"100% of people who do not save money do not have any!"--Dave Ramsey

[skyking]

Originally Posted by JSH

How does adding 1/4" drywall on top of paneling eliminate the need to space out everything that goes through the wall? Add a 1/4 inch and an electrical plug is 1/4 sub-flush. Same with windows, doors, light switches, etc.

We have 3 wood paneled "accent walls" in our 70's house. My wife painted over them when we painted the entire house and the result looks a lot better. Covering them with drywall is still on the to-do list - just way down on the list.

Last weekend we scraped the 70's "popcorn" ceiling in the living room and dining rooms and then sanded and painted it.

1/4" is easily correctable with those plastic shims at the outlets and switches.
https://www.partsxp.com/dottie-ca100...acers-100-pack

Windows and doors will require new trim work, or if you are really good at pulling trim, a reinstallation of the old trim.

[redpoint5]

I wouldn't start engineering for a project that doesn't exist yet.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by skyking

1/4" is easily correctable with those plastic shims at the outlets and switches.
https://www.partsxp.com/dottie-ca100...acers-100-pack

Windows and doors will require new trim work, or if you are really good at pulling trim, a reinstallation of the old trim.

That would work. I don't know if it would be any easier than just pulling the paneling and moving the outlet. That also makes it really easy to see and mark the studs. The drywall work is the same whether it is 1/4 or 1 inch thick.

My chief concern is the doors and windows. The only paneled wall I've touched is the wall between the kitchen and garage that has a door between the two. The door casing is flush with the studs not the paneling. Who ever did the original work just cheated the difference by using that cheap prefab molding and bending it to make up the difference. I made up for that difference by custom routering a new door trim. That was a lot of work even for the thickness of the paneling and off course nothing is square and plumb on a 50 year old house.

[nemo]

Originally Posted by JSH

nothing is square and plumb on a 50 year old house.

Our house is 60 years old and I would certainly agree. Also previous owners never fixed anything correctly.

Years ago my wife and I were looking at new homes at one the top of the wall was about 4" the bottom 8" and this was the model. Makes you wander how bad the others would be. Another when the front door closed the front of the house shook.

[Xist]

I still wonder what could be done with that cabin, but I found out that there is a larger house than the one next door for sale and the owner is asking less. It has been up for a while, but not as long. Hopefully the owner would be willing to negotiate down, but I definitely wouldn't qualify for it. I would rather get adequate work than pursue the cabin.

I still do not see anything good in my area on Indeed or Craigslist--not just speech therapy, any job!

I make $70 an hour doing speech therapy out here. It is only $55 hourly in Phoenix, Tucson, and the Phoenix area. I made more up here than I did in the valley before TPgate, with nicer weather, virtually no traffic, and other perquisites. I have been doing teletherapy with six families, but it seems like I rarely see everyone. On Friday our office told me that if I did not start seeing my in-person clients again they would give them away, undoubtedly to be picked up by my brother's SLPA who has 3-4 times as many clients and better pay.

To anyone who doesn't remember, that spoiled whippersnapper works for a woman that I have known for over a decade. Each time that she came over she called me into the room to tell me that I was wrong about something that absolutely wasn't true. She also has a history of late payments and her subjects need to be careful how they request their pay.

Some crazy SLPA with an Arizona license, but to the best of my knowledge has never been in Arizona, told me to apply to her agency, which pays $55 an hour, but when she started she only had 3 clients. She kept telling me to apply. I didn't, I reached out to the owner through two different e-mail addresses. If she doesn't respond I don't want to submit twenty different forms.

The thing is the owner is an SLPA. SLPAs can start their own agencies?! I had thought about figuring out everything that I need to start one and getting an SLP to sign on, but apparently I can start an agency and then hire an SLP!

The state of Arizona pays $137.37 for an SLPA to do speech therapy in-home in rural Arizona, $149.31 for an SLP, and $181.70 for an evaluation [by an SLP]. I could create my own agency, reach out to support coordinators in every rural area in Arizona, and try to build a caseload of teleclients. As soon as I reached out I would post ads in the Phoenix area for an SLPA supervisor earning $150 an hour, at least a couple times as much as any agency that I have seen advertised.

I wouldn't be able to offer many hours. I would do everything that I can to get clients, but if nothing else, it will take a while to get there.

Let's say that I get ten clients from the far reaches of Arizona. The state pays me $181.70 an hour per evaluation and I pay the SLP $150. I keep $317 after putting in countless hours and probably paying for things. I see another 10 clients a week and the state pays me $1,373.70. I pay my supervisor $150 to supervise one session and I keep $1,183.70 for my greedy self, working out to $118.37 an hour.

Ideally I would get enough clients for my supervisor and I each to have a nice caseload. If we averaged 20 hours a week then she would make $3,000, plus $300 for supervising me, and I would bring home $2,367.40, minus $13.80 subsidizing the SLP's pay.

I am unsure that losing money each time that your contractor works is a sound business policy, but it is fine.

I am unsure that it is sound business policy to pay your employee 39% more than you [unless they work 40% harder], but I shouldn't have any SLP asking "Why shouldn't I just work for myself?!" when it would be much more work and they wouldn't make significantly more.

The thing is that if I ever had enough clients to hire additional therapists I would pay them 75% of the state's rate and would make money off of them.

Many SLPs, like the one that used to work with my brother, want to do everything themselves. I would rather pay an office manager to keep everything running properly while I focus on my caseload.

I don't know how much value an office manager brings, but why manage the office when I can bring in $137.37 as an SLPA or $149.31 as an SLP?

I had planned on applying to every grad school that I could as soon as I had my third letter of recommendation, but my brother's SLPA hasn't gotten back to me, my GPA is 2.92, and the average GPA of accepted students is usually 3.3+, I just do not think there would be a good return on hundreds of dollars in application fees.

It is easy to spend $1,000 and then I would be paying interest on that if I don't get in. [even if I do, until I graduate].

I don't like ENMU. I have had a couple of easy As where I didn't learn anything and I dropped several classes because they didn't teach well and gave me poor scores without explaining. Supposedly Utah State was almost as cheap, but when I looked it cost way more, so I am unsure that I have a better option than taking class after class through Northern Arizona University for $500 a credit.

I wish that I could retake my ASU classes, but they only allow that if you earned a D or E and I didn't.

[Piotrsko]

You're forgetting assorted taxes and insurances you aquire as an employer

[JSH]

The fact that your agency is threatening to take your 6 clients and given them to someone that already 3 - 4 times the number of clients should be a red flag.

Jobs are more about interpersonal skills than technical skills. People that the boss likes get the perks and the people the boss doesn't like get the shaft or get shown the door. It doesn't matter if your boss isn't right she IS right if you want to advance. It really is her way or the highway.


You ask why SLP's do the office management instead of working the clients themselves. They do that because they can make more money for less work. By you numbers the state is paying your agency $137 per hour and your agency is paying you $70. So the agency is taking almost 50% just to find the client and outsource it to you. They also don't have the travel time from client to client or the travel costs.

[Xist]

The agency doesn't have any way of knowing who, if anyone, would be available to take on my clients. They previously told me that I was the only therapist up here.

They want the clients to receive services, even if it isn't from us.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Xist

The agency doesn't have any way of knowing who, if anyone, would be available to take on my clients. They previously told me that I was the only therapist up here.

They want the clients to receive services, even if it isn't from us.

The question to ask yourself is why your brother's SLPA has 3-4 times more clients than you.

[Xist]

I have been asking myself that for a year.

There isn't an office manager or any office staff. The owner responds to vendor calls when she gets to them.

We have a 5,000-square-foot office full of people who respond to vendor calls, families, and therapists. I do not know how much all of that costs, but I am glad that we can always get a hold of someone during business hours.

They make sure that we are paid on-time.