Lol this old fella I worked for a couple months at $15 per hr (this was two years ago) found my ad. Needs a 14’ by 14’ deck built identical to the old one. Told em I’d do it for a grand. He’s like yo I’ll take that.
Pulls up this morning and immediately we recognize each other. He realizes I’m the guy who woulda built this deck for roughly $250 working for him by the hour if I were still his employee. Hahahaha ain’t that a bitch you stupid fuck (him not u… well u 2 but not 4 the same reasons).
He’s a good guy just an old timer who senses nothing naturally wrong with capitalism. None of em do. They don’t have the gnawledge or intelligense for that.
What u c here is five hours of work. The trick to demoing the old deck is to cut the sumbitch up into parts and throw whole sections in the trailer. U don’t fuckin pry up every individual board u’d be there all day dude.
Guy wants joists on 12" centers because that’s a 14’ span with no girter. The hardest part is done. I got another day on it and I’ll be finished. In about 13 hours I’ll have made a grand. A deck this size is ideal; big enough to make some real money but small enough to do alone.
“the population density is the one thing that is really tiresome”
Well that’s what capitalism does, son. It concentrates population densities around the central most immediately productive areas available, with no regard or interests for developing anywhere else… so you get huge cities crammed full of people (human capital i.e. labor force) surrounded by miles of unused land.
Social is em, properly applied, would not create this problem. See plank #9.
That perch looks good, reminds me of when I worked with my father in steel. We even built perches like that but out of steel pieces and on a fortified X design. I almost had a fistfight with my dad few times but otherwise, it was heavy and tough but taught me how to handle myself with other men and taught me how to weld, build, use tools, lift extremely heavy things, guide the delivery, communicate with the crane operator etc. America is what it is…best place for business, I had to fly there few times to get a bank account and set up faster payment processing, I flew to Denver, sleep a night, and then drove a bus to Cheyenne to go into the bank and set it up myself, then went around Cheyenne for a day and went out to some mountain the next day and came back. The breakfast shops you Yanks have are too good of an idea…and service is first class as it should be everywhere but only sometimes happens in Germany. Very cool place.
Most independent contractors who do report taxes, pay 38% federal, 7.5% SSI/medicare, then 5%+ state taxes which damn near makes that shit 50% or over in most cases, right?
Claim and pay some taxes to ensure you have access to social security if you ever need it due to an injury or old age. Even if you only claim you earned $2000.00. It keeps you eligible in case of an emergency.
But a really beautiful flower he has. Also a typical American house to blow away (okay). And the trees are already green (light green). What degree of latitude is the house on?
I MIGHT finish it tomorrow. If I do imma post a pic. It’ll be an identical copy but two feet longer.
Hey but yo real talk I’ve never done that angled wrap-around bench style before. What u do is take some pics and save one of those vertical rail pieces for a pattern to cut the new ones (fuck figuring all those angles). The rest is easy. I’ll run through those rails because there’s no pickets. Take me about an hour.
He’s Killin me on the deck boards though cuz he wants em skrewed and that takes five times as long as using a nail gun.
But see I’m good on that because why… because there’s no pickets.
Now check this out. I found a database that collects information submitted by contractors and customers about average prices for deck building in the county. I found that the average price per square foot for non composite decking is $15. This means that I charged this dude less than half of what he’d expect to pay otherwise (that’s why he jumped at my quote).
I just found this site yesterday and my jaw dropped. I had no idea what these averages were because I’ve always worked for an hourly wage. To me, building that deck in two days for about $400 would seem and sound legit… until I find out what these fuckers are charging. I had no idea how badly I was raped until last night. I even called the exploited construction worker’s hotline and everything.
So now I’m just dumbfounded. I’ll make a grand in about two days and even that is a fraction of what I could actually get.
From now on I’m using the site with my customers to show them the average numbas. Then I shoot just below the average by a few hundred and I get a good lick.
This deck I’m doing is a 2,200 dollar deck. That’s just stupid. If I made that much in two days I’d go full retard.
I’m kidding they’re not that heavy… but you gotta watch construction workers because they always pretend the shit is harder than it really is to draw sympathy from u.
Okay, so I have some pathetic looking carrots to add to the spindly broccoli, tomatoes, and cabbage. The basil is trying. This gardening stuff is stressful. How can people enjoy the pressure of keeping the plants alive? Relaxing? Not even a bit I tell ya. I check on these plants ten times a day, praying they live for cryin out loud.
yo somebody put something on this. Dave Matthews and co could do it (and they could… make thousands of dollars off that simple riff alone). I already hear the drums and bass in my head. hold some ambient synth chords in the back maybe even bend the pitch or something.
That stumble on what is so basic and fundamental to understanding and knowing whole steps and where they are, is really quite embarrassing and betrays the limits of my musical competence… something that kinda plateaued when I was thirtyish.
The only thing saving me from this terrible gaff… really rather ironic… is my ability to spontaneously find and hold without forgetting (hopefully) some neatly designed little set if licks and repeat them, forming a melody. This is always and without exception accidental for me; my memory is so bad - I am overwhelmed by how many notes there are - that each time I pick up the guitar, it is new again in a sense. Like I have to fiddle around and find shit that I should already know and have committed to memory having played for so long. I regret my lack of dedication to learning music when around me all my peers and band mates were well advanced in this and deserved and musician who knew wtf he was doing and could do it twice on purpose rather than accidentally.
credit can only be given to the dexterity and endurance my hands have as a drummer, which gives me a physical advantage over the guitar. But I have very very little understanding of what is happening.
nonetheless, my redemption in this particular case is that dirtyass bar pull off after that first bent note. U gotta get a’hold of her purty tight to sweep them notes like 'at.
