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Spaulding Smails

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Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. Hopefully taking my son here in a few weeks. Need to firm up details. A good friend has this place on the LM at the north side of Baffin. Incredible place.
  2. This is the exact reason we went with a traditional system instead of the saltwater.
  3. Ski Shores had the best burgers in town before Austin Java bought them. At least, that was my opinion after being on the lake all day and drinking 18 Natural Lights in the sun. I went a few years back, and it just looked and felt sterile and contrived. Wasn't the same as the dive joint with a low ceiling, no AC and walk-up window.
  4. That's a good question. I think I saved about 20%. We had some wild estimates from other pool companies before we went this route. We had one company quote us $600K for the pool and pool house. We added a second structure (guest house) and I was able to do it for less than half that amount. It was a unique circumstance where I had access to experienced pool guys for layout, excavation and stonework through a friend of mine. I basically used his guys on loaner for a few months and paid them hourly. He had a big slowdown in work, so it kept them busy and saved me some money. Margins are surely higher in the pool business, but I know I probably paid a premium because I was a one-off client for the work that I subbed out. Pool rebar, pool plumbing, gunite and plaster were all trades that I don't use and didn't have relationships with. That stone work was very detailed and drove the cost up as well. If I had to build the same pool over again, I think I could do it for $20K less. Like I said in the previous post, the start-up and verification that systems were installed correctly was (and still are) probably my biggest hurdle. I'm still not 100% sure on that front. It would be nice to be able to call someone to get it all set up. The biggest thing that my specific background helped with were the schedule / logistics (we did the whole thing in under 90 days... even with the Rona and the rain). We also had some tricky details with the stonework, and I spent a lot of time getting the foundation right, ensuring all of the elevations tied in correctly to the flatwork and adjacent structures (both new) and making sure that everything was cohesive. We also had a ton of drainage to re-route. Building a standalone pool on flat ground in an open area is pretty straightforward with good subs. It's all the other bullshit that makes it challenging.
  5. This is 100% me. My wife is a phenomenal cook, and loves to bake. So, I've upped the miles to offset. Over the last 45 days, I've run almost 250 miles. But, I've eaten dessert probably 43 of those 45 days and consumed alcohol 40 of the 45 days.
  6. We set it up so that the gas heater is primarily for the spa and the heat pump / chiller is primarily for the pool. The intent is that you quickly warm up just the spa for a few hours, but you run the heat pump to increase the temp of the pool during the shoulder months so we can use it longer. That's good to hear about the minimal impact on the electric bill. The chiller portion was an upgrade. It may have been a bad decision, but we'll see. I have yet to talk to anyone who has any experience with it, and the limited reviews that I've seen online are all pretty pour. Definitely a roll of the dice. The pool is 75 right now, so I'm going to crank up the heat pump next week to see if we can get it up to the low 80s. Would like to have a pool in the 82-86 range for the duration of the summer.
  7. They're definitely around Central Texas in the wild. Just not very common. I saw one about six years ago along Onion Creek then another near my house about a year ago. There must've been a decent sized group of them at our deer lease when I was a kid because they were a pretty common occurrence when sitting in the deer stand. I don't think they're endangered, but certainly not common in this area. Cool find.
  8. Bump. Just filled up the new pool this weekend. Got the pumps running yesterday and first round of chemicals in. I GC'd this myself (I own a construction company). All in all, things went well, but I don't have the typical lifeline of a pool builder for some of the technical stuff and routine bullshit questions. Surly to the rescue. -How long before swimming? Pool plumber said a week. Pool chemical lady said 30 days. Plaster guy said a few days. My kids are chomping at the bit to jump in. -Any recommendations for Pentair Screenlogic Connect setup? Both the plumber and electrician weren't comfortable setting it up. -Anyone have any experience with a heat/cool pump? I purchased a Pentair UltraTemp 140K BTU Heat & Cool Pump with the goal of cooling the pool down some during the summer months. Plumber did a great install, but admittedly had no experience using them or setting them up. The pool chemicaly lady confirmed that it is installed correctly, but also has no experience with this particular unit. Anyone have any info / feedback on this?
  9. I am relatively certain that only W2 wages qualify for loan forgiveness. Rent, utilities and W2 wages. No 1099 / subcontractor costs.
  10. That's no joke. Of the 15 hours, she drove for one. And hit a damn turkey. Needless to say, she hasn't driven it since.
  11. Nice. Thanks for the update. I ordered a Fox steering stabilizer yesterday. Going on next week. Thanks for the recommendation. I need to haul my Bobcat out to the ranch in a few weeks, so I want it on by then. I also had to order a new grille. We drove to Telluride in my truck for spring break. Got to the mountain the day they closed it. Stayed a day so the kids could play in the sun, then turned around and did a cannonball run back home the next day. That was the first Monday as shit was going crazy because of the rona. I had to get a letter out to my employees, so my wife drove for about an hour or so near Hobbs, NM. And she managed to hit a turkey. In broad daylight. On a flat road. My grille was jacked (though not as bad as the turkey). At least it didn't hit the LED lights. Putting on the new grille and adding some LED lights in the grille as well. I'm going to wait a few months before I explore a little lift and new shoes. May do a brush guard as well for future turkey encounters.
  12. Let me know how the ride improves. I have a 2019 F350 as well. About 50K miles. I've had the death wobble happen to me twice in the last month. I need to do something. I have an extra truck at the shop, so I may drop mine off for a bit and go ahead do some other stuff as well. Brush guard, LED lights in the grill, little lift, new rims and 35s.
  13. Do you have verification from the SBA on that? I know the $100K cap was in place for the front-end calculation, but my CPA said it's not a limiting factor for how the PPP gets spent / forgiven. I have four employees making over $100K, and we're assuming (again based on my CPA's feedback) that it's 100% forgivable. I also paid Q1 bonuses using those funds under the premise that it will be forgivable. With some of my guys, that doesn't put them over $100K, but for three that are in the $80K-$90K range, that amount when tacked on to their normal wages in the 8 week timeframe would push them well over the $1,923/wk mark.
  14. I had a call with my CPA about 10 days ago. He indicated that, at that time, the SBA had not yet released specific guidelines and definitions for these expense categories. I asked him about a few items like fuel, and his advice was to not push it. Roll with what you're sure qualifies, and avoid raising any eyebrows or encouraging an audit. My immediate question was around cell phone service. I can see that as closer to the definition of "utilities" than fuel for vehicles and equipment. If anyone has more insight here, I'm all ears.
  15. Well I'll be damned. I've been in construction for 20+ years and I've never realized that I've been spelling that wrong. Damn, do I feel like a dumb ass.
  16. Years ago, I built two blinds using masonry scaffolding as the base. I got some used scaffolding pretty cheap from a sub that was downsizing. 5' x 7' was the dimensions of the blind. Easily fit two adults. Built the walls at home, stacked them flat on a trailer with the scaffolding, then erected it and tied it all together with one other guy at my lease. Did the roof framing, decking and down corrugated tin on site. Pretty easy and pretty cheap and lasted for several years.
  17. I've heard hedge trimmers work well. In all seriousness, if your new appliance has a trim that's going to hide imperfections, just use a jigsaw or fine tool. If it's going to be visible, try to use a track saw of clamp a guide to the edge that you can use to run a straight line with a router. If it can be removed and you can work it on a bench then reinstall it, that would be ideal.
  18. Our AR is up 27% MOM. On one hand, that's good because we're continuing to invoice. On the other hand, it's bad because we went from 21% past due to 36% past due. Money has definitely slowed. I've had two commercial clients (one hospitality, one personal services) ask for extended terms or at least deferred payments. We extended terms by 30 days for each but told them an intent to lien would be filed if we didn't receive payment. Earlier this month, we waived the processing fee for all clients. This has helped keep cash flow in check, but has degraded margins. I'm guessing our AR would be up closer to 40% if we hadn't taken those measures. That's not an option for all businesses, but may be a viable alternative if anyone needs an boost to cash flow.
  19. Can you send pics of the interior and exterior of the existing door? You may want to consider that you'll probably have to re-mortise for hinges on the existing jamb, so replacing trim and lowering the header with a strip of 1X material would be pretty simple as long as your interior and exterior conditions don't cause that to open a can of worms.
  20. I think it depends on your business. We now maintain at least six accounts at all times. Usually more. Operations - All deposits and payables to vendors / subs flow through this account. Expense - Our employees have debit cards for small purchases where we don't have an account. We keep the account that those cards are linked to separate to make it easier to reconcile and to prevent a runaway train if fraud occurs. Payroll - Funds are transferred from operations to payroll then to our payroll processing company. Makes it super easy for payroll reporting calculations. Capital Investments - This is our slush fund. We maintain a minimum balance here, and we take a "rake" of profits every quarter. We use this for purchases of vehicles, equipment, etc. Owner Equity - Remaining excess profits flow through here on a quarterly basis. It gets disbursed to me and my partners annually and we hold back a portion for taxes. PPP - We now have a PPP account. I transferred all of our PPP proceeds to this account. I just transferred my full payroll burden to the payroll account from here yesterday. Will do the same on subsequent payroll runs, mortgage and utilities. We'll keep a separate folder for these expenses, but it will make it nice and clean so that those funds don't get lumped in with our operational cash flow. We also create separate accounts for any job over $100K where we're the primary GC. This allows us to prevent "robbing Peter to pay Paul" on jobs. We keep job profits in there for one year to cover any warranty expenditures, then one year after completion, we close the account and transfer any remaining profits to the owner equity account. Multiple accounts can be a pain from a banking and reconciliation standpoint, but it absolutely helps us keep everything in the correct bucket and gives me a good snapshot of cash flow on a real time basis.
  21. This is damn fine work. And, it looks like you didn't even fuck up your wood floors! You saved a shit ton of money and the work is excellent from what I can see.
  22. That's a great observation. Certain industries that have longer lead times, longer receivable terms and bigger backlogs are set up to weather the initial storm, but will feel the impacts of this shutdown months or even years down the line. The industries that were hardest hit were those with point-of-sale transactions that shut off immediately. The only plus-side to those business models is cash flow is almost immediate, so when the reigns start to loosen, they should see an immediate boost to revenue and hopefully profits.
  23. I bank with Broadway. As mentioned previously in this post, we switched about five years ago from BBVA. I have all of my business banking for three businesses through them. We finance all of our vehicle purchases through them and I have a revolving LOC. Plus, my personal banking and mortgage is through them. From a business perspective, the only thing we don't have with them is our mortgage on our building which is through a close friend's smaller bank. It's been phenomenal to have a dedicated banker. Not sure how much of that is just the fact that we do a decent volume of business with them and how much of that is their general level of service, but my perception is that Broadway is small enough to avoid the big bank bureaucracy, but large enough to have their shit together and offer good products, support, online banking, etc. I can't say enough good things about Broadway as a whole leading up to this, and their service through this SBA PPP has been a reaffirmation of how well run they are.
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