My mom who is almost 91 recently had a mini-stroke. She’s always been an active person with Church, regular card games, domino’s games, outings and helping others. But, the COVID crisis shut down much of her social activities. Nonetheless, she is fine now and getting back to moving and shaking.
I have been encouraging her for some time to get rid of her bathtub in lieu of a walk-in shower. So we were going to get quotes. Because I am in Florida and she is in Pennsylvania, we had an appointment with a contractor which had me virtually connected to the appointment between my mom and the contractor at her house and me on line.
I thought the basic walk-in shower she needed would price out at about 6 thousand with a max of 3K for materials and done in a day. The contractor came in at 16.5K! They were trying to get a surgeon’s hourly wage per hour of work. Screw that! After I got off the virtual meeting, the contractor badgered her for an hour before she could get them out of her house. After that, she didn’t want to do any more quotes, so I knew at that point that I would have to do it myself.
In the meantime, my daughter’s boyfriend lost his job in Ashville NC. He had followed her there during my daughter’s graduate education to be a Physician’s assistant. She still has a year and a half to go. He had bought a house during the recent housing craze. So I was thinking how I could help them.
On my way to Harrisburg, PA to help my mom, I stopped in Ashville. I had ordered the brake pads from Rockauto.com (usually very good auto parts prices) and had them delivered to Ashville. Then, I changed all four of her brake pads on her 2004 Explorer for just $30. I told her boyfriend that I would change all his pads on the way back from Harrisburg if he just ordered the pads.
After a short stay in Ashville, I continued up to Harrisburg to do my mom’s walk-in shower (pictures attached). My brother-in-law helped me do the work. The final bill, without imputed labor, was only $2,120.89. The contractors who do this type of work are reaming people and many don’t even know it.
I next hung new green board in my brother-in-law’s cabin in Northeastern PA.
I returned to Ashville to change my daughter’s boyfriend’s brakes. He’s a finance guy too.
After returning to Jacksonville, my youngest son graduated from FSU and I had to get his car running. His car hadn’t been working for a year and a half. It had to be moved from his house in Tallahassee since his lease was up. After several day’s I fixed it and it ran like a charm back to Jacksonville.
Finally, when I arrived back at home, my upstairs A/C unit needed fixed. I fixed it myself yesterday.
It’s been a long Fix and Repair Tour 2022. I am glad each repair was a success. Today is Sunday – the day of rest. Aaahhh…
Don’t ever let people tell you what you can or can’t do. You are your only limiting factor. While I am an finance executive, I am proud to be a well-rounded person skilled in many areas. Mostly, I like the savings that has been going to individual stocks for over 30 years.
Be smart, be well-read, be aware and be successful.
