I’m always curious how busy things are in different places. You may remember that I’ve asked this question a time or 2 in the past.
I’m absolutely buried in work. Typically, I have about 6 or 8 prints waiting for me to work on. When I left work last night I had 20. It’s been as high as 23.
My boss called me last week and asked me if I could take on some more work, as all the other designers are overloaded. I’ve been working 10 hours a day, and sometimes even Saturdays and Sundays.
Last week I lost a job for a friend of the family that I REALLY wanted to do. But I just couldn’t get to it quick enough. But I can’t do everything, and don’t plan to try. Sometimes I just gotta walk away from work and say the heck with it.
So how busy is it in other places? Any slow pockets? Or do the low interest rates have everybody jumping?
His ears made him look like a taxicab with both doors open. [Howard Hughes] (about Clark Gable)
Replies
Boss: I have never been out of work. I can only imagine what would happen if I hit the road and sold stairs...but then no one would be in the shop...:)
Ron
I gave three lumber yards around here here a full set of plans for the additions I'll be building on this old house (to do a material take off for costs). Costs me about a hundred bucks to each yard except for the yard I end up using. Its been over a month now and they keep telling me they'll be back to me in a cpl of days. What does that tell you?
I bid on a job I didn't really want or have the time for so I bid wayyyyyy high. Guess what? I got it, and that was after a week before they got back to me after probably getting other estimates.
I had to call my concrete guy half a dozen times before he set a date for me to have my footings poured.
Sparky was suppose to be here two days ago to fix a pool line the excavator f'd up...still haven't heard from him so I'm off to the electrical supply house to get the wire myself....ugh.
You should only see all the houses going up in my hood alone....I never saw so many contractor trucks in my entire life. One house just up the street thats being built is costing them 4mil just for the house alone. Really hard to concieve.
I'm sure those people that will be moving in will love driving down the street to see my old red house with the tipi on the hill...Bwahahahaha
Be bizy
andy
In his first interview since the stroke, Ram Dass, 66, spoke with great difficulty about how his brush with death has changed his ideas about aging, and how the recent loss of two old friends, Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, has convinced him that now, more than ever, is the time to ``Be Here Now.''
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Andy, probable first thing on their list of things to do after they move in......start bitching about the nasty man with his teepee on the hill.
Can't something be done about him? It's such an eyesore & it's just ruining the property values.
Joe H
I've never seen it like this....and I live in an area with an otherwise slow economy.
Personally, I've been working 6 and 7 days a week since April...I've got work scheduled out for the next year and have taken on 2 more full-time employees.
It's all good, I think, but Summer is nearly gone and I'm way behind on stuff at home.
I keep telling myself that, next year, things could go in the tank so strike while the iron's hot.
And a couple of the Mortgage banks I work with keep sending me referrals.
I think a little slower pace would be a relief! (But , in my case, I have no one to blame but myself...I have a hard time saying "NO!")
Steady here in the South Puget Sound area. We've been in a pretty severe local recession for the past 18 months or so because of the .com industry plateau and Boeing moving out, but lots of new homes as people continue to migrate west, then north.
Hoppin' like crazy here..
In Renton (WA) area, there are over 200 houses under construction at about 12 different size subdivisions within a mile of the house (sewer trunk was extended 2 years ago). Another 3-400 built in just the last year. Most about 3000 sq feet on 4000 sq ft lots, sell in the 350 - 500 K region. Get a letter or call nearly every week from realtors wanting a few acres (8 per acre allowed here now!, yuck - I can even see some from the back yard). 84 YO neighbor 2 doors up the street sold his 10 Ac. for $1.3 Mil - he'd bought for $350 and a chicken in 1934.
Expect a drastic crash when interest rates go back up.
Must be a worker shortage here, about 1/2 of the sites I go by have a Spanish radio station playing.
Central Kansas (Wichita area) is slow. We're very dependant on the aircraft business which is getting worse every day. A neighbor hired a large local builder to add a 2 car garage, they showed up with 8 guys to do the concrete and 4 for the garage, had it done in 3 days and wondered what they were going to do next week.
Boss,
Same thing here. We are swamped at work. Though I work in an industrial environment vs. construction. What's different this time around is all the work is contingent on it being done quickly. We have few jobs with 6 months to year delivery dates outside of military/aerospace/research. Most are 2-3 weeks. The work is plentiful, we are making good profit. Heck, I just got a $300 bonus for working 2hrs on a Sunday morning (2:00am - 4:00am. Unfortunately we can't hire new people because we don't know how long it will last.
Jon
side deviation (sorry Ron): Hows the marriage goin' Jon? Still happy? lol
a
In his first interview since the stroke, Ram Dass, 66, spoke with great difficulty about how his brush with death has changed his ideas about aging, and how the recent loss of two old friends, Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, has convinced him that now, more than ever, is the time to ``Be Here Now.''
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
"Hows the marriage goin' Jon? Still happy? lol"
Andy,
Fine, except.....The wife has informed me she went "off the pill" the day we got married. Boy they don't waste any time once they pass thirty do they? Told her no kids till the Chevelle is done. She said "Then you better get going on it."
I read some of your posts. I get the impression your project is under full swing. Have you figured out that digital camera yet? I think all here would like to see pics. Or I could just send my brother over to take some. lol.
Jon
yeh ya better send your brother over......lol
BE well
Andy
In his first interview since the stroke, Ram Dass, 66, spoke with great difficulty about how his brush with death has changed his ideas about aging, and how the recent loss of two old friends, Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, has convinced him that now, more than ever, is the time to ``Be Here Now.''
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Whew!
Let's just say that you're lucky I've got time to reply to this.
;)
I'm now working on design phase for one that will be a half million dollar restoration through this winter.
I took on a couple of other jobs for fill ins while waiting for electrical or other subs. I had five or six requests for my time last weekend and am getting together with only two of them. I returned a couple of calls this week to say soory already boked for the next year.
Excellence is its own reward!
Sounds like it's busy all over. I had no idea it would be so unanimous.
Usually we have a kind of a slump in August, but that sure hasn't happened this year.
Well, hang in there everybody, and don't let it get to you. Your kid may be an honor student, but YOU are still an idiot.
This time last year,
I was "laid off" for 3 weeks or so because we were so slow, no-one was working
Now: This is the first weekend in a month and half I haven't worked.
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic.
The whole first half of the year was slower than cold molassas for a lot of trades. Even into June and for some early July. Now, its like, when it rains, it pours. I dont know anyone cooling their heels. I'm buried, been working weekends, longer hours, fighting to find time to field calls, make more bids, type contracts. I have enough work at the moment that I could actually use employees, but I won't. If everything dies this winter again it wouldn't be fair to them. Things are blissfully busy, and to top it off, I just yesterday finished a job for a gal who is going down in the books as the absolute best homeowner ever. "The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
You all think your area is smoking you ought to see it here in Memphis new construction for my builders is at an all time high and on top of that the storm did damage to over 10000 homes. Then theres the tree work and stump grinding news says there is over 2000 workers from out of town just doing tree work and cleanup. I just learned that FEMA got 40 million for infrastructure damage and a bunch of these out of town guys are subcontracted by FEMA so they go from disaster to disaster. Met a guy in from Nashville with a 50000$ stump grinder who has already got a months work from 2 local tree companies. Man you should see this grinder it ground a 36" diameter tree stump in under 30 minutes including the roots it planes 2 " at a time amazing.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
I live five hours west of you on I40. I heard about the storm work and its been in the paper. They advertise in the Little Rock paper for help. Trouble is they are swamped too. Benton county is the second fastest growing county in the nation ! We are really busy ! This is the first weekend Ive been on here in a good while . Im enjoying the rest.
Tim Mooney
I'm in the Antipodes and have never seen it like this in over 25 years of construction. Am getting blokes walking onto the site off the street wanting houses built. Not asking price, just when can you do it.
quittintime
Busy as I want to be, boarder line to busy, been trying to simi retire all year not making any progress in that department. Raised prices, said no, tried leaving for a few months, work still keeps piling up.