Saturday, March 23
Mar. 24th, 2024 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Last night I finished that second coat of paint in the porch. I didn't HAVE to, but it's maybe a little easier than painting AFTER the door frames were built. Maybe? I don't know. Looks nicer in there, though.
The handy man came and worked most of the day with my husband. He did mysteriously ask for a bit more money per hour, we increased it a bit, but not as much as he asked.
This has been a bit of an odd thing for us, as part of the attraction of hiring him was his reasonable rates. He stated that some other guys said they made a lot more money for carpentry, and my husband and I hashed this out between the two of us before making the choice about what to pay him.
The other contractor we hired two years ago WAS charging more, BUT....he had his journeyman's ticket, had all the tools (this guy is using some of ours), had his own trailer for hauling materials, was overall a better crafts person, and would have no issue with moving materials himself. He was also able to do pretty much any kind of work from mudding and taping to some electrical.
Having a journeyman's ticket and a contractor's licence means that the contractor could go make arrangements with the county about permits and inspections for you, has connections with suppliers and usually gets a material discount at supply stores, and is insured for any damage they might cause to a house, or to themselves if something happens.
That does mean that if this handy man does something like break a window by accident, he wouldn't have the insurance to cover it.
This handy man is not good with doing stairs, my husband has been helping him by getting things for him from the basement or the garage, and so on.
We're also paying this guy cash.
It's a good gig for a retired guy, since we are only asking a few days of work here and there, and he can work when he wants to for the most part. We're not being pushy about starting early or on specific days.
If he is happy with the rates we've settled upon, we have lots of small jobs in the future for him. I hope that the amount we agreed upon seems fair to him, and we can move on and get more done on the house.
Anyhow, they got two door frames done, and he's coming back tomorrow. It's good that my husband is working with him, because this is an "appointment". Without a commitment to a start time and goals of what they are working on, I think it's too easy for my husband just to lose focus and not get much done. He really seems to need to have structure imposed on him to get things done. I'm trying to do that in a way that doesn't seem like I'm a tyrant, since he otherwise doesn't create structure for himself as far as the house goes.
I was able to spend some time with the ponies and goats today, and some time just being with Wonder.
When the work wrapped up for the day, it was still light out for a couple of hours so we went to the park down the road for a nice walk.
We surprised a moose who was lying down, and it wasn't TOO worried, but it wandered off after an initial startle.
We came home and watched late nineties movie called "Replacement Killers", and it was good. We've watched it a fair bit, though not for years. It does feel dated now, and some of the silliness like the lead female (Mira Sorvino) never buttons up her shirt and they keep changing her hair so that in one scene, every time it goes back to her, her hair looks different. Some terrible continuity people.
Overall it was a good day. Some things got done, I had time to be with the animals, and time for us to relax together.
Lithuania is a country that has some coastline to the Baltic Sea, and also directly borders Russia.
It has about 2.86 million people, who mostly do speak Lithuanian, one of the few (only five left still being spoken) living Baltic languages.
In 1253, the region that had been inhabited by Baltic tribes united to form the Kingdom of Lithuania. It annexed more land, and became the Grand Duchy of Lithuania "The grand duchy expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus' and other neighbouring states, including what is now Belarus, Lithuania, most of Ukraine as well as parts of Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent, in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe".
Then it formed a union with Poland called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which lasted for about 200 years, and they were going to form a single country at one point, but was invaded by Russia in 1792, and everything was all divided up again.
Napoleon was actually going to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but got driven out of Russia.
Lithuania declared independence in 1918 (late in WWI), but was annexed and split up again during WWII, partly to Nazi Germany, which of course meant pretty much all of the Jewish Lithuanians were killed.
It became the modern Republic of Lithuania in 1990 after the fall of U.S.S.R.
Modern Lithuania is a proper mulitparty Democracy, with elections every five years. It has a good economy (agricultural products, plastic, machinery, wood, and lots of service/tourism) and overall a decent country.
It is part of NATO and the EU, and is worried about Russia.
It doesn't have mountains, but is rolling hills and meadows, forests, and lots and lots of lakes. Good farm land, lots of fresh water.
It has lots of ancient "hillforts" that used to be castles. They have roe deer, fallow deer, and MOOSE of all things. I didn't realize that there even WERE moose in Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania#External_links
An interesting place in Lithuania is the Hill of Crosses:
https://youtu.be/C7duefb6Khw?si=iEoY_AWrqPzbtLc5
There is also a monument to Frank Zappa, even though he was not Lithuanian.
https://www.govilnius.lt/visit-vilnius/places/monument-to-frank-zappa#:~:text=It%20was%20all%20an%20elaborate,era%20of%20post%2DSoviet%20Lithuania.
Good video of overall view: https://youtu.be/9Yxwjy4pvsM?si=Xl27t2qH-g3IjBr8
Last night I finished that second coat of paint in the porch. I didn't HAVE to, but it's maybe a little easier than painting AFTER the door frames were built. Maybe? I don't know. Looks nicer in there, though.
The handy man came and worked most of the day with my husband. He did mysteriously ask for a bit more money per hour, we increased it a bit, but not as much as he asked.
This has been a bit of an odd thing for us, as part of the attraction of hiring him was his reasonable rates. He stated that some other guys said they made a lot more money for carpentry, and my husband and I hashed this out between the two of us before making the choice about what to pay him.
The other contractor we hired two years ago WAS charging more, BUT....he had his journeyman's ticket, had all the tools (this guy is using some of ours), had his own trailer for hauling materials, was overall a better crafts person, and would have no issue with moving materials himself. He was also able to do pretty much any kind of work from mudding and taping to some electrical.
Having a journeyman's ticket and a contractor's licence means that the contractor could go make arrangements with the county about permits and inspections for you, has connections with suppliers and usually gets a material discount at supply stores, and is insured for any damage they might cause to a house, or to themselves if something happens.
That does mean that if this handy man does something like break a window by accident, he wouldn't have the insurance to cover it.
This handy man is not good with doing stairs, my husband has been helping him by getting things for him from the basement or the garage, and so on.
We're also paying this guy cash.
It's a good gig for a retired guy, since we are only asking a few days of work here and there, and he can work when he wants to for the most part. We're not being pushy about starting early or on specific days.
If he is happy with the rates we've settled upon, we have lots of small jobs in the future for him. I hope that the amount we agreed upon seems fair to him, and we can move on and get more done on the house.
Anyhow, they got two door frames done, and he's coming back tomorrow. It's good that my husband is working with him, because this is an "appointment". Without a commitment to a start time and goals of what they are working on, I think it's too easy for my husband just to lose focus and not get much done. He really seems to need to have structure imposed on him to get things done. I'm trying to do that in a way that doesn't seem like I'm a tyrant, since he otherwise doesn't create structure for himself as far as the house goes.
I was able to spend some time with the ponies and goats today, and some time just being with Wonder.
When the work wrapped up for the day, it was still light out for a couple of hours so we went to the park down the road for a nice walk.
We surprised a moose who was lying down, and it wasn't TOO worried, but it wandered off after an initial startle.
We came home and watched late nineties movie called "Replacement Killers", and it was good. We've watched it a fair bit, though not for years. It does feel dated now, and some of the silliness like the lead female (Mira Sorvino) never buttons up her shirt and they keep changing her hair so that in one scene, every time it goes back to her, her hair looks different. Some terrible continuity people.
Overall it was a good day. Some things got done, I had time to be with the animals, and time for us to relax together.
Lithuania is a country that has some coastline to the Baltic Sea, and also directly borders Russia.
It has about 2.86 million people, who mostly do speak Lithuanian, one of the few (only five left still being spoken) living Baltic languages.
In 1253, the region that had been inhabited by Baltic tribes united to form the Kingdom of Lithuania. It annexed more land, and became the Grand Duchy of Lithuania "The grand duchy expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus' and other neighbouring states, including what is now Belarus, Lithuania, most of Ukraine as well as parts of Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent, in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe".
Then it formed a union with Poland called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which lasted for about 200 years, and they were going to form a single country at one point, but was invaded by Russia in 1792, and everything was all divided up again.
Napoleon was actually going to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but got driven out of Russia.
Lithuania declared independence in 1918 (late in WWI), but was annexed and split up again during WWII, partly to Nazi Germany, which of course meant pretty much all of the Jewish Lithuanians were killed.
It became the modern Republic of Lithuania in 1990 after the fall of U.S.S.R.
Modern Lithuania is a proper mulitparty Democracy, with elections every five years. It has a good economy (agricultural products, plastic, machinery, wood, and lots of service/tourism) and overall a decent country.
It is part of NATO and the EU, and is worried about Russia.
It doesn't have mountains, but is rolling hills and meadows, forests, and lots and lots of lakes. Good farm land, lots of fresh water.
It has lots of ancient "hillforts" that used to be castles. They have roe deer, fallow deer, and MOOSE of all things. I didn't realize that there even WERE moose in Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania#External_links
An interesting place in Lithuania is the Hill of Crosses:
https://youtu.be/C7duefb6Khw?si=iEoY_AWrqPzbtLc5
There is also a monument to Frank Zappa, even though he was not Lithuanian.
https://www.govilnius.lt/visit-vilnius/places/monument-to-frank-zappa#:~:text=It%20was%20all%20an%20elaborate,era%20of%20post%2DSoviet%20Lithuania.
Good video of overall view: https://youtu.be/9Yxwjy4pvsM?si=Xl27t2qH-g3IjBr8
no subject
Date: 2024-03-25 05:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-25 06:34 am (UTC)There's a lot you can do on window and door frames that isn't dangerous for him.
At one point there was discussion about the sofits and fascia, and that does mean working on scaffolding.
This fellow said he could do that kind of work, but we have already decided that no, he can't do that work. What he might be able to do just fine is be the guy on the ground that cuts things to the right length and passes them up to my husband, but my husband also thinks he can call on some of our work friends (and me) to do that kind of work.
We'll see.
We're being very aware of his physical limitations, and I think anything we're going to ask of him will be things he can do from the ground level.