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If you want a good laugh, I think. Somehow I landed on this page on Houzz. The question was "Strangest request from a client?"

If you have the time there are some real doozies here. Different strokes for different folks.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1081653/strangest-request-from-a-client?n=191

This year they have kept us going during our normal slow season. Question is,

Do you simply tell them to get in line?

Do you make empty promises?

Do you make an effort to juggle your schedule and fit them in including working extra hours?

Recent talk on another post and my own dilemma of working in a cramped two car garage makes me think of this story.


A poor man lived with his wife and six children in a very small one-room house. They
were always getting in each other's way and there was so little space they could hardly
breathe!

Finally the man could stand it no more. He talked to his wife and asked her what to do.
"Go see the rabbi," she told him, and after arguing a while, he went.

The rabbi greeted him and said, "I see something is troubling you. Whatever it is, you can
tell me."
And so the poor man told the rabbi how miserable things were at home with him, his
wife, and the six children all eating and living and sleeping in one room. The poor man
told the rabbi, "We're even starting to yell and fight with each other. Life couldn't be
worse."

The rabbi thought very deeply about the poor man's problem. Then he said, "Do exactly
as I tell you and things will get better. Do you promise?"
"I promise," the poor man said.
The rabbi then asked the poor man a strange question. "Do you own any animals?"
"Yes," he said. "I have one cow, one goat, and some chickens."
"Good," the rabbi said. "When you get home, take all the animals into your house to live
with you."

The poor man was astonished to hear this advice from the rabbi, but he had promised to
do exactly what the rabbi said. So he went home and took all the farm animals into the
tiny one-room house.

The next day the poor man ran back to see the rabbi. "What have you done to me,
Rabbi?" he cried. "It's awful. I did what you told me and the animals are all over the
house! Rabbi, help me!"
The rabbi listened and said calmly, "Now go home and take the chickens back outside."

The poor man did as the rabbi said, but hurried back again the next day. "The chickens
are gone, but Rabbi, the goat!" he moaned. "The goat is smashing up all the furniture and
eating everything in sight!"
The good rabbi said, "Go home and remove the goat and may God bless you."

So the poor man went home and took the goat outside. But he ran back again to see the
rabbi, crying and wailing. "What a nightmare you have brought to my house, Rabbi! With
the cow it's like living in a stable! Can human beings live with an animal like this?"
The rabbi said sweetly, "My friend, you are right. May God bless you. Go home now and
take the cow out of your house." And the poor man went quickly home and took the cow
out of the house.

The next day he came running back to the rabbi again. "O Rabbi," he said with a big
smile on his face, "we have such a good life now. The animals are all out of the house.
The house is so quiet and we've got room to spare! What a joy!"

It was neat to see our Gator chair on the big screen last week at the High Springs First Baptist Church auction. Lots of UF Gator memorabilia went to bid. We were pleased to see a half dozen people bidding on the chair including the folks in front of us who won the final bid. When the auction helper brought the chair to him he quickly abandoned his metal folding chair and proudly sat in his new piece of furniture. Rose and I couldn't resist the temptation to introduce ourselves.



We stayed for the whole thing. Toward the end Rose saw this Singer Home sewing machine sitting in a corner. We plugged it in and it ran so I wheeled it up front and asked the auctioneer if we could bid on it. We got it for $30. Only problem when we got it home the casing for the bobbin didn't spin. I took it apart and found a plastic gear was broke into 3 pieces. E-bay says $18 for a new. What to do?



So Rose gets on the internet and finds a guy who repairs and sells machines. He had this Kenmore. He called it a home/industrial machine. More like a glorified home sewing machine. The nice thing is it has no electronics. The different type stitches are changed with a set of cams that fit in the top of the machine. No plastic anywhere. And it runs good. And it fits into the hole on the cabinet we won at the auction. We will use it for light weight fabric. Total cost including the cabinet $70. I hope we made a good purchase.



I forgot to add, when I went to lift it off his workbench I about dropped it. It weighs about 40#.

3 weeks ago Rose and I went to a marketing seminar sponsored by SCORE. The speaker was good, obviously a salesman. There were about 10 people in attendance. We quickly learned the discussion was aimed mostly at people just starting a small business but Rose and I enjoyed it anyway.

The first thing the speaker pointed out was unless you have a large budget, newspaper, phone book and local magazine ads are a waist of money. He said radio and TV ads were too expensive. He said for the biggest bang for the buck internet advertising is the way to go .

He then asked,  if he brought a paying customers to our business what percentage of the sale would we be willing to pay him. He went around the room for answers. The highest was a medical supply sales women who said 20% The rest were between 0% and 10%. His point was why wouldn't you spend this much on advertising to bring in more customers?

He then spent the next two hours explaining how internet sales work. His first tool, of course, is a web site and figuring out how to get it on page one.

Next he talked about Facebook. He really pushed spending a little money on your business page, $10-$15 would give you tremendous returns.

His third favorite is Linkedin. This business website was created to generate leads. But I think it has turned more into a social network.

And of course he said you must have a page on Google My Business.

I think I have my website figured out. We are on page one when you google upholsterers in Gainesville Fl. But it would be nice to be closer to the top of that page.
I've never tried boosting a post on Facebook and was wondering if this is worth while. Can you boost a post to reach just your local area?
Does anyone here have a Linkedin account? I don't, but I soon will.

A man boards a plane with six kids.
After they settled in their seats a women sitting across the isle leans over.
"Are those all your kids?"
He replies, "No. I work for a condom company.
These are customer complaints."

We don't get them often but when we do... it sucks.

We did a 3 piece sectional. Got 1/2 down, COM. She called us before the check came back to warn us she wrote it from an old account. By all appearances she has plenty of money. Shes young-ish with 3 pre-teen children.

The family is moving from a nice house to a really, really nice house in another city. Her excuse is her world is upside down. Moving, Changing banks, Kids changing school and now shes away in another state.

None of that gets me mad, mistakes happen and I'm sure shes good for it. BUT if I wrote a craftsman or business owner a bad check I would make every effort to show up at their business the next day with cash in hand. Its been a week. The check is in the mail.

Carrs Corner is closing down. www.carrscorner.com,


Edit: I should have said he's closing his forum.

Maybe I'm just lucky I don't know. But it seems like I haven't had to work with one of those incredibly fraying fabrics lately. It seems like most of the fabric I've been working with is backed with the spray on glue.

Some of you may have seen this floating around on facebook. I don't know what to think. Kind of depressing.

This is from Kiplinger magazine.

To help job seekers avoid some of these dying professions, we analyzed 784 popular occupations. Take a look at 10 of the worst jobs for the future.
#3 is  Textile Machine Worker
#5 is Sewing Machine Operator
#7 is tailor

Take a wild guess what # 8 is

If you guessed upholsterer you would be right.
Job growth, 2005-2015: -25.4%
Projected job growth, 2015-2025: -3.3%
Median annual salary: $30,023

It then goes on to say what we have all discussed here before.
"Online marketplaces and discount retailers are bringing down furniture prices--and the demand for upholsterers with them. "As people are able to buy furniture at lower prices online or in stores like Ikea, they're tending to replace things instead of repair them"



A couple of things they did not mention.
1.   You cannot buy an antique at a discount furniture store.
2.   You cannot get grandmas heirloom chair recovered at a discount furniture store.
3.   You cannot get a custom hot rod upholstered at a discount furniture store.
4.   You can make a pretty good living fixing the stuff they sell at the discount furniture stores.

As most of you know over the last 6 years I've been back and fourth working for other people and working for myself. I guarantee I could find a job next week if I really needed one. Granted, I have 30 years experience and lots of skills. I know what employers are looking for and know how to sell myself. Someone with 2 or 3 years experience and all they know how to do is take the old fabric off and put the new fabric on may have a hard time finding a job. But that goes with any profession, the more experience you have the more valuable you are.

http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/business/T012-S001-worst-jobs-for-the-future-2016/index.html

This question was asked on a web site called Quora. I had to look the term up on google and was surprised to learn I had actually skinned a sofa before. Pretty much recycling the leather. My response was;

"My first thought is why not, leather ages gracefully with developed patina and wrinkles and stretch marks. The leather in your pictures has all of this and more. The number one question you need to find out is, is it really leather? There are some vinyls out there that even a seasoned professional can not tell the difference. And many times the sales person at the furniture store is so eager to make a sale they will tell the customer anything they want to hear. The only way to find out is to take part of it apart and look at the back of the leather. If it has a rough, suede look and feel it is most likely real leather. If it has a cloth like backing it may be vinyl. Or it may be composition leather which is inferior to leather hides.

But if it is genuine leather and still soft to the hand you could make some really cool toss pillows or dining seats. Any items bigger than this may be a problem. You can see from your pictures the way the manufacturer pieced the seat cushions and back together. They did this to make better use of the leather hides. It looks like they did the same to the arms also. And I'm guessing they did the same to the outside's. (speaking of outsides, many manufactures will use leather on the insides and vinyl on the outsides to save money). This means once the whole thing is stripped from the frame and the seams are all picked apart all that will be left are pieces big enough for something small. That is unless you can find someone willing to take all those small pieces and sew them together to make a piece-work type project. Then you must also consider the time it will take an upholsterer or seamstress to do the work of picking it all apart and figuring out some kind of a pattern that will look nice on a larger piece, like a chair.

Your best bet would be to run this by your local upholsterer and see what he thinks."

I don't know what part of the country shes from but if she stops by your shop you can thank old Ed for the reference. He he :)

Almost stepped on this guy in my shop this morning. I captured him in a waist can and fabricated a lid out of cardboard. I secured it tightly with tape and put the whole thing in a Coleman cooler.  I then relocated it to woods at Mill Creek Preserve up the road from our house.

How many of our Southern (and northern) friends work without air conditioning during the summer months? My garage doesn't have one but we plan to add one when we expand it but don't know when that will happen. There are no windows to add a small one unless I knock a hole in the wall so I'm suffering through it. It got up to 99* one day last week.

Hay Sofadoc. Just looked at the radar. You doing all right?

There are some problems I'm having when using this forum.

1. A couple years ago I stopped being able to use the emotions, smiley, wink , cheesy etc. No big deal

2. About a year ago the "preview" option stopped working. The only way to preview is to hit Post and if any revisions need to be made hit modify. No big deal

3. Photobucket is a pain in the ass. Sorry. But no big deal

4. Last December the site went down. For about a month. I messaged them a time or two and got a response that they were working on it. Eventually it came back so no big deal.

5. Now my profile picture, the one of my GS dog who was put down the day after the picture was taken and who is also my online name has disappeared. Thanks Photobucket. Personally this is a big deal.

I love this forum and I appreciate the folks who make it available to us. I know Photobucket saves tons of memory on the server. But if you don't want this forum to die completely get with the times. Drop Photobocket. Just don't know what else to say.

I was on-line trying to figure out how to list my business in other cities using YP internet pages. After calling their help center I found the only way to do this is to buy a premium package. This is something we will do when the new book comes out. But it seems like a disservice to their customers not to list every available business that serves the area. For example Ladd Upholstery Designs, serves Gainesville but no way to let their customers know without upgrading. Frustrated.

On another note, I was looking at some of the ads on the Gainesville YP website. One in particular caught my eye and this unfair review in particular;

"I called Sunshine during my work day to meet up with the owner Claude to drop by with one of four chairs to have stained and upholstered for my office lobby. I looked through some swatches of fabrics and colors to match with the decor in my work space. After checking out the chair, he quoted me 415.00 PER CHAIR! This chair is not an antique nor was the fabric real leather. Did this business think that 1660.00 to reupholster 4 chairs was a fair quote? Do not waste your time going to this dump and have this business try to take you to the cleaners. This quote was way over priced for the job I was bring to him. I left abruptly."

He doesn't describe the chair but if it is fully upholstered and needs some refinishing the price sounds reasonable. Did the guy get other quotes from other upholsterers before he posted the review? Just because he's a cheep a$$ doesn't mean this is an unfair quote? I wanted to respond but that option is unavailable.

A lady called today and wants 6 cushions recovered. Its a wicker piece from the 50's and she wants the cotton wrapped spring cushion rebuilt. She wants me to take all the old cotton off from around the springs and replace with all new cotton. I've never done this before. I've never been shown how. Rose says it doesn't seem that hard. I think it'll make a big mess. I'm always up for a challenge but don't feel good about this.

Has anyone ever rebuilt cotton wrapped spring cushions before? Are there any good alternatives?

A decorator we've never done work for called last week. She told me she just picked up 3 cornices from an upholsterer and they look like crap. Not enough padding, full of puckers, and no welt on top or bottom. Can I help her?

She's working with another decorator. We just delivered our first job for this other decorator. She said they talked about the cornices and decided to change the fabric, add more padding and now they want to add channels to match the bed that is in the same room. She said she would get the cornices to us for an estimate. And because the other upholsterer screwed up, its a rush job.

I assured her our quality is the highest possible and we do work for some of the best designers in town. We have two jobs we have to get out but I could start on hers right after that and have them done in 3 weeks. All was good. We told her we could meet her sometime and somewhere Saturday.

She called Friday and said, you know these cornices are for the same customer you are delivering a chair to, why don't I meet you there with them. I don't know why she didn't tell us that to begin with but then the other decorator calls and we go through the whole scenario again. Okay good we'll meet Sat at 10:00

This customer lives in the best neighborhood in town in a really nice house. Her furniture is all high end. The chair we upholstered is Chinese Chippendale style with black lacquer and gold leaf trim, made by Baker. She likes nice things.

And of course the decorator didn't show. The customer was there so we delivered the chair and she showed us the space where the cornice will go, kind of a bay window type setup.

So we worked up an estimate. And just for clarity I'll give you the numbers. One cornice is 100" long and two are 30" long. She wants 1-1/2 inches of padding added. She wants 11 pleats added with a button in the middle of each one. And of course lining added to the back. And top and bottom welt. For all this we quoted $450. We thought that was a pretty good deal.

The decorators response, YIKES! Rose was going to e-mail her right back to justify the price but I told her not to respond to such a snarky comment. So we left it at that. I imagine she will call me sometime this week.

What would you tell her?

Interview with the owner of Stone Vos.

https://vimeo.com/157224679

Almost a year ago today a lady calls and asks if I can pick up her chair. I told her we we're getting ready to go away for the weekend but if she could send us a photo to our e-mail we will gladly give her an estimate. This way we can see if we're in the ball park before we start the process.

Oh, no,no, no, You need to pick it up now. I just bought it at an antique store and my husband will kill me if he see's it in the back of my SUV. I'm going to have it recovered, can you at least meet me half way.

I hate picking up a piece before we give an estimate because we're always the one's that get screwed. IDK I guess I felt sorry for her so I agreed.

It's an antique Victorian channel back chair and when I picked it up I pointed out all the extra things it would need to get the job done. Springs needed to be retied, the arm was loose and new seat padding. I also pointed out the brass nail heads and told her if she decided to use those for the trim it would be extra.

So I took the chair back to the shop and worked up an estimate. Rose called her and gave her the price. She was very surprised and said it wasn't worth it, she only paid $35 for the chair. Could we just bring it back. Yeah she really did. Rose told her she could come to the shop and pick it up and she said she would.

So it sat in our shed for 9 months. Last October Rose called her and told her we were moving and she needed to get the chair or we would donate it to Goodwill or we would be willing to buy it from her for $25. Now she decided she wanted the chair recovered after all and she would get her fabric.

So we moved it to our new shop and 3 months later she brought the fabric to us.

She picked a nice Chinell and the chair is almost done so Rose called her to discuss trim. We can do gimp or double welt for free. Or brass nail heads for $35. She flipped, she sent about 20 text messages calling Rose everything but the son of god. She said we have been nickel and diming her and she wasn't paying any extra. The brass nails should have been included in the price and she is going to just come and pick the chair up now.

Yikes! So Rose texted her back and told her the extra cost is clearly stated on the original estimate (over a year ago) but to smooth things over we would do it for free. Okay, but I want them done in either black or brown. Um, but we only have brass.

So Rose went to Lowes and guess what? They have black and brown nail heads. Tonight Rose will call her and tell her if she'll get the nail heads we'll put them on.

Before After