Looks like I am losing my Audioholics status

[ParadigmDawg]

Damn. I was hoping less drinking wouldn't be on that list...

I was too man, I was too....

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Impressive no doubt. Bear in mind Jim Fixx was 52 when he died of a heart attack. Pete Maravich was 40 when he died of an unknown heart problem. Fab Melo, former Syracuse/NBA player passed away at 26 of what is believed to be heart related issues. My former boss, slender, active tennis player, died in his 40's from lung cancer. Guy never smoked and was fastidious about what he ate and how much.

Point is the numbers are good but there are additional diagnostic tests that can be performed to look at your vascular system, heart, etc. even genetic testing.

You don't go around in life looking for trouble. Might as well just hide in a basement and watch movies and listen to music.....

Chances are, either a tree takes me out while mountain biking or a car does while road biking....

 

[highfigh]

I actually want to gain 5 lbs back at this point as I don't have much "reserve" when I am on the bike.

Looking for a donor?

What is most responsible for your weight loss, in your opinion? I do far less during Winter and even though this was a mild one, that didn't stop inertia from setting in. When you ride, do you mainly ride for cardio and endurance, or do you warm up, ride at varying speeds/levels of effort and then mix bursts of balls out pedaling, to make people think you're either insane or trying to escape something?

 

[highfigh]

Impressive no doubt. Bear in mind Jim Fixx was 52 when he died of a heart attack. Pete Maravich was 40 when he died of an unknown heart problem. Fab Melo, former Syracuse/NBA player passed away at 26 of what is believed to be heart related issues. My former boss, slender, active tennis player, died in his 40's from lung cancer. Guy never smoked and was fastidious about what he ate and how much.

Point is the numbers are good but there are additional diagnostic tests that can be performed to look at your vascular system, heart, etc. even genetic testing.

Fix and Maravich both had inherited the heart issues that killed them, IIRC. Your boss may have been exposed to a lot of smoke throughout his life or maybe it was from chemicals. Unfortunately, it's too hard to pinpoint a single cause for some things that end up killing us.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Looking for a donor?

What is most responsible for your weight loss, in your opinion? I do far less during Winter and even though this was a mild one, that didn't stop inertia from setting in. When you ride, do you mainly ride for cardio and endurance, or do you warm up, ride at varying speeds/levels of effort and then mix bursts of balls out pedaling, to make people think you're either insane or trying to escape something?

Low carb diet is likely 70% of it.

I ride for fun and take the the added benefit of gaining cardio and fitness as collateral damage. That being said, I would say I do a lot of unstructured interval type of training as that is just what mountain biking is. On the road I mainly ride with my wife which are longer, easier rides. I do always throw in a 20 minute TT or some above threshold burst during these rides though.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Looks like we have picked out most of our material for the remodel. We have 2 bids in and I am looking for one more company for a bid and then will choose one. I am allowing $40k for her to do what she wants.

I gave her 30K for the pool and $50K later, it was complete....

 

[KEW]

Low carb diet is likely 70% of it.

I would second that. No magic secret, just reduce carbs and get enough exercise to burn off the fat.
I find that if I totally eliminate bread/carbs from my diet for two days, I no longer have hunger cravings (unless I am truly in need of food) which makes it a whole lot easier to sustain. I guess that is the effect of lowering the Glycemic Index.

 

[highfigh]

You guys aren't telling me what I want to hear!!!!!!!

 

[herbu]

Looks like we have picked out most of our material for the remodel. We have 2 bids in and I am looking for one more company for a bid and then will choose one.

I suggest extreme vetting when picking a company. We went by ratings/reviews in Home Advisor, BBB, Yelp & Google. Still, our experience has been a nightmare.

If there is a next time, I'll:
1) Pick a company with an established brick & morter presence.
2) Pick a company w/ their own trucks/vans with their company name/logo painted on them.
3) Actually meet the crew & foreman that will be doing my job.

Both the flooring and painting companies we hired are family owned w/ a lot of great reviews. But the workers showed up with their families for helpers and spoke very little English. Communication was extremely difficult and caused a host of problems. The workers did only what their boss had earlier instructed them, even when their direction was not what we had agreed with the owner.

I could go on and on. It was a mess... and 6 weeks later is still not completely done. I would have gladly paid more for better companies.

 

[Alex2507]

If there is a next time, I'll:
1) Pick a company with an established brick & morter presence.
2) Pick a company w/ their own trucks/vans with their company name/logo painted on them.
3) Actually meet the crew & foreman that will be doing my job.

Invite the foreman and crew over for a cookout with an open bar. That's the best way to find out what kind of people they are. Also be prepared to not only pay for the work but also for all the other stuff you want that company to have ... plus you might also be paying for the owners boat, somebody is.

Nobody has to worry about Greg paying too much and not getting enough.

 

[herbu]

Invite the foreman and crew over for a cookout with an open bar.

Ha! That's funny. I cooked a whole ribeye, ("Prime Rib"), on the smoker for our workers. I don't remember exactly, but seems it cost about $200. Got tater salad, slaw, rolls, the whole nine yards.

The prime rib was perfectly cooked medium rare. It would rival the best restaurants... even better. But when I started serving, everybody kinda turned up their nose at it. Nobody ate much at all. Later, after talking to the boss, I learned Mexicans don't generally like pink/red meat. They cook beef well done and consider our medium-rare to be raw. So that was a waste.

Another time I stopped at a Mexican food truck that is always crowded with Mexican workers. I bought lunches for the whole crew at the house and brought it to them. That was about $100. They ate it, but nobody said thank you, and nobody even smiled or seemed happy for the food. In fact, they seemed displeased. I don't know what was going on there.

So no more. I don't feed workers at the house any more. Period.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I am a pretty nice guy but I don't treat people I hire like they are my friends. I only deal with the Project Manager on issues and when I call, he has to be there.

My wife took an ice chest full of water and cokes when the guys first started building our pool. I told her that they can buy and bring there own drinks so I pulled it back in the house.

When I saw something I didn't like I would call the PM and he would quickly call whomever he had onsite, as the manager, if he wasn't there and then that person would come to me and tell me he had corrected whatever it was and then the PM would call and follow back up.

On both the pool build and outdoor kitchen, I learned how much cash on the side worked and paid the onsite guy cash to add size or items to the projects with no extra costs outside the small amounts of cash.

I am having a couple of more companies bid on the project but the first company that came out will likely get the job. He is a custom home builder and he will have his PM run the job and the insurance and all payments will go to him. Oh...and he is a friend of mine.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

The more we think about it, the more we feel like our approach maybe wrong. It's possible that what we are really doing is more of just a facelift vs a remodel and we have the wrong companies bidding it.

There are 7 steps in what we want to do and tile work and flooring make up the majority of it. Each General Contractor, that has come out, seem to speculate that "their" floor guys will complete most of the work. We are starting to think that we may not even need a GC and so far we have not been impressed on their knowledge around flooring.

Below is our project outline, would you take a look and see if it makes sense on what type of company to hire?


Fireplace

1. Bring to ceiling with stacked stone veneer

2. No hearth

3. No mantel

Stacked stone on bar wall

Built in AV cabinet

Bar Area

1. Barn door

2. Upper glass front cabinets

3. Lower cabinets with wine cooler

4. New granite

5. Electric outlet above granite

Floors

1. Stain and hand scrape hardwoods or replace current hardwoods
2. Bring into bedroom
3. Tile kitchen and two bathrooms

Backsplash

1. Kitchen

2. Bar

Shower remodel in guest bathroom

1. Tile shower
2. Frameless glass
3. Bronze Fixtures

 

[panteragstk]

IMHO I would get individual bids for each trade. Good cabinet guys will know good counter top guys. Good tile guys will know good glass guys. Either of those would know decent electricians, plumbers.

All a GC is for is making sure there aren't scheduling conflicts and that each trade has what they need when they need it. (of course that is in this instance only, gotta have a GC for the really big projects).

So if you don't mind getting the scheduling done and getting multiple bids per trade then you may save money doing away with the GC. Heck, each of those guys probably use some of the same companies anyway.

The upside of a good GC is that they might be able to get you a better deal on certain things since they know people. It's hard to tell one way or another. The main thing to do is if you go with someone, try to see some of their finished work and customer accounts of their work. Very important.

 

[highfigh]

Ha! That's funny. I cooked a whole ribeye, ("Prime Rib"), on the smoker for our workers. I don't remember exactly, but seems it cost about $200. Got tater salad, slaw, rolls, the whole nine yards.

The prime rib was perfectly cooked medium rare. It would rival the best restaurants... even better. But when I started serving, everybody kinda turned up their nose at it. Nobody ate much at all. Later, after talking to the boss, I learned Mexicans don't generally like pink/red meat. They cook beef well done and consider our medium-rare to be raw. So that was a waste.

Another time I stopped at a Mexican food truck that is always crowded with Mexican workers. I bought lunches for the whole crew at the house and brought it to them. That was about $100. They ate it, but nobody said thank you, and nobody even smiled or seemed happy for the food. In fact, they seemed displeased. I don't know what was going on there.

So no more. I don't feed workers at the house any more. Period.

To paraphrase Rajesh on The Big Bang Theory, "Mexican food is what Mexicans call 'food'".

I have eaten Mexican food at many places where the people making it were Mexican, most of the people eating it were Mexican, the owners are Mexican and I thought I had a pretty good handle on what's good, what's not. A friend owns an upholstery shop and when we were talking about where to go for lunch, my friend and I mentioned a few of the places we like here. One of the guys who works for him, who's Mexican, turned his nose up at all of them. The main place he goes to is in an area that's almost 100% Latino and the only reason I might have a problem going there is due to the fact that I'm very rusty speaking the language and the fact that what they taught us is far from the way it's spoken. I could probably muddle through ordering lunch, but I could end up with something different from what I thought I ordered.

You could always tell them ahead of time that you'll buy lunch on a particular day and ask what they want. A friend in PHX had a building put up and he made sure to have cases of bottled water and snacks. I don't remember if he bought lunch, but he may have had a food truck stop by.

 

[rojo]

The more we think about it, the more we feel like our approach maybe wrong. It's possible that what we are really doing is more of just a facelift vs a remodel and we have the wrong companies bidding it.

There are 7 steps in what we want to do and tile work and flooring make up the majority of it. Each General Contractor, that has come out, seem to speculate that "their" floor guys will complete most of the work. We are starting to think that we may not even need a GC and so far we have not been impressed on their knowledge around flooring.

Below is our project outline, would you take a look and see if it makes sense on what type of company to hire?


Fireplace

1. Bring to ceiling with stacked stone veneer

2. No hearth

3. No mantel

Stacked stone on bar wall

Built in AV cabinet

Bar Area

1. Barn door

2. Upper glass front cabinets

3. Lower cabinets with wine cooler

4. New granite

5. Electric outlet above granite

Floors

1. Stain and hand scrape hardwoods or replace current hardwoods
2. Bring into bedroom
3. Tile kitchen and two bathrooms

Backsplash

1. Kitchen

2. Bar

Shower remodel in guest bathroom

1. Tile shower
2. Frameless glass
3. Bronze Fixtures

Wonder whether there'd be a way to get a TV network to do a show in your house? Check the casting websites for HGTV and DIY Network. I have no idea where you are, but maybe you're in an area where Love It Or List It will be shooting. That'd be amazing, and you certainly wouldn't have to worry about the quality of the work.

 

[panteragstk]

Wonder whether there'd be a way to get a TV network to do a show in your house? Check the casting websites for HGTV and DIY Network. I have no idea where you are, but maybe you're in an area where Love It Or List It will be shooting. That'd be amazing, and you certainly wouldn't have to worry about the quality of the work.

No clue how much merit this has, but apparently Love it or list it isn't all that great.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

IMHO I would get individual bids for each trade. Good cabinet guys will know good counter top guys. Good tile guys will know good glass guys. Either of those would know decent electricians, plumbers.

All a GC is for is making sure there aren't scheduling conflicts and that each trade has what they need when they need it. (of course that is in this instance only, gotta have a GC for the really big projects).

So if you don't mind getting the scheduling done and getting multiple bids per trade then you may save money doing away with the GC. Heck, each of those guys probably use some of the same companies anyway.

The upside of a good GC is that they might be able to get you a better deal on certain things since they know people. It's hard to tell one way or another. The main thing to do is if you go with someone, try to see some of their finished work and customer accounts of their work. Very important.

After getting several bids from GCs and individuals I think I just lucked out. The rep representing the company with the best reputation for hardwoods and tile, in my area, just came by for our appointment. Turns out we grew up in the same town, played ball for the same team and know the same people. He was actually kind of me 20 years ago. He knows all the other people I need and he will do the flooring and bathroom remodel. We talked a lot about diets and how to stop smoking since he is needing both and I just happen to be an expert at both.

When he left he promised no one would beat the pricing he will work out for me and since it's his family's company, I think he can do that. He will have pricing to me by tomorrow.

I have enjoyed learning about all this stuff so far. It is a nice change.

 

[panteragstk]

After getting several bids from GCs and individuals I think I just lucked out. The rep representing the company with the best reputation for hardwoods and tile, in my area, just came by for our appointment. Turns out we grew up in the same town, played ball for the same team and know the same people. He was actually kind of me 20 years ago. He knows all the other people I need and he will do the flooring and bathroom remodel. We talked a lot about diets and how to stop smoking since he is needing both and I just happen to be an expert at both.

When he left he promised no one would beat the pricing he will work out for me and since it's his family's company, I think he can do that. He will have pricing to me by tomorrow.

I have enjoyed learning about all this stuff so far. It is a nice change.

Hope it works out. Those types are the best connections to make. Someone that will actually care is the best you can hope for.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Hope it works out. Those types are the best connections to make. Someone that will actually care is the best you can hope for.

I tend to always luck out in life. Well, except with the Lotto.....