So, the panel crew arrived back in town late Sunday night for an early start Monday morning. The crane was due to arrive at 9:00, and we planned to wrap things up in the next two days. We would have gotten farther had it not been for the weather.
Imagine, if you will, an ice-skating rink with snowbanks all 'round. Now imagine dumping a whole lot of water at 34 degrees onto that. That's what the main road, our four mile road, our driveway, and the building site was like on Monday. On top of the snowy, icy conditions we already had, it RAINED 2" on Monday. At the end of November! I challenge anyone to convince me that Global Warming does not exist.
So, the poor guys were working - on the roofs - in horrible, horrible conditions. One man had thought to bring clothes for every kind of weather, and so he wore raingear, head to toe, all day. Another brought a second pair of insulated bib overalls, socks, and boots and changed them all at lunch. The third didn't bring a change of clothes and muttered, as he took his jacket off at the end of the day, "that's 25 pounds off!" So, it was just misery.
That said, the crew worked late into the darkness with the flashlight I was holding as their only light in order to finish with all the crane work. And, they did it!
Driving home that night was treacherous. As I crawled down our 4-mile "winter driveway" about 15 minutes after the crew had left a smile came over my face, and I thought, "I'll be there's going to be a message on my machine at home telling me to call them at their motel just to let them know I got home okay." But, I was wrong . . . instead, they were waiting for me out at the main road! Now how many sub-contractors do that for the home owner?! As I slipped and slid over to their idling truck, I asked with a heartfelt smile, "You've already been waiting a while - how long were you going to wait?" The boss slowly picked up his arm, causally looked at his watch, and said, "I was givin' you 15 more minutes, and then I was gonna come back in and getcha." What a group of guys! I tell you, we have been SO fortunate with nearly all the contractors we've worked with on our house project - they've all become like extended families while we've been working together.
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