Best Of

I worked with a lady years ago who if someone didn't get her joke or snarky remark, she'd say, "I don't chew my tobacco twice." and leave it at that.

When I did home improvements/plumbing/electrical for a living I would find lots of things, tools, such as screwdrivers, ratchets, wrenches, pliers, hammers, pipe cutters, vice grips, tape measures, found a folding wooden ruler and still have that, speed squares, a t-square, a power drill, a cordless stick vac, rolls of all types of tape.

Lots of weapons such as knives, guns, boxes of ammo, brass knuckles. cans of pepper sprat and mace, slingshots, wrist-rockets and loads of mouse/rat/critter traps.

Lots of clothing items, sneakers and shoes of all sizes, even a wig and hats.

Pieces of trees (real and artificial), house plants, big wads of palms, like those big, long dried out ones Catholic folks in my family used to hand each other on Palm Sunday when I was a kid.

Bunches of wadded up chewed paper that looked like nesting and even tree branches, leaves, old disconnected BX cables and assorted wires.

Dead mice, dead squirrels, dead raccoons, dead 'possums, a couple dead kittens one time, that was sad. Don't know if they were born where I had found them or if their mother placed them there or if they had fallen down a transom.

By the time I retired in 2020 I thought I would NEVER have to see garbage and odd items in walls or floors ever again, but since all of our kids were grown up and out and in their own homes, my wife and I decided that we no longer needed the big 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house we lived and raised our family in for 30+ years, which was also my families home for almost 60 years before that, where I grew up in in the 70's and 80's, so in mid 2021 we sold and moved into our current smaller home by that Sept..

About a year after we moved in, I decided that I hated the tiny old toilet that was in our one bathroom and couldn't stomach the plumbing mistakes that were everywhere, the no ceiling fixture, cracked plaster and ugly woodwork everywhere, but I really just wanted to replace the very small toilet, but when I pulled the old toilet out, half the 1"x1" ugly blue mosaic floor tiles came up with the bowl, so you know, then a whole project began.

I learned that a previous homeowner, who ironically was a fireman and raised his own family here back in the 30's and 40's, in 1950 "rebuilt" the first floor kitchen and second floor bathroom, which is right above the kitchen in our home after he had a kitchen fire!

I was told by an elderly neighbor who knew the guy very well, that after he had an electrical fire and got a skimpy insurance check, he decided to re-do the house himself. and I guess instead of replacing burnt, water damaged, cracked, split and scorched floor joists, rafters and beams, he decided to fill the entire spacing between each floor joist of the small 8'x5' second floor bathroom with cement, about 5000lbs of it, and poured it from heights of 2" to 6" above the floor joists (to level it out) all the way down to the lathing up in the kitchen ceiling below. I guess he though the cement would add some strength to weakened and very uneven joists?

I still can't figure out how all that weight stayed up in place for so many years and held the plaster ceiling below up, but I just had to cut it all out!

I originally thought that it might have just been leveling cement and thought "I could probably break that all off quickly and get down to the wood flooring, fix that up, throw a layer of backer board down and set down new floor tiles", but nope, there was no wood flooring!

The mosaic tile were mostly imbeded right into the cement.

Also buried or covered up in that cement/concrete floor were lots and lots of the original bathroom's hex floor tiles, wall tiles, tons of old shaver razor blades, metal and plastic bottle caps, old, burned disconnected BX cables, old plumbing fixtures, wads of grass and/or hay, pieces of rope, lots of broken bottle glass and a very old metal "Ronsonol" lighter fluid can, that I cleaned and kept.

All the cut off original 1910 water lines and 1950 post fire "new" water lines and steam radiator pipes were also covered up and buried within the cement, valves included!

I ended up filling about 75-80 bags with the concrete and carrying each bag out to the yard and put about 5 bags out with the trash every garbage day for about 4 months.

I cut out and replaced every floor joist, ceiling rafter and wall beam and also every inch of plumbing and electrical and built an entirely new and modern bathroom with a now level floor and also made it longer by 2 feet and wider by 1 foot, which was the most I could "expand" the bathroom.

It is so much nicer and larger now than it was.

One of these days I will transfer all the photos and videos of that project that are on my phone and get them onto this laptop I'm on, just so I can share all that with you folks, since much of the demolition and "discoveries" make for some serious head scratching and rib splitting laughs!

Sorry if it got a bit long, but I thought I'd share the stuff I've found and how I found some of it. LOL

Are Your customers stupid?

A story about the father & son, long standing, “50+ years in business company” that purchased my company.  I would write a letter every year to my customers thanking them for their business, wishing them a happy new year and telling them something positive about doing business with me.  One year was that the price of the service agreements would not go up this year, another time was that the cost of labor on our flat rate service price book was down 4% and that would be reflected in the new price book, and sited 2 examples of labor only flat rate repairs, like: clean & adjust electronic ignition old price $62.59 new price $60.09.  One year I just told the customers that My son was doing great in Track & Field and holds high school records in 5 different events. He was offered a scholarship to The College of New Jersey to be on their track team. But I digress…

The new owner of my customers read a letter I prepared with the "good news" that I was partnering up with the new company and the "good news" is that there will be more technicians available for emergency service calls and more years of experience and several other "good news" items about the purchase of my company by their company.  This corny communication was what my customers were used to receiving from me and my son.  They often commented  on some of my comments in the letters to me and the other mechanics during their maintenance visits, so I knew that many customers read these letters. 

The buying company’s father read the letter I prepared and said this crap was too corny to originate from this firm and filed the letter in the circular bin next to his desk.  He did agree that my customers should be notified that there was a new owner and composed a no nonsense business letter and mailed it to all my customers on the new company letter head.  The majority of these letters went into the customer’s circular file as the letter head and return address on the envelope was unfamiliar.   After several months of customers not recognizing the new truck with a different name and different mechanics arriving to service their equipment,  Mr. J wanted to know if all my customers were stupid.  Can’t they read a simple letter that explains what has transpired?  

I just had to agree that he knew better than I about how to operate a business at a profit the way his father told him to run a business.  Heaven forbid that I might inform him that a letter with my return address and my letter head would have been a better idea.  Even if it was not corny and said exactly what the letter he sent out on his letter head.  Jeff knew what he was doing and my customers were stupid for throwing perceived junk mail in the trash.

BOTTOM LINE: If you go through with the purchase, expect to operate the newly purchased company as if there has been no change, and you are just the new guys that work for the existing company. Answer the phone the same way the previous owner answered the phone. Send letters and invoices out using the envelopes with the company name and address the customers are used to. Change the name slowly over time if that is your intention. 

Consider not changing the name at all and tell your customers that you purchased the new business and let your customers know that you will be sending letters and correspondence with the new name. You are growing and becoming more successful.  Ray Kroc did not change the name of his company after he purchased it from the McDonald brothers in 1962.  Somehow I don't think I would like to be eating a Big Kroc, even if it did have two all beef patties and special sauce.    What Crock of stuff did that special sauce come from anyway?

Hey...bathroom is warm...mission accomplished! Mad Dog

This came across my feed today.

I wonder how everyone is doing?