JFife
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Posts posted by JFife
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Alph111,
As I stated, I am unable to empathize with those that have such an attachment to piece of property. And in the situation i mentioned, the piece Walmart Distribution wanted was the edge of his property, where it butted up to the interstate. I don't have any attachment to land. I suppose i could see if the land had been handed down since the Civil War to him, father to father, how that could be an attachment, but I don't have the luxury of feeling that way.
RyanH,
I am still laughing at the image of you being drug from your home screaming "Freedom!!" like William Wallace in Braveheart. That would be a powerful way to go out in a blaze of glory should you ever choose to.
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Regarding "taking land",
I'm afraid I'd be one of those officials that would be for snatching the land to raise taxes. I have a bad habit of only seeing things in the form of dollar signs, and I just cannot empathize with people needing the security of the home they've been in for 20yrs, and stopping progress at the same time. I grew up in a town about 45min. from STL, pop. 1,500. No traffic lights. About five years ago, Walmart wanted to put a distribution center in our town (on an interstate) and it would have brought close to a thousand jobs to the area (much needed, poor, rural area) along with a biz boom to handle the new workers/homes/needs/etc. My family would have probably doubled it's net worth in property values, etc. Imagine the impact this would have had on local builders, services, grocers, etc. Basically, for a while they would have had a double in biz with no extra competition. Needless to say, this would have GREATLY improved the lives of many people in the area.
The land they wanted was about 75 acres on the edge of an old (and dying) man's farm at the edge of town, a small percentage of his couple thousand acres. Guess what?? He would not sell to them at any cost, his kids tried getting him to, but he wouldn't budge. I am sure a lot of people would high-five this guy, but I thought it was selfish and senseless. Instead, Walmart took a spot about 20 miles up the highway, and now that town is reaping the benefits.
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Regarding guns--we probably all know why Hitler never would attempt to invade Switzerland, and the U.S. should be the same. I remember RyanH made the point a few months ago that crime would nose-dive if citizens could fire upon criminals in the act. I wouldn't agree with that for all crimes, but I'd be game for the crimes of: all theft, forced rape (not stat. rape obviously), animal abuse, child abuse, child neglect, and most murders. Feel free to put my name down as a write-in candidate in the '08 elections. Think how nice it would be for biz if a customer refused to pay, and instead of threatening a lien, you legally threatened his life?? Sure would make people honest in a hurry:)!! Kinda joking, kinda not.
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LOL, i've never heard of any of those brands/products, so they must be good. What kind of screen do you have?? Plasma, actual projection?? Were you into the whole rice burner racing, or just audio??
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RC,
I am going to assume you are somewhat experienced, not a total novice since you are a painter. Regarding furring, some wood does, some doesn't, you may reduce/increase slightly based on chems/pressure/proximity etc., but it mainly comes down to the wood. I'd consider myself to be fairly experienced, and I still do jobs that come out looking like someone wrapped the deck in a lion's mane. I seldom buff though, since I don't find it to be a good investment on a pt deck. If it is bad, i may present it to the customer and let them choose. I do buff 90% of homes though, since it is such a large investment. If you are charging for it/selling an upscale service, and are going to buff, consider applying Borate to the deck after neutralizing--for some reason this makes buffing significantly easier, and you can sell them the Borate job as an additional fungicide/insecticide for an extra $50-$75, and it will actually reduce your buffing work. Again, don't know why this works, but I know other guys that do this as well and it helps, I'd do it even if the customer was unwilling to pay for it, to save me buffing work. I'll anticipate the question of where to get this--find a distributor for the pest companies and ask them if they sell Timbor, that is 98%DOT (borate), about $75 for a 6gal. pail, would probably do 15 decks.
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Into theatre moreso than sound, and sometimes the two go hand-in-hand. I have a sony 57"highdef, and this winter I may start the sound process. Right now it looks like Denon receiver and Klipsch speakers, but still shopping.
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Beth,
here is a site: www.srloghomes.com Read what they say about cypress on there, you may find it to be an interesting read.
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There is so much cool wood out there---ever seen an australian cypress floor?? Awesome looking. James, how in the world did you end up working on alaskan cedar?? Sounds like a customer with too much money, and just had to do something to be different.
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Jeez, that is bad even for "back east" standards:) These McMansions ar just crazy---6K sq.ft with vinyl siding on the gables, Pergo floors, etc......i've seen entire subdivisions where the homes were literally cracking down the middle, a jagged line going down the bricks from top to bottom. My cousin does HVAC and he has to go in and re-duct houses, because they use the wrong size duct vs. unit and their A/C unit runs at about 30% it's capacity, makes you not want to buy a house......I wish I could afford an Airstream Trailer and I'd just hook that to my truck and chill:)
Regarding softwoods, I've seen a company that builds cypress log homes that guarantees them for 60yrs not to rot....not sure what maintenance is required to keep the warranty however, .....they say cyp. is less prone to rot due to where it is retrieved--Florida.
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All of the above with the exception of cypress......I expressed my theory in some thread a few weeks ago.....I see the quality of wood change DRASTICALLY from one house to another, no matter the kind of log. If i were to ever build a log home, I'd have a suberb handcrafter do it that picks his own trees, the only way to control quality. I can just find no other way to explain why one SYP house is 50% rotten in 10yrs, while another is neglected, 20yrs old, exposed, and solid as a rock. It has to be a batch-to-batch issue, or something i cannot grasp.
.....aaaand, I don't see decks as much different. I see neglected pt decks in awesome shape, and I see maintained Redwood that looks bad. I've seen enough decks and homes maintained/not maintained where the status of the structure leads me to question whether or not we as wood rest. contractors even provide that valuable of a service. Tough to hear, but I sometimes question it.
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Speaking of treated wood, I'd guess the material cost to be around $5.00per linear ft. Up or down significantly based on type of wood. I do log railings, and charge about $15.00 for material (posts, two horizontals and ballusters) and $15.00 for labor, if that gives you a point to start. The main cost differentials will be in whether or not their is a staircase, the size of it and the difficulty factor.
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Rick,
DEK sikkens can be used on ipe, i've had it look good, but cannot vouch for longevity. It is a tough film, so if applied properly, I'd think it would hold. Have to pre-wipe w/ acetone.
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I'm a ford guy and my 7.3 just turned 106K. My dad has a cummins w/ 250K on it, and the reason he got it, is because his buddy has a cummins with about 1.2mil. This guy is an escort (the TRUCK kind) and drives coast to coast all the time. His truck is a 93' stick shift, 2WD. He gets 27mpg on the highway (I assume he only drives about 60mph though)
Here's a tip for you guys--mine is stock on than a small program chip, I wish I could afford a Banks System but I can't--but I improved my mileage by about 2mpg by changing from Rotella 15w40 to the Rotella Synthetic 5w40. My cousin has a Duramax and he is the one that suggested it--had the same results. I didn't believe him, but I tried it, and I swear I had the same results. Costs twice as much, but you can go twice as long between changes as well (I'll do mine at 7,500) Right now, running about 75mph, I get around 17-18mpg, and would probably get 20 if i were going 60mph (my truck is 4wd)
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sounds like a great deal!! I am with Meiers, right now you've got 16K in it (around that), and i'd try and make a quick 5-8K. Beats doing 5-8K worth of washing!!!
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....Well this didn't go how I expected! Does that stain have Peanut Oil in it?? I was reading the thread and thought, "oh no, Ken's worker is allergic to peanuts!" That is actually pretty scary too if you think about it. Greg Rentchler, the guy that started Deckguide, posted pics a couple years back of an entire van he lost to fire, and about 10K of equipment. I talked with him a couple months ago, and he had lost another van to fire in '04. Needless to say, his ins. co. cut him after #2.:) THIS IS WHY A CO. SHOULD COME UP WITH A DECENT WATERBASE PRODUCT!!!!!!
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stripper and spray bottle, will leave a ghost,
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I was definitely joking, you won't see my fat butt on many roofs! Beth, I'd say behind used car sales, driveway sealcoating is probably the shady'st biz going. I just bought a house from a single girl about my age, and she received about the biggest screwing I've ever seen. Before she sold to me, she had Culligan put in a water softener (probably the only house on my street with one), she made a huge deal at closing about how I had to let her come and take it, which i had no problem with. Her realtor told me later when i was moving in, that a door-to-door salesman had sold it to her (a TINY water softener) ran the plumbing to the fridge and sink. Cost???????? About 4K. I nearly wept for her, and helped her get it to her other house. The sad thing was, I had it still hooked up for about a week, and whenever it was gone, I could tell absolutely no difference in the water. Pretty sad,
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Beth,
I am curious what you mean by driveway resurfacing. do you mean sealing asphalt or aggregate driveways??
Regarding tree guys, I have two friends in TN that own a tree biz, and they basically follow the weather. Tornado country in the spring/summer, hurricanes late summer/early fall. They mainly just work for one ins. co. in particular that sends them around the country. Unmarked vehicles, etc., you'd never know they ran a really slick operation.......until you found out they made about 5K (or more) a day. I can't fault someone for chasing the money, heck, I thought about roofing in FL last fall!!
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F-18 should strip it, but you'll have to get advice from someone more experienced than I with their product to tell you the ratios. Here is some advice--when you can tell that a deck has been refinished improperly, the stain will either come off really really easy or really really hard, and I've not found the correlation as to which causes which. Not really helpful advice, I know, but the lesson is to do a test on the wood. Personally, I am not much of a tester. My theory is that worst case scenerio, I use twice as much stripper as expected and it costs an extra $25, and that is cheaper than me screwing with a demo for an hour. I am lazy like that--but if you are smart you'll do a test. If it looks unique to me, I still test. BTW, your price sounds fine....you say it is small etc. Should be an easy job, worse-case you strip once, go to lunch (wood dry) and come back and strip again, and it should be good as new. Should be in the budget.
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Everett is dead-on with his analogy about the bleach. Bleach works fine--even great in some situations--if you know what you are doing. It sounds to me like the person that posted the question is not terribly experienced, and therefore I wouldn't suggest the bleach, especially on a house of all things. Try the percarb cleaner--and disclaim any stain which you may remove.
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Doolittle,
There are products on the wood market (mainly for log homes) that act as or are sanding sealers. WoodIron has one, www.woodiron.com, but I've only seen these for waterbase and for interior use. The WoodIron requires about 5 different apps. for a start-to-finish interior, and I can use a different product and it look just as good with 3 coats, so I've never dealt with it. A guy on Deckguide (Laroy Williamson) uses WI exclusively.
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Brian,
If you have any interest in selling brushes, there are some knock-off brands out there that are similar to the Osborne. don't know if they'd be profitable for you or not, might send you a free one though to test, just a thought,
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Racechaser,
Without getting theological, I'll lightly touch on your last paragraph......regarding what God allows or doesn't allow, i personally don't feel that happens. Could he change courses of events?? Sure. Does he?? I don't think so. What I am saying, I don't think if we still had the Ten Commandments on the wall at Columbine that God would have stopped those boys from killing their fellow students. Everyone likes to say the world is coming to an end because of all the bad things that are happening.....how could any God allow it to keep going?? TV shows are SO dirty, and kids have *** and kill people, and little girls have abortions....
For any that think these things are so awful, I'd suggest reading the Bible from front to back and you'll see much worse stuff happening. Ever heard of the Romans?????
Celeste,
You said you stated your point, "rather badly", and I don't agree. You stated your point the way you see it, I don't agree and others may not agree, but it is still your point and still respectable. What you want is a good thing--people learning golden rules and to love thy neighbor, etc., but we just disagree on the how and when it should be done. I'd personally never send my kids to private school, but this is the exact reason they exist.
Pretty screwed up story about the baby. It is astounding how ignorant people can be. What is sad is that the girl didn't have anyone to ASK where to take the baby....and if I were guessing myself, I'd also have dropped it off at a Pregnancy Center. When I was in college (private,christian) I don't know how many girls had abortions, but the number would have been shocking. And then, a girl I was friends with (as well as her BF) got pregnant and carried the baby. Guess what?? Got kicked out of school. Set a bad example, and her un-christian-like behavior started the problem, and this was the punishment. I was furious. I thought that was hands-down, the worst decision I'd ever seen made. She could have taken the easy way out, but did the right thing, and got punished for it. She had one semester left of school, and I don't know if she ever finished or not. I guess what was so troubling to me was, okay, if the faculty is going to take a stand, then why allow her to ever come back, because there would have always been a reminder of her transgretion (baby)?? the point was, the school didn't want to tarnish it's repution by having a girl walking around pregnant. Made me sick, and still does,
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Mike,
One thing right off the bat.....changing out 40 pads takes at least one hour, plus the time up and down the ladder, etc. The labor savings are big, plus no little black bristles to clean up.
Drawbacks: heavier, $, tougher to get into some spots, easier to get into others
Benefits: faster, more abrasive, more effective,
You'll just have to try one and see what you think. You'd DEFINITELY prefer it on the floor, due to it's weight and ability to get into ridges.
Taking Private Land for Private Businesses
in The Club House
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Meier,
You should consider becoming passionate about this issue:) While the second post kinda left me in the dust (not sure where people being slaughtered like sheep came from), the first post was good, had good points, many I agree with. Somewhere along the way you have developed the opinion that living in the country is some kind of right that "urban sprawl" cannot infringe upon, and I'm afraid you are going to live a life of hypertension if you have this much trouble accepting it.
Also, you talk about wherever you live in PBcounty, and you are alone, and the breeze feels nice, etc.,etc, etc, but who is to say everyone in your county chooses to remain that way?? Perhaps some want smog, honking cars, Scripps, and table scraps from that company and it's employees. Who are YOU to tell them they are wrong???
I appreciate your passion; i cannot evoke it for my arguments however. I have social/govt issues i feel strongly about, but this is not one. Perhaps some day I'll be in a position where this will affect me greatly, perhaps not. The world/U.S. is growing rapidly, and unless someone figures out a way to start layering cities (other than highrises), they are going to expand outward, and I don't see that changing, so I adapt. I feel my energies are better used taking positions on matters where i feel I can make a difference, and trying to stop the spread of America is just not my calling. Personally, I think this matter is very closely tied to our border control issues, and I consider that to be a far bigger problem, and potentially the onset of the problem being discussed here.
Every city I have ever lived in has those few farms that are literally surrounded by biz and subdivisions, but that farmer refuses to sell. I am sure you'd salute that guy, but my feeling is that he is cutting off his nose to spite his face, and is probably spending the latter years of his life cursing the govt/cities/etc., instead of just adapting, accepting that the world is a changing place, and moving on to something more to his liking and taking his memories of days gone to another place, and telling the stories to his grandchildren. That would be happiness to me, not fighting the govt and everyone around you in a losing battle.