Whose fence is it anyway?

I have done many many jobs through the years....

And I have had so many different experiences on these jobs, mostly good ones. I have the kind of personality that I can get along with just about anyone. But there are the few, (and that's a good record)  that are, well let's say interesting. This story is not about the homeowners that I was doing the job for, it was the neighbor!
About five years ago......(slight fade)...I took a job in Lambertville NJ. (you can see that job here) for an addition on a duplex that was built in the late 1800's. The homeowners were really beautiful people, and they had complete faith in me to perform this huge difficult job.

The lot was very small, and the only access to the rear of the house, which was where the addition was to be, was a nine foot wide driveway. As a matter of fact when I first went to look at the job, I felt so overwhelmed, due to the circumstances surrounding the job that I almost didn't take it. But I did.
It's my standard practice to take pictures of the entire house (area) before I start any work. And it seemed that this being one of the hardest jobs I've done in a long time, pictures were a must.
The work got started. Due to the confined area, I decided that my men and I would do the demo by hand which is usually done by machines. I instructed my men to be extremely careful not only for their protection but also for the protection of the attached part of the neighbors house as well. So we started to demo the house board by board. We had to stack the debris in the driveway because the dumpster was in the street, which was the only place I could fit it.
This is where I met the neighbor (on the other side of the driveway). I hear a woman calling...."Excuse me......hello....excuse me..." I looked over and there was a pleasant looking middle aged woman standing at the end of the driveway. I asked her if there was something I could do for her, as I introduced myself. In a somewhat unpleasant tone she said "Dominick, please make sure your men don't lean anything on my fence" I graciously agreed, and immediately and in front of her told my men not to lean anything on the fence. Oh....this was the first day.
The following day, one of my men unconsciously laid a broken piece of gutter against the fence, and within seconds, she was out on her porch pointing out that we were not respecting her wishes. I apologized, and instructed my men....again in front of her...to be more aware of the fence.
Now came time for the excavation of the basement. This in itself was a miracle. We had gotten heavy equipment down the driveway, and while we were digging we had to load  giant dump trucks with dirt as there was no place to store it. This as scary as it was, went very well. I left the job that night around seven pm. and the machine was just finishing up. Around 9pm I get a call,......it was the fence lady, and she was screaming about how the machine hit the fence and ruined it. I was sick over this, but in a calming voice, I told her that if there was any damage that it would be repaired before the job was finished. The next day, I was afraid to turn the corner to see the damaged fence, but to my surprise, it was just slightly and I mean slightly damaged, like only two slats were broken.
Throughout the job, she complained about the fence and the noise, and the dust...but mostly the fence.
As the job was coming to a close, an elderly woman who I had befriended, came by to bring us some homemade brownies.....She was a real sweetheart. She explained to me that this house we were working on was her late sisters, and held so many memories for her. She asked if I could show her the work that we did, and  I told her that I  would be honored to show this off to her, because of how beautiful it came out.
She toured the downstairs like a town inspector, looking, touching, and commenting the whole time. We went upstairs to look at the master bedroom, and she began to tell me how impressed she was with the work we had done. She said these very important words to me..  "I'm so very impressed at what you did here! I watched as you and your men carried all of the material down that skinny driveway, and it's a miracle that you didn't knock down that old fence that my sister had put in"........I was dumbfounded.....but yet oh so happy to hear these words that I asked her to repeat it. "Oh yes, my sister had that fence put in right before she passed away"
When the last scrap was picked up, and I handed the keys to the happy homeowners, the woman from next door comes to the front porch and asked me when I was going to fix her fence, as a matter of fact she wanted me to replace the whole fence because it wasn't going to match! I had the extreme pleasure to tell her "well, your gonna have to ask your new neighbors what they want to do, after all it's their fence, not yours!" This was confirmed by the survey for the lot I was working on, and now she changed her focus....."my chimney looks like it has a lot more cracks in it because of all the trucks and machines.......I showed her the "before" pictures and together we matched up ALL the cracks!

TIP OF THE DAY:

With spring right around the corner, it's that time of year again when spring rains can be heavy and unpredictable, often causing leaky roofs and flash-flooding. If you get caught off-guard and wind up with wet floors and soggy carpets, here's how to handle a "wet emergency". First use a wet/dry vac to pick up as much as possible. Be careful, as water and electricity don't mix. Then peel back the carpet, discard the pad, roll up the carpet and take it outside. Lay it out flat and dry the bottom side first. Then use a fan to dry the floor area. Often carpets can be cleaned and reused, but pads will need to be replaced. For some of us, rainy season is never fun unless we fix those roof leaks and have the grade pitched proerly away from our homes.

 

See you next time......from beyond.........