Dirrrrrrrrty

[palmer_kun]

Work today was... interesting. It was RIGHT next to the subsidized housing complex I lived in both when I was young, and when I was 18-20. It was interesting being back in the old neighbourhood, even if I didn't get to gawk much.

With On Side Restoration again. This time it was for fire. A house was gutted by fire, and all the contents were written off. We were the first ones on the site... our job order said to trash all the remaining contents - homeowner had salvaged everything they could already.

The fire damage was extensive, and TONS got trashed by the fire. The two living rooms (up and downstairs) had (roughly) 52 inch widescreen projection TVs. Every other bedroom had a TV... 6 more in total. All trash. Sofas, lovely handcrafted wood furniture, candles (they had TONS of candles), clocks, movies, mirrors, computers, clothing, you name it. All garbage.

So... I show up at 8 as told. Boss man shows up at 8:30. After getting lost and driving past the house 3 times. Admittedly, the numbers on the house were very small and hard to see.

Before we could work, we needed a garbage bin and/or dump truck to put shit in. We called for both, and got them at the same time.

2 hours later.

So yeah, I got to sit on my ass for 2 hours reading and get paid for it!

Then we got to work. Hauled out all manner of stuff. Bossman worked upstairs, and threw stuff out the window into the bin that was in the driveway. Not too bad for him. Abel and I got to cart stuff out to the dump truck downstairs instead. We made good progress and got about a third or so of the shit out of the downstairs. Considering we booked off at 3, we only actually did 4 hours of actual work (and got paid for 7, woo!) so I was pleased with our progress.

Asked back for tomorrow to finish up, will be going. Yay work.

Work was FILTHY though. Soot on everything... and it got THROUGH my gloves. Despite wearing them all day, my hands were black as night by the end of it. Arms were worse though. Showered when I got home... it took FIVE scrub-n-rinse jobs before the water stopped washing away gray. Yeech.

All in all, a pretty good day. I'm hungry now.

Comments

[sunlit-mists.livejournal.com]

Makes you realize why home insurance is worthwhile, because we never really look at what we would lose. Even if you have nothing of high $ value, just try adding up the replacement cost of what you do have. You would be amazed and what it adds up to. We did it here, and came in around $80k.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, having worked restoration now, I know it all too well.
The cost of the restoration work alone is staggering, and the time frame involved is huge.

The place I was in, the guy estimated it would likely be close to a year before they could move in again. But then again, they're basically going to completely rebuild the house, save the outside walls (which were brick).

Even a simple flood job will often take 2 months. The labour cost alone involved in a 2 month job... figure these guys are making $30k a year, so $15 an hour. You have about 4 guys on site any given day... so $60 an hour, 40 hours a week, for 9 weeks. That's about $22k in labour costs alone, not to mention fuel, equipment, materials, dump fees and more. Plus profit of course. And rent for somewhere to live those 2 months.

Oh yeah. Insurance matters.

[glowing-dragon.livejournal.com]

If I die of the laughing disease tonight, it's ALL YOUR FAULT! :P

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Huh? You confuse me...

[glowing-dragon.livejournal.com]

Wow, what great turn-around time! Might as well submit this baby to the record books!

(let's just say I thought a certain part of your post was SO AMUSING, I've been cracking up here for like ten minutes straight :P)

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

What part?

[glowing-dragon.livejournal.com]

I was afraid you were going to ask that.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

So just tell me

[glowing-dragon.livejournal.com]

1. I read the title, and then imagined you as Christina Aguilera. (although I imagine she wouldn't let a squillion layers of soot get CLOSE to her!)

2. Showers. Enough said. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
(if you REALLY want to know why I laugh like a gibbering monkey at the mention of showers.... you know how to reach me, since I haven't closed that method of communication!)

[surrey-sucks.livejournal.com]

Were you reading a good book?

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

A novelization of an American adaptation of a Japanese cartoon series that aired in the mid-80s I grew up with.

It's not exactly high-brow literature, but it's fun brain candy and a lovely blast of nostalgia.

All in all, it's plain good fun, which is what I read for.

[lynzydee.livejournal.com]

boo

sitting around for two hours getting paid to read? not fair!

:p

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I got to do it again the next day too!

But not friday.