As many of you know, I retired in January of 2016 at the grand old age of 50. First the first time in more than 20 years I wasn't working 70+ hours a week. For about 14 months I felt like I was in heaven. I did what I wanted when I wanted. In my ample spare spare time I made and peddled pickles until the flood washed everything away.
But, as they say, all good things come to an end. By March of this year I had run out of things to do. Also, a great friend went back to work after having been off for neck surgery due to a duty related injury. I was at his house hanging out with him around the end of June the day before he was to return to work. He had just finished rehabbing his home due to the flood. His neighbor who I had met when he would come over was always complaining about his subcontractors who were working on his house came over once again all pi$$ed off.
So this time I offered to walk over to his house and see what was wrong. When we walked through I found that none of his doors closed properly They looked like they were installed by Helen Keller. Same with the baseboards, door transoms and many other things. I pointed these things out and what would need to be done to correct them (I grew up doing carpentry). After about 30 minutes he asked me how much I would charge him to fix it. I told him way more than he wanted to spend.
Long story short, I spent the next 5 weeks ripping out every piece of baseboard and door trim in his house and removing the 6 cases of caulk the hatchet man used to fill the 1/2" gaps he left in the moulding joints. I also reset every door. About 2 weeks in, he pissed me off so bad I started picking up my tools and told him I was was done with them because he & his wife were wasting my time with conflicting instructions. In the end, we altered our agreement to be an all or none proposition.
I enjoyed working so much, especially as my own boss, I've decided to go back into residential construction. Earlier this week I picked up a flooring store as a client. Monday I start putting down the flooring in their showroom. Assuming all goes well, I'll start doing installs for their flooring clients.
When I finish that job, I should be starting another job pulling up 2000 sq ft of 3/4" x 3.5" nail down tongue and oak flooring, de-nailing it, repairing the sub-floor, nailing it back down, sanding it and refinishing it.
After that, I have another flood home that I have to rip out all the doors, trim and baseboard because the previous contractor did a crappy job.
Yesterday, I interviewed two potential hires.
Looks I'm officially retired from being retired.