"Call Some Guy!" It Depends

I've not posted since August because of other writing gigs and deadlines, as well as some much-needed DIY work. 

I've written here, a decade ago, about the fallacy of self-sufficiency; even Thoreau had his mom bring him pies. I love pie. That fact does not diminish Thoreau's genius at Walden.

Instead of rugged individualism, I side with self-reliance. Two recent projects demonstrated when you need a professional, as well as when professionals are feeding you a load of expensive hogwash.

When I Did It Myself

Our HVAC firm, which I will not name, told us that our system at the rental property needed over $1500 in upgrades. Alternately, we might buy a new $20,000 system. Easy financing! This is how these firms suck in folks without DIY skills. This company used to be small, but as they got bigger and bigger, they appear to have become greedy and corporate.

The upgrades included $500 for a UV light to kill mold (which I could not find), new pipe insulation, and a $1000 fan motor on the outside unit. Mind you, the rental is owned by (thanks to my nephew Mike Ryan) "Uncle Cheapass." I told the HVAC firm "um, let me look into this" and found out that I could replace the fan motor for $90 myself. Amazon had a replacement to my door in a few days.

 

My philosophy on repairs is simple: if it is something that might kill me, I "call some guy." The AC unit could fry me like a fritter, but it's easy to turn off the current, so I did. And though I sheared off a cheap Chinese bolt-head while replacing the motor, my years of experience in breaking things paid off. In half an hour, including travel time, I had a threaded stainless-steel rod to replace the sheared bolt, from right down the street at Pleasants Hardware. Cost for the rod and a bunch of stainless fasteners? $10. I put the motor in, checking the wires from the old motor carefully before reconnecting anything. 

Guess what? the HVAC system ran like a champ when reconnected. $900 bucks saved. And the insulation the HVAC firm quoted me? I can do that for $10, instead of $150.

Uncle Cheapass!

When I Call Some Guy

My brother-in-law Joe and I have felled some huge trees. He's good at it and the earth shakes when the tree falls, right where Joe wants it.

A dying 60' Red Cedar, however, was another matter. it was on a steep slope between two farm buildings! It had been in decline for several years, when a Davey-Tree arborist told us to remove it before the fungal disease it carried infected our other huge cedars.

Joe needs cedar for making fence boards at his beach place, and he owns a saw mill. Despite that motivation, in his usual taciturn manner he said "gonna be tough" as he inspected the tree. I envisioned felling the tree onto a building, so I answered "I got a guy who does great work" and called Braxton that day.

Braxton has forestry training. I met him when helping a friend cut up a giant red oak. We chatted over a fence and I got his card. Since then he's done a few jobs for me. For the cedar, he gave us a tremendous estimate: $800 to fell the tree, plus trim up a Maple and fell 3 dead Hemlocks in our power lines. He can climb with a saw, something I would never do. 

The catch for most homeowners? I'd cut up the fallen trees, after Braxton got them into 8' logs. No worries for my big-dog Husqvarna saw, after nearly 30 years running a chainsaw. 

Braxton even got me a face cord of seasoned White Oak in exchange for an old boat trailer that he's going to convert to a log trailer for his firewood business. I think I found another Distributist Tractorpunk. 

The brush on the ground? Joe owns a highway-department-grade wood chipper (let the Fargo jokes run wild, you betcha) that we'd use on limbs and other brush. He'd get the cedar logs. The Hemlock would go in the wood stove. 

I have heeded the lessons learned since 2012, when this adventure began. One can be self-reliant to a point. But when death might be the option? Call some guy!  

Know your limits, but when it comes to home repairs, be wary of big-company estimates. I was talking cars with a dude in Pleasants the other day. His brother owns a perfect Pontiac GTO (a Holy Grail for me). The guy owns a small HVAC firm. I'm in the market for a new, smaller firm to do our annual maintenance. I may not get a GTO out of the deal, but I may get some honesty about repairs.