Hick, the Not-So-Accommodating Taskmaster

Hick has been working on Pony House Monday thru Thursday, then spending Friday thru Sunday at his Storage Unit Store. He works on some projects alone, but uses HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) to help with jobs requiring help. 

 

Hick pays HOS by the job, same as he would any other hired help, even though HOS has said that Hick doesn't have to pay him. Hick considers how long the job should take, then decides how much he will pay per hour. He won't actually pay helpers by the hour, because he's incensed when they take breaks or look at their phone several times an hour. Hick might be a giver in other ways, but he is NOT in the habit of being charitable where payment for work is involved.

THURSDAY, Hick and HOS tore the siding off the back wall of Pony House (the back of the master bathroom area), and put up boards to replace it. More on that another day, with pictures.

"I give HOS the money, and he said, 'This is too much.' I told him, 'Okay, over the weekend, just do the rest of the siding [back wall of Bathroom 2] and mow the yard. That's fair.'"

On FRIDAY, Hick went by Pony House in the evening, and was waiting for a tree service man to show up. He sent me a text at 5:29 p.m.

"HE AIN'T DONE NOTHIN'!"

"You said for him to do it over the weekend! It's barely been 24 hours!"

"Well, on Thursday, HOS went home around noon to go get his grinder. The nails in the siding were all rusty, and we could do it faster by grinding off the nail heads. THEN he said he was grabbing some lunch. He was gone 45 MINUTES!"

"Um. I don't think that's unreasonable. People are entitled to a lunch break. And he was getting the grinder, too."

"I didn't have no lunch."

"That's your decision. Normal people have lunch. So it's only been a day, and you think HOS should have mowed the yard and torn the siding off the other side of the house. That's not reasonable."

"Well. I HOPE he does it."

"You said before that you weren't paying until after the job was done. So that's on you."

Sometimes Hick has unreasonable expectations.

One and Done, This Ain't Much Fun, But a Single COIN is Better Than None

I think you've heard this song before. Only ONE penny this week for Val's Future Pennyillionaire Fortune! One penny is better than no pennies. I'll gladly pick up any cent I see, of course with the hopes that it won't be the last one that week.

WEDNESDAY, September 8, I stopped by the Backroad's Casey's to get two Cash4Life draw tickets for The Pony. As I was waiting for the gal to scan the two winners he gave me, I spied a penny waiting for me.

 

I'm tellin' ya, it takes a skilled penny-hunter to capture even one penny every week. Did you see it? It's lurking in the shadows.

 

So lurky that it did not photograph well. Couldn't be the picture-taker's skills, of course... 

It was a face-down 2020 penny, all shiny and eager to join my collection.

That's 1 COIN this week, for 1 CENT added to Val's Future Pennyillionaire Fortune.

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2021 RUNNING TOTAL

Penny       # 91.
Dime         still at 11.
Nickel       still at 4.
Quarter    still at 5.

2020 TOTALS
Penny     134
Dime        25
Nickel      10
Quarter      1
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Wheelin' and Dealin' With Pony House Hick: Windows

Hick found a bargain in Pony House equipment. He found it on Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, around 8:30, when he had talked about making a trip to the city to look at windows, and I asked if he couldn't find windows from random guys on Facebook like he did the cabinets. He snatched up his phone and started shopping.

"Here's some that could work. If this guy will ever send me a message."

"Um. It's SATURDAY NIGHT of LABOR DAY WEEKEND. Most people probably have plans right now. It's not like you would go shopping for windows at this hour anyway."

"No. But I can go meet him tomorrow after I close up my Storage Unit Store, and have them for Monday so I can put them in."

"Whatever. I was only suggesting. I didn't know you needed them this very minute."

Huh. I guess the Facebook guy is like Hick, without a life. They agreed to meet on the south side of the city before 4:00 on Sunday. Hick left with the intention of buying 4 windows, which were close enough to the dimensions he needed. He can trim around them if they're a little small, but doesn't want them too big so he has to cut out more wall and siding.

Hick returned with 6 windows and 1 door, for a price tag of $150. That's $20 per window, and $30 for the door. It's a metal door. Nothing fancy about the windows, but I DO like the door. Here they are, posed in Pony House, awaiting installation.

 

Nice reflection of Hick's legs, heh, heh. 

 

I'm pretty sure he put them in the master bedroom for pictures, but not sure where they will all be installed in the house.

 

That pic didn't turn out so well, but I think it might be in the living room, since I see SilverRedO in the front yard, and that's a big window already there. I'm guessing these might be bathroom windows, or for over the kitchen sink.

 

Hick says this will be the back door, because it's too big for the front door opening, which I think he said is a 32-inch door. I don't remember if this one is 34 or 36.

Are you ready for this? Hick already installed the new back door. All it took was a little trimming around the frame:

 

Hick likes seeing some tangible progress. He darts from one project to another. Pony House is taking shape.

Similar to the Gift of a $3 Pink Change Purse

Back in July, I found a new treat at Save A Lot. I wrote about it on my super-secret blog. Hick and I thought those crunchy cotton-candy-flavored balls were delicious!

 

The Pony tried one. He was not a fan. That's okay. More for us! They didn't last long anyway!

When Hick and The Pony were shopping for toilets and showers and sinks in Menard's on Wednesday, they walked by a shelf that caught The Pony's eye.

 

 

 

When The Pony showed them to me, I was excited. I thought maybe they tasted like Cocoa Puffs cereal. Or maybe like those marshmallows with toasted coconut coating. Such a HUGE tub! Three times the size of my cotton candy crunchy snacks.

Anyhoo... as they walked by the Menard's shelf with these snacks, The Pony said:

 

"Oh, Dad. I bet Mom would really like these!"

"Yeah. For sure. Get her some. She can give them to Jack and Juno."

The Pony was a bit baffled. Why would they buy me snacks, only to have me give them to Jack and Juno? Then he turned the tub around and saw the label:

 

Gotta admit, I was disappointed! Jack and Juno love them. Neighbor dog Copper Jack, too.

I, myself, have not tried my new treats...

Pony House: Bathroom 2, the Bones

Hick was originally planning a half-bath for Bedroom 2, and a full bath for the rest of the house, taking up a section of the living room. The more he looked at the windowed area off  Bedroom 2, where he'd intended to make a closet/half bath, he thought he could fit in a shower as well.

I only have a couple of pictures, since I didn't walk into that room on my original tour.

 

This picture is taken across the enclosed back porch, leaning out the doorway with my back to the master bathroom, beside the future utility room. You can see the window that will remain in Bathroom 2. Hick plans for a toilet under that window, a corner shower by the framed wall and back wall, and a sink on the wall that's against the bedroom.

Here's the other view, across Bedroom 2:

 

I agree that a full bathroom is a better option for Bedroom 2 than a closet/half bath combo. Anybody living in that room will not have to traipse out to the main living area to bathe, but can have their own private shower. Not that The Pony is planning on a roommate, but for future rental or resale scenarios.

Today, Hick and The Pony are meeting for lunch, and browsing through Lowe's or Menard's afterwards, to measure jetted bathtubs and showers, and discuss prices and The Pony's preferences. 

Hick is chomping at the bit (The Pony, not so much) to get "his people" into Pony House to check out heating and cooling options, and drywall estimates. As soon as he's sure of where the walls are going for sure, Hick will finish the wiring. He's already been fiddling with the windows, and needs some assistance with the back wall, since HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) has come down with a concussion, and is not currently available.

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Current Floor Plan for Pony House:

Pony House: Bedroom 2, the Bones

The second bedroom of Pony House is at the back right side of the house. On the other side of the kitchen wall. Hick will be closing off that opening, and you will enter Bedroom 2 through a short hallway, off the passageway from the living room to the back door.

 

Here is Bedroom 2 as you stand in the kitchen, looking through the current doorway that will become a wall with the refrigerator on it. In the back right is a room that will become Bathroom 2. Straight across is an opening that will be closed up as a wall. Behind that opening will be the closed-in back porch.

 

Still looking into Bedroom 2 from the kitchen, you can see the framing of its doorway on the left. Straight across, in that corner, will be a closet that runs along to the doorway. Again, that other opening to the back porch will be a wall.

 

Here is the doorway to Bedroom 2. The furnace will be closed off in a utility room, with a short hall leading to this doorway. This view is standing in the area where there will be a half-bath, in the passageway between the living room and back door. Bedroom 2 has a nice big window.

Tomorrow, a couple photos of Bathroom 2.

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Current floor plan for Pony House

We're Cookin' Now!

Okay, we're not literally cooking now. But we DO have the equipment to allow The Pony to cook, once he moves into Pony House.

Nothing fancy. Just a functioning stove, in basic white. Hick got it on Friday. Oh, he didn't buy it at a store! Hick didn't buy that stove at all. He got it for free. Because he's Hick.

He has connections.

 

Here it is, sitting in a storage unit. The Pony's new used stove. Or, as Hick said with the picture he sent me:

"Got free kitchen stive today really clean"

That's a fine-looking FREE "stive" if I do say so myself. It was given to Hick by Back-Creek Neighbor Bev, who has moved from the property behind us, and is now moving again from her new property. I guess she's tired of hauling her stove around.

 

The Pony is fine with it. He says it looks like the stove he had in his college apartment.

Anyhoo... you can't get a better price than FREE. Although Hick might Tom-Sawyer his way into having people pay him to take things soon.