Community Chat

[PINKdogWOOD]

@RealtyGal2  You hit the nail on the head - and you understand what this saying means!

I'm am of the same gen as you. Our's and our parents and their parents back to the start of time used what we all have to do things for ourselves - our hands and our minds. To learn to do things we must use our hands and our minds and do perform over and over and over until we get, understand it, learn how it works and then learn how to do it better and better and yet better until our work is perfect.

Our fathers learned trades from their fathers, our sons from their fathers. Hand trades - that still needs the mind to work with - is what built this land. There seems to be so few who care about or want to learn hand trades they are all becoming dying arts. It's very hit and miss in tradesmen and women with what kind of expertise, love of their work, pride hence quality we end up these days.

@panda1234

[PINKdogWOOD]

Well, @IMW  apartment living has it's ups and downs too as you well know. Things go wrong in apt living too, things break. You still contact someone to contact a workman who needs into  your place to fix something. It all takes time and someone who may or may not do the very best job.

[handygal2]

What bothers me most is the high cost of every home repair and improvement. The sky's the limit, and the prices keep escalating.

And you get unreliable service and shoddy work anyway.  

[chiclet]

I started this thread not realizing how depressing it would be...We were in Home Depot yesterday to pick up some things we needed and I told my husband every young man and woman should attend all their classes on how to do things.  Also there are some very informative videos on you tube.  You no longer have to depend on the father to teach the sons how to do things.  Knowing how to install gutters or build a deck or do plumbing could all be learned and since you cannot depend on anyone else anymore or afford them, you better learn to do stuff. My husband was always able to do most things and if he did not he was willing to learn but now he is old and sickly and we are at the mercy of others.

[Hayfield]

I guess I've been lucky since anytime we've had workers in our house to do work, they've done a great job.  When we put the house on the market we had a wonderful contractor that my realtor uses.  He had crews that did everything and did it for a reasonable price and did it fast.  We had our bathroom redone and the tile man did a wonderful job and they always cleaned up after themselves.  Home Depot installed our carpet upstairs and again, did a great job.  When we moved down to NC from VA recently the packers that came worked so hard and the ones that unloaded us down in NC had to bring our stuff into an apartment on the second floor and it was hot and they worked very hard, and not one piece of furniture or anything else had any damage.  When we had our windows installed in our other house, again, a very hard working crew and they did a great job installing the windows.  I always use people that come highly recommended from other friends and/or work associates.  A good friend is using the same window company I used and she's thrilled.  We're having a house built right now in NC and again, the crews appear to be working very hard and appear, so far, to be doing a good job.  I'm looking for a cabinet maker down here now and again, asking people, looking for recommendations of someone who does good work.  I

[RainCityWoman]

No pride in workmanship and probably no pride in any job they do for themselves as well. "Good enough" is the motto.

[Elri]

There is no pride in doing a good job anymore, it seems -- no matter what that job is.  My friends and I took pride in any job we did.  And our jobs weren't at the top of the food chain.

I often observe how hard some checkout clerks work.  But it is so frustrating to watch the ones who are are visibly bored and quite lackadaisical about their performances.

Message to them:  Your attitude counts.  And your job, while not what you dreamed of, is a learning experience. 

Or, when someone would complain about their job, my husband would always say:  "That's why the call it WORK."