Friday, February 27, 2009

Historic Home damaged by hurricane!! Part 1!!!


In the 80's, I moved to a small city in Central Florida. One day, while driving down Main St., I noticed this very old, beautiful Victorian home. It was obviously damaged and missing the Ginger Bread trim, as it is called, which is the crowning glory of all authentic Victorians. This is one of the real workmanship components on an older home.

As I passed by, I told my children, who were in the car with me, that someday I would love to restore that home. As they say, be careful what you wish for, because you just might get your wish. And so I did. I got to meet with the owners, an elderly couple, who were two wonderful people. The gentlemen was a retired surveying engineer, and very concerned with the structural integrity of the home, as it had settled and visibly caved in in some areas. He stated that he waited for many years for me to arrive, almost knowing I was the man for the job, although we had not met before. Well, we stuck up quite a relationship over time, and he asked many questions of me about how I would do this project. Finally, he asked me to draw what I perceived to be the method and approach to re-stabilize his home.


Drawing is not my long suit; however, I fulfilled his wishes. Much to my surprise and delight, he was quite impressed with my drawing, which I still have to this day. After bartering price and cost, we agreed, and work began. Being a surveyor, he insisted on my wearing a hard hat; mine was orange, and his was white. (White hard hats are worn by the supervisors, orange by the workers. That's me.) I went along with most of his wishes, since he reminded me a lot of my Dad. They have their ways, but they know how to conduct a job, so I respected this.


By the way, as you might have read, I've been doing this for more than 35 years now, and generally don’t allow others to direct me in those areas that I excel at; however, there are exceptions to every rule, and this was one. To Be Continued!

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