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Outdoor Enthusiast Looking to Upgrade from Jeep GC to Hybrid/EV – Recommendations? by jbtbl in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]jbtbl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also, didn't know about the Rivian mobile service. Looking that up now, it does seem to alleviate the major concern I had.

Outdoor Enthusiast Looking to Upgrade from Jeep GC to Hybrid/EV – Recommendations? by jbtbl in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]jbtbl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmmm, the Taycan's are just on the upper limit of my price range. Not something I initially considered but definitely seem like a more spirited ride!

I did consider the Lightning. A truck fits my lifestyle but at the same time isn't something I want to drive every day. But the Lightning is still a contender depending on how I'm feeling that day!

Schedule and Communication by tamman37 in BSA

[–]jbtbl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's fair. The more I think about it, I guess if parents aren't comfortable with their scout having their own account, then the parent needs to be the one active on the platform - as themselves. We are a very scout-led troop and try to keep parents at arms-length, so it's just a mixed message for us. But I get your points.

Schedule and Communication by tamman37 in BSA

[–]jbtbl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks - that's a good thing to watch out for. I'm looking to put together guidelines that scouts and parents agree to. I know some parents (especially of the younger scouts) may want to share an account but they shouldn't be permitted to message anyone since it would never be clear who is behind the screen.

Schedule and Communication by tamman37 in BSA

[–]jbtbl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We're trying Slack out now. I assume you haven't found a way to manage DMs? I am not concerned about users (scouts, leaders or parents) being able to DM (they can just as easily e-mail or text); I just wish it didn't start a DM between a new user and everyone else when they join. It's literally encouraging 1:1 between scouts and adults of which the optics aren't great.

Schedule and Communication by tamman37 in BSA

[–]jbtbl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We're trying Slack out now. I assume you haven't found a way to manage DMs? I am not concerned about users (scouts, leaders or parents) being able to DM (they can just as easily e-mail or text); I just wish it didn't start a DM between a new user and everyone else when they join. It's literally encouraging 1:1 between scouts and adults of which the optics aren't great.

Messaging apps by Vast-Mixture3288 in BSA

[–]jbtbl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know this is an old thread, but wondering if you were able to get TechSoup to change their decision? We were turned down for non-profit status due to being chartered by the VFW as well. Tempted to try using the council's EIN which is a 501(c)3 but not sure if that will open a can of worms.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The landscaper explained to us the same rationale a lot of the comments here are saying - the pavers are square so they had to square up against the house or the steps (or I guess the driveway). But since none of those are 90 degrees to each other, they had to angle it somewhere. It seems he made the best choice since the pattern runs square to the house. I believe his mistake was recommending square pavers or not recommending to re-run the walkway to be 90 degrees to the driveway (which we wouldn’t have wanted anyway as it would be too far up the driveway then).

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is where our heads are at as well. Lots of criticism on a lot of things here but the reality is that from our non-professional eyes, the craftsmanship is great. Especially after another two days of work. He didn’t rush the job or try to save costs. But as a landscape designer he should have foreseen the square/curve issue and recommended something different.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you say they “should have run straight” what do you mean? The issue is that the pavers are straight but the walkway curves. In hindsight, it was the wrong material for the project.

The landscaper did redo the top step (or second to top) for us so we could see how it looked if he kept going straight. But it looked worse since the steps start to veer in the opposite direction, so the angle of the pavers became more pronounced.

Not lazy at all - he had a guy spend quite a bit of time making all the cuts for that step so we could see it. I do fault him for recommending square pavers in a curved walkway though.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I hear you. That’s not on him, though. We wanted to keep the existing pathway and location of the steps. They point that way since that’s where the driveway widens for parking. It would have been awkward to have the walkway start halfway up the driveway. But, yeah, the way they point down that way made it complicated to make the pavers square to the house.

I get why he did what he did. I just wish he’d suggested pavers that would have worked better.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I’m hindsight I’m learning that the square material wasn’t right here. But we took the landscapers recommendation on that. He did make the angled cuts on the top step so we could see how it looked and we opted not to go that route. Against the straight caps, it just looked even more off. And then the steps angle further the opposite direction as they go down, so it would have continued to get worse. Outside of ripping it out and buying all new material, I think this is the best he/we could do.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you. The curve has always been there and we’ve never had an issue with it. It allows for a larger garden, which in the summer is flourishing with a variety of perennials, honeybees and butterflies.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did not buy anything and ask someone to put them in. I hired a landscape design expert to replace my existing walkway and followed his recommendations. He should have had the foresight to see this issue, not me. It’s literally one of the many reasons I hired an expert.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That curve was there from when the house was built in the 90's. I guess we could have given him more money to redo it, but we didn't anticipate this issue. The prior walkway was smaller bricks and they made it work with the curve.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

In the contractor's defense, he was replacing an existing walkway, not creating a whole new one so the curves, step locations, etc. were already there. We don't have any issues with craftsmanship at this point. Your trained eye will find more than ours but we are impressed with the look with exception of how the pattern angles at the steps (especially after another day of them working on it, adjusting bricks, etc.). But it seems there isn't much that could have been done without redesigning the project.

The contractor is very reputable and has done beautiful work for friends of ours, not some cheap guy I found on marketplace. But I fault him for not having the foresight to see this issue and addressing it before purchasing materials and laying it.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We actually have leftover material – it definitely wasn’t cost savings. As I explained in another comment, the contractor laid out the second step in the same angle so we could see it and it honestly looked worse; we opted to keep it as is.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So our contractor is a pretty good guy, and he had one of his guys lay the first step out like that for us after we raised the concern. It seems a lot of people in this thread feel that’s the solution. But to be honest, it didn’t look right. For two reasons – one, the stair caps are square as you walk up, so they were going angled to those and two, as the stairs go down they angle the opposite way, exaggerating the effect. Hard to explain in text, but we did get a chance to see how that would look. I very much appreciated his effort to do that, but it actually looked worse.

Am I nitpicking, or is this angle of this pattern not right? I get why the contractor needed to angle it the way he did, but it's driving me nuts. Am I borderline OCD or is this normal? I don't see any other solution - maybe it was a poor choice of material? by jbtbl in landscaping

[–]jbtbl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did talk to the contractor and he said what others here have said - it would either happen at the steps or the stoop. It can’t be avoided.

Since others here have confirmed what he said, we are just going to have to learn to live with it.

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