That one week in 2018 when every single project I had went sideways at the exact same time

Started Monday with a client changing their whole scope over email, Tuesday my truck broke down on the way to a supply run, Wednesday a framing crew showed up two hours late and hung a wall 3 inches off, Thursday the lumber yard shorted me on a delivery, and Friday I found out the permit I pulled was for the wrong address so I just sat in my truck eating a cold sandwich and wondering if someone was messing with me.

3 comments

3 Comments

rose_clark8121d ago

Tbh brian, I gotta push back on you saying a wrong permit is "dodging a bigger bullet" - if he caught it Friday and the inspection was Monday, that's a full weekend of panic calls and re-filing fees, not some lucky break.

brian_hart21d ago

Man, I gotta push back on this one a little. That week sounds rough, but "all at once" is kinda the default in this business, not some freak alignment of the stars. Like, you had one bad scope change and a broken truck and a wrong permit? That's a Tuesday for most of us, not a once-in-a-lifetime disaster. I've had weeks where the drywall guys hung the wrong fire rating on three floors and the bank called to say my draw check bounced and my apprentice fell off a ladder all before lunch on Wednesday. That's just the job, man. You don't get a medal for having a cold sandwich. Honestly, sounds like you dodged a few bigger bullets. The wrong permit could have been way worse if you caught it later. And the framing being off by 3 inches? That's a fix, not a tear down. You'll be fine.

garcia.cameron21d ago

Twenty years in this game and I've learned the hard way that three things going wrong in the same week is just a regular week, not a crisis. That wrong permit thing he caught on Friday? I've had guys work a whole month with the wrong permit because someone at the city signed off on it without checking. Now that's a real nightmare when you have to tear out work and pay fines. The framing being off by 3 inches is annoying but not the end of the world. I've seen crews fix worse with shims and a couple extra hours on a Saturday. You get through weeks like this by learning what's worth panicking over and what's just another problem to solve before lunch.