myself small. I don't want to be the guy left high and dry with a crew to pay and lots of bills when times go bad. Now again, I wouldn't mind being a subcontractor to a regular builder doing finish carpentry or something like that.... or a specialty as you just mentioned.

Probably the dream job would be something like air compressor repair. I know a fellow in the next town over that makes a real good living doing that. Incidentally, he bought the one and only business sign I ever did. A mighty simple sign but it gets the message across. Embarrassing to look at it now, but he got what he wanted and I got what I wanted and made a profit after everything was said and done.
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You can make a living doing almost anything as long as you are good at it and give 110 percent.
 
skittles said:
@Spikedriver

Good to hear about someone not far from me. I like the jobs like put in a window. Put in a door. fix this hole. fix the stove. all that little stuff no one cares about. I've gotten some big jobs that way. I have several clients with vacant houses who have had me come into a house and do bathroom renovations, repaint the whole interior, rebuild whole front porches, etc. Some of them were 2-3 month remodels by myself.

Right now the primary handyman vehicle is a 2005 prius but am on the hunt for a cargo van for under 2K
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Maybe you could find a nursing home or small town hospital that needs a handyman. They usually have a few things that need to be done every week.
 
Spikedriver said:
Maybe you could find a nursing home or small town hospital that needs a handyman. They usually have a few things that need to be done every week.
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Some of those around here. Have to be careful though. Worked for a particular apartment complex in a community, 30 mile drive for me... they had a set rate they would pay for various things. Which would have been fine but then they wanted me to paint the trim after painting the walls for less than I could do it for. If they could have figured out what they needed in the first place I could have done the job efficiently and under budget but they couldn't decide on an apartment by apartment basis what needed to be done. I'll cut in 1x but I won't cut in 2x for the same money.

I don't remember the details on the money were anymore though. I think I was making $10-12/hour, driving a truck that got 15mpg just wasn't worth the hassle.
 
Hello everyone and hope you have had a great day :) .

We started off the morning with DH stain removing some clothing with our homemade stain remover and putting on a load of washing on in the machine and hanging it on the clothes line. I then went and watered half of the front lawn with saved grey water from our showers and washing machine.

Then we moved onto making our first ever batch of vanilla extract but obviously it will take a few months to cure before we can use it and then DH washed, cut and blanched and froze the last of the remaining silver beet from the gardens and then vacuumed the whole house. While he did that I deep cleaned the bathroom and toilet for the week and then mopped all of the floors including round the fireplace in the lounge room and then took the vegetable boiling and cooling water from the vegetables we did earlier and hand watered some of the newly sprouted vegetable seedlings in the gardens. We just finished making the bed and folding up 3 loads of clean washing and put them away.
 
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I really need to get off my butt and get breakfast started and lunch made for husband. One baby chick hatched early this morning...I have an incubator full of eggs. I love those little fluffy babies...looking forward to seeing what the hatch count will be. It's our last day of work before vacation and I'm doing the happy dance. I have a long day at work and we have a Christmas party for the kids this afternoon. It'll be tons of junk food and Christmas music and lots of dancing. We usually have parents and grandparents come in too, so I'll be busy. I'll be making the root beer floats and visiting.
 
More cleaning, more organizing, more preparing. I also have to launder all the bedding and all the decorative towels guests will be using. Wife works today while I am home with the kids so I am doing my best to reduce her burden tonight and tomorrow morning as guests begin arriving tomorrow afternoon. Plus tonight we are going to make some hot cocoa (sugar free of course) and go out for an hour or so to drive around and look at Christmas lighting displays.

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Morning guys, I'm still fighting my cold. Today I plan on putting the plow on my skid steer, it's supposed to snow for the next 3 days. After tgat I need to rehab a door in my basement and put the trim back up. After that not much going on. Might clean up an old chainsaw I got at the auction.
 
Juju and I had a rough night last night. Neither of us could fall asleep til almost dawn. Just couldn't sleep. Not tired at all. I think it is a side effect of being sick. We both slept a ton the first day and night.

Juju was in a cuddle mood so K and I tried bringing her into our bed. She thought it was play time since the dogs and a couple of the cats were on our bed with us. After a while of telling her it was night time and she needs to sleep K put her back in the crib. She passed out at that point and so did I. We did not sleep for long but it seems to have been enough.
 
Amish Heart said:
I really need to get off my butt and get breakfast started and lunch made for husband. One baby chick hatched early this morning...I have an incubator full of eggs. I love those little fluffy babies...looking forward to seeing what the hatch count will be. It's our last day of work before vacation and I'm doing the happy dance. I have a long day at work and we have a Christmas party for the kids this afternoon. It'll be tons of junk food and Christmas music and lots of dancing. We usually have parents and grandparents come in too, so I'll be busy. I'll be making the root beer floats and visiting.
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Sounds fun. I use to work at A&W Root Beer, famous for root beer floats . Where we car hopped on roller skates in the 1960s. Fun job.
I miss our chickens but not the work. Plan on ordering more in spring though we really miss teh fresh eggs..
 
Knowing I will have the GKs today....I forgot that the rear seat, driver side, seat belt was locked , wouldn't release.

uuuuggghhh,

So I just spent 2 hours, removing the seat, to get to the retractor.
Then removing the retractor assy, and freeing it up....little grease and oil.

Reinstalled everything and ...YAY...works like a charm.

Now just waiting for them to show up.:woo hoo:



Jim
 
Meerkat said:
Sounds fun. I use to work at A&W Root Beer, famous for root beer floats . Where we car hopped on roller skates in the 1960s. Fun job.
I miss our chickens but not the work. Plan on ordering more in spring though we really miss teh fresh eggs..
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Guess what? I worked at an A&W from 1985-1986. Mine still had the drive up ordering stations with trays that clamped onto car windows, but they had done away with the roller skates. I still have an A&W root beer mug and a baby beer mug too, they sit in my wife's china hutch (perhaps to her chagrin).
 
Sentry18 said:
Guess what? I worked at an A&W from 1985-1986. Mine still had the drive up ordering stations with trays that clamped onto car windows, but they had done away with the roller skates. I still have an A&W root beer mug and a baby beer mug too, they sit in my wife's china hutch (perhaps to her chagrin).
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Sentry that is :cool:. The roller skating was the fun part. :fun fun:. We had trays too, I still have a tray from The Varsity in Atlanta Ga. and a few numbers the curb boys put on our windshield and they still do today with tray and numbers. I never went to ga without going to get some of that wonderful ol time greasy food .:fun fun:
 
Had a strange day today. We've had the granddaughters for a couple of days, (in our 5th wheel camper) and the oldest one woke up with a 104° degree temp. So my wife rushed around getting them ready to go home while I made waffles. I had told a guy that fell out of his camper at the campground and broke his neck that I would show his nephew how to take down his camper and hook his truck up to it. It has been one thunderstorm after another here for 24 plus hours with solid rain between storms. After breakfast we loaded the kids up and took off for Lexington which is about 45 minutes away. Halfway there the Dr office called and said my special knee brace was in, so after dropping the girls off at their mama's house we went on to Jackson. About halfway to the Dr office my wife realized her purse was at our daughter's house. We kept on going and finally got there and was fitted for the brace. Stopped back in Lexington and got her purse. Went to the campground and helped those pore ole boys take down the camper and hook it up to the truck. I rode with them for a little bit and gave them some pointers on driving. Took my wife home finally and put her to bed with a migraine. Phew!! I went to the shop and worked on my crossbow.
That's my story of the day. Who said retirement was boring didn't have kids or friends.
 
I got a Friday night to myself, and I don't think I'm going to do a darn thing. I might clean up the mess that my 11 year old daughter left me, or I might leave it for her when she gets back tomorrow. I got the re-make of the Magnificent Seven as a present, maybe I'll watch that and make popcorn. Or maybe I'll wander up to the local tavern. Decisions, decisions...
 
Picked up a new toy today. I want two of them and this one will be the wifes/loaner. It's older being a 94 but it was owned by an older couple who barely used it and maintained the heck out of it. 1000 miles on it, fires right up and runs like a champ. It's snowing pretty good, should be able to ride it tomorrow.
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gumpy said:
Had a strange day today. We've had the granddaughters for a couple of days, (in our 5th wheel camper) and the oldest one woke up with a 104° degree temp. So my wife rushed around getting them ready to go home while I made waffles. I had told a guy that fell out of his camper at the campground and broke his neck that I would show his nephew how to take down his camper and hook his truck up to it. It has been one thunderstorm after another here for 24 plus hours with solid rain between storms. After breakfast we loaded the kids up and took off for Lexington which is about 45 minutes away. Halfway there the Dr office called and said my special knee brace was in, so after dropping the girls off at their mama's house we went on to Jackson. About halfway to the Dr office my wife realized her purse was at our daughter's house. We kept on going and finally got there and was fitted for the brace. Stopped back in Lexington and got her purse. Went to the campground and helped those pore ole boys take down the camper and hook it up to the truck. I rode with them for a little bit and gave them some pointers on driving. Took my wife home finally and put her to bed with a migraine. Phew!! I went to the shop and worked on my crossbow.
That's my story of the day. Who said retirement was boring didn't have kids or friends.
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^^^ That's all...??



:eyeballs:
Jim
 
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