Told my rate to a fellow freelancer and they laughed, now I'm second guessing everything

I finally brought my own inspector to a showing and it saved my butt

My realtor kept pushing me to use her preferred inspector, but something felt off. I found a guy named Dave on Google with solid reviews in my area and paid him $350 to come walk through a house I was serious about. He found a mold issue in the crawlspace that the seller's disclosure said nothing about. The fix would have cost me around $5,000 easy. I told the seller and they dropped the price by exactly that much. I learned that paying out of pocket for my own eyes on a property is worth every dollar. Has anyone else had a bad experience trusting the realtor's guy?

Pondering solid wood vs plywood for a job that got me thinking

I been at this 20 years and still catch myself debating stuff I thought I had figured out. Last month I had a kitchen job over in Grand Rapids, lady wanted all solid maple doors and face frames. I went back and forth with myself for a week before starting, cause I know plywood boxes are more stable and cheaper but solid wood just feels right. I ended up going with plywood for the boxes and solid for the doors and drawer fronts, which is more or less what I always do. But now I'm wondering if I shoulda pushed her to do all solid, cause there's a tiny bit of cupping on one of the drawer fronts already. Has anyone else had a job where you wished you went the other way on a material choice?

TIL a friend's advice about taking Sundays off saved my sanity

My buddy Mike who runs a graphic design studio in Denver told me to block off Sundays completely. No emails, no sketching, no client calls no matter what. I thought it would kill my momentum but after 3 months my brain actually rests now. Has anyone else tried a full day off and felt guilty about it at first?

Unpopular take: I'll take a pneumatic DA over an electric one any day for blocking

Tried the Festool ETS EC 150 on a fender repair last week and went right back to my old Hutchins air sander because the electric one bogs down way too fast under heavy pressure.

Found out Dark on Netflix took 2 years to plan the first season

I was reading an interview with the creators on some German film site and they said they mapped out all 3 seasons before they even shot episode 1. That blew my mind because the show is so confusing already. They had a 900 page document just for the timeline. Makes me wonder how many shows actually do that kind of prep work. Has anyone else read about crazy pre-production for a show they loved?

Debate: Should you use a VPN on public wifi or not?

I always thought using a VPN at coffee shops was a no-brainer, but after testing 3 different ones at a Starbucks in Austin, my connection got 5 times slower and one site flagged me as a bot. Some guys online say free wifi is fine if you stick to HTTPS sites only. What's your take on this whole VPN or no VPN thing for public networks?

Just realized a client who asks for 'one tiny change' every day is a red flag factory

I had this client for a logo redesign gig back in March. They said they just wanted a fresh version of their old logo. Well, that turned into a daily email with a new small adjustment. Move the text 2 pixels left. Make the blue a bit greener. Can you try a totally different font? Each request seemed tiny but after 3 weeks I had done 17 different versions. I finally checked how many hours I actually spent and it was 28 hours for a $400 project. They ended up using version 2 and ghosted me when I sent the final invoice for the extra work. Has anyone else dealt with someone who treats micro edits like they are free?

Had to choose between solder and wire crimps for a Yashica shutter rebuild

Got a Yashica Electro 35 GSN with a dead shutter on my bench last week. The original ribbon wires were toast. I always heard solder is more reliable, but crimping is faster. I went with soldered connections using 30 gauge wire wrap wire. Took me about 90 minutes but the shutter fires every time now. No cold joints so far. Anyone else have strong feelings about ribbon wire repairs on these old rangefinders?

Took 4 tries to get a broom finish right on a driveway in Phoenix last week

I've been doing concrete for about 3 years now and thought I had broom finishing down. But last week I had a driveway job in Phoenix where the mix was just a little too wet and my broom strokes kept dragging chunks. Took me 4 separate attempts over 8 hours to finally get a consistent finish that looked professional. The homeowner was watching from their window the whole time which made it worse lol. Anyone else have a specific finish that took way more tries than you expected to figure out?