Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Concrete Guys

We've been talking for months about buying a hot tub.  We've talked to almost every company in Las Vegas; we still don't know what we want but know we need to get a proper pad for it so it's time to talk to the concrete guys.  There are still several companies in the valley who will do concrete.  That's the good news.  Which one to choose is the tough part! 

We took some yellow string and outlined the area.  Then, since we are having concrete guys out, we outlined a new seating area.  We looked at it and looked at it.  The string is becoming hard to see it is so faded!  We changed it several times; finally, just yesterday, we started calling the concrete guys.  Business isn't to pressing these days so we've gotten 4 bids in two days.  The tough part is that even with them coming out and measuring things our estimates vary from $1800 to $3500.  Hmmmm.  One time I read that when selecting a bottle of wine from a wine list you shouldn't buy the cheapest but the third cheapest would be a 'best buy'.  Using that theory I imagine one of the two guys in the middle will get the job but we'll see.  Next we have to get the electrician out to run a 240V line to the hot tub pad.  We are discussing a 120V to the seating area on the simple theory that 'as long as he is here'.

It's been kind of cool here but not bad.  We have started walking in the afternoon; not too far but 35-40 minutes.  It's good for us and good for the dog.  Haven't had any rain in a very long time but it's not that way everywhere.  My wife's family all live up in Washington state.  They are getting a snowstorm of fantastic proportions - the reporters are calling in 'Snowmageddon'.  We lived in the area for a long time.  They don't get enough snow in most years for anyone to know how to drive in the stuff.  I can't imagine how locked up the place is going to be.  It's crazy too.  Here's an article on making snow chains for your bike!  Glad that's not in my future.

I got all wild and crazy today and downloaded a new version of Firefox, a new version of Adobe Reader AND a new version of RealPlayer.  I can't see much difference actually but I'm hopeful.  I was about 5 versions back on all three softwares. 

Gotta go.  Have a good one!

2 comments:

Croft said...

You're a wild and crazy guy, Don! I like your idea if picking the 3rd cheapest bid. Our son has a fencing business and seldom is he the lowest bidder but he gets lots of work so obviously many people think like you!

Governments always take the lowest bid and see what happened to them!

JoeinVegas said...

Yes, a wild and crazy guy downloading software like crazy.