Adventures in landscaping

[mrblaine]

My landscaping consists of pulling weeds, raking leaves, spraying weeds, and moving some dirt around. Painter shows up with brother who just got let go from his landscaping job. I perk right up when I hear that and ask him if he would rather do that than help his brother paint. Sure.

Alright, pull all the weeds in the cactus garden and then we'll start moving dirt over behind the wall. He pulls the weeds perfectly, then spend 3 days moving 6" of dirt around like he has never seen a shovel or a rake.

Okay, well maybe he can trim the pomegranate tree/bush. Mat, can you trim trees? Sure. Okay, go trim that tree right there, stand at the trunk and trim it as high as you can reach all directions except below horizontal. (by this time I'm not so sure he won't cut the whole thing down if I don't tell him not to) He gets done and he has hacked off all the branches except for a few stragglers. WTF? Never mind, don't touch it.

Can you spray weeds? Sure. Load up the sprayer with dye and weed killer tell him where to spray and about an hour later I don't see him so I go check on him. He is walking down from the upper area with an empty sprayer that had 2 1/2 gallons in it. Mat, what all have you done with that much. Oh, just the upper area. Mat, that area has 4 square feet of weeds and takes about 1 pint of weed killer. I didn't want to miss any. Alright, move over to the other side of the creek. See all those dead weeds on the bank? I already sprayed those, just do the area above and don't get any in the creek. You want me to spray the dead ones again? Mat, how much more dead do you want them to be?

 

[CaliSteve]

you made the right choice with him not painting

 

[JMT]

You seem to have an affinity for these people, or these are most people. Try handing him a paintbrush and see what happens

 

[Chris]

Damn... what's really going on down there in California?

 

[Byhumba]

"Mat, can you build a shed?" "Sure"
Give him the wood, a high power saw, a nail gun, and a ladder. I'll wait for an update.

 

[Chris]

"Mat, can you build a shed?" "Sure"
Give him the wood, a high power saw, a nail gun, and a ladder. I'll wait for an update.

"What happened to all the nails I gave you, that should have been enough for the entire project?"

"Well I just wanted to make sure this stud was extra secure!".

 

[CaliSteve]

keep him away from the "jeep" area

 

[mrblaine]

You seem to have an affinity for these people, or these are most people. Try handing him a paintbrush and see what happens

I didn't hire him to paint and any painting he would have done would have been under the supervision of his brother who I did hire. Brother is an excellent painter but doing it as a side gig means the other brother shows up and works when the painter is at his normal job. Between the two of them, they managed to use 5+ gallons of high quality Sherwin Williams paint in 1 moderate size living room. 5 walls, or 1 gallon per wall.

I told them to make sure they box the paint. I go get the last gallon, I guess helper thought box meant to add a 1/4 of a can of water to 1/8 of a can of paint because it was useless.

 

[mrblaine]

"What happened to all the nails I gave you, that should have been enough for the entire project?"

"Well I just wanted to make sure this stud was extra secure!".

No, I had a helper doing construction just like this guy before. Came around the corner where we were putting up plywood for shear panel and he has a handful of nails. All the ones with the heads on the end towards him he is tossing on the ground. Ask him what's up and he says the heads are on the wrong end of the nails. I told him to just save them for when we get on the other side of the building.

 

[JMT]

On the hired labor note, did you find some black flooring that Kat likes?

I hope you don't have the same fiasco with the laying of that.

 

[someguysjeep]

some people are a few fries short of a happy meal.

the other day i saw an engineer at work sitting propped up on a 3" thick book..........on top of an adjustable stool.

and just today some kid from engineering asked me if i have 1 of those L things. i said L thing ? he says ya the thing that tells you if stuffs straight. i say, you mean a square? he says ya the big L thing.

sometimes i wonder how these folks make it through life.

 

[mrblaine]

On the hired labor note, did you find some black flooring that Kat likes?

Yes and no. I wound up using that stuff I had in my cart at HD. It was the only thing we could find in a reasonable amount of time that sort of fit the bill.

I hope you don't have the same fiasco with the laying of that.

Not at all since I'm a tile setter from way back. Not a fan of large format tiles and black grout that isn't. Other than that, no issues.

The colors may appear to be a bit of an odd mix until you see the reason for them. A good friend gave us a picture for Christmas that he took of the California Poppies in bloom.

The towels are the exact same orange of the poppies. The pic doesn't show it that way, but it is. The ceiling is the exact same blue as the sky in the picture. Arriving soon is the vanity. It has a black solid surface counter top with a bright white underhung sink.

 

[JMT]

Yes and no. I wound up using that stuff I had in my cart at HD. It was the only thing we could find in a reasonable amount of time that sort of fit the bill.
View attachment 139686

Not at all since I'm a tile setter from way back. Not a fan of large format tiles and black grout that isn't. Other than that, no issues.

The colors may appear to be a bit of an odd mix until you see the reason for them. A good friend gave us a picture for Christmas that he took of the California Poppies in bloom. View attachment 139687

The towels are the exact same orange of the poppies. The pic doesn't show it that way, but it is. The ceiling is the exact same blue as the sky in the picture. Arriving soon is the vanity. It has a black solid surface counter top with a bright white underhung sink.

The colors really make the poppies pop! Nice accentuation. Floor looks good. Looks like a good portion of the house under remodel.

I went next door today at the behest of my neighbor. He needed to move his refrigerator out of the kitchen so some darling Genevieve and his wife could demolition the tile. The guy, poor soul, had no clue. He was trying to remove the refrigerator doors to get it out of a tight space when all he needed to do was remove the handles with a hex key. I just took over, but he was like, what are you doing, trying to peek in and get a look at every little totally simple thing I was doing. I guess some people just have no inclination toward DIY fixing stuff. He was literally amazed at how easy the door handles came off. Like a kid on Xmas morning.

 

[mrblaine]

In situations like this, it might be worth considering hiring professional Landscape Designers who have the expertise to handle projects like yours. They can offer a tailored design plan, expert advice, and can ensure that the project is completed efficiently and to a high standard.

Guessing you fully missed the part where my landscaping consists of making it look slightly better than a 3rd world shithole.

 

[Apparition]

Guessing you fully missed the part where my landscaping consists of making it look slightly better than a 3rd world shithole.

I was hoping you got it all sorted out over the last three years.

 

[L J]

I was hoping you got it all sorted out over the last three years.

I'm just amazed that those two AI bots have developed an interest in mrblaine's adventures in landscaping.

 

[sab]

Good grief, Charlie Brown. If that's AI, I think we're all safe, for now.