I’ve been working on this kitchen install the last couple of weeks.
After the first couple of days, the HOs started asking me if I’d like a cup of coffee.
Never one to turn down coffee, I started saying yes.
Now its escalated to coffee and a muffin, or danish, or bagel.
They actually ask me what I’d like tomorrow.
Now that I’m down to just some odds and ends, I’m spending more time having coffee with the client than actually working there ( well, not really; its just seems that way some days)
They’re a nice retired couple, and I really shouldn’t complain.
I mean, I expect the scales will be balanced at some point.
Replies
Shep
The best I ever had was when during an addition with kitchen build on a hot summer day the homeowner went and got me a "Quart" of Ritas cherryand orange ice, man that was the best and it came at the right moment
Mark
The best customer I've ever had, kept a fridge full of cold drinks in the garage and took orders every Fri, to see what type of drinks we'd prefer. Two or three days a week, he'd take orders for lunch and bring it back for us. You think he got any extras done for free? Damnbetcha! The whole crew hated to finish that job.
Scissors cut paper. Rock breaks scissors. Paper wraps rock.
Its amazing how much a little food and drink will motivate people. Some HO are just to stupid and cheap to figure it out.
I can only imagine what a few casses of beer and some BBQ on a friday afternoon would get ya.
Did someone say beer and BBQ? I'm there.
Kipherr
Hey, be nice to the HO. Maybe it just never occurred to them. Oh well, I guess you said they were "stupid". Good advice anyway. Tough crowd.
On a hot day, I appreciate a drink more than anything. Usually, when a customer offers, I politely decline, but I've been yelled at to take stuff before.
worked on one big remodel ....
where the HO's told the company owner they fully expected us to stop working every Fri around 2 pm ... and sit out at the patio till quitting time .. 4pm.
said we were to be paid 2 hrs to sit on company time for "customer relations" ...
guy was an airline pilot with a set schedule ... had Fri afternoons and weekends off.
He was away most of the week ... so ... he combined his two necessary functions ...
Having the "first beer of the week" ... along with working the bugs out of an on going remodel.
By 2:01 .... the nondrinkers has a nice tall ice tea ... and the beer drinkers ... as well as the husband and wife .... all had a cold one cracked .. and the Job Lead was on strick orders to have everyones time crad filled out to 4.
They fought the owners tooth and nail on several things ... but were great to the workers. Funny thing .. the roving project manager seemed to always have his last stop of the week at our job ... right around 2 or so ...
He'd come walking down the drive with his big cigar hanging outta his mouth ... great way for the underlings to "bond" with one of the higher-ups.
the lead had a secret rule ... no more than 3 beers ... have more than 3 ... and U were transfered off the job.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry in Carpentry
Pgh, PA
I was on a job just last year, building a beach house for one of the "founders" of Silicon Valley, a name many of you would recognize, and he told the GC I was working for to order donuts for break every Wednesday, and pizza for lunch every Friday, and he'd pay for it. So a local donut shop delivered about 2 or 3 dozen donuts every Weds., and 3 large pizzas every Friday. We all thought that was pretty cool, but our boss's brother told us the HO told him to start doing it about 3 months before he actually did. Figures.
I added a new kitchen to a house, and the owner kept her frezzer stocked up with Popsickles for my son and me. It was hot and we loved 'em.
How many of you have ever worked on a big job, and the owner kept talking about the big party there were going to have, and invite everbody that worked on the house, when it was all done? I'm still waiting on a few of those to happen.
I was at that party. Man was it a great time! You mean you didnt get.......Oh. Sorry!
"...the owner kept talking about the big party there were going to have, and invite everbody that worked on the house, when it was all done? I'm still waiting on a few of those to happen."
Heard that line a lot, but never have been to one. I think by the time the house is built, the HO is so burned out they don't want to mess with a party. And they tend to forget how stressful it is moving is.
So I can't say that I really blame them.
Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people.
I did this one day roof repair for this nice old lady in Dawson City. At 10:00 she called me in for coffee, it was really a full meal and she insisted that I eat. At 12:00 she called me off the roof again for lunch, hot dogs, "eat eat." she said. I was stuffed could hardly get back on the roof. I dreaded 3:00 sure enough another meal I was so glad that I got the job done before 5:00 and got out of there. I am sure she was cooking up a 5 course meal.
These particular customers keep telling me that they're gonna have me and my wife over for a nice Italian meal once they get settled in and organized.
BTW, they've just moved into the area a few months ago, and don't really know anyone around here.
He also wants to go golfing with me in the spring- I'm more into that than the dinner.
take the dinner...
you'll get more out of it...
proud member of the FOR/FOS club...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
At least he doesn't want to go fishin' with me.
There's some things that just aren't worth it.
ROAR!!!!!!!
yur missing out on the finer things of life Shep....
ya can't "eat" yur golf game....
proud member of the FOR/FOS club...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
I Like eating fish- just don't want to catch 'em.
I like eating beef, too. But I'm not gonna start chasing cows.
Anyway, each to their own.
Actually,I haven't been fishing in about 35 years ( since I was a kid).
but my wife sez I already know enuff ways to kill time.
so in my occasional effort to be nice to painters, I buy 'em lunch. drinks are always available, so no big deal. the next day, around lunch time, I see the two of them kinda moping around outside about noon. what's wrong, I ask. nothing, they say.
later, I see them doing some piss poor work, no energy and even less interest in getting it right. what's wrong, I ask again. nothing, they say again. so I pull the owner aside and say, look, you're work isn't up to par this afternoon, and I want to know what's going on.
we thought you were going to buy us lunch again, he tells me.
I hate painters.
SHG
LOL
I made up this little diddy years ago to explain the differences between the generations................
My grandmother's generation would offer to make me breakfast.
My mother's gereration would offer me a cup of coffee.
My generation just wants me to get the hell outta their house!
Like feeding a stray cat...
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I work a pretty demanding "day job" . . . some 12 hour days. But I love construction and I'm a pretty good hand at a lot of things. Last spring and early summer, I built a 24 x 32 shop building / storage building in my back yard. Had to tear down an old eye-sore pole barn. I've got a good customer and friend that is between permanent jobs. He helps me with maintnance on my rentals. He worked with me on the shop, and bossed a couple of guys on the weekdays when I was at work.
I always put on a pot of coffee as I was leaving the house in the mornings, had some sweets, Little Debbie's out for them. On Saturday's, when we all worked, the wife would call us to lunch out by the pool.
Man, those guys worked like crazy for me. Decked the 8/12 roof in a day, three guys did soffit and fascia in a couple of days. A lot of pride in their work. Never heard "that'll do" The straw boss even dug out a real nice old copper light fixture that came out of his deceased Momma's house, 'cause it would look just right under my porch.
These guys still drop what they're doing and come work for me whenever I need them. Paid in cash every Friday . . . that also "buys" you a lot of good will !
Greg
Edited 2/4/2005 9:49 am ET by Greg Gibson
Treat people like you yourself would like to be treated. Respect them and they will respect you. I like to buy my subs lunch occasionally, and of course you can't forget the coffee.
at 4:00 every day on one project the ho would help clean up (own his own) and fire up the grill and make a place for us at his table with his family. after a while (3 months) my wife got pissed. still cant figure it out.
I remember a small job I got years ago; nice retired couple had been taking this little summer rental every summer for years then one spring they showed up and the new dock they'd had built the summer before had been torn loose by the ice on the lake during the winter....
It was blowing like stink and about 7 degrees (Celsius; that's in the low 40s for you Farenheit types) the day I went over to hoist the dock back up out of the water and lag-bolt it back to the sides of the old concrete boat slip in which it had been built. I had to climb in and out of that lake (which had still had ice on it only a week earlier) about five or six times, wearing only a 'farmer-John' style wetsuit and by the time I got finished, I was pretty happy to dry off and get inside the cottage to write up my bill.
I found a big bowl of hot homemade soup and thick slices of black bread waiting for me, with a mug of hot tea-and-whisky on the side.
Those two made a friend for life that day....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
I've been lucky to have some great customers. From drinks to meals... you name it.
One older fellow had just lost his wife, and had to learn to cook for the first time in his life. He would experiment with different things and bring the food out to the guys around lunchtime. He certainly missed his calling, as he never brought us a bad (or even marginal) dish. He just naturally had the "knack" for it (this coming from a guy that can barely boil water). He told me after the job was done that he was dreading not having us around... cause that house was gonna seem real empty. Kinda choked me up.
One lady used to make iced tea for every break. Ordered pizza a couple of times for lunch. I never once had to get on the guys about daily clean-up.... they WANTED to do it for her.
And I think all of us have had at least one lady that had "construction worker fever". I never have taken them up on the offer... but I will admit to being tempted a few times!! LOL
"And I think all of us have had at least one lady that had "construction worker fever". "
Dangit, no - Never even got halfway close to thinking it MIGHT happen.
It's hard to find women who are turned on by bib overalls...
Men fight for comrades, those with them in battle, seldom thinking of larger and more glorious goals. [Carl F. Bernard]
You mean all those HeeHaw gals hanging all over Junior Sample were just make believe?
"You mean all those HeeHaw gals hanging all over Junior Sample were just make believe?"
No - But they were getting a lot of MONEY for hanging all over him.
If you're not part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
as far as the construction groupies go, to my knowledge I've never had one.
but my wife still says I'm kinda stupid about wimmin- can't read their signals.
I'll never know what I might be missing :(
course most womens idea of a signal is a pen light inside a purse. But then again 'all men are stupid and all women are crazy'
The best I got was about 10 years ago I did a fire job on this guys house who was Greek and also a Chef and him his wife and two daughters were the nicest people always offering food and drinks to us and then one day the builder who is also Greek buys a Lamb and the owner asked me to cut some 2x6 stakes that had a vee cut in them and I hammered them in the ground and the guy came out with this long rod with a handle on one end and introduced it to the Lamb and then put the lamb on the stakes and built a fire underneath it.
This guy/chef came out with a can filled with his own secret seasoning and a small paint brush with four chairs and him his wife and two daughters would take turns turning the lamb around and around for almost four hours with the chef painting on his secret seasoning and as I'm nailing up the rafters with the smoke blowing up on the roof I could smell this lamb which I've never eaten before and it smelled delicious.
They also had a table set up that we made with a 4x8 sheet of plywood with every Greek food you can imagine with also Baklava. When it was done I almost jumped off the roof on top of this lamb because I was starving he was slicing it like it was butter and when I bit into it it I was really going to attack that thing. It was delicious. After we had like a two hour lunch it was tuff to go back to work but they were one of the nicest people and really showed their appreciation to us for rebuilding their house even though I must have gained ten pounds working there.
I have the magic touch,
The last three customers have bought meals and drinks for all the subs on friday or on days when alot was getting done.
They have also given me gift certifcates to my favorite resteraunt, tickets to a Grizzly NBA game, and my favorite client removed my kidney stones and I came over to his house a couple days later and had another real bad spasm and he filled up the tub and made me soak in it. He also overheard me on the phone talking to one of my friends about taking a deep sea fishing trip and when I finished his house he gave me the trip as a bonus which I am taking in April.He also went to a meeting to talk with my bosses and chewed them out for never being on the jobsite and told them that when he told people about the job he was using me as the refferal and chewed them out about not paying me enough.
This guy made me feel ten feet tall and the funny thing is my bosses hated him. He was a tough negotiator and they wouldn't stand up to him so he talked them out of 10,000 of their fee.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout
Joe.
I was going to say how they treat the construction guys in the old country but you beat me to it. It is, or I may say it was a tradition to have "PARTY EVERY DAY" and at the end the Big One as you describe before. And not only the construction crew but anyone who happen to walk by the house. It was good luck.
YCF Dino
I did a lot of work for a Basque lady who fed me so much that my wife thought our marriage was in danger
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I'm sure after this job your wife become.. a better cook? :)
LOL, Not a thing wrong with her cooking. I've gained thirty some pounds since meeting her.But that Basque gal - she was about 67 YO and didn't look a day over 35, good cook too, and had a couple million set aside...What woman wouldn't wonder...
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I was only jocking guys. But...I've gained thirty some pounds since meeting her.
What they try to do to you?
And about the basque gal. Now i see a patern. we need to nvestigate the situation. Me..i'm lucky that i have two kids and i eat the leftovers.
there is nothing wrong at all with his wife's cooking....
very little room fer improvement... very little....
Pif's wife can put up some seriously fine vittles..
proud member of the FOR/FOS club...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
When he goes home and tell his wife: Thanks but I eat good today...
When I tore the roof off my house this summer, I always had cold sodas and gatorade for the guys and Cerveza every Friday at quitting time. It was my way of letting them know I appreciated their work. I wanted them to remember my job and they still do. My mason and concrete guy know I got whatever they want too.
I still need to have them all over for the BBQ, I think it's actually just escalating into a "contractor's party". Anybody ever have a HO who GC'd their own house have a contractor's party? I think that would be a darn good time.
MERC.
Yeah. Me. I've been thinkin' about that since I started the house. Me, the HO, acting as GC, hiring all the subs.
I have coffee and donuts for anybody who's working on a given day, and I just got a BBQ grill to bring up to the site for lunches and weekend work. I like to eat and drink, hate going without coffee and lunch, so the crew gets it too. It's worth the effort 'cause you know you'll get more out of the crew. Right now it's only a foundation and cap, but I'll have a timber frame crew there for the next eight weeks, so feed 'em good and quit early on Fridays.
Have any of you ever given a gift to your client? Last year I had a new heating/air conditioning system installed. The work took about 2 days. A few days after the work was completed, the owner of the company, who had been doing much of the work, showed up at my door with 2 bottles of very good wine. Is that a customary thing for a contractor to do? It certainly took me by surprise. Although, I did have a plumber once who used to show up with donuts whenever he came by to do work. But I figured that was because he just liked donuts. Unfortunately, he was not a very good plumber.
Was he wearing this tee shirt ?
he he
;)
View Image
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
Shep, yea I've had quite a few customers like that. Coffee & desserts are pretty common.
Spent a week or so at a house making a new staircase and they had coffee & rolls waiting for me every day. Usually took 30-45 minutes out of everyday.
Went back to a house I had built to patch a couple shingles on a hot summer afternoon, and the wife had beer & homemade guacamole waiting for me when I was done.
Worked on new home for a couple doctors once. After it was done, they took the whole carpentry crew and wives to one of the nicer restaurants in our area for dinner. HO bought many $100 bottles of wine and champagne.
Another HO threw a party for EVERYONE that had anything to do with the building of their home, right down to the carpet guys & well drillers. Had prime rib catered by the Outback Steakhouse.
A few others I can remember also had a party at their house after the completion of their project. Does really make a guy feel appreciated.
Hardwood flooring contractor I sub out to for some installs has donuts for us every morning at 9:30, plus buys lunch for the whole crew almost every day.
Mike
I'll be finishing up this job tomorrow.
He's been saying that he doesn't want me to leave, and making some comments about tieing me up in the basement.
I just wish that I'd have the same effect on the young, female customers.
Ummm, Shep...I'm just kinda figuring you might want to take someone else along tomorrow. Or a really big dog...And whatever you do, don't bend over while yer there....
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
got out in 1 piece today
without resorting to subterfuge or violins
but I had to promise I'd come back in a couple of weeks to do some more work
its tough being popular
I think if you respect the fact that you're in company of acquaintances first, the next step is a start of a friendship with the Ho. I've gained 10 or 20, okay, 30 pounds over the last 9 months, ready to give birth !! Gotta love the appreciative HO, pop, CAKE, beer, HAMBURGERS, it makes the job a lot nicer at the end of the day, and others on the street say what a fine job you're doin', just from word of mouth. I love this job.
GB
You gotta decide when you is just wasting time and when you is enjoying hospitality and when one crosses over to the other. But even the most pleasant hospitable person will appreciate it when yu say "well I gotta get back at it or things just ain't gonna get done"
Enjoy the hospitality though,and be tactful in refusing offers for coffee etc. No sense in beeing "bubba the boor"
There are indeed clients out there who wouldn't offer you the sweat off their cajones if you was dying of thirst . And that would be after taking the water from yer cooler to water their lawn!!!!
But all that sh*t just makes you appreciate the really nice clients, so when you find yerself in unpleasant surroundings, just make the best of it.
Just watch out for the pleasant wife with multiple "change orders" that ain't approved by the "contractual" husband. A dilemma which landed a buddy of mine inbtween the good and the bad, and the costs to him were ugly.....
Eric
in Calgary