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A woman called looking for a full bathroom renovation and was dissatisfied with the price and treatment from a nearby firm. The lead came to me so I was dispatched to her place to see what she wants and gather enough information to create an estimate. Estimates are free.

The entire meeting was prefaced with "My budget is thirty thousand and not a penny more."

I went to her house, took measurements, listed some of the points for her design, made a followup appointment at our showroom to go over the layout and prices. She came in and we showed her drawings and a line item for everything we can do and keep the price within her budget. Everything is transparent. No hidden charges.

We did good and I worked a design that was just around $28 thousand.

She looks over the layout. Decides on a more expensive door style, more expensive bathroom fixtures, add more drawers to the layout. that brings us right up to $30 thousand.

We don't supply lighting so she would have to purchase 4 of her own fixtures (that we will install) and they could be as low as $50 each to $250 each if she buys something ornate.

One issue is her want to change a swing door to the water closet into a pocket door.
The existing opening would have to be completely rebuilt, electric moved, new door, pocket door cage with sliding track installed. I explained while it's not in my normal scope, I have a carpenter who could do the work but I'm estimating the cost to be around $1,600 and that's taking her over the budget.

The woman's mood changed and she became angry. I explained every thing is clearly listed and she has choices to simplify the layout, choose less expensive fixtures and forget about the pocket door. I'm offering choices.

She waved a check in front of us thinking we would come down in price and my associate explained she needs to go home and make some decisions. We priced what she asked for with options and cannot bend a few thousand to make the deal.

With a huffy attitude we couldn't come down to her price, she wanted to take our design drawings on leaving. The estimate is free, giving away drawings that took a few hours to make isn't.

After she left, my boss wanted to know the outcome of the meeting and we told him the details. His comment was it's better she walked as his experience is customers who are difficult in the beginning are like that through the entire job.

A guy came into the showroom today with a part that dropped out of this drawer slide.
I recognized it as a 'euroscrew' which is essential in European style cabinet construction.
He lost one of two so I went into the warehouse where we keep a drawer of miscellaneous hinge and cabinet parts and found 2 just like the one he came in with.
He wanted to drill a hole in a new location but had no tools to do so. We talked about how it screws into a metric hole (5 millimeter if I recall) in wood and since his fell out, my suggestion was to use a small amount of 5-minute epoxy, press fit it and wait for the glue to harden.

He asked if he should use Gorilla Glue and without hesitation I said "Yes, that will work, but don't get any on your hair!"
We both laughed and wanted to pay me for the part. It was no charge, but I told him should he need a kitchen renovation he should come back and we will talk business.

As of this morning the Russian ruble has fallen in value to it's lowest point in the past 25 years (exclusive of the dip immediately after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine). As of 10 minutes ago the exchange rate of the Ruble on the world market is 1 penny US per Ruble. Further depreciation in value is probable as the war continues.

Hours before the Foo Fighters band were set to perform at Festival Estéreo in Bogota, Columbia, 50 year old Drummer Taylor Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room. Toxicology report shows he had several prescription and illegal drugs in his body.
As a result of the death of their drummer, Foo Fighters have announced they are cancelling all of their remaining tour dates.

What's to become of the band?
My prediction is they will return to the United States, go into hiding for a few months and quietly audition a replacement drummer to get back on the road and possibly return to South America to honor those cancelled tour dates. Although Taylor was an integral part of the band, it's not like Led Zeppelin where the death of John Bonham ended the Zeppelin experience.
Dave Grohl, drummer, guitarist, front man and founder of Foo Fighters has seen death before. He was the drummer for Nirvina that disbanded when Kurt Cobain ended his life from suicide by gunshot.

Admit it, Taylor was a drug addict. Dave almost lost him from an earlier incident and there were no stopgaps in place. He killed the musical careers of the other band members.
Should they disband, Grohl, will survive. I cannot say what would happen to the others without Dave. Would they fade away into obscurity without Dave?

That would be a bad case of no Foo without you...

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home was the lowlands
And always will be
Someday you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn to be
Brothers in arms
Through these fields of destruction
Baptism of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As a battle raged high
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms
So many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones
Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line in your palm
We are fools to make war
On our brothers in arms
Source: Musixmatch

The past few years have raced past me. My granddaughter is turning 10 this month. I remember getting the call at 11pm my daughter was headed to the hospital 'baby wanted out' so I rushed over to meet them. The nurse said 'not for a few hours, at best' so I went home to catch a few hours rest. By 7am no baby. I was working for a millwork company and had to open the factory, so I stopped in to unlock the doors and headed back to the hospital and was present to witness the birth.
Yeah, she's going to be ten.
So now, I'm working for a kitchen and bathroom remodeling company and we are seeing as many as 3 new leads a day. More than I care to take on, but the percentage of closed jobs is lower since COVID. While they have money to do renovations they are also using unrealistic budgets.
I usually take 30-40 photos for every client visit and upload them to my computer and backed up on a cloud storage so my partner can review. Names, I may not remember, but photos bring back the visit and what they were looking for.
After backing up more than 7,000 photos that are stored on my phone I began purging old photos, especially the jobs I didn't get. More than 1,000 were deleted.
In the 70's I was a draftsman for a kitchen manufacturer in Miami. One of the largest. We had a house account with a builder who did condos. Lots of them. I remember the name of a 'village' that had hundreds of units in 5 or 6 buildings.
One of the first jobs I signed last year was a replacement kitchen... for one I did 40 years earlier. It's finished and paid and the owner, who is 86 years old wasn't the first buyer of the condo, but he smiled when I told him the story.
Interesting stories along the way, but mostly things are becoming a blur...

I've expressed my dislike for my current employment situation and though I can pay my bills and have a happy life, I feel my talents are being wasted doing bathroom renovations. For now, I'll continue doing what I'm doing until another opportunity presents itself.


Thanks for reading my blog!

Seeing dozens of Amazon trucks on the road after dark has become normal. Since the pandemic people are less likely to store shop and more purchases are made online now. Last Saturday, I ordered batteries from a supplier who sent confirmation on Sunday. I know their sales department staff work from home now and it appears they have crews in the warehouse day and night so things get done with the work force spread out. Maybe they had 10 people packing orders for the day shift and now it's 5 in the day and 5 in the night... less interaction and less chance of them passing virus.
The batteries arrived FedEx on Thursday. Normally, I would have to pay extra for that kind of service.
I did order a computer Monday that was confirmed for Friday UPS delivery... Doubtful in my mind and checking the tracking number in the afternoon yesterday, the ship date was moved to Monday before 9pm. Not long ago that used to read 'by end of day' but so many deliveries have to be handled they have extended package deliveries into the night.
After dark deliveries are expected a week before Christmas, it's become the new normal.

i play the only lottery where by you do not ever lose your stake money ,,,,it must be the only lottery in the world where you can win up to a million every month and never lose your stake ,,whats the catch well if you invested that money you would earn interest ,,but the way the bank rates are then you would not miss much ,,
it may be a high stakes game for some people ,,as the starting price is one hundred pounds or dollars ,and the upper limit is 50.000 pounds or dollars obviously the more you invest the greater your chance of the million ,,which is also tax free all winnings are tax free,,the lowest prize is 25 pounds or dollars then it increases upwards 50,,100,,500,,1000,,,5000,,,10,000,,,25,000 ,,50.000,,,100,000,,,and the big one 1,000,000,,,,

on my first investment i worked out the interest that i received via prizes and it equated to 20 percent ,,but that was when the upper limit was 25,000 pounds,,, but now the sharks have joined the pool which tells you exactly how good it is as they all invest the max and still earn a pretty penny or two out of it ,,,,

Saturation of photos on the internet is logarithmic. Take someone with a Facebook account posting a single photo that a hundred people 'like' adding to their accounts and you now have a hundred identical photos on the internet, who spread that to another hundred who spread that to another hundred. Digital Pandemic (you can quote me on that)
Do the same with the websites Pinterest or Houzz and one photo turns into a gazillion clones on the internet.
Clients come to me with examples of furnishings/designs they see online and ask me to reproduce that in their houses. Small problem when they see a 15' by 25' kitchen design and want it to fit their 8' by 9' space.
Of course that make me look like the bad guy to tell then it's not possible to fit all those things into their kitchen.
"But, I showed you a photo of what I want" said one client.