The Garage Lives
When we last looked in on the Leaning Car-hole of Beer Town, I had received a quote of around 1700 clams to fix it. (2k clams with materials)The company who offered this bid (the lowest bid) was also the only company with both a BBB and NARI membership. So, being one who sees contractors as an evil sub-species not unlike the Hamburgler or French-Canadians, I went with the safer company.
And they haven’t disappointed me yet. They called me back each time I contacted them, and responded to all my requests very quickly. They showed up about an hour and twenty minutes later than I was expecting, but that counts as showing up early in contractor-time.
There are two guys doing the work. One has the beard of a beermeister and a broken foot, but he speaks quite intelligently in a raspy tone. I imagine him to be the kinda guy who likes to talk roadside philosophy while tossing back a few Belgian ales. The other guy looks kind of like a balding, diminutive Nick Bakay.
They did work diligently throughout the day, although they took a 90 minute lunch break, and I’m happy to say that my garage is really looking good.
As you know, the wall (and all the studs in the wall) were leaning towards the garage opening. The tops of the studs were 9 inches out of line from the bottom of the studs. They drilled anchors into the cement and attached them to some come-alongs that they attached to the top-corner of the leaning wall. Then they ratcheted it back 9 inches until it was true.
The weight had shifted so greatly over the years that it took two come-alongs to muscle the walls back into shape. They are letting it sit for the weekend so that the building can resettle itself. On Monday they will start on the opposite wall and rebuild the trusses under my roof.
By this time next week I’ll be spending another 1000 on a new door and magic door opener, then I’ll need a new side entrance door (a screw-it-up-myself job) and I will finally be able to die in peace.
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