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Black Friday 2024
315 Plays28 days ago
It's Black Friday 2024. We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We're thankful to everyone who tunes in every week.
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Transcript
Sponsorship Announcements
00:00:01
Jeffrey Krug
The American Craftsman Podcast is sponsored by Hayfla. Hayfla offers a wide range of products and solutions for the woodworking and furniture-making industries. From hinges and drawer slides to connectors and dowels, sandpaper, wood glue, shop carts, and everything in between. Exclusive product lines such as Lux LED lighting and Slido door hardware ensure that every project you create is built to last. Learn more at hayfla.com.
00:00:25
Jeffrey Krug
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00:00:51
Jeffrey Krug
Located in Kansas rich carbide tools provides high quality products with outstanding customer service at a fair price. What are you cutting? shame book Enjoy the show.
Podcast Scheduling & Black Friday Prep
00:01:01
Jeffrey Krug
chain
00:01:10
Jeffrey Krug
All right, welcome back. Big days coming up. Yeah, it's Black Friday. How was your Thanksgiving? Well, that's right. we're We're recording this on Monday. Yeah, this is a pre-recorded podcast, as everyone knows.
Tall Handle Step Stool Project
00:01:25
Jeffrey Krug
I'm getting ready for Black Friday. I don't know. I never really do much with it, but I am going to post a video with the idea of ah promoting plans and all that sort of stuff. So I just started a project this morning, ah and i got ah I have a lot more to do with it. so Can you talk about what it is? or oh yeah it's just Is it the stool? It is, yeah. yeah it's just this um ah Tall handle, step stool. Works great. It's nice to have a handle. Yeah, I'm going to build something like that for my kitchen. it's Now, will you go more than 10 inches high or like 12 inches high? I got to see what my wife needs to get to the top of the upper cabinets, you know? Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, you don't want to get too tall because then it gets a little... but Yeah, it might have to be two steps and then then it gets big. Yeah, it does. Like right now we have a folding step ladder, but it's just ugly.
00:02:18
Jeffrey Krug
Well, the nice thing if you make like a nice cherry step stool and you ah you'll probably use ah the that oil that you use on the on the boxes. Tongue oil. Tongue oil. ah Then you can always freshen it up and you're just going to get nicer. and You know, the more you use it, the nicer it'll look like. Yeah.
Visit to Shaker Museum
00:02:38
Jeffrey Krug
what Occasionally, I'll go to the Shaker Museum up in Massachusetts. I mean, I've been there I think three times. And ah the furniture is old and it was used, you know, it was it was purposely built. And it just has a really beautiful patina on it. So I mean, if you make something that'll fit in your kitchen, that you can just kind of bang around. 20 years from now you put another coat of oil on it'll look great. Yeah. Jerry's soft enough where if it smacks into the countertops and the cabinets and
00:03:09
Jeffrey Krug
I'm super paranoid now about everything that's going to end getting damaged. It's going to get damaged. It's so funny when I, yeah, it's like when you get a new car, you know, when I renovated the place up in Vermont, I did wooden countertops and within like a day and a half, somebody banged up the countertop. It wasn't me. And I was just, ah I kind of had to talk myself down. There's nothing you can do about it. yeah And then you just say, you know,
00:03:37
Jeffrey Krug
Who cares? It is what it is.
Household Item Maintenance Challenges
00:03:39
Jeffrey Krug
My qualm is that you know i'm I try and be careful and mindful. But the other two members of my household are not. That's the that's the thing. That's my entire family. I mean, i I posted a picture on Instagram a few months ago with I think it was Olivia's shoes like on the coffee table that I made. You know, so she's sitting on the couch with her the edge of her shoes on the edge of the coffee table, you know, that I sanded down the 220 and sanded in between coats with 320. It's just like nobody cares.
00:04:11
Jeffrey Krug
You would think, actually, it's really great when you make things for other people, because they've paid a lot of money for it and then they take care of it. Yeah, yeah. Anything in my house just gets beat to heck. Yeah.
00:04:23
Jeffrey Krug
And, you know, even to this day, I have a funny picture of the ah two boys, they sit out, like on a Saturday morning, they'll look out in the backyard and have their coffee. And they always put their feet up on the wind they sit on the chair and they put their feet up on the but window casings.
00:04:42
Jeffrey Krug
And I don't mind if they have their socks on, but if it's bare feet or worse yet slippers or shoes, like now I got to clean these, I got to paint them. And I'm like, dudes, you're not little kids anymore. So that's just you're never going to get away from that. And the kitchen is going to get beat up because the kitchen is basically a shop.
Kitchen Renovation Difficulties
00:05:01
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah.
00:05:02
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, it's it's so nice, though, having ah like a nice functioning kitchen. but she'll say right Thanks. Yeah. So I finished the floors ah this past weekend. I love the floors. Yeah, it came on came out nice. Now, was it was it not that labor intensive? Was it easy to put in? Oh, God. I mean, the it's It's not hard to do, but when you do it for two days, for 12 hours a day, it's it becomes hard. It's a lot on your knees and your youre for me, it's like my low back and my butt is are sore from all the up and down. and So you're working... you
00:05:41
Jeffrey Krug
You're working on one end, so like when you're snapping the first pieces together, you're sort of in front, you're not you're not on the floor. right But then eventually you have to get on the floor, probably work from the other side. Yeah, it's much easier working on the floor, so the pieces in front of you and you're okay you're kneeling on the floor. Okay, I thought it would be the other way around. No, no. Because you have to tap it together. Okay. So it's sort of easier to just like tap towards yourself. Oh, that makes sense, yeah. So you can see sort of what's going on.
00:06:11
Jeffrey Krug
And when you get to the edge of the wall, when you're on the floor, now you've got like whatever. Are you cutting it to fit like a? Yeah, you leave a gap. You know, they I don't know what they recommend. Is that last piece hard to get in? ah No, it's it's pretty easy to get in. You have to have like a hook tool. So it's like sort of shaped like a OK, like a Z, you know, so you can hook that edge and then tap. Got it in. Gotcha.
00:06:37
Jeffrey Krug
And so even when you're underneath the kick, the um ah the kick in front of your cabinets, it's not hard to get underneath there. No, because it just went up to like the feet. Okay. And then the toe kick will cover it. I haven't i haven't installed the toe kick yet. It's sitting on the racks. I actually just painted those. So you're going to be, you so you still got a lot on the punch list. Oh, yeah. You know what? My advice is don't kill yourself. No, it's far along and enough now that If I didn't do anything else, tough shit, you know? Listen, you're coming over for dinner. I'm cooking everything. I already started cooking. if You don't like it. And there's nobody coming that I need to impress, yeah you know?
00:07:20
Jeffrey Krug
So the only dangerous side of this is you finish it 80% of the way. And then you never finish it. And then you never finish it.
Home Improvement Discipline & Thanksgiving Prep
00:07:28
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah. So I don't expect that you'll do that. But there's a lot of people who do do that. Yeah. They'll get it to that one point. And then 10 years later, it's still at that one point. The shoe molding never goes down or whatever. So that's one thing to just have the discipline to finish it.
00:07:45
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, so like I told you, I think I'll be I might pop in and out of the shop to do some things for the kitchen, but I'll probably be home. Today's Monday. I'll be home Tuesday, Wednesday. um Just wrapping stuff up. Yeah, so that's now. ah Is the shop going to be open? Is anybody working in here or just? Leilani will be here working. Yeah. So then. ah Yeah, so you got you got those two days, you'll get a lot done. Yeah.
00:08:12
Jeffrey Krug
I hung my light fixture. What's that, Saturday?
00:08:19
Jeffrey Krug
ah got to you know i have to take I've had a tablecloth on the table, so I gotta take that off. I have to buff it a little bit, because you know it wasn't like fully, fully dry, so I'm like, we gotta start using this. I'm putting a tablecloth on it, so it's probably got some rough little rough patches, so I gotta hit that with some steel wool. And you'll put another coat of tongue oil on it?
00:08:38
Jeffrey Krug
ah Yeah, probably like a super light coat. Maybe I'll thin it even more with mineral spirits. I'd be a little nervous about that because if it doesn't dry, is it going to be gassing off during during ah your Thanksgiving meal? Yeah, potentially. If I hit it with steel wool and then just wipe it with mineral spirits, it should be. That's what I would do. ah Yeah, just just hit it with I wouldn't put any more finish because steel wool is like what? 600 grit or something.
00:09:07
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I mean, i you you wouldn't put anything on there as a lubricant from the steel wool, like to even just a little soapy water. Yeah, it could. Just a little soapy water, then you can wash that off. That'll just keep the steel wool from like burning the finish. Yeah. like That's what I would use when I i would finish everything with or rub everything out with a product called Wool Lube from Mohawk. And it's basically soapy water. ah I mean, it's it nicer than that. but ah Yeah, a little soapy water will do do a good job and then then you won't have to fit it, worry about worry about it when you go to put another coat of oil on it. you Like you don't want to put a wax on there. Yeah, no, no, no, like um I want to wax the base.
00:09:51
Jeffrey Krug
um because that doesn't, it's not gonna need to be like refreshed, you know what I mean? And you can re-wax the base. Right, but I don't want wax on the top because then, you know, you scratch it with your fingernail and you gotta line, you know, just the top I wanna be able to do whatever with. Yeah, no, I agree with that. So yeah, I got that, I gotta finish installing the Bankette. I have like all the pieces in place, but they're not like screwed to the wall or anything. Gotta put the cap on those, I gotta install the window casing, so we just shot a video about that.
00:10:22
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I'm looking forward to editing that because I think that video could do well. Yeah, I would like to focus more on interior trim work built in things like that because people get excited about that. And when I say people like myself included, yeah, I like to see that it's like a transformation. That's, that's why renovating this office space would be a ah ah fun project. I mean, it's a whole would be a whole series. Yeah. ah And it would be nice to have a showroom in here. It could have a client in here and you can kind of show them around. Yep. But i I don't think we do that unless it's totally going to get paid for. Yeah, it's a lot of work. It is a lot of work. I mean, you got to be able to justify it. Mm hmm.
00:11:04
Jeffrey Krug
So we have a few mallets that still need to be made. Yeah. They're getting shipped out on Thursday, a week from Thursday. Okay. Yeah. they go They all get shipped on December 5th. They're going good. You know, I'm in a real groove now on the way that's sort of like I got it down to a science and it's It's enjoyable, you know, because you're just ah you're you're just turning. I made this little jig. So I turn like I think it's three and three and three eights or three and seven eights from the brass mallet up to that up to that line. And I've got to the tool rest on a taper. Then I switched the taper from the tail towards that line that hit it with sandpaper. And then it's, you know, it's almost done.
00:11:52
Jeffrey Krug
so um So we're good. Well, I have to do that though on Friday. I have to be working on mallets on Friday and Saturday. Actually, I can't on Saturday. But Friday and Sunday, I'll be working on mallets to just kind of finish them off. I think we sold close to 30. Well, Willie's calling me. um You guys start cooking yet?
00:12:14
Jeffrey Krug
My wife is, my wife is ah she's doing pies already and and doing a bunch of ah prep stuff and I help out. So I'll just do whatever she says, peel carrots, peel potatoes, peel apples.
00:12:28
Jeffrey Krug
ah She makes all her own pie crusts and all that. ah She did put a project on me in the 11th hour, which was painting the bathroom. ah and Just quick and easy. Well, you know how she gets me to do these projects? She goes, oh, I'm just going to paint the bathroom. oh god So she knows that I'm not going to let her paint the bathroom. That's like my living room. That's still not done.
00:12:50
Jeffrey Krug
yeah Was was ah your wife going to paint it? She painted it. I came back from maker camp oh like the first year, I think. So this is three years ago or whatever. And I'm like, I walk in and I don't, um you know, I'm a creature habit. it So I walk into it was paneling like dark like this, which was ugly, you know, whatever. But I walk in and it's painted. and I'm like, what the, you know, like it was it was like a total shock to my system.
00:13:16
Jeffrey Krug
So are you going to paint over the panel or are you going to rip the panel out or go over it with quarter and sheetrock? She painted it. I know. So what are you going to do when you go to? but Well, I got to just paint it right. Okay.
00:13:28
Jeffrey Krug
but She didn't paint any of the trim. She didn't like take the plate covers off. She painted like so. It's ah the paneling is over pla plaster and lath. So it's just quarter, you know, like this quarter inch. So they put um base and then there's like a quarter round that is um like a cap, you know, and she painted like onto the quarter round, but not the base. So the base is brown with like white paint. It looks horrible. Yeah.
00:13:58
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, it's um painting is you need to pay attention. You can't do it. It's so funny when people just paint right over ah like wall sockets, they just Yeah, paint right over it right over the you know, are they you know, they just don't take the plates off the whole like you miss step one, you know, like that step one is take everything off, cover the floor,
00:14:22
Jeffrey Krug
Well, a lot of times, I'll replace the switches and the plate covers. Not the plate covers. Oh, the receptacle itself? Yeah, they're kind of beat up and old looking. They're so cheap. Yeah, just go and replace those. And it's so funny because my wife, she's like, OK, well, I know you're really busy today, so I'm going to paint. And I'm thinking, like, I can paint it. But then I realized I'm going to see Steve O tonight with my sons.
00:14:53
Jeffrey Krug
Oh, Steve-O from Jackass? Yeah. and What does he do, like stand up? Yeah, Count Basie. So I can't do it tonight. But she wants to do it. i love she you know she I love painting. It's relaxing, she says.
Painting Challenges and Techniques
00:15:05
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, my wife. i want Can I paint the trim? I'm like well like, that's the hardest part. Well, the other thing, too, is like there's painting and then there's prep. I mean, you have to do the whole thing. You've got to clean the walls. There was so much work that had to get done in the bathroom before I even started painting.
00:15:21
Jeffrey Krug
And so she said that she wants to paint today. So she went out and bought the color and then I had to pour it into the tray and pour it into like a working can. Anyway, and then I went in there and um I'm looking and I'm like, I'm going to have to cut in again. You know, it doesn't even matter, but whatever. It's it's.
00:15:47
Jeffrey Krug
Painting is no joke. You have to do a good job. Yeah, you have to do a good job. Yeah, I i everybody talks about painting. theyre I love painting. It's like you just don't know how to paint like I don't mind painting the prep works of freaking painting, but I just mean like pedestrian people who've never really painted. Yeah, they do a half ass job like people who in the like their early 20s who like had an apartment and like oh, let's have a painting party. Yeah, talk about wanting to screw a whole place up. Yeah. Oh, I yeah I think that like, one of the worst things you can do is do just a half ass paint job because then you've got way more prep than you're going to need. Yeah. Now, once the prep is done, if I'm just painting, like cutting in like on, especially on a wall, I'm just cutting in and then rolling. I'll listen to a book and it's kind of relaxing. I don't have to really think and it looks good, but prep is a whole nother thing. You have to.
00:16:40
Jeffrey Krug
you have to put the time into it and if you're if you're sanding and you're, you know, it's like yesterday, I was a mess because I was sanding and I had to put, ah ah you know, a respirator on because I didn't want to breathe all that stuff in. And it's, tight you know, tight little bathroom. So that wasn't too much fun. Yeah. I hate when like, you know, you cut in and then you start to roll the wall and then the roller touches the ceiling and then you got to, it's it's just, I hate painting.
00:17:06
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, ah like I said, i I can find it relaxing, but i wouldn't it's work. It's not fun. It's not fun. And it's not, a again, it's not about the painting. It's doing it right. It's the prep work. The prep work is like putting down mulch. Putting down mulch is easy. Pulling all the weeds beforehand is ah another job. Oh, so get this. I just remembered this. Saturday, I'm working on the floor. Allie's at work, so it's just me and Hunter. And I'm working. I look up.
00:17:36
Jeffrey Krug
Like, what's that? I thought I see some, like, discoloration on the ceiling. Take my flashlight out and shine it. Water. Oh, my God. The bathroom is above the... And tape. Sheetrock tape coming down. In your kitchen. Uh-huh. On the ceiling that I just painted the Saturday prior. Oh, my God. It was, like, must have been early in the week, last week. I hear Ally go, how did you get so much water on the floor?
00:18:04
Jeffrey Krug
He had been splashing in the tub, got water all over the floor, went through the floor. through you know So now I got water damage in the ceiling. Oh my God. I'm like, this is the biggest kick in the nuts. It is. it is it's It's really funny. And i'm I'm just telling you, that's just how life is. I remember as a kid. You're the maintenance man. doing it You're the maintenance man of the house. Everybody else is just having fun. yeah it's like oh I'll see my kids like you know having beers like after surfing. like and just hanging out around the outdoor shower with a couple of buddies who are over or whatever. And I'm walking by with some tool in my hand, you know, like, I've either just been doing the yeah the string trimming or the leaf blowing, or you know, I'm just making it nice. So you guys can enjoy it. Yeah. And that's with and that's with four of them. You know what I mean? So well, there's only three at the house now, but it's a constant job. but And
00:19:01
Jeffrey Krug
I said to my wife, cause my son Jack is 27 and Olivia is 16. And I'm like, holy shit, we've got at least another six years, ah two more years in high school and then four more years in college. I'm like, I'm just like getting old. This is getting really tiring. You have to hire a property manager. If I could afford it, although I don't think I would, I i think I'd want to move first. I wouldn't want somebody in my, my egg crate. Yeah.
00:19:32
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah. I mean, my house is about as small as they get, so I couldn't, I don't think I could trim it down any further. We got lucky when we bought our house. It was a different time. We bought our house in a real down economy. are are ah The economy was starting to come back. We bought it for sale by owner. And I mean, it's just, it's kind of embarrassing how inexpensive it was. And once we bought it within a month or two, we were just getting notes in our mailbox. Can we buy your house? We'd like to buy your house. And it just, you know, it's just crazy.
Home Renovations and Property Value
00:20:11
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, we got lucky. to Yeah, we bought, um you know, during the COVID. So we have like a 3% interest rate. Awesome. We bought the house for 250,000. There is not a you couldn't find a house. Isn't it crazy for 250,000 right now anywhere? No, everything's like a half a million. I mean, that's just how it is. It's
00:20:30
Jeffrey Krug
My house now it, you know, obviously it's not going to get reassessed with the kitchen because they don't, they don't go inside. But I mean, I probably added 75, $100,000 worth of value to the house. Just what I've done on the inside. I'm sure you did. Yeah. And you got rid of that garage that was falling down and replaced it with a nice shed. Yep. Yeah. Put up the fence. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I don't know how, uh,
00:20:59
Jeffrey Krug
I think Walter and Michael are talking about eventually buying a house together. I mean, it's it's far down the way. but they, ah you know, they, they seem to be very of financially savvy, and, ah and also frugal, like they don't spend money on, on stuff. They're very careful to save and ah they didn't have, they didn't have that much in student loans to begin with, we paid for most of it, but anything they did have, they've already just about paid it off. for them Yeah, because people get sunk.
00:21:35
Jeffrey Krug
Oh, yeah, I still owe, I don't even know, 40 grand, something like that. Where did you go to school? I went to West Virginia University only for two years, but... ah I'm surprised you left. you see because i mean It like you could have done anything you wanted to do. yeah were you just in it Were you not paying attention in school? Yeah, I was doing terrible. So you're just having too much fun? Yeah. So if you had... Probably a better thing for you of ta two of to have done would have been to either work for two years or go to Brookdale for two years.
00:22:05
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, well, I went, I came back and I went to Mercer because i I was from Mercer County. So I went to Mercer County community for a year. And then I moved out here to work and I just never went back. What were you going to school for? Originally, I went to school for athletic training and then at WVU. And, you know, so your freshman year, you go to this whatever athletic training 101 or whatever it is, might ah might even be like a prequel to that athletic training 100.
00:22:35
Jeffrey Krug
And they're like, all right, there's 275 of you here and only 80 people are going to make it into the program. Like, well, I'm like looking around. I'm like, I don't think I'm in the top, you know, 80 out of this group. So then I, I'm like, I better think about, you know, changing my major. Um, so then I changed to a sociology major. I was thinking maybe I would get into law or, uh, I had a couple of different ideas of what I could do with that. Um,
00:23:02
Jeffrey Krug
And then when I ended up coming back home, you know, I had worked in restaurants for, uh, you know, I started when I was like 14. So let's say I was 20 then six years and a rid like going way back when I was in high school, I thought I wanted to be a chef. Um, but then, you know, you work in restaurants and you realize like, it's like not really a good job. rough Yeah. Um,
00:23:28
Jeffrey Krug
So then I thought maybe I would open a place or or be in management. So then I was going to school for ah hospitality management. Seems like you could have done anything, though. Did you go to school? did you like So when i when I graduated high school, I mean, yeah I was from a different era. It was like, just kind of figure out what you're supposed, you know, just kind of figure it out on your own. But it seems like this, the younger generation,
00:23:59
Jeffrey Krug
uh, can really be focused into things that just make money. Like I can't, I can't imagine a lot of these students who go to school for like, you know, uh, I don't know a name for it, but like a basket weaving studies, you know what I mean? Like yeah these things that are incredibly expensive that you don't make any money on.
00:24:20
Jeffrey Krug
And they offer these classes where it seemed like for you, like, why won't you just go? Why won't you study finance? Why won't you go to school for finance? Because you didn't think of it. No, i i money really wasn't the motivator.
00:24:34
Jeffrey Krug
I don't think money is a motivation, but money just gives you a freedom. That's the thing. and When you're young, you don't realize that. Yeah, I didn't have that insight when I was young. you know Yeah, so
Philosophy of Money and Freedom
00:24:45
Jeffrey Krug
that's the thing. like I'll always tell my kids, the thing with money is it just gives you the ability. You don't have to have the biggest house or you don't have to have the boat, but just being able to ah have the freedom to make decisions. yeah you know I also think, though, like i couldn't I couldn't have a job that I didn't enjoy. you know yeah like i I like to be into whatever I'm doing, like deep into it. and i mean i i guess i could get you know Maybe I could be that way with anything, given the fact that i would have you know if it was my job, I would have to perform. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. and I just look at the freedoms that
00:25:30
Jeffrey Krug
if like, just just from knowing a lot of people with tremendous amounts of money from being you know, selling artwork to them. the freedom that they have to like, to have that much capital to be like, okay, you know what, I'm a creative person and I can build stuff. Now I've got all this capital, I'm just gonna go and build this little thing and and and make that my creative expression and then sell it and make another one. with Yeah. Don't you feel like a lot of those people that you meet though that are like, you know, have these big jobs where they make a lot of money or like really fucked up?
00:26:05
Jeffrey Krug
Some are some aren't like their cheat on their wives. They're drunk all the time or they you know, I don't know. I know of them, but I don't really know. Yeah, I don't really know any anyone that I've ever worked with. Everybody I've worked with has always been very focused individuals, but also they're sort of like, you know, the They're kind of into they're into life more so than, when I say life like food and doing things with their family, more so than um partying.
00:26:44
Jeffrey Krug
okay they're not Those people do exist, that's for sure. I mean, there's definitely people who are like, you know, partying. Like the people that ride the boat who are just getting hammered on the way back. So there's there's there's definitely a lot of people doing that, but there's also a lot of people just coming home, going to work, and then they have a passion that they have. So I know a lot of people who who do have these sort of, ah they're there very successful business people, but then they have, um they they they do other things yeah that they're very passionate about.
00:27:18
Jeffrey Krug
And I look at them sometimes and I think, oh, it'd be nice to have that capital because the only thing that's stopping me from doing a lot of things that I'd really love to do is just capital. Yeah. But wouldn't you say if you look at it hour for hour, you're probably doing more of what you want they yeah than they are? Yeah. You know, you got to spend 40 hours a week plus commuting doing something that you don't like so that you can do eight hours of what you do like.
00:27:45
Jeffrey Krug
There are some though that kind of were very successful and then retired in their late forties, early fifties. And that's a moonshot though. That is a, but if you keep your overhead down, you can do that. yeah But the, what happens is you get tricked into the bigger mortgage, you know, the private schools and all that. And now you're just, you have to have that job. Yeah. Keeping up with the Joneses.
00:28:12
Jeffrey Krug
yeah ah Well, you have to have that job to pay those bills. And so like with my sons, I feel like they've I don't know this, but I just from talking to them and seeing what they're doing, they seem to have a good mentality of like, okay, I want my freedom. You know, they, they I don't see them like wanting like a crazy expensive car. I see them eventually wanting a home just to be able to you know, to fix it up and move into another home, you know, and and kind of build that way, as opposed to have the crazy job that sort of takes over your life. And next thing you know, you start when you're in your 20s, and now you're 60. And you're like, where'd my life go? Yeah, yeah, like, I would love like a really cool car, like expensive car, or like, you know, so ah expensive house, but it's what are you willing to trade for that?
00:29:05
Jeffrey Krug
Well, that's the thing. So like my, the time that you have with your family is so small, you don't realize that. But it's like, ah you have like, a it's really, for each kid, it's maybe like a 13 to 15 year yeah Yeah, after 15, you're still in their life. But those formative years, they go by really, really fast. And you don't even realize that until you're out of them. And then you're like, holy cow, where'd that go? So um yeah, if you can if you can have your priorities straight and have that family time, and then but also make enough income where you're not stressing out all the time, that's sort of the sweet spot. yeah
00:29:49
Jeffrey Krug
so Yeah, and not spending your money on frivolous stuff is is a huge part of that. Well, that's the other thing, too, is stuff is stuff. it's just like ah I think everybody who gets to be my age, you start thinking, like how do I get rid of all my stuff?
00:30:07
Jeffrey Krug
You know, like, like, so my shops, a small shop, I don't want you, you were in such a different place because I think I'm like 23 years older than you are. You're in this place where you're building a business. About 15 years from now, you're probably going to figure, okay, how do I remove myself or maybe even sooner and have other people feel that do the work for you when you just manage. I mean, that's been my mindset for a while now is getting to that.
00:30:33
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, where you just have a few good people and then you can manage it. It's really difficult for me to do both to be in the shop and to be in here. You know, I think so. Like I have drawings that I need to look at and you know, but I just I can't do both. I'm doing the kitchen which is screwing me up right now but like I can't do both.
00:30:53
Jeffrey Krug
Well, you can't. I mean, there's only one of you. So, um, I mean, you'll figure it out, but that's just, that's just where you are in your business and your life right now. It's nice that you live close and you're not doing all that with an hour and 20 minute commute. Oh yeah, man. I couldn't imagine. Yeah. Yeah. This is the perfect distance. five miles Yeah. That's not bad at all. You still ride your bike? I haven't.
00:31:24
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, it's tough with the- It's been too much. I've been working, you know, I've been going home and working for like an hour or two every night. I've worked 12 hour days, both days of the weekend and the last couple of weekends. So you're gonna take off Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Oh yeah. Nice. Yeah, I never really worked Black Friday unless there's something really pressing.
00:31:45
Jeffrey Krug
So you're traveling on, oh, you're not traveling on Thanksgiving. No. And then will you do anything Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the family? Friday, we always do the Christmas tree. So we'll put that
Holiday Traditions Discussion
00:31:55
Jeffrey Krug
up. Do you have a, do you have one or do you get one? We do an artificial one. Yeah, we used to get a real one, but you know, I, I, I like a real tree, but doesn't it seem kind of wasteful to like,
00:32:07
Jeffrey Krug
You know, they take a year to grow this tree and then you cut it down and then you just throw it away. Yeah, more than a year. It's like 12 years, right? Oh, really? They take that long? Oh, a tree? Yeah. Oh, a tree to get to the size of a Christmas tree? Yeah, I don't know. I thought they i thought they were fast growing once. Maybe not a year, but yeah, three, year three four years, like a six foot tree. i I would guess closer to 10. Let's see. I would definitely guess closer to 10.
00:32:35
Jeffrey Krug
How long does a Christmas tree take to grow? Would you say Douglas fir? That's kind of a generic one. Yeah. That's like, I feel like we're like a Frasier fir. Six to 10 years. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. How wasteful. Six to 10 years of water and then you have it up for a month and you throw it away.
00:32:49
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I mean, plus trees are really expensive, so. but People would say, but who's going to, you know, these people are going to lose their jobs. The Christmas trees sell a guy. It's a business, it's a tree farm, just like, yeah yeah you know, so you've got different. But it's just, it's a disposable item, which seems crazy.
00:33:10
Jeffrey Krug
I guess if you mulch it, you know, at least it goes back into into the earth. yeah i we use ah We use an artificial tree now, and I don't mind it. i We have a nice like a nice one. It's called ah Kings of Christmas. Did you buy it after Christmas and get it on sale? That's the best time to do it. I forget when I bought it. It's an online thing. okay But it actually has like needles.
00:33:34
Jeffrey Krug
you know it's not like prelit tinsel no i didn't spend that would have been like a lot of money this was like four hundred bucks would have been like six or eight hundred yeah the problem there is if the the pre-lit goes bad then you still have to light it yeah i
00:33:52
Jeffrey Krug
we don't I don't think we have the nicest artificial Christmas tree, but I'm fine with that. Once it's decorated, it looks good no matter what. Yeah. You put it enough ornaments on it, and we have a ton of ornaments just from, I don't know, hammy, I don't know if you call it hammy downs, but just over the years. Yeah.
00:34:09
Jeffrey Krug
And the kids, you know, all the stuff that they would get an ornament for for the holidays. But I'm I'm not a I'm not a Scrooge, but I look forward to like Christmas coming down. ands That's why I like Thanksgiving. Yeah, it becomes a bit much after yeah I'm like ah New Year's Day. Take it all down. Wow. That's good. Yeah. If if we if we're disciplined, we might we might start. I don't know.
00:34:37
Jeffrey Krug
We don't do like a ton of decorating aside from the tree, really. No, neither do I. I think it's almost like um so almost like a flex that you see these days when you go past these neighborhoods and you see a house that's just like totally done up to the... Yeah, no. We don't do anything outside. No, we don't but don't. I don't have an exterior outlet in the front of my house to plug in any lights. What are you working on when you get back in the shop?
00:35:02
Jeffrey Krug
um They still got to install that desk. I don't know what the deal is. Lindsay, the designer, actually just dropped off the hardware outside. and ah ah There was some kind of delay on site. I don't know. I haven't asked because I've been too busy to even go over there. So I got that to wrap up. We're doing a handrail. Let me show you. I i just did the drawing. Out of wood?
00:35:26
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, it's going to be like a purchased handrail, but um the problem is so this is a winder. So it's just equal steps, but with a 90. So this is like sort of tricky to navigate. Yeah, really, um it would be nice if it could just be like a 90, but it has to be tangent. You know, it has to twist. You can't just turn. It has to twist so that it stays level. You know, you can't just buy that has to be made.
00:35:54
Jeffrey Krug
um I closed the article, but um I was reading an article on this is carpentry. And I'm like, you know, the client's like, well, don't you think like the handrail companies will be able to do that? And I'm like, not really like I remember Walter did some crazy handrails over at timber. And they were ah it was for a custom builder. But yeah, I don't know.
00:36:21
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, Leilani said the same thing. Why don't you talk to timber? But anytime I've ever tried to feed them some work, they don't know what their deal is. Yeah, I get the feeling that it's not easy to work. Like it's like ah like an artsy kind of thing. Yeah, it gets too complicated. Yeah, like I had legitimate jobs and like they sort of just let them fall through the cracks. Yeah, but what you need is somebody with You need a five-axis CNC to do that. That's the thing. That's the problem. Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe send Walter a message. He might know somebody.
Custom Handrail Creation Challenges
00:36:54
Jeffrey Krug
I don't think, I don't think Conrad has a five-axis to connect Conrad at maker camp. Unless he has a, the rotary for his CNC. I'm not sure. I don't think he does, but you could ask him. He might. I know Corey Odyssey CNC has the cyclone. I don't know if maybe that could do it.
00:37:16
Jeffrey Krug
All right, so handrail. Anything else going on? Still trying to boxes trying to get you the boxes are getting finished right now. Getting started on that. So those got to be out by mid December, which will be done, you know, by mid next week, early next week. im Hoping us to get started on this other kitchen.
00:37:36
Jeffrey Krug
Uh, got that Island thing, trying to get that across the finish line. Yeah. Everybody moves real slow this time of year. Yeah. That's the whole thing. It's like they're just, they're thinking about the holidays now. It's always nice when the holidays are sort of behind us and it's like a fresh start. Yeah. Like come mid January, early February, it just gets crazy again. That's good. Yeah. That's good.
00:37:59
Jeffrey Krug
Well, I don't have much going on other than ah finishing up those mallets finishing up this this. um Steps tool to hopefully promote plans on Wednesday. I'm going to do the whole.
00:38:14
Jeffrey Krug
Black Friday, Cyber Monday. We'll be thinking about that I'm sure this time next year. Yeah. With what we're doing with like t-shirts and hopefully have, you know, a bunch of merch by then. Yeah. I talked with John, who is setting up a Shopify shopify store for my site. Nice. And ah we'll probably end up doing the same thing. Yeah. I have to, I need to sort of design the today's craftsman, what we want it to look like and get that over to John. But this week is shot for me as well.
00:38:44
Jeffrey Krug
you know Yeah, and like you got to take the take any free time, you know, it's like If you can't find the excuse to take it easy around Thanksgiving or Chris then you're gonna have a few drinks ah christmas I was saying yesterday. We're doing the floor. So Ally was my cut man yesterday. How was she? Yeah, she's difficult to work with She's like let me do it my way I'm like, that's not how it works I'm like not doing it your way. I'm like you do it the right way ah Anyway, um, that's awesome. I was like, I'm going to need a drink after this floor is done. You know, it was, it was rough. So you haven't had a drink. No, I don't remember the last time I had a drink maker camp. Yeah. Uh, will you have a few drinks over? Yeah, probably, probably on Thanksgiving. What will you drink?
00:39:33
Jeffrey Krug
Uh, probably beer, maybe wine. I don't know. The thing with beer is it sort of fills you up like with along with the food. Yeah. I'm a hard, hard guy to fill up when it comes to food. I'm thinking martinis. Yeah. I do have, I have Tito's in the freezer. I have tequila in the freezer. I've never had a tequila martini. No, not yet. Not a martini, but you know mixed with yeah something.
00:39:59
Jeffrey Krug
I'm thinking... I'm thinking martinis just because I i like a good martini. Dirty martinis. I like a dirty martini. They're like three olives. and And they're not as filling and you just kind of kind of nice. just keep you know um You drink it on the rocks or up? Well, up. What I do is I mix... So I like vermouth. Some people don't like that much vermouth. And I do almost like two to one.
00:40:27
Jeffrey Krug
and I'll mix it and there just put the whole mixture in the freezer. Yeah, yeah and then just pour it into a martini glass. I was doing that with manhattans for a while. I had like a bottle in the freezer that was pre mixed man. When was that? I just come back 10 years. pull ah Yeah, so that's what that's what I'm thinking. But then then ah yeah, just looking forward to that. What vodka?
00:40:53
Jeffrey Krug
I would use Tito's as well. Yeah. I like Tito's. It's a good price too. Yeah. It's not that expensive. No. You know what the funny thing is? If you buy the larger bottle, I think it's a 7.5 liter. Is that what it is? 1.75. 1.75. The handle, the big one. Yeah. Yeah. That's like $6 more than the next size up and the next size The next size down? Or the next size down? Yeah, like a liter.
Episode Wrap-up & Gratitude
00:41:18
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, the next size down is like almost half. Yeah. So you're better off just buying like the gigantic bottle. Yeah, and if you buy like the really small one that's like a pint or whatever, yeah it's like 16 ounces, it's like 20 bucks, but you can get the 1.75 for probably like 45 bucks or something. Yeah, it's totally yeah totally worth it. So that's my advice. If you're going to buy vodka, buy the the big bottle.
00:41:42
Jeffrey Krug
Well, well I think we better sign off. Sounds good. ah Have a happy Thanksgiving or I hope you guys had a happy Thanksgiving. Yeah. ah Thanks for listening. We're thankful for all the listeners and the viewers and yeah. Happy Black Friday. Yeah. See you next week.
00:42:01
Jeffrey Krug
If you enjoyed this episode, please tell a friend or share it on social media. You can leave a review of this podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. And don't forget today's Craftsman YouTube channel has an upload every Saturday morning at 8.30 AM m Eastern. We'll see you next week.