So how goes it Jason?
Finally catching up on 'real life'??

It is almost 9 pm & I am so tired!

But hey, I got to hang with the guys today & get out of the
office..sitting at a desk is like prison time for me.
Too_used to being on my own..on the road & in the field.

Time to adjust.

I'm learning a LOT with my new job, a side of the work I have been doing that it was time for me to explore.
The energy rating business showed me what a BIG gap there was in the hvac industry.
And the hurricanes provided me with a 6 month hvac class.
So this is the next progressive step.
(I hope!!)

How are things with you?

LM growing in leaps & bounds?

Work is ok?

I still feel that it is a loss to the building industry that you are no longer doing SIPs homes.
but I understand the reasoning.

I've missed 'talking' to you my online little brother.
Glad that you thought of this forum..it totally slipped my mind!
(what little mind I have left..LOL!)

I'll have to call Sparky & tell him to chime in.

He has some computer problems, but is thinking along the same lines as you & I.

I'll bookmark this site so we can catch up.

And I'll get online more...tomorrow they are going to install high speed internet @ my office.
That will be a dream come true! But will make my @ home dial up a pita!

Give my best to LM, SO, & keep me informed as to the success of your former SO's hopes. I hope that all goes well for all of you!

Looking forward to getting to talk...really talk.
It has been too_long!

Take care.

No, no more SIPs for me, but I am working with an architect now on an idea for modern prefabs. We'll see if that goes anywhere.

So when are you going to open up shop and have a bunch of employees do all this attic climbing for you?

I'm NOT going to open up shop & have my own hvac business.
Sales is difficult enough & the disorginazation...I'm appalled! Not just the owner of the co I am working with
but the supply houses.

Come on guys!!! get it together!!

I'll continue to do diagnostic testing, as problem solving is what really excites me. And with SO doing the energy ratings now I can do some of the work..hootie hoo!!
So it is a win win for both of us!

I have an install job (hvac) Monday & Ms. homeowner wants me there...not all day, but I'll start the guys off & check back in. The owner of the hvac co says I can't put my
hands on anything...I have to see how far I can push that.

Surely if I only seal the supply boxes...ok show them how I want them sealed..that isn't really putting my hands on tools.
Shoot, I'll even let the guys take down the grills & re attach them...that isn't putting my hands on any tools...
right??

I miss the in the field work, but there is so horking much I need to learn to sell this stuff.

I was complaining to SO on the way home that even though I show the owner & his son my bids before submitting them to the clients, there is ALWAYS something that I didn't get
just right/aka the it way they did it.

How can you learn when the rules are constantly changing???
It is VERY frustrating.

And I am NOT going to hear about it (hear him fuss) when it was not my problem, but something that he missed.

Oh well, enough of that.

I just got a call from one of my best friends. You may remember in Sept last year one of my best male friends died. His sister & I have been good friends for almost as long as he & I were.

She has a LOT going on with her, her Mom is living with her
& they are having issues, her son moved in & shacked up with his flavor of the week on the sofa bed in the living room, the 3 grandkids are a handful...and on & on.

She has decided that her Mom would be more comfortable in the small building that was originally built for her husband's hair salon. Personally I think that she will regret this when her sweet Mom is no longer around...but it is their decision.

Ok got off track there...she just called me to tell me that the surviving brother is in a self drug induced coma in the hospital. Crackhead..rock monster soma freak has over done it to the max this time.
Beyond the pale.

I'm hoping that he will recover even if it just is for me to give him a smack up aside his head.
Truly I want him to be ok...but it just makes me so MAD.
His Mom & sister have been through so much already.
Enough is enough.

It may be cold hearted, but if you want out..then get out.
Stop worrying the people who love you & can't save you.
Either get help & stop the stupid stuff...or end the misery that you are causing.

Yeah that sounds pretty cold hearted. But it is how I feel right now. tomorrow when I am not so mad...maybe I'll have more compassion.

So that is my missive...your turn.
It has been too_long since we could 'talk'.

I want details Man....

Glad we found this place to talk.

Best to all of your loved ones & yourself.

Okay. First off, I DEFINITELY think that you should start 'considering' going into business for yourself. Not as an independent contractor; as a company....you know, the whole shebang; employees, office, company health insurance, vehicles, you in Greneda on winter vacation, etc.

Here's why: energy costs are not going to go down. Defeciencies in construction are not going to go down. You have a passion, an interest, and an expertise in this area. The thing to do is start getting the technology in your shop and hiring people to run it. Infrared insulation pics is a gimmee, for example. The other is the physical work you do. Get one or two people who you can trust to do the job correctly; pay them well, teach them, tell them what to do, then put them on the rehab jobs YOU have been doing.

Pretty soon; you'll be Trump.

As for me; I've been enamored by modern-style construction/design for a while, and prefab is really gaining ground. I've been talking to a friend of mine (yes, I have one other besides you), about concrete construction, and he just got back from a factory that makes precast concrete walls. This is way cool stuff....the same stuff they make malls, Home Depots, and other commercial buildings out of. Here's a portion of is email (remember, he's an engineer, and despite that, a good guy):

"Yesterday, we went to an open house at Kerkstra PreCast in Grandville, MI. They are the folks who are going to cast our bridge beams. Their primary business is hollow core floor panels and pre-cast walls. They do a significant amount of beams and pillars for parking ramps and multi story buildings also. I snagged a brochure for you.
The hollow core floor panels were amazing. They have a pouring bed that is 500' long and wide enough to accommodate four side by side rows of pours. The concrete is very dry and has a slump rate of near zero. The machine that they pour onto is on tracks and has mandrels that they pour onto. The machine travels down the row and essentially pulls the mandrels out of the poured concrete leaving the hollow cores. They allow the concrete to cure for six hours and then cut it into lengths. The cure it a bit more and then move it outside to storage or trucking. They actually make six pours a day, so two of the tables are used for two batches per 24 hours.
They do about 75% of Meijer's store tilt up walls. We saw that process as well. It was fascinating. First, they pull in 4-6 re-rod cables off of spools and stretch them over the bed to a tensile of 30,000 lbs. Then they place and wire tie the cross re-rod. The doors or other openings are placed and they pour the first layer using a transit mix truck (so it is a wet pour). They then place the Styrofoam insulating panels and they do the second pour. "

Now think of that; concrete walls with a slump of nearly zero, with insulation, and wiring chases. That's something you can fall in love with, just like a JG movie.

I wonder about something like a....oh....2-story house here in Michigan, where we have basements. Instead of building a set of walls (in concrete or in wood), for the basement, then capping it, then another set of walls, then a cap (floor), think of a 38' insulated panel in CONCRETE, set in the excavaction on footings, then hang joists for each floor. No huge energy loss at the rims, monolithic construction.

Absolutely too cool.

It has been a tough two years for me and to not have to stress goverment submittals, stress over tests that encompass more than my tired brain can handle is kind of a luxury right now.

SO& I were talking this morning of a consulting business, and while I know that we don't have the budget for it now, it is still something that I'd like to do.
So many people are urging me to do mold stuff, but it is really not where my interst lies. There is a guy that works for the insurance companies, that contacted me to do some work for him. But what a monster! Homeowners don't stand a chance when this guy is on the job. His offer was lucrative, but I would feel like such a traitor. Can't do it.
I'd just like to cruise..as much as I ever cruise..for a while.
I'm afraid if I tried to do the Trump route now that I would just blow it, and I want for my next effort to be as amazing as the work I have been doing. But the next project will be at my time, not just thrown upon me.

I can get the hang of this a/c sells thing, but am still trying to get the GP down to the everchanging needs/wants of company owner. We are getting a lot clearer on how I want to bid the jobs, and although it is not what he & his son have done in the past..it is a logical process.

Start from the unit & price each piece, not just throw out a number that has worked in 2005..prices have increased too much for that to work now. Add up all parts & pieces..haggle over how many hours for the crew to get the install done, and add a SET GP.

The crew has had so much BS from the very frustrated owner,and the one employee meeting I attended.. I was shocked & appalled. LOL! (miss drama here!)

But to talk to your people that way...and then expect them to produce for you..come on!

I've been working on getting the guys to take pride in their work. I started posting pictures in the break room of the before job..and the after jobs that they do. Not the bad ones that made it out at the employee meeting, but the crap that was the before job..and the nice neat after jobs.

Seems if I am on the job with the crew that things get done faster & neater. They even told the owner that they would rather work with me than some of the crew..that I know more of what they need & when they need it than the guys that have been helping them..for the past year.
(I'm such a good stepNfetchit!!)
I don't mind overseeing..or putting my hands on things..it is the sitting in the office twiddling my thumbs that makes me crazy.

Today we went on a commercial job..huge place over 600,000
sq ft..wow! It is going to be very time comsuming.

It is a former fruit of the loom factory that was producing mfg'd homes...you got it SIPS houses.
Well they built 26 homes..and that was the end of that.
Personally I'd like to persue that, but the money guy has his head somewhere else...go figure.
Now they want to convert it into a commercial park.

I'd like to hear more of your project..use me as a sounding board,,you know like I use you!

Will you be able to apply this building process to smaller scale..like residential homes? It would be awesome to be able to build this way..think of the lack of change orders
LOL! Look at the energy savings.

I think this is where both of our passions lie..no not JG movies, but affordable healthy durable housing.

And before I go..I wanted to tell you that we have a cold front heading in tonight..it MIGHT get down to 65 degrees.
I think it was 88 for the high today.
See how our ideas of fall differ...I'm still cutting grass,
you are seeing frost..but we are both still hanging out in shorts. (until below 60 degrees for me..then jeans all the way!)
Take care Jason.
I'll try to shake Sparky up this weekend & see if he is back online yet. Haven't seen him around though!

PS If I go back & re-read I'll edit, and I'm too_tired.
So pardon my mispellings & random thought process.

I just moved a new thread to the Classics last week. Have you read it?

Jason and erla I hope all is well.