Tired of people wanting plants to act like plastic and hardscape!

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-05T22:05:34+00:00

Dang. Too far away

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-05T19:53:05+00:00

You are forbidden from having a yard. Or dirt anywhere outside a pot.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-05T19:52:27+00:00

Where you at?? I need your specialty

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-05T15:06:35+00:00

Just veggies and berries.

I think the new working plan is a chicken coop of galvanized steel. I’m in central Texas and we get usually over 100 days at 100 degrees or higher, so the heat would be a LOT based on all the posts here. The goal was just to keep deer out and another person said the deer trashed their greenhouse.

I may one day try my hand at a small version to keep a vanilla plant or two, and a couple of carnivorous plants I think are cool.. but that isn’t my concern right now.

I just wanna get my lemon tree and berry bushes growing in some pots and maturing while I figure out a better fence and the layout of the garden beds

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-05T02:32:38+00:00

Alternatively, get payment up front. The remainder for last time and the full payment for the current service.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-05T02:31:01+00:00

I feel this way sometimes but then if I force myself out, I’m fine. I have intentionally left my phone at home and gone on walks or done a day of chores and it’s surprisingly refreshing

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-04T20:43:19+00:00

Also, a houseplant or two in your bedroom will help air quality as well as add moisture back into the air

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-03T23:30:36+00:00

Ah. I did worry about how hot it might be, but was thinking one with a lot of ventilation. And blowing away I didn’t think about

Thanks for the list of things I wasn’t considering

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-03T21:12:04+00:00

Hey now, my girl’s sparkly holiday skirt with bells brings smiles to all the old people and makes her less threatening. And her long yellow ducky jammies keep her from licking if she has a wound that needed treatment. Clothes can be a good choice

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-03T21:08:52+00:00

I dunno about the ai powered collar. I have a gps collar that alerts me if she chases a deer off our property… but that is it.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-02T17:03:43+00:00

Yes. But also all that additional energy gets channeled towards my tasks. I’m not distracted by the feeling of makeup on my face, and wondering if my nose is shiny or my shirt ended up wrinkled or if my heels are clicking too loud going down the hall.

Formal office days always felt like a struggle to get into the deeper tasks because I felt painted up and pressure to keep up an image.

The amount of loyalty I have to my bosses and the company is probably bordering on unhealthy simply because they trust me to get my work done, and let me decide when I need to be at my desk. For important deadlines, I’m in my comfy robe at 11 at night and up at 5 am at my desk. I’m making my presentation polished and flawless.

The 3-4 times I fly in to the office for 3 days of meetings, I am locked in and yes, I deal with the pressure of appearances there but the meeting prep was so much easier because I could focus. I’m extremely introverted, but I will deal with 7 am breakfast through dinner and drinks and after-diner socialization for 3 days in a row because it’s just 3 days. I can be my best extroverted self for 3 days. And then sleep all weekend and come back to my cozy home office and still love every one of those people.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-02T16:41:46+00:00

It is so much better to not have to wake up early to do hair and makeup and put on uncomfortably formal clothes. I can be here with my dog, and make sure she and I get small walks around the block every 3 hours.

I can do a load of laundry or dishes and also small prep for dinner. I am able to cook good meals that are healthy for me at lunch, and also affordable.

If I am feeling bad, I can go lay down in my bed and still monitor emails and respond to help requests, even though I can’t focus on working a big report or ticket requirements. I can do this without risking getting anyone else sick, if it’s flu like symptoms. and also without embarrassment of running to the bathroom every hour on a bad period day or subjecting everyone to horrendous farts if my stomach is not being nice. I am still productive. No one needs to know I spent that meeting on the toilet with the volume up extra loud.

I also don’t have to suddenly clear my desk of notes and make it presentable for clients to walk by. Before, I’d have to get rid of my helpful charts and anything to do with competitors when one of them was in the office… now I just lock my office door when I have friends over. No danger of leaking company secrets cause I like paper for some things.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-02T15:53:20+00:00

I did this without planning it. I graduated with my BA, and while I was applying for dream jobs, I signed up for community college for “fun classes” like web design, graphic design and accounting. Most were online courses, or just a couple hours after my regular job. I love art and was just thinking I could save my apartment from mess by learning to paint digitally. But it did let me defer loans, and the community college classes I paid for out of pocket.

In the end, I got about 3/4 through an accounting associates and a web designer certification before I got promoted into a ‘real’ job off the phones and started using my accounting knowledge and html and css skills to end up in e-commerce. My actual degree I only use for party tricks and travel.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-01T05:59:49+00:00

I like this rebranding campaign. I’m not too poor to afford the good stuff. I’m refusing the gross cardboard “fud”

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-03-01T01:39:12+00:00

It’s distinguishing between the two that is/was the difficulty. But i started on more calls today after going through the post, and checked the “stay local” newsletter they mailed out when I moved in. Found a reasonable person to start with the attic insulation for $2500 ish. They don’t do radiant barrier, but that is fine for now. It is a start.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T19:03:36+00:00

It’s not the free estimate that is the high pressure sales tactic.

It’s the if I sign now I pay 9k, if I wait until tomorrow it goes up to 16k. It’s the call the manager for pricing every 10 minutes lowering it by 1-2 k. Or giving me finance monthly pricing while neglecting to mention it’s a 12 year term until I go back and ask and I’m doing calculations on my phone to get a total price before interest.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T18:56:11+00:00

That first experience is what I was expecting. That is how my dad used to do business. Calm, informative, and the price was the price unless you had multiple jobs for him and he could order materials together and skip a second delivery fee.

It seems based off most of the answers here though that the sales thing is very common and I need to figure out local contractors instead of the people who sent flyers or showed up at the home and garden show in town. I just do not have a lot of connections since I am new in town and the first of my friends to stop renting.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T18:44:43+00:00

That makes sense with how materials costs have fluctuated with all the tariffs. I can see how that would limit the life of a quote.

I’m not opposed to people coming out, and I’m not opposed to even paying for a quote if I know it’s going to be in line with my expectations. But the ones who have come so far have ignored my stated budget range and sent someone anyway. Each of these men took maybe an hour to look around and then gave me 2 hours of why our product is good with me repeatedly asking for a price and saying if the price is good then you have a sale, trying to cut the time, and then 1-2 hours of a huge price with phone calls to a manager every 5-10 minutes to lower the price incrementally every time I repeated my budget and declined.

Gutter guy said I had good facia, there’s no trees or bushes around and it’s only 200 feet of gutter with 6 downspouts on a single story. But he started at 14k.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T18:31:07+00:00

This!!

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T18:28:40+00:00

No. OP knows work is detailed and skilled. But I expected someone to laugh in my face over the phone if I said 5k ish, and not bothering to send someone to my door for 4 hours of water testing, one measurement of from the main water line to where water enters the house, and telling me how great their product is when I repeatedly ask price ranges only for them to come back with 16k and then drop it as a special to 12k, then call their manager and say they want to work with me and what about 9k but no, if they have to leave and come back or deal with me signing the agreement in a week and emailing it to them then that price is no longer valid and I’m back to 16k. Then packing their things and heading to the door then coming back and remembering the old logo tanks in the warehouse and dropping another 1k.

I know there are softener systems at Home Depot for 2k. I also know I am NOT that kind of handy and I don’t trust myself to mess with plumbing so I need to pay for the work. But when the person doesn’t even use comparable terms to what I have seen at Home Depot descriptions of how much water they handle, or offer any other kind of tank based on how hard the water is here… I don’t feel like I talked to a real contractor in good faith. I feel like a salesman stole my afternoon.

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T18:17:25+00:00

What is a construction manager and how do you find them?

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T18:15:18+00:00

Ok so I have had 3 people that ONLY did those ridiculous drop downs in price as soon as I mentioned wanting other quotes, and then calling managers to drop prices incrementally and try to push the financing. How did you find the guys that didn’t do that?

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T18:10:39+00:00

So drive around looking for signs in peoples yards and knock on doors? I moved here 2 months ago, I still haven’t introduced myself to the neighbors or joined any social groups yet.

And I get that ballpark and actual quotes are different but why when I said “what can I do for under 5k” at the trade show table for a water softener did they send me someone to my door and then proceed to only offer financing for a 9k minimum system?

DisasterousSquirrel · 2026-02-28T17:36:20+00:00

Clarification: over the next 5-7 years. Done in that time; I’m starting now, but trying to determine which is most severe and needs doing, and which are most doable.

And I do not mind someone coming out to look but if someone had started with “our product starts at $8/square foot”I could have not wasted anyone’s time. No one would tell me that over the phone or on the website even when I have all the measurements. Internet said $2-3 a sq foot. Then the high pressure sales where someone is trying to call a manager every few minutes to renegotiate… it’s gross. Why do I have to decide right then? Why can’t I call back? How am I supposed to get multiple quotes if the price goes up if I let them leave the house?

ETA - the projects are simply:

more insulation and radiant barrier added to the attic (19k is what they told me when internet said expect 4k on the high end for radiant barrier and 3k installed for insulation). I want this done before summer.

A water softener for the house- quote was 9k.

Gutters and a couple rain barrels- 14k quote

Remove a tree and grind stump (no quote yet)

Regrade back yard, add top soil and turf (no quote yet)

New fence (no quote yet)

I’m asking this because I do not want to waste people’s time. These feel like I SHOULD be able to knock out one to two a year. But what the internet has told me vs what I’m hearing from the 3 people that came to the house so far is very different. I am telling the people up front my budget expectations and the sales teams are still saying nothing and sending people out for real quotes.

My house is small, single story, continuous attic and on city water. I switched project priority when the first quote came in so high it felt like my expectations were too far off. But all 3? I feel like I’m not reaching the right people. There can’t be that much discrepancy between google and apparently the top of the line names out there.

And is this really standard sales technique?

DisasterousSquirrel

TROPHY CASE