Chris

Dreamchasers,
A general contractor and a life enthusiast.

[Chris @Wilski405]

I fuck with turning fabric scraps into something useful, sewing is a good skill to have

[Ministry of Textiles @TexMinIndia]

Before you discard it, rethink it. ♻️

Old textiles and fabric scraps can find a second life through reuse, repair and upcycling, turning what we consider waste into something useful again.

Small choices can help build a more sustainable and circular textile future.

#SpecialCampaign6 #SustainableTextiles #CircularTextiles #TextileWaste #ReuseRepairUpcycle #MinistryOfTextiles

[Chris @Wilski405]

That's love right there fr, she remembered and made it herself

[mars @goldenmarss]

I was chatting with a friend a few months back & telling her about how badly I wanted a VGK crescent bag but how I couldn't justify paying the prices I saw on Etsy. I had a Halloween party last night & she surprised me with the exact kind of bag I wanted. She hand made it. 🥹😭

[Chris @Wilski405]

@CornbreadRTR I did not know strawberries needed all that damn maintenance

[Chris @Wilski405]

The cardboard belt is killing me lmaoo that's commitment

[ryy (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠) @bleedme_dRyy]

guess who I'm going as for Halloween:3 I just finished making a stencil to draw the heart on the shirt, gonna go it when my sister is home cus I need to steal her fabric pens, I also made the fuck belt out of cardboard :3

[Chris @Wilski405]

Lowkey turning a piece of PVC into a garden tool is kinda clever

[Am here @huggingon]

Making your own garden tools is as easy can be
DIY and IDEA

[Chris @Wilski405]

I fuck with leaving clover in the yard , that shit look good lowkey

[Chris @Wilski405]

That cat living better than me rn

[Dailymeow @Dailymeoww1]

While knitting a blanket for my cat, my mom put on a cartoon on her phone to keep my cat from playing with the yarn.

Now my cat is quietly watching the cartoon while my mom continues knitting a cozy blanket for her 🥹❤️😂

[Chris @Wilski405]

Mfs will blame the leads for anything before admitting they don't follow up

[Dan Magazu @DannyMagazu]

If nobody refers you, it's the quality of your work.
If nobody in town knows your name, it's your marketing.
If you get 100 leads and close zero, the problem is your follow-ups.

A lot of home service business owners just call all three a lead problem.

[Chris @Wilski405]

Damn fresh eggs and spinach for breakfast look good as hell g nggun

[Flifla @Fliflakkk]

From garden to table 🌱🍳

Freshly harvested spinach, radishes, mint, and eggs. Homemade breakfast and sunshine ☀️💚🌿

[Chris @Wilski405]

That last inch of a curtain hem be bunching up for what g

[Chris @Wilski405]

Three hours and a garlic burn is crazy work, hope that stuff tastes amazing later

[Justin Rhodes @ItsJustinRhodes]

I’m questioning my life decisions right now… I just finished a 3-hour job shelling my homegrown garlic to prep it for preservation. I could just buy garlic powder and settle.

Driving around with Joel Salatin on his farm one day, I noticed all the walnuts on the ground. I had just harvested our first crop from our own land. First, we shelled them, then power-washed them, then let them cure for two weeks (and hoped) the squirrels wouldn’t get them. Finally, we cracked them open, pried out the nuts, crushed them, and put them in a jar. Literally hours of my time over a couple of weeks. Then, we added them to a spiced nut cake and they tasted fruity (In a weird way).

So, I was curious if Joel had ever gone on that adventure, so I asked, “Do you ever harvest walnuts?” to which he wisely replied.”

Joel knew the process was ridiculous and he knows he has more efficient uses of his time, like moving cows, feeding pigs, or giving an interview to someone like me.

So here I am shelling garlic. Not only is it time-consuming, it hurts. I literally burned the tips of my fingers from the garlic oil. One finger has a literal burn mark.

I could reason that it’s garlic from my soil, I know how it was grown, and if I didn’t do this I’d have to get a a real job, blah blah blah.

But those reasons aren’t always enough. Clearly, in the walnut case, they aren’t.

And yet sit here and write this after I’m done and it feels good, and I plan to do it again, unlike walnut harvesting (unless I get the machine).

I’m searching for the reason why, and have decided it’s for the kitchen. We want cloves, not just powder, and if we bought garlic we’d have to shell it anyway, one meal at a time. And we’d also have to go to town and buy the garlic.

But if we shell them all at once then freeze-dry them it’s more efficient and we save the cloves.

The deeper reasons don’t always drive me. More often than not I need a monetization reason or time-efficiency reason to keep me motivated.

Apologies if you needed a deeper meaning behind all the drudgery today. Sometimes it’s just giving future gifts to yourself. Because in December when I want to make tomato, garlic, roasted chicken, all I’ll have to do is throw the goods in the baking dish and come back when it’s time to eat.

[Johnny Appleseed ➕ @Johnnypatriot26]

Cantaloupe action as well as beautiful squash or zucchini. Forest Gardening

[Chris @Wilski405]

People see MEP and think one line item gonna cover everything

[Kenny Shultz @PermitZIPhvac]

A lot of people think of MEP engineering (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) as one thing. So they're often surprised when a relatively simple project comes back with a $10k+ fee for MEP drawings.

But when you break it down into individual engineering disciplines, it's pretty easy to see why the price can feel high.

Let's say you're billing at ~ $150 per hour.

Most projects require at least 15-20 hours of work per discipline. That's ~$2,250-$3,000 per trade, and 20 hours really isn't that much time when you factor in design, drafting, coordination, and review. That's basically bare minimum. A single phone call to your engineer out of scope could run an additional $1k-$2k.

Now, if your project needs mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and gas design, that's potentially four separate scopes of work.

$3,000 × 4 = $12,000. You get to $10k+ pretty quickly.

My guess is that people see "MEP" as one package, so we see people going into it some times expecting the set as if it's just one trade. It's not. In fact, different people design the different packages, that is how separate those trades are.

And MEP means paying for three or four different engineering designs (and we're not even including fire alarm or sprinkler here). Each trade requiring specialized knowledge, coordination, and professional responsibility.

So if you're reaching out to an MEP firm expecting to spend just a couple thousand dollars for everything, it's worth managing those expectations.

Getting licensed professionals to produce three or four coordinated, permit-ready, sealed sets of drawings for much less than $10k won't be easy for most firms.

Our website has an instant quote on it if you're ever curious to know how these things are priced.

If your ever curious about pricing, we built a simple pricing tool that gives instant MEP pricing. Just need project square footage and category: https://t.co/ROvf78Vr4t

[Chris @Wilski405]

Okay this is actually kinda smart, the birds gonna be eating good

[JERRY @tac_jerry0]

Don't throw away that plastic bottle/ turn it into a bird feeder

[Chris @Wilski405]

If a supplier messes up, I just want it fixed quick and clean lol

[Shannon Jean @ShannonJean]

When a supplier makes a mistake, it’s a huge opportunity if you play it right.

Let me explain.

What most buyers miss is that this is a game of relationships, not transactions.

Change the frame, and you will change the game.

Suppliers often have the upper hand because they have the inventory you, as a seller, need for your business.

It’s the gas for your engine.

Your mission is to flip the script on this, and leaning into a supplier mistake is a great way to do so.

For example, a shipment from MegaCorp arrives, and as you check it against the manifest, you realize there’s a significant discrepancy.

Most buyers get angry and reactive. They call MegaCorp and report that the delivery is wrong and that MegaCorp screwed up.

There is a better way.

First, at the earliest signs of a problem, reach out to your supplier and give them a gentle nudge, an alert that there may be an issue and that you're still going through the order.

“We got order XYZ, thanks for the quick shipment! Just a heads up, our count is showing some discrepancies, so we are running through things again to ensure accuracy.

Whatever the situation, we will figure it out.”

That last sentence is crucial. You want to get the supplier on your side of the table. This is a problem you both want to work to solve.

Once you have confirmed that MegaCorp messed up, you should get on the phone. Use email to follow up and confirm your phone discussion. Leading with email is weak.

Keep this in the back of your mind during the discussion: You are changing the relationship's power structure.

Here’s the hard part that most buyers miss: you don’t want a refund.

“Here’s the discrepancy: based on the manifest, the value in question is $. We don’t need a refund, just keep it as a credit on our account for future purchases.”

Future being the keyword.
You have just changed the framework from individual transactions to a longer-term relationship with a future of working together.

Some of the best and longest-lasting buying relationships I have built began when the seller made a mistake.

Don’t miss this opportunity. Change your short-term “this sucks!” mentality to a “here’s our chance” framework.

Have you used this tactic to cement relationships with suppliers?

[Chris @Wilski405]

Walking in there on a hot day gotta feel crazy lmaoo

[Mr. Taylor @flintlockactual]

The peppers in my greenhouse are doing so well that when it gets hot in here the air is spicy. Pretty awesome!

[Chris @Wilski405]

What y'all be doing with them little fabric scraps after cutting out a pattern ?

[Chris @Wilski405]

That's a hell of a move. Dude found his spot and he's killing it

[BlueCollarInvestor @BlueCollarInvr]

I have an employee that I recently moved to full time stump grinder operator.

He’s too slow to be anywhere else on my crew.

He’s great with a stump grinder because he has a pretty solid attention to detail and I never have a major time crunch on stumps.

Since moving him to this position he has been destroying everyone on reviews.

Dude legit gets 2-5 5 star reviews a week on his job sites.

He doesn’t do better work than my other employees, he definitely isn’t as efficient but what he does do is talk.

He will take the time to actually talk to customers and figure out what they really need. If it isn’t too far out of the job scope he will handle it without bothering me.

It’s working. I’m really happy I made this move because he has done so well. Plus since the bonus system on reviews was implemented he is making an extra $25 per review.

[Chris @Wilski405]

These are actually cute, might have to get on my sewing shit nbs

[MAY💙💤 @munahtee]

Don't dash your Ankara scraps to the tailor or throw them away! 🧵

That leftover fabric can become a stylish top. I made this stylebook video with @grok to show you Ankara top styles you can recreate with your own leftovers.

Save money, save fabric, and still look fine. 😍

Which style are you trying first?

[Chris @Wilski405]

How y'all keep squirrels from getting to the tomatoes before they even turn red ?