Building your dream home

Your dream home. It will be beautiful. It will have every bell and whistle that you can think of. Your family will love living in it. Your friends will be envious. It will cost some good money, but it will be worth it when it is finished. To save some money, you will act as the general contractor. You can do it. People do it all of the time. And you will save money.

Building a home is like running a business. Anyone can make a stab at it, but not everyone can do it well. Talk to anyone that has had a home built and they will tell you that it took more work and planning than they thought it would.

Acting as a GC will save you money. Quite a bit in most cases. But, if you want your dream home built on budget and on schedule, you may want to consider hiring a professional to help you. That is where I come in. With over 25 years of homebuilding experience, a degree in Construction Management, and countless hours helping hombuilders to be, I can be your representative.

You can hire me to talk to your subs. Have me check their licenses, insurance and references. Let me talk specifics with them.  Let me and my team check their work in progress. Let me and my team make sure that you are getting what you pay for.

My rates are reasonable. Usually I can save you more than I cost. You will know my price going and it will not change.

Build your dream home. Save thousands acting as your own general contractor. Use me to get you there.

My 100th blog

I just realized that I wrote my 100th blog on AR this morning. Kind of cool. When I joined in March, i thought that I would give this thing a try, and see how it went. Kind of a test run of sorts. I have gotten leads and customers from my blogs on here. Almost all of them have told me that they like the way I lay myself out on the blogs. No beating around the bush. No political maneuvering. Just stories and essays that show what I am about as a person.

Thank you to all of my new customers.

Wrong answer

Anyone who has ever owned a real busines has done it before. After paying all of the bills and the employees, there is simply no money left. The owner gets zip. Been there done that.

Any parent knows the feeling. Buy diapers, formula, school clothes, baseball uniforms, cheerleading uniforms and then pay the bills for the month. No money left over.

Real situations. Real people. Time to suck it up for a bit. But not if you are a Congress person.

Right now, as Americans are driving less, in order to save money, the gas tax revenues are down. So what do the Democrats in Congess do? They want to raise gas taxes by 10 cents a gallon. That is their answer. I am beginning to think that raising taxes or fees is their only answer. Obviously certain things in our country cost money. That is a given. But instead of thinking like a socialist, those in Congress should try thinking like a business owner or a parent. Give something up. Cut something else out of the budget. Cut the fat.

If they need help cutting the fat, I bet a whole lot of us could help them. I am starting to think that their 9% approval rating from last week is going to get wiped out very soon.

The unthinkable

I had to do the unthinkable yesterday. Heading home from meeting with a client. I had been putting it off for a few days. I just wasn't ready to make the commitment. Well, I had no choice. Darn.

I pulled into my local gas station. Parked next to the pump, I got out, card in hand. Here we go. How much is this going to cost? I slid my card in the little reader, got the OK from my bank, and then... the prices came up on the screen. I know that the sign out front tells you the prices, but I never look until the pump tells me. A dumb habit, but the way I do it.

Wow! The price went down. Is that right. I select regular at $4.15 per gallon. Did they come down? I jump back in my car to check my last receipt. Yes! The price came down from $4.19 last week. Not exactly a huge deal, but better than nothing. I'll take it.

Did the gas prices come down all over the country, or just in my area or state? I have been real busy on a big custom home lately and have not paid any attention to the news. What is going on with oil and gas right now?

Twin Falls Airshow

Laying on my grandmas lawn and watching the jets fly over. My grandma lived right off the end of an Air Force Base runway, and on some days during the Vietnam War, fighter jets would fly over every couple of minutes. My friends and I would spend hours simply laying there and watching the jets. Like boys, we would talk about how cool it would be to fly one of them and how we were all going to be jet pilots some day. I think that our favorite part of the whole thing was when the pilots would kick in the afterburners right over us. We would wait for that. That sound, to a young boy, is so incredible, especially when coupled with the speed of the jet. Sometimes we would yell "Go" to the pilots as they flew by.

My family and I like to attend airshows whenever we can. We especially like to see the military demonstration teams when they are in our area. We argue over who is better, the USAF Thunderbirds or the Navy Blue Angels.

On July 26th and 27th, the Navy Blue Angels will be flying at the airshow in Twin Falls. For anyone within a few hours drive, this airshow will be spectacular. The organizers have put together a huge list of performers that will excite and amaze the audience. The show will be held at the Twin Falls airport and tickets are $15 per person. Gates open at 9  with flying starting at 11:30 both days.

Here is a link to the airshow website: http://www.ironpilotwb.com/adameday/index.php

This one will be a good one and if you have never seen the Blue Angels, you are in for a treat.

What have we done?

When my grandfather was 13 years old, he was asked by his parents to drop out of school. He had just graduated 8th grade, and it was time. His father told him it was time to start earning a living and make something out of himself. My grandfather got a job at a cattle ranch as a cowboy. His first summer of employment, and he was to ride on a cattle drive. The drive would take the cattle from the panhandle of Texas to western Kansas. The trip would be a long one, taking more than a month just to get to Kansas. The cowboys slept on the ground in cotton blankets. They ate hardtack and beans. They had coffee to drink. My grandfather ended up doing that drive twice that summer. The job he got hired to do was ending. My grandfather heard there was winter work up in Montana, so off he went, on his horse. In Montana he worked 6 days a week, from sunup to sundown. 13 years old.

Notice that my grandfather's father told him what to do. No mention of a 13 year old being owed anything by his parents. No mention of welfare or food stamps because he was only 13 years old. No mention of fair treatment at work. Work or starve. Be a man. Pride.

Both of my grandfathers came from desperate poverty. Both of them worked pretty much all of the time in their working life. 6 days a week and long hours. Both of them had very little education. Both of them wanted to become men. Men that took care of their families. Men that acted like men. Men that dressed like men. Men who worked hard.

What have we done as a country to our men? We have boys that want to be men. Boys who live at home until they are 30 years old. Boys who get their girlfriend pregnant and do not support her or the child. Boys who live with the mother of their child, and live off of her foodstamps. Boys who grow up without a father. Boys who call women derogatory names. Boys who think work is for fools. Boys who have been taught that they are owed something by society. Boys who were raised by single moms and have no clue what a man is supposed to do or be.

What have we done with our men?

It was there

A record fell this week. Actually it was crushed.

A guy named Tom (he does not want any publicity so no last name). Tom and I grew up together. Tom was a good athlete. A very good one who excelled at track in college. Like the rest of us, he got married, went to work and got softer around the middle. Nothing big, just a regular life.

One day, 15 years later, he is divorced and to make matters worse, he gets laid off. Tom is an eternal optimist. He is not a give up kind of guy. So, back to it. He starts dating again, and since no one will hire him, he starts his own business. Once again, nothing big, just a regular life.

He and his wife start backpacking in a certain area. They spend lots of time hiking the trails and climbing the peaks. They know the area really well. Every weekend they are backpacking in that area. For years.

One day Tom calls me and asks if I have ever heard of speedpacking. No I have not. He tells me about how these guys, using only a daypack, hike a couple of hundred miles in a very short time. They carry their clothes, bivy sack (a type of tent), and first aid stuff in the pack. They have helpers meet them at waystations with food. Some guys had set a very fast record for the trail that he and his wife hike. These same guys got all sorts of endorsements and a big article about them in a magazine. Tom is going to try and break the record.

5 years ago he set out to break it. Basically 50 miles a day for 5 days straight. I am to be one of his helpers bringing in food. On the fourth day he is a whole 20 hours ahead of the record. And then, something really devastating happens, Tom's knee goes out. It locks up to the point that he can no longer even bend his leg. He tries to limp on ahead for the last 17 miles but he cant make it. He crawled to the nearest road and got a ride to his destination. He laid in a hotel bathtub for 24 hours.

It took Tom a few months of physical therapy to be able to walk normally again. He started training again. He had to take off a year to help his mom care for his dad. His dad died from a brain tumor. His second wife got sick and died from breast cancer 3 years ago. 2 years ago Tom suffered a brain seizure and had amnesia for a few weeks. He all but lost his business.

Last month he calls me. We talk about old times, politics, the weather. Then he springs it on me: He is going for the record again. This time he will do it all alone. No helpers. No bivy sack. He will be carrying a heavier backpack. He asks if I will drop him off and pick him up. No problem. I drop him off. It is a straight 250 miles through absolute wilderness. The record has been broken a few times since his last attempt. He tells me the time to beat. See ya later. Oh, yeah, he says, pick me up in 4 days. That is well ahead of the record.

I pick him up on the appointed day. He looks pretty rough, but not too bad considering. I ask him if I am the only one who knows about this. No, his mom will also. No one else. I tell him he just creamed the record and maybe someone might want to know about it. He says that I can tell anyone I like, but do not give his name. He did not do it for that. He did not break the record for acclaim. I ask him if he did it for his dad or his wife. Nope.

"Kevin, it was there". End of the matter.

A simple test

Here is a little test, written by Dennis Prager, well known author and pundit. Take it and see how many you get. Hopefully everyone gets a zero, but I somehow doubt it. Add a few questions if you like.

Do you believe the following?

1.Standards for admissions to universities, fire departments, etc. should be lowered for people of color.
2.Bilingual education for children of immigrants, rather than immersion in English, is good for them and for America.
3.Murderers should never be put to death.
4.During the Cold War, America should have adopted a nuclear arms freeze.
5.Colleges should not allow ROTC programs.
6.It was wrong to wage war against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War.
7.Poor parents should not be allowed to have vouchers to send their children to private schools.
8.It is good that trial lawyers and teachers unions are the two biggest contributors to the Democratic Party.
9.Marriage should be redefined from male-female to any two people.
10.A married couple should not have more of a right to adopt a child than two men or two women.
11.The Boy Scouts should not be allowed to use parks or any other public places and should be prohibited from using churches and synagogues for their meetings.
12.The present high tax rates are good.
13.Speech codes on college campuses are good and American values are bad.
14.The Israelis and Palestinians are morally equivalent.
15.The United Nations is a moral force for good in the world, and therefore America should be subservient to it and such international institutions as a world court.
16.It is good that colleges have dropped hundreds of men's sports teams in order to meet gender-based quotas.
17.No abortions can be labeled immoral.
18.Restaurants should be prohibited by law from allowing customers to choose between a smoking and a non-smoking section.
19.High schools should make condoms available to students and teach them how to use them.
20.Racial profiling for terrorists is wrong -- a white American grandmother should as likely be searched as a Saudi young male.
21.Racism and poverty -- not a lack of fathers and a crisis of values -- are the primary causes of violent crime in the inner city.
22.It is wrong and unconstitutional for students to be told, "God bless you" at their graduation.
23.No culture is morally superior to any other.

Those are all liberal positions. How many of them do you hold?

Down our throats

Now I am convinced. I am sure of it. Liberals actually hope that the price of gas stays high. $4 per gallon is probably not high enough for them, but it is a start. My feelings or fact? It is pretty obvious.

The Dems in Congress just keep voting against us drilling in our own country. We are dependant on foreign countries for our oil and we cannot drill for our own. OPEC can basically decide how much to charge us for a barrel of oil. Saudi and it's friends probably love that. A lotta help there. 

Liberals and Dems love anything that hurts America. Oh, they act like that is not the case, but it is quite obvious to anyone paying attention. Lets not drill here in our own country where there is plenty. Lets keep telling everyone how we need alternative types of energy. OK, lets get some alternative types going. But, in the meantime, lets drill here. It is called good management or common sense. Lets just do it.

But no. Libs hate the idea of us getting off foreign oil. They want us all to give up one more of our freedoms. Why should we be allowed to drive around in our own car when some people cannot. It is just not fair that someone with a car can go wherever they want to, and when they want to, when someone else must wait for a bus to take them around town.

Mass transit seems to make them happy. We can all ride the bus or light rail when we need to go somewhere. We can pay higher taxes to sponsor these types of transit systems, and then, when we need to go somewhere, we can go wherever the route goes. What fun.

America is built on freedom. Freedom to go where one wants, when one wants. No waiting for some govt clerk to decide if our part of town needs a route. Americans will not go for it in the droves that liberals hope. And that is the problem.

Libs will attempt to push their idea of mass tranist on us very soon. The higher the price of gas goes, the happier they get. They will attempt to push their idiotic idea down our throats very soon. They are hoping that we all get fed up with high prices.

Lets all fight it at all costs. $5 per gallon is nothing compared to not being able to drive at will in your own automobile. Do not give in to the liberals on this one.

Mass transit will not help

Here in southern Idaho there is a plethora of SUV's and trucks. Most are full size. Most probably average around 15 mpg. Things are pretty spread out in our state as we still resemble a rural setting with some suburbs thrown in here and there. 20 miles over to town and 5 to the kids school. Add another 20 for church and errands on the weekends. The miles add up as do the gas prices.

We don't have mass transit in most of Idaho. There are no buses that run from the ranch back to town. The family that grows America's food does not have a bus or light rail running by their front door. Most folks here have designed their lives that way. A lot of us left the city,with it's mass transit and close proximity shopping, years ago. Mass transit will not work in most Idaho areas, nor is  it welcome.

The Democrats in Congress just kicked out the idea of drilling in our own country again. With one fell swoop they have told the American people that the rising price of gas does not matter. Let the price continue to go up they stated. Who cares?

Who should care is anyone that enjoys eating. With the rising price of gas comes the rising price of food. Growing food requires gas. Gas runs pumps for water. Gas runs tractors. Gas runs balers. Gas runs aerial spray aircraft. Gas runs trucks that deliver food. Gas runs cars that deliver the farmer's family to town. Gas.

While liberals tout the advantages of mass transit as a means to escape the high gas prices, the cost of food will rise. Food cannot be grown or delivered via mass transit. A light rail system can't help plant or harvest food. City busses cannot deliver fresh meat to the grocery store. City dwellers are going to be in trouble soon.

Here in the rural areas we can escape delivery costs as well as retail costs by simply driving out to the farm and picking up the food. If we need milk, we drive over to the dairy and get some. The same goes for beef, eggs, lamb, vegetables, etc. No need to go to a grocery store and pay $8 per pound for beef when we can get it for $2 per pound at the grower. Milk for $1.50 a gallon instead of $3 or $4. Good for us. Bad for others.

Liberals are all for high gas prices. Maybe we will all move back to midtown, wear the liberal uniform, go to coffee houses, and ride mass transit or bikes. I don't think so. The cost of living that way is too high. What mass transit saves in costs, food prices will more than eat up(no pun intended). City dwellers will soon learn.

Here in Idaho we will be OK. I believe most of rural America will be just fine. Rural folks are tougher than city folks. Just like Hank Williams so aptly stated " a country boy can survive". And survive we will. Unlike our city brethren.