SUNROOM FIFTYTHREE

Busy As Bees

Tuesday July10, 2007

0715

Three Nice Guys Drywaller guys show up.

0830

Nice Guys Soffit guy shows up.

1005

V.P. and G.M. ( Gold Dust Twins ) pass through on inspection tour of sites. V.P. leaves 1020; G.M. takes up caulking gun...starts caulking windows and Hardi-board joints.

Soffit guy finishes Soffit, begins working on Hardi-board. No two days with same guys doing a particular job...amazing it gets done right...sometimes it doesn't! However, you can bet "Sledge" guy shows consistantly.

1125 Knock off for lunch. Soffit/Hardi-board guy works through.

Return from lunch. Other Nice Guy guys show up...one the "Wall Panel Tech"...Jack Of All Trades, and pretty good. He turns-to on Hardi-board installation with Soffit guy, and another new face shows up. Begins to rain on and off.

Drywallers run out of ready-mixed "Mud"...have to make up the stuff from bagged dry stuph, of which there are a half-dozen thirty-pound bags. Warn them to not leave the water running as they mix...expensive.

1400. O'cast...threatening...work progresses. Three Nice Guys guys working on Dry Wall; three working on Hardi-board, which by the way comes in twelve foot lengths and is 5/8" x 6"...expensive stuph. Embossed to look like lumber, it is difficult to nail through.
Sledge just showed up, and is walking around with a rather large sabre-saw. Suspect Sledge has been given the "windows" job. The former PM ( now GM ) is standing out in the street talking to the new PM ( who doesn't seem to supervise anything ).

If you happen to be an organized type, don't watch these guys...it'll drive you nuts. I'm typing this real-time.
1425 Dry Wall "boss" just returned with what appears to be white vinyl molding stips about two-fathoms in length; thin; and one-inch across. He left un-noticed. I am transitioning between computer, and garage. Also notice large Caddi SUV parked in the road...the V.P. is here somewheres. GM ( former head PM...one of the "Gold Dust Twins") is up a ladder under the Gable caulking. Suspect Nice Guys Corp V.P. wants to show case this Hardi-board...hence the attention. Just a guess, but why else?

1440 Black Escalade has left.

1515 New Project Manager ( PM ) returns with four tubes of caulking. He disappears to the back yard. Out from there come two guys, and from the rack over the truck bay they retrieve seven ( 7 ) lengths of white Hardi-board. If it were a boat they were building I'd begin to worry. Where will all this be used?
In the meantime the GM is still caulking; and Sledge has disappeared - vaporized - sabre saw and all.

Without exageraton, a car, or small plane couldn't breech the walls of this edifice. Speaking yesterday with the "wall panel technician" I asked why so much wood. He said they had actually done wind-tunnel tests on it until it withstood 150 MPH winds. What's the point when any house it's attached to would be long gone?

1620 The GM is still caulking. I asked him why all this "special" attention...answering the question myself with: "Are you planning to show-case it?" and he answered: "Yes". He again hinted at an "advance" - four grand. I then told him he's looking for trouble...trouble the V.P. got himself in by supposedly receiving payments. He acknowledged that. I then told him point blank that he; they; the company aren't getting anything until an assessment of what we got is in line with that advertised. "We're pretty strapped for cash." he said. I told him that's unacceptable. I then told him he could gold-plate the thing...until then, and all the liens, if any, are released, and everything is done by the book he isn't getting a cent. He got the message good. I told him his stubborness left us with the "squinty" Gable look. Inspite of my warning and the V.P.'s, he insisted he had his estimation right. I right out told him it's he who tells the V.P., not the other way around. Because they are "friends" "he gets away with all this" I added. He outright agreed to that...like a compliment too good not to accept. I then mentioned him always talking about "costs". What about this "cost" to us, figuring at our age we may on the outside have five years left. This job has "cost" us twenty-percent of our life waiting for it to get done. That hit home...said he never considered that. I then asked about this mysterious "President" of the company. Does he know you are dipping your pen in the company ink by putting up all this Hardi-board gratis, and on your own. He said: "No". I told him he should know.
He then acknowledged that the electrical work has still to be done, saying he can't understand why they weren't here today. Than adding that the electrical service company is a "subsidiary" of Nice Guys Corp. Adding further that there wouldn't be required any lien release from them. This guy is something!
"Get this!" I said...continuing: "There's nothing like a straight job! Got it?". "Yes...I got it...thanks...I got it." he answered, and he went back to caulking.

It is now soon 1900, and still they are here. Up on the roof - including the GM, cleaning any tar left on the shingles, and sweeping it, as others police the grounds of remnants, and debris. The sunroom is masked off ready to be spray painted inside in the morning. The sun is getting low and a half dozen of them are standing out there looking at their workmanship...it looks alright...maybe "nice". Some of them have a beer in hand...courtesy of the B/H. I now want them to go...it's all for us - anti-climactic. They don't deserve to gloat over something we had to wait for for over a year.

At this moment - 1905 after several minutes of what looked like a "union meeting" in the street...the GM officiating...they all in unison piled into their trucks; peeled off away from curbside; and down the street...a parade of five ( 5 ) expensive, new pickup trucks emblazoned in large letters with: NICE GUYS CORP - Certified General CONtractors emblazened on their sides, and tail gates. We will see some of them tomorrow, if not all. You can feel compassion for those who do give it their all, even to fanatsizing that if one could afford it, award each one with a generous bonus of sorts, but that only happens in the movies.

Next are the electricians. That should be pretty straight forward as the wires are run in the attic; the fan, and outlets only needing connecting.

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