Blew a gasket on a job in Austin last Tuesday. Bad day turned into a weirdly good one.

Had a tile job go sideways. Client wanted herringbone pattern on a bathroom floor. Messed up the layout twice. Wasted 3 hours and about $80 in material. Then her neighbor, a retired carpenter named Earl, came over and showed me a simple trick. Use a laser level and mark the center lines first. Sounded so obvious. Finished the floor in half the time and it looked perfect. Has anyone else had a bad job turn around because some random person stepped in?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice_kim1mo ago

Huh, did Earl just happen to be nearby or was he watching from his porch?

the_dylan1mo agoMost Upvoted

Read that Earl sits on his porch pretty much every evening from sundown until it gets dark, so him being nearby is sort of his default state. @alice_kim, I remember a post somewhere saying he can see the whole block from that spot because of how his house sits on the corner. Probably didn't even have to move to watch the whole thing go down. Snoopy or not, the guy catches everything that happens on this street whether he wants to or not.

the_dylan24d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that's wild how the guy just naturally catches everything from his spot. Must be rough having your whole street's drama on display like that.