There is so much to this life, that’s “seen” and “unseen”. It’s difficult to understand all the unseen, I only know that trying my very best to do what is right and working as hard as I can somehow and in someway seems to allow all of my ends to meet. It feels at times, with me, when things may look shaky with business, I’m nervous about…
There is so much to this life, that’s “seen” and “unseen”. It’s difficult to understand all the unseen, I only know that trying my very best to do what is right and working as hard as I can somehow and in someway seems to allow all of my ends to meet. It feels at times, with me, when things may look shaky with business, I’m nervous about the next job coming, the bills are stacking up and I’m praying for that check to finally show up, I can’t help but feel someone is watching over me. I land a job, a new customer calls, or the check finally arrives.
I found out just the other day the electrician from that large contract I’ve had for almost 40 years was the one that brought a crew of illegals in to do a small job behind my back and it seems this was a small part of why they haven’t been calling me lately. Instead of him saying to “stick with me”, he broke the circle all of us contractors there have kept for all of these years. Sometimes one door closes for a reason, and other doors may open.
I just yesterday was speaking to a younger friend/contractor I’ve known since we were kids and said I forgave Mike for stabbing me in the back before I even knew what took place. I guess the small job done was a nightmare, they botched everything they touched. And it’s not the bad job that was done that matters to me, back before I even knew the job was happening I had got a new customer and renovated a house for their daughter. They since have used me on a couple of other projects, we’ll see where this new road takes me.
Being married to an OR nurse is one part of my life where I get to see the “seen”, angels among us. They say regular people are often used by God as angels. The children these people fix and heal is nothing short of miracles they perform everyday. I had told you of a nurse, Annie, that had recently passed away at 55 years old. Yesterday her family held the memorial service for her. Annie was a good person she always befriended the newer and maybe the weaker people at the hospital. As in most large OR’s there are many personality conflicts and my wife’s job was no exception to that rule. But at the memorial service for Annie these angels that are plain to see every day of the week, all showed up, as they always do, and supported Annie’s family. I’m sure Annie has crossed over and is now in the hands of the Lord, rest in peace Annie. J.Goodrich
Sorry you had to deal with a sparky gone bad, but the reliability of sub contractors is precisely why I no longer do renovations for anyone but myself.
Being burned by a sub had devastating effects on my renovation company I owned, during the early stages of my self employment venture, I started more than 22 years ago. It not only lost me several, super wealthy clients, but also their friends, and family. This is why I almost never recommend any specific contractor to anyone, for anything. This is also why I currently, and will always, work alone, as long as I remain in biz for myself.
And then there are the Amish neighbors who show up in groups and put a 4,000 sq ft shop up finished perfectly in 4 days. It’s the culture! Find people of character who put God , family and community first and you won’t have to do everything alone by yourself!
my neighbor, a GC, as he got closer to 55 or so, did the same. Dumped all his subs for the same reason. One, he called him DIRTY DICK, was the drywall man. A real "dead-ender" as my Dad would say.
He came to work drunk sometimes, always drank with beer in his truck at the end of the day, as I recall. One time he cussed out the homeowner(!) for no apparent reason "up one side and down the other" as they say. Half million dollar house.
The thing is he’s not my sub he works directly for the business. My electrician would never do this. The strange thing is Mike the electrician is the one that originally told me about the job, of coarse after the fact. He just left out that it was him that brought these illegals in. Kind of a double stab and twist!!! I’ve done this business so much, pulling permits for other work, getting building permits through because I went to school with the building inspector for 14 or so years, pushing jobs through zoning and the planning board etc… trust he may have done me a favor. The kids are starting to take over and they are taking every dime out of the business they can. They’ll be fine and I’ll be fine. Sometimes you get what you give and the kids don’t have a lot of friends.
FYI: Trump’s Secret Weapon for Mass Deportations: E-Verify
"E-Verify is a federal service created 28 years ago that employers can use to confirm employees’ eligibility to work in the United States through the Department of Homeland Security. It stems from the 1986 Reagan amnesty law, which banned employers from knowingly hiring illegal aliens and later gave them a tool to enforce it. While hardly a silver bullet, it’s free, fast, and effective."
“If you aren’t for E-Verify, you aren’t serious about controlling immigration,” says border expert Mark Krikorian, who heads the Center for Immigration Studies. The system works through deterrence. A sign on the door indicating a fast-food restaurant uses E-Verify is “a signal to illegal job-seekers that they should apply elsewhere,” he explains.
Some 75% of the illegal migrant population in the U.S. is in the labor force. Without jobs, most of them will leave. This happened after the 2008 recession when the illegal immigrant population fell by 1 million amidst a devastated U.S. economy. Encouraging them to self-deport is the cleanest, most efficient way to remove them from the country.
Stop subsidizing them (cut off all government funds), require E-verify for every employee without a USA birth certificate , refuse renting to anyone who is also unable to be verified and 15 million of the 20 million will go home. The rest are criminals so just jail them till you can deport them.
I knew a man at church who built houses, and to my knowledge did not hire illegals, but told me that the Hispanics he hired, he had to be on the site every day to ensure quality and that they were actually working—he says their work was shoddy, and it shows up after a person purchases the house—“high end” houses at that. 🙄
Hopefully ICE will be visiting construction sites in 15 days and counting, and hopefully contractors will pay the price for shoddy low paying work, which displaces Americans, and not the consumer.
Ice will be delayed a year or more, from visiting anyone, but the really bad guys and gals theyre aware of. No easy task in itself, with 25 to 30 million, or more brought in over the last 4 years
Businesses will have essentially a grace period to straighten themselves out.
Next door to a strip shopping center I was doing in Henderson, NV an apartment building was under construction. One day I hear from the site, "immigration". Belts dropped and bodies fled like flies from DDT. Contractor was left high and dry and none of those illegals ever came back for their tools. Another job doing a strip center our temp power co. had a problem with a permit and the 'illegal' framers showed up to start building. No compressors for nail guns, so they were pounding nails with framing hammers. It was taking as many as 12-16 pounds of a nailhead to drive one home, when a talent framer would do it in two. 18 'framers' who did not know a word of English and one foreman who. It was a nightmare getting the center framed.
I'm an engineer, designed my dream home in 2016 and GC'd it out myself. First time.
I figure about 20% of the subs were "good". The sparky seemed good at first but kind of went nutso on me at one point. He failed to completely read my email reply to his leading question: "Aren't you gonna' pay me?!" Further, concluding in error but then also, responding in haste and with quite the bit of venom, he "yelled":
Oh .. . I can't even repeat it-- too vile. . . vicious.
then!,
I got a text he was immediately on his way. . . called 911, figuring death was near!
but, a mixup and it was merely a coincidence his electrician was coming to finish off something.(not me!) Eventually, they completed the job, paid contract in full but GEEZ!
I was glad his part was completed, man. He was Tonga's size.
'Ats why I burned out supering for the big boys, 'lying subs'. Lived in several areas of the country and with each move would work for a large co. After three years with a company I would have tested for my own license. Was like a monkey; monkey see, monkey do, so ended up doing all the trades well and wasn't about to lie to myself.
I am sure we could have a great time together, swapping similar stories and maybe a beer or two by a camp fire. I sure have had similar experiences. Was a Millionairre now struggling to get "back up".
Les, I’d love to sit down with you some day and have a beer. Things seem to be changing my friend! Trudeau resigned today! People have had it. I’m sure he has some Bolshevik tricks up his sleeve but I hope this spreads to your neck of the woods. Keep a beer cold for me!!
I have seen this a lot for myself and others and then when serious problems are encountered the back stabbers come running back to you for help. When it happened to me I always acted like nothing happened- played dumb and just got things done correctly.
There is so much to this life, that’s “seen” and “unseen”. It’s difficult to understand all the unseen, I only know that trying my very best to do what is right and working as hard as I can somehow and in someway seems to allow all of my ends to meet. It feels at times, with me, when things may look shaky with business, I’m nervous about the next job coming, the bills are stacking up and I’m praying for that check to finally show up, I can’t help but feel someone is watching over me. I land a job, a new customer calls, or the check finally arrives.
I found out just the other day the electrician from that large contract I’ve had for almost 40 years was the one that brought a crew of illegals in to do a small job behind my back and it seems this was a small part of why they haven’t been calling me lately. Instead of him saying to “stick with me”, he broke the circle all of us contractors there have kept for all of these years. Sometimes one door closes for a reason, and other doors may open.
I just yesterday was speaking to a younger friend/contractor I’ve known since we were kids and said I forgave Mike for stabbing me in the back before I even knew what took place. I guess the small job done was a nightmare, they botched everything they touched. And it’s not the bad job that was done that matters to me, back before I even knew the job was happening I had got a new customer and renovated a house for their daughter. They since have used me on a couple of other projects, we’ll see where this new road takes me.
Being married to an OR nurse is one part of my life where I get to see the “seen”, angels among us. They say regular people are often used by God as angels. The children these people fix and heal is nothing short of miracles they perform everyday. I had told you of a nurse, Annie, that had recently passed away at 55 years old. Yesterday her family held the memorial service for her. Annie was a good person she always befriended the newer and maybe the weaker people at the hospital. As in most large OR’s there are many personality conflicts and my wife’s job was no exception to that rule. But at the memorial service for Annie these angels that are plain to see every day of the week, all showed up, as they always do, and supported Annie’s family. I’m sure Annie has crossed over and is now in the hands of the Lord, rest in peace Annie. J.Goodrich
https://www.google.com/search?q=jamie+johnson+lead+me+home&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#ebo=0
Sorry you had to deal with a sparky gone bad, but the reliability of sub contractors is precisely why I no longer do renovations for anyone but myself.
Being burned by a sub had devastating effects on my renovation company I owned, during the early stages of my self employment venture, I started more than 22 years ago. It not only lost me several, super wealthy clients, but also their friends, and family. This is why I almost never recommend any specific contractor to anyone, for anything. This is also why I currently, and will always, work alone, as long as I remain in biz for myself.
And then there are the Amish neighbors who show up in groups and put a 4,000 sq ft shop up finished perfectly in 4 days. It’s the culture! Find people of character who put God , family and community first and you won’t have to do everything alone by yourself!
my neighbor, a GC, as he got closer to 55 or so, did the same. Dumped all his subs for the same reason. One, he called him DIRTY DICK, was the drywall man. A real "dead-ender" as my Dad would say.
He came to work drunk sometimes, always drank with beer in his truck at the end of the day, as I recall. One time he cussed out the homeowner(!) for no apparent reason "up one side and down the other" as they say. Half million dollar house.
Jeff had all he could do to salvage the job.
The thing is he’s not my sub he works directly for the business. My electrician would never do this. The strange thing is Mike the electrician is the one that originally told me about the job, of coarse after the fact. He just left out that it was him that brought these illegals in. Kind of a double stab and twist!!! I’ve done this business so much, pulling permits for other work, getting building permits through because I went to school with the building inspector for 14 or so years, pushing jobs through zoning and the planning board etc… trust he may have done me a favor. The kids are starting to take over and they are taking every dime out of the business they can. They’ll be fine and I’ll be fine. Sometimes you get what you give and the kids don’t have a lot of friends.
FYI: Trump’s Secret Weapon for Mass Deportations: E-Verify
"E-Verify is a federal service created 28 years ago that employers can use to confirm employees’ eligibility to work in the United States through the Department of Homeland Security. It stems from the 1986 Reagan amnesty law, which banned employers from knowingly hiring illegal aliens and later gave them a tool to enforce it. While hardly a silver bullet, it’s free, fast, and effective."
“If you aren’t for E-Verify, you aren’t serious about controlling immigration,” says border expert Mark Krikorian, who heads the Center for Immigration Studies. The system works through deterrence. A sign on the door indicating a fast-food restaurant uses E-Verify is “a signal to illegal job-seekers that they should apply elsewhere,” he explains.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/trumps-secret-weapon-mass-deportations-e-verify/
Some 75% of the illegal migrant population in the U.S. is in the labor force. Without jobs, most of them will leave. This happened after the 2008 recession when the illegal immigrant population fell by 1 million amidst a devastated U.S. economy. Encouraging them to self-deport is the cleanest, most efficient way to remove them from the country.
Stop subsidizing them (cut off all government funds), require E-verify for every employee without a USA birth certificate , refuse renting to anyone who is also unable to be verified and 15 million of the 20 million will go home. The rest are criminals so just jail them till you can deport them.
I knew a man at church who built houses, and to my knowledge did not hire illegals, but told me that the Hispanics he hired, he had to be on the site every day to ensure quality and that they were actually working—he says their work was shoddy, and it shows up after a person purchases the house—“high end” houses at that. 🙄
Hopefully ICE will be visiting construction sites in 15 days and counting, and hopefully contractors will pay the price for shoddy low paying work, which displaces Americans, and not the consumer.
Ice will be delayed a year or more, from visiting anyone, but the really bad guys and gals theyre aware of. No easy task in itself, with 25 to 30 million, or more brought in over the last 4 years
Businesses will have essentially a grace period to straighten themselves out.
This will be very interesting, indeed
Next door to a strip shopping center I was doing in Henderson, NV an apartment building was under construction. One day I hear from the site, "immigration". Belts dropped and bodies fled like flies from DDT. Contractor was left high and dry and none of those illegals ever came back for their tools. Another job doing a strip center our temp power co. had a problem with a permit and the 'illegal' framers showed up to start building. No compressors for nail guns, so they were pounding nails with framing hammers. It was taking as many as 12-16 pounds of a nailhead to drive one home, when a talent framer would do it in two. 18 'framers' who did not know a word of English and one foreman who. It was a nightmare getting the center framed.
another sparky story:
I'm an engineer, designed my dream home in 2016 and GC'd it out myself. First time.
I figure about 20% of the subs were "good". The sparky seemed good at first but kind of went nutso on me at one point. He failed to completely read my email reply to his leading question: "Aren't you gonna' pay me?!" Further, concluding in error but then also, responding in haste and with quite the bit of venom, he "yelled":
Oh .. . I can't even repeat it-- too vile. . . vicious.
then!,
I got a text he was immediately on his way. . . called 911, figuring death was near!
but, a mixup and it was merely a coincidence his electrician was coming to finish off something.(not me!) Eventually, they completed the job, paid contract in full but GEEZ!
I was glad his part was completed, man. He was Tonga's size.
'Ats why I burned out supering for the big boys, 'lying subs'. Lived in several areas of the country and with each move would work for a large co. After three years with a company I would have tested for my own license. Was like a monkey; monkey see, monkey do, so ended up doing all the trades well and wasn't about to lie to myself.
And jist when I thought our conflict bout money was over,
I went to his house to collect and got bit by his Rover.
I got them workin man Blues all agin!
I am sure we could have a great time together, swapping similar stories and maybe a beer or two by a camp fire. I sure have had similar experiences. Was a Millionairre now struggling to get "back up".
Les, I’d love to sit down with you some day and have a beer. Things seem to be changing my friend! Trudeau resigned today! People have had it. I’m sure he has some Bolshevik tricks up his sleeve but I hope this spreads to your neck of the woods. Keep a beer cold for me!!
I have seen this a lot for myself and others and then when serious problems are encountered the back stabbers come running back to you for help. When it happened to me I always acted like nothing happened- played dumb and just got things done correctly.