Category: House

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Blue Collar Cost, Revisited

Market conditions drive pricing. I mean, I’m not an economist, but I feel confident in making this statement. So when I dropped a chunk of change on a water heater replacement/installation last year, I didn’t think much of the exorbitant price. They have the skill set, and while I could probably figure it out myself, I would have had to have contended with numerous auxiliary activities beyond the unit itself: draining, plumbing, water, gas, disposal, permits, etc.. Skills and convenience are why contractors exist, but you pay more, obviously. This is why I had calculated the Blue Collar Cost, to set this expectation:

Blue Collar Cost

I had landed on a price expectation of:

Estimated Materials Cost * Materials Upcharge * Labor Cost = Final Cost

And where Materials Upcharge = 1.45

And where Labor Cost = 4

Using this, I could predict the cost of a professional solution and compare that to what I was willing to learn and attempt on my own. If the final cost of the professional route didn’t invoke vomiting and weeping on my part, then I’d entertain the idea. It has proven to be somewhat reliable.

So when the water heater needed immediate attention, I made an assumption that the cost was in alignment with this formula (due to a lack of puking and weeping), and so I didn’t shop around. But recently I researched the cost of the unit, out of curiosity, and came to the sudden realization that my calculations were out of date, and more in my favor. Pre-COVID, labor costs appear to have been much higher, and despite the years of companies justifying price hikes due to “supply chain issues”, the product markups have dropped as well. Here are the new coefficients:

Materials Upcharge = 1.34

Labor Cost = 2

I admit, I am surprised. It leaves me to ponder the reasoning. Maybe the labor pool in trades has increased in the last 7 years due to skyrocketing tuition, driving down wages. Maybe COVID beefed up factory production and supply chains in response to the disruptions. Maybe more trades business have opened shop, increasing competition. There’s certainly a litany of speculation that I could dive into, but for now, I’m just happy that the skilled labor and appliances I need are dropping in price.

Cf​=Cm​Um​Cl​

–Simon

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Generators and The World of Tomorrow

One day I’ll have a whole house generator. I’m thinking one of those automatic devices that runs off the natural gas line and engages itself when the power goes out. Or maybe I’ll have battery banks installed. And maybe satellite internet. Because our wired infrastructure here at Easement Acres is getting increasingly unreliable.

Lights Out

Some of it may be due to hurricanes. Or, most recently, because a friggin truck snagged the power line and ripped the utility pole down. Of course, whenever it’s windy the power flickers in and out, too. And when it’s hot out. Or if someone walking through the neighborhood gives off bad vibes. The power goes out with with an annoyingly increasing frequency, is my point.

Then I stumbled upon something rather obvious in retrospect: companies that make battery-powered tools also make power inverters for their own batteries. So like, I can plug an AC device into the battery. Duh. Seems obvious now.

So when the power went out due to the aforementioned truck incident, I was able to power a nice bright table lamp in the kitchen and continue drinking without interruption, while charging phones in the process. But unfortunately it was limited to one battery, which didn’t generate enough total wattage output to power the garage door opener. That in itself wasn’t a major problem. It’s always the refrigerator that poses the most immediate concern. Based on past experience, I can get up to 6 hours before it reaches unsafe temperatures…if no one opens it and it’s already at ideal temperature.

But then this came to my attention:

If anyone here’s played any of the Fallout games, I think you can agree that this totally looks like a generator from that franchise. Or one of the many fusion batteries seen hooked up to mobile equipment scattered throughout the DC metro. It even has that green nuclear glow, which I’m sure was intentional designing by the manufacturer. I’ll admit, it looks cool. And it can power the refrigerator, for quite a while it seems. Idle, the power usage estimate was a couple days. When the compressor kicked it, it dropped to 12-18 hours, which is still impressive. So I’m guessing that as the fridge cycles on and off, this would give us about a day with my mixmatched set of amp-hour batteries. I’d buy some 12AH batteries, but they cost as much as the inverter itself. We’ll see where my needs take me.

It’s impressive what modern battery technology can do. It brings promises of The World of Tomorrow, but unfortunately I’m currently having to use it for more of the Fallout-type scenarios.

–Simon

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Deck Lattice

Today’s entry for boring project announcement is the installation of deck lattice! Yay!

I didn’t post about this, but the deck had been recently painted. Originally the goal was to strip and re-stain the deck, which Liz contracted out due to the time and effort investment which was lacking in-house. But project companies and their sub-contractors never seem to get along. For some reason, there’s always a disconnect between the 22 year-old blonde marketing major who promises everything in a job quote, and the grizzled old Mexican migrant workers who actually do the work. Becky may have some experience in stripping, but I’d guess it’s of a different type.

In the end, Liz settled for paint instead of stain. But not after a lengthy back and forth discussion to confirm colors and timing and price adjustments. Were the goal to only paint, that would have remained in-house. We should have canceled outright on principle, but this wasn’t my project. In the end, Becky got her pay day, and we got an overpriced paint job. But it does look nice, I’ll admit.

The final stage, which we did not outsource, was the lattice. The original lattice was that cedar stuff commonly sold for cheap at every hardware store. 10 years of removal and re-installation for each deck staining had left them in a sorry state. They also wouldn’t match the new paint without painting of their own. Not worth the effort. So we replaced them with vinyl.

Just one more improvement to Easement Acres. I don’t anticipate them keeping the groundhogs out, but maybe the skunks will be deterred.

–Simon

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More Foliage!

Southwest Ohio is naturally a woodland. Suburbia fights this for what I gather are a few reasons: 1) Trees make mowing more difficult, 2) Tall canopy trees don’t make much in the way of pretty flowers, 3) Homeowners are paranoid about falling branches, 4) Trees interfere with utilities, 5) Trees create yard waste. 6) Trees shade out grass. Etc., etc….

But they’re a natural aesthetic and blocker of the merciless summertime UV death rays! So I will continue working with nature for the perks, instead of focusing on the negatives. I also want to expand the hosta patch, and that requires more shade. So I present to you, the Japanese maple:

Okay, maybe it’s not a true native, but neither are the honeysuckle. It’ll work. I speak for the trees, dammit!

–Simon

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A Couple Garden Photos

Just that – some photos:

A purdy clematis on the back trellis.
That stupid mulberry the neighbor wouldn’t cut down before his wife kicked him out is fruiting now. Bird crap inbound.
Followed by Zone Rouge, 2025 edition.

–Simon