Decorating: latex paint over stain grade hardwood?

[ultrarunner]

How much are parking lot lights? Could you just put up a pole and attach a dawn to dusk LED light? I have several around my place and they work great. Cost of the light at Lowes is $70

We have parking lot lights in the style of a 1960’s shopping center.

Repeated copper wire thefts where the live underground wires cut and pulled in the distant corners is a ongoing challenge. When it happened the third time admin said no more as this site was scheduled to close 2024… with just months to go and our greatly improving census corporate committed to another 15 years.

The pandemic years and facing closure meant all capital investment was off the table.

My first 20 years I was simply able to take care of business… that changed since being acquired and now all those decisions are made far away at a distant corp headquarters…

The corp head of security was not aware our facility was still open as it was slated to close.

Upon reflection maybe the real issue for me is going from the person that gets things done to one dependent on go or no go decisions from corporate.

Redecorating never made my list of priorities knowing we have real needs.

Every year I put together a budget outlined by priorities required to keep the doors open and since the pandemic year 2020 uncertainty of the future no actions taken except in cases that simply can’t be ignored.

I greatly appreciate the TBN input…

 

[airbiscuit]

How long are you going to ride with that burr under your saddle?

 

[2manyrocks]

If you want to get things done in this new corporate environment, I think you're going to have to figure out how to move things forward. Maybe the head of corporate security would be a new ally? Safety & security first. Decorating later.

I wondered if lighting would be the easiest and cheapest first step, but with you saying the copper wire keeps getting stolen, that pushes me towards thinking fencing/gating has to happen first.

 

[EddieWalker]

A buddy of mine has a crane repair business and his first shop was in Oakland. It was too close to a residential area, but he thought he could make it safe with fencing. They just cut the fencing, and when he had dogs in there to keep them out, they killed the dogs.

He moved to another part of Oakland that was close to the Airport. This was better, but eventually they started cutting through the walls of his building.

Finally, he moved to San Leandro, where it's been better, but a lot more expensive.

Now he's trying to decide if he should give up on having a location in CA, or keep it open because one of his kids lives there and runs that part of his business. Or just retire and let somebody else deal with it.

 

[MossRoad]

Depends on when you ask…

I need to use up all my accumulated vacation leave first!

There is early retirement, full retirement and Medicare age retirement…

On that note, my wife has hundreds of unused sick/personal days in her 'bucket'. When people would retire, they'd pay out those sick/personal days. She's been an exemplary employee, only took maternity leave twice and a few days off during covid when she was bed ridden during her 40+ year career there.

Well, corporate just changed the policy that you can only take 80 hours of that time per year now. So, she will now never be able to get those days paid to her unless she stays about 12 more years. She's 62. That'll never happen.

At my old job, I had similar situation. Over the years, any sick days I didn't use got put into 'a bucket' that could be used to cover unpaid sick leave gaps and I'd get anything that was left paid out when I retired.

Then corporate changed the policy in early 2017 and said it had to be used before 2024 as sick days only, and 'the bucket plan' would end. No payout at retirement anymore. My planned retirement year was 2026. So they just took away any chance of me getting those days paid. Then a few months later, they outsourced production and let us all go. I'd get nothing.

A few days later, they let me know that since I had turned 55 in 2016, before the policy change, I was eligible for early retirement instead of just being let go. So I still had a legal claim to that bucket money ( don't ask me how, I have no idea). So I was able to use that bucket money to pay for health insurance for the next 2.5 years. So I did get the money value back out of it. However, anyone that was let go at the same time as I was that was under 55 years old got nothing. That was several dozen people. What a slime-ball move.

Also, it used to be if you were to take a buyout, you'd get 1 week's pay for every year you worked there up to 26 weeks max. It had been like that for 25 years. They changed the policy to only 13 weeks max, and let us all go two weeks later. Grrr....

And this was a family owned and operated business, but the generation of kids running it took on a corporate attitude and that was that.

The thing I learned from my years of loyalty to that family was this... it's a business, no matter how you think they may think of you, it's a business. At the end of the day, you are just an asset.

You owe them nothing but an honest days work for an honest days pay. They paid you for your services. They don't care you never missed a day of work. They don't care if a procedure was never cancelled due to facilities issues. All they care about is if you produce more than you cost them. That's it.

So my advice to you is to use up that accumulated time as fast as you can, because at any time, they can change the policy and you may never get it all back, if any of it.

 

[Oaktree]

Take away is it’s always easier to take the path of least resistance and go with the flow and even if you end up going over the waterfall…

Quite possible too involved as I picked out and wrote up the specs as my part of the build team in 1994 always opting for durability for the long haul and made the case it’s actually saving us money…

I won’t argue I’m not the best fit in a large enterprise and 85,000 employees is large.

The reality is that it's their sandbox, their rules. If you're not willing to do things the way they want them done, then quit and get a new job more to your liking. I sympathize with you, but it's not your decision to make.

As far as decorating fads, my wife will sometimes watch those houseflipper shows. Often as not we'll both cringe at the stuff these flippers do...white shaker kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, "master" bedrooom with walk-in closet, so predictable. Now maybe that's what sells houses in the cities where these shows are set...almost none of the finished renovations appeal to me in the least.

Paint vs "natural" finishes on cabinets...depends on the house. Ours is an almost 200 year old New England farmhouse. Cabinetry is painted, as it most likely was in the 1830s when it was built. Other than the "bones" of the house, nothing's original, but we have made an effort to do things that fit. Case in point; when we bought the place in what's now our bedroom the previous owner had put down particle board with linoleum on it. Wife & I went back & forth over what to do when (not if) we ripped that up. She wanted one of those modern engineered wood floors, I thought it would stick out like a sore thumb and voted for keeping the pine planks we figured were underneath. We agreed that we'd see what shape those planks were in...fortunately, they were in good shape, all they needed was a good sanding & refinishing.

 

[MossRoad]

Yes… nothing has happened but many staff commute from more affluent and even wealthy areas of the Bay Area and just having a homeless person approach with or without shopping cart asking for change at 5 am in the morning or 7 pm in the evening has resulted in more than a few finding employment elsewhere.

It was not always like this but the last 10 years it’s the reality.

The reason I start at 4 am to open after 20+ years of closing is because of the transient population…

First thing I do is clear the doorways each morning…

Some nurses will call and ask to be escorted and others just happy to see my car parked in the engineering spot.

I think it’s more that I’m 6’4” and 245 pounds compared to some staff as short as 4’8 and 90 pounds…

You could carry them in like a sack of groceries!

 

[MossRoad]

The reality is that it's their sandbox, their rules. If you're not willing to do things the way they want them done, then quit and get a new job more to your liking. I sympathize with you, but it's not your decision to make.

As far as decorating fads, my wife will sometimes watch those houseflipper shows. Often as not we'll both cringe at the stuff these flippers do...white shaker kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, "master" bedrooom with walk-in closet, so predictable. Now maybe that's what sells houses in the cities where these shows are set...almost none of the finished renovations appeal to me in the least.

Paint vs "natural" finishes on cabinets...depends on the house. Ours is an almost 200 year old New England farmhouse. Cabinetry is painted, as it most likely was in the 1830s when it was built. Other than the "bones" of the house, nothing's original, but we have made an effort to do things that fit. Case in point; when we bought the place in what's now our bedroom the previous owner had put down particle board with linoleum on it. Wife & I went back & forth over what to do when (not if) we ripped that up. She wanted one of those modern engineered wood floors, I thought it would stick out like a sore thumb and voted for keeping the pine planks we figured were underneath. We agreed that we'd see what shape those planks were in...fortunately, they were in good shape, all they needed was a good sanding & refinishing.

Reworking an older home or building is always an archeological dig! You pull up a carpet or flooring, and there's something under that. You pull that up and there might be a 3rd or 4th layer. Same thing with walls and ceilings. You might find old doorways behind walls, fixtures above a drop ceiling, walled off stairs. I found an unused elevator shaft in my old employer's building. We used it for a wire chase after that.

In our current house, from inside the house, you'd only see two exterior windows on the east side. From outside the house, there were 3 windows visible. What the heck? I ran up and looked in the 3rd window. There was a 4' x 4' walled off area. I expected to see a skeleton in a rocking chair! So I went inside and ripped down the wall. Nothing in there but a bare floor. Now it's a closet. Weird but true.

 

[Oaktree]

On that note, my wife has hundreds of unused sick/personal days in her 'bucket'. When people would retire, they'd pay out those sick/personal days. She's been an exemplary employee, only took maternity leave twice and a few days off during covid when she was bed ridden during her 40+ year career there.

Well, corporate just changed the policy that you can only take 80 hours of that time per year now. So, she will now never be able to get those days paid to her unless she stays about 12 more years. She's 62. That'll never happen.
......
So my advice to you is to use up that accumulated time as fast as you can, because at any time, they can change the policy and you may never get it all back, if any of it.

I don't think it's unreasonable for a company to set limits on accumulating sick/personal days. Your wife's employer's new policy seems more than generous to me. I don't think any company I've ever worked for has even allowed employees to carry them over from one year to the next...use 'em or lose 'em. After all, the whole idea is so you don't lose income if you take a sick (or mental health) day...not intended to be saved up so you can take a long vacation. After all, that time has to be carried on the company's books until it's used.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

30 years ago my hospital won several community awards for design and urban renewal and only the best finishes used… stain grade hardwoods, institution grade neutral wall paper, corian, etc.

The corp powers that be want to redo everything in shades of grey light green… which means painting over all the stain grade hardwood and removing all the wall paper.

I expressed my opinion that this would be a mistake but have since been overruled…

It’s like HG tv where everything is painted over for a quick sale flip…

Should I just go with the program and keep quiet?

Still getting compliments on out lobby but the corp executives are HG TV inspired.

If a house, I would say that's a sin in and of itself to paint any stain grade wood.
But since it's the Hospital, I'd salute and say Yes Sir!