SeaCat
Hey, my Halo is smoking
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2003
- Posts
- 15,378
This morning I got a call from my friend who haas a house sitting service. She told me she had a small job for me. She wanted a Garbage Disposal replaced. (She had the new one.) Hell for $50.00 I was more than willing to help her out.
I showed up at her place with my tool box in the back of the car, then followed heer to the house in question. When we got there I could just stand there and look for a minute. The place was huge.
We went in through the "side" entrance and I was directed to the kitchen. The home owner looked on in distaste as I wheeled my overgrown toolbox through his mausoleum of a place. (The entire place was white, including the rugs.)
It took me all of half an hour to replace the disposal, and I was polite. I kept my cursing to a quiet rumble and made sure to do so in German.
When I was done he mentioned to my friend a couple of other little problems he was having. The first was a light fixture that was coming down from the ceiling in a closet and the other was an electrical problem. I shrugged and took a look at the light fixture. My friend had a ladder in heer truck that would reach the ceiling so I started in on it. (I have to state here that even though I was a Fire Fighter for a lot of years I still hate ladders.) The ceiling in this closet was 18 feet up. It took me 20 minutes and I had completely remounted the light in such a manner that it will never come down. (The ceiling had gotten wet from an A/C leak above it and the toggle bolts had pulled through. I made sure the leak had been fixed then placed a sheet of plywood across the joists before putting much longer toggle bolts in.) I then asked him about the electrical problem and he told me not to worry about it, he had inquired about a technician coming in to look at his Hot Water Heater.
I told him that was fine but that I could take a quick loo at it for him and he could then give the tech. a little information. He led me into the back room while telling me how they had lost all hot water recently. The first thing I did was unplug the heater and grab my back up Multi-meter. (A cheapo someone gave me years ago. It works but not well.) I checked the heater and found that everything was working as it should be so I turned to the plug. Aha, I was reading nothing here. I had the guy show me the Circuit box and everything was turned on. This gave me a good idea what the problem was and I told him so. He asked if I thought I could fix it and I told him I knew I could.
I shut off the circuit breaker and had my wife stand next to the box so no one could turn the breaker back on. I then opened up the socket and wasn't amazed at what I found. Everything was corroded. I asked my friend to drive to the nearest hardware store and get me a new socket while I worked on the wiring. To make it short I replaced the socket and redid the wiring a bit. It took me maybe half an hour and the home owner had his hot water heater back. Now comes the fun part.
He had called the Tech. back and canceled him, while asking him how much he would have charged. He also called around to plumbers and electricians and ased them how much they would charge for the work I had done. Their bills, which would have included a new light fixture and a new Hot Water Heater came to well over $1k. When he asked me how much he owed me I told him the amount my friend and I had agreed on, $100. He looked at me in shock and asked why so low. I told him I was doing the work to help out my friend. He looked at me in shock then wrote out two checks for me. (He has a contract with her.) The first check was for the $100.00 I normaly charge. The other was for $400.00. (He stated that this was for being honorable.) He also wrote my friend a check for $1k, a bit of a bonus for her.
Hey I'm happy. I helped someone out and I got a bit of green to boot. (Not to mention my friend got a nice bonus, which will help her as the housewatch is how she makes her money. Plus the guy promised to talk her up with his friends which may give her more bussiness.)
Cat
This gives me a bit more green to spend on family this holiday and I may even have a bit left over for my bike fund.
I showed up at her place with my tool box in the back of the car, then followed heer to the house in question. When we got there I could just stand there and look for a minute. The place was huge.
We went in through the "side" entrance and I was directed to the kitchen. The home owner looked on in distaste as I wheeled my overgrown toolbox through his mausoleum of a place. (The entire place was white, including the rugs.)
It took me all of half an hour to replace the disposal, and I was polite. I kept my cursing to a quiet rumble and made sure to do so in German.
When I was done he mentioned to my friend a couple of other little problems he was having. The first was a light fixture that was coming down from the ceiling in a closet and the other was an electrical problem. I shrugged and took a look at the light fixture. My friend had a ladder in heer truck that would reach the ceiling so I started in on it. (I have to state here that even though I was a Fire Fighter for a lot of years I still hate ladders.) The ceiling in this closet was 18 feet up. It took me 20 minutes and I had completely remounted the light in such a manner that it will never come down. (The ceiling had gotten wet from an A/C leak above it and the toggle bolts had pulled through. I made sure the leak had been fixed then placed a sheet of plywood across the joists before putting much longer toggle bolts in.) I then asked him about the electrical problem and he told me not to worry about it, he had inquired about a technician coming in to look at his Hot Water Heater.
I told him that was fine but that I could take a quick loo at it for him and he could then give the tech. a little information. He led me into the back room while telling me how they had lost all hot water recently. The first thing I did was unplug the heater and grab my back up Multi-meter. (A cheapo someone gave me years ago. It works but not well.) I checked the heater and found that everything was working as it should be so I turned to the plug. Aha, I was reading nothing here. I had the guy show me the Circuit box and everything was turned on. This gave me a good idea what the problem was and I told him so. He asked if I thought I could fix it and I told him I knew I could.
I shut off the circuit breaker and had my wife stand next to the box so no one could turn the breaker back on. I then opened up the socket and wasn't amazed at what I found. Everything was corroded. I asked my friend to drive to the nearest hardware store and get me a new socket while I worked on the wiring. To make it short I replaced the socket and redid the wiring a bit. It took me maybe half an hour and the home owner had his hot water heater back. Now comes the fun part.
He had called the Tech. back and canceled him, while asking him how much he would have charged. He also called around to plumbers and electricians and ased them how much they would charge for the work I had done. Their bills, which would have included a new light fixture and a new Hot Water Heater came to well over $1k. When he asked me how much he owed me I told him the amount my friend and I had agreed on, $100. He looked at me in shock and asked why so low. I told him I was doing the work to help out my friend. He looked at me in shock then wrote out two checks for me. (He has a contract with her.) The first check was for the $100.00 I normaly charge. The other was for $400.00. (He stated that this was for being honorable.) He also wrote my friend a check for $1k, a bit of a bonus for her.
Hey I'm happy. I helped someone out and I got a bit of green to boot. (Not to mention my friend got a nice bonus, which will help her as the housewatch is how she makes her money. Plus the guy promised to talk her up with his friends which may give her more bussiness.)
Cat
This gives me a bit more green to spend on family this holiday and I may even have a bit left over for my bike fund.
