Nice looking project iimig. I haven't posted in a while, but am happy to say a hotel job we've been courting for a while just came through. Electricians will pull all of our wire and we will install speakers, amps and controllers throughout a fair sized hotel.

In this economy, a large commercial project is just what the doctor ordered. It will keep the two of us busy for the next two years. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to afford a car with air conditioning made in this century.

Cheers,

What didn't you understand, he's getting an assistant on 12-12-12. Congrats Paul, it'll change your life.

My daughter has been awesome, she was 2 1/2 when I put my crestron system in, I was pulling some cresnet and she was sitting on the box saying "I'm pulling wire with daddy". When I put racks together she helps with the drill. Now with a son who knows, it should be fun.

My main issue is that I feel badly that I work as much as I do, then add to the fact that I drive 2 hours a day on top of it. But when I work as much as I have been recently I can give them a better life. Better school, college fund, they never have to hear about money being an issue.

I'll figure it out.

Congrats Dave that is awesome! enjoy every second of it!

This job was yesterday, i wish i could have gotten more pictures but these are what i did get. I wish this looked as involved as it was, on the surface it looks easy but man was this a hell of a job. this house has had many many additions so when you think your home free with a wire pull there was something else in the way that we had to fish around

I was at my last whit before i was going to tell customer that we had to cut holes/patch when i tried one last time and did the last pull out of pure luck.

Samsung 60" 7100 LEON Horizon LCR, Rears & Velodyne Mini VEE, Marantz NR1603. This job was supposed to get their new A8-400 subwoofer but the customer decided it wasnt worth the wait, house gets closed up in a few weeks to go off to another one of their houses for the winter.

two access holes were covered by a plywood spacer board trimed out on the edges and painted satin black to accommodate the depth of the sound-bar. Customer was ADAMIT about the height of the TV

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Hey Dave, hopefully our sons will find careers in something other than our field of work :)

I was thinking about this the other day.  My father owned a business the entire time I grew up and I didn't have any interest in it at all.  When he was ready to retire he sold it.  I wonder if my son will be interested in what I do? 

That was the old school way - have kids and raise them to work on your farm. Cheap labour! Things are much different now I think....too many options as to what to do. In a decade and a half who knows what jobs will be available?

My grandfather was an entrepreneur and home builder. He passed away when I was very young and I never got to know him, but I've always been interested in building things. Growing up, I had a really bad addiction to LEGO and building custom stuff, forget the instructions. I still have a collection of stuff I built on a shelf. Went to university, did a few degrees worth of stuff I'm not using and came back to what I love....construction and building.

The labour market is very interesting. I'll speak to Toronto, I don't know how it is anywhere else, but there is so much competition for white collar jobs here that I know many very qualified people struggling to get into the workforce or to get a new job after being downsized, etc. The smart and entrepreneurial blue collar trades people are making money hand over fist. I don't want to devalue education, but skilled trades seems so much more relevant right now than desk jobs.

I went to a funeral for one of my good friends 17 yr old son today.  Last week on Sunday, him and his friend Jake went missing. (Jourdan was 17, Jake was 18).  We found their bodies in a vacant field on Detroits east side last Friday. They were killed execution style with bullets to the back of the head. 

The details of what exactly happened are still unclear, but these were good kids.

So, I spent the day at a 17 yr olds funeral. It really got me to thinking while I was there, and since you guys are talking about having kids yourself, I figured I'd share.  

When my oldest son was born, for the first 5 years of his life, I barely saw him because I worked so much.  I felt like I needed to do it to support my family.  I worked 6 days a week, often 7, from the time I woke up til the time I went to bed.  

I had alot of guilt because by the time my son was 6 years old, I barely knew him.  One day I woke up and said, I'm no longer working weekends.  I need family time.  I didn't know how it would impact my business, but I was willing to give up any job that needed to be done on Saturday.  I told my wife, If Jesus H. Christ calls for an installation, I'm not doing it.

Fortunately, I can say that not working on weekends hasn't affected my business at all.  If you tell people that you're not available on the weekends, a funny thing happens, they make themselves available on the weekdays.

Learn a lesson from me, and unfortunately my friend.  Life is too short to work it away. Nobody has ever written "This guy hung a great TV" on their tombstome.  Make sure you spend time with your children.  You never know how much time you have with them. 

I could not agree more.

As i sit here my daughter just texted me from the bedside of her ex-boyfriend who just passed moments ago from a car accident. Was not wearing his seat belt..........

I have a lot of guilt from running my shop when my kids were young, a big part of why I closed it and went to work for the man.

Do not miss the time i had coaching my daughters in their sports and what not.

Folks you never know, and its time you cannot get back

Steady work for the next couple of years "aint too shabby" (grandmas favorite saying).

totally agree, nothing is more important then Family. Nothing in this industry or any other is worth putting family second. Sometimes we feel like we need to work 24/7 to support them financially but we often forget that the most important support is being their physically.

I dont have a girlfriend, kids or anything but seeing how im working now there is no way i could have a girlfriend much less a family because like you; I am working from the time i wake up to the time i go to sleep and im not going to do this for the rest of my life, because of this im going back to college for night classes to finish my degree.

so in 3 years my business will be for sale if anyone wants first dibs :)

Dont forget your families guys!

Hasbeen,
sorry to hear those kids where friends of yours. Some of these things that happen now days is incomprehensible. I too feel like I work too much and have been making adjustments similar too yours. I have made time for my daughter but I can always make more.

Hasbeen, so sorry for the loss, I couldn't imagine something that tragic happening to any kid, the family must be crushed.

Life is too short and you are correct, there are a lot of things that can be bought, seeing the little things that my daughter has done every day that make me smile is not one of them.

I made the decision at a friends funeral last year that weekends were better spent at home than at work, (aside from the occasional consultation), but I don't do installs on the weekend. I feel guilty enough working until 6:30 at night, but I do spend most mornings getting kids ready, my wife is home before me typically, she gets the afternoons.

I think how my father barely knows me, my father in law knows me better, I want to do better with my kids.

Also sorry for the loss.
As to family, I now have 25 years with my wife (and they all said that it would not last). That however does not stop you from putting business before family, to quell my disconnect with my wife I have started leaving my cell phone in the car when we go to dinner (several times a week).
Just after Infocomm my wife let me get my "Mid Life Crisis" a new Miata.
Pretty much every night since then she and I have gone out for a drink (well I drink water), dinner (Groupon, gotta love it) or just a nice drive up the coast.
We should have done this years ago, we have done more together in the last 2 months than the last 10 years.
Guys even if you have to stretch the budget get something for both of you, it really does make a difference.

Interesting how this has come up.

After two years of barely having enough work to cover the bare bones living expenses (and mine are very, very modest), we now have a pretty full plate.
When you have been starving for a while and somebody puts a buffet in front of you, you gorge yourself. I have been doing just that. Late nights, weekends, taking anything I could get.

The other night I spent 45 minutes on the phone trying to talk a client through a failed software update on a display he didn't buy from us. I was standing in the driveway at my Grandfather's house while everybody else was inside celebrating his 87th birthday. He is in failing health and may not have much time left with us.

Priorities.... Mine had gotten skewed. Work to live, don't live to work.

Hasbeen,

What a terrible thing. My prayers are with you and this family.

I had a little fun at work today.  We installed a few zones of Sonos and a small 3.1 system with Monitor Audio soundframes and a Denon AVR.  Somebody asked me awhile back to post some pics of the soundframes in another post and I forgot, so here ya go.  I really like these speakers.  The center isn't a soundframe, but another monitor center that is sitting in the cabinet below the TV. 



When I cut the wall open I was a little concerned about that cross member, but the speaker fit in no problem.