This is a GREAT thread!!! Thx OP...I'm going to retire in about 4 years with 34yrs of Military service...I'm lucky that I will have great Healthcare! I have a fairly large amount of money set aside for retirement but I don't know when to tap that resource.

There are SO MANY GREAT IDEAS on here. I want to be a handyman. I can do almost anything as a farm boy and DIYer that I just had to figure out how to do it myself....the internet now has MANY great ideas too.

I worked for an electrical contractor and have over 2000hrs but I had a very bad experience...

I wired over 10 new houses in my local area...a friend, whom was only trying to get me more business set me up with a small re-model. The lady that I worked for was actually very nice.

Her house, however, was a disaster...she was a single lady with lots of critters(Cats & dogs). The other contractor - to redo her siding & deck etc was a drunk. I installed an outlet on her deck and dug in a wire that went to her garage that was detached about 40ft away. She had a deep freeze in the garage that she had been running an extension cord across her yard to power it.

I told her I can get you a dedicated line out to the garage....well in the meantime the clowns doing her siding would trip breakers ALL DAY running their cheap assed HF power tools.

She called me and told me they were tripping breakers all the time...I told her you CAN'T run a giant air compressor and battery chargers off a 20amp circuit - well they tripped the breakers SO MANY Times that they forgot to reset her garage freezer with $100's of dollars of meat.

She was going to sue me...I told her it was not my fault - that's when I got out of the business...it was sad cuz I had hired my brother-in-law, who really needed the extra cash...

Like usual - One Dumbass ruined it for everyone...he is OUT of business as I am too...sucks to be me...

Lessoned Learned and only posted to make sure fellow GLPers are w/in their legal rights...it's expensive.