Chapter Nine
Ralph Peterson was outside my door when I came down in the morning. The girls were still sleeping. "About time you started getting your building materials together if you are going to do this job. Have you done anything about hiring a carpenter yet?"
"No, I haven't found anybody. You know of anyone?"
"No, but I was reading the classifieds. There are a couple of possibilities listed."
"Good, I'll give them a call. Would you help me on the interview if they are interested? You can tell if they are what they say they are. Look at me, I can use a saw and hammer, but that doesn't make me a carpenter."
Ralph looked pretty pleased that I would ask him. We went into the garage and inspected the place we were going to warehouse the material until we needed it. We were going to make up the columns here too. Mark showed up and he had Steve with him. "I wasn't doing anything and Mark said I could hang around and that you wouldn't mind."
"Good, you can help him. First you can pick up all of the papers and stuff around the lot here that was scattered from Lindsey's birthday party and you can sweep out the garage. By the time you two have that done we will start bringing in stuff to store from Home Depot. I will want six sawhorses to work on so we don't have to bend down too much. We will build those this afternoon. Have you guys had breakfast?"
"Yes, Jean was up and made some for us. Dad didn't come home last night so it was just the three of us kids."
"Okay then, if you need anything I'll be upstairs. I need to make some calls. Ralph how about you? I'm making pancakes for the girls. Would you like some?"
"Yes, by God I would. You cook do you?"
"Yeah, ran a restaurant for awhile." The phone was ringing when I got upstairs.
"Mr. Burns, I read about you in the paper yesterday. It said you do odd jobs and stuff. I need some work done on my house. I've got three broken windows and a door that sticks shut when it rains. I don't suppose you do any plumbing do you?" I took down the man's address and said I would be over at six this evening to see what I could handle.
Ralph was laughing at me. "Boy, by evening you are going to have enough work for ten men. When the people around here read about someone trustworthy to do their work and he lives right in the neighborhood, they fight to line him up."
He was right. There was a call while I was cooking breakfast. I knew that I would get nothing done if I was on the phone. I called Jean. "Jean do you think Becky would be any good taking information over the telephone for me? I can write down some guidelines for her to follow."
"She takes down information for her father sometimes. You can talk to her. She is right here. Where is Ashley?"
"Ash had to work today. I'd ask you, but I don't think it would be proper."
"I know. Here's Becky."
I hired Becky to take names of those who called and relay that I would return the calls the minute I had a chance. It would be this evening though. The truck hadn't been loaded yet, so I sent Mark after her. Before they returned I had two more calls.
I made a call to the employment agency and arranged to have a person who said he was experienced come to me for an interview. He asked if I had any need for a plumber. He said his brother was working on his license, but needed time on the job before he could apply. "Bring him along if you can. I'll talk to both of you."
Ralph was looking over my shoulder as I was dealing with the phone calls, arranging to pick up supplies, and drawing up a form in long hand for Becky to use as a guide. There were certain details I needed to know about before I started returning the calls to a potential customer. Most of it was a given, like name, address, phone number, etc. I also wanted to know what was needed for work and how the caller had come to hear about my handyman service.
Mark came back with Becky. Steve wasn't in the truck when they pulled in. Then I spotted him still at work down by the gazebo. He hadn't gone with his brother, but had stayed and worked. I was impressed!
The first thing Becky said was, "Milo I didn't know what to wear. I didn't think anyone would be seeing me, so I just wore jeans and a top."
"That's fine. You will probably be alone upstairs in my apartment, although I will be checking on how things are going. I can leave the girls with you or take them with me. Just to let you know, I didn't hire you to baby-sit, but if you don't mind they can stay with you."
"I'd love to have them keep me company. Where can I reach you if I need to?"
"This morning, I'll be in and out. This afternoon we will all be working downstairs. There are two men coming to apply for work. Have them wait. Sit them in the living room where they can see my ceiling. That may give them some idea of the quality of work I expect."
I talked to Becky telling her how I wanted her to address the customers and went over the guide for her to elicit the information I wanted from the caller. I had just finished when the phone rang. Becky handled the call very professionally. Ralph and I left her and I admonished Lindsey and Marie to remain quiet if Becky was on the phone. Mark and Steve were loading what they had picked up out in the lot and backed up to the garages to put the sweeping from the floor on top.
Ralph and I went down to Home Depot and checked the special order items that had arrived. We put a lot of the smalls on the dock and waited for Mark to arrive after going to the landfill. I made arrangements to have the bigger lumber and crated buttresses delivered. The roofing, boards and dimension timbers were coming on the same load.
There was a well kept van pulled to the farthest side of the garages. Hans and Bijorn, the two brothers from the employment agency, were waiting upstairs when I went up. Hans was the carpenter. He was about my age and had a family. The concern he had been working for wasn't starting another job for a month or more. I took it he only worked when they won bids on different jobs. He said they were always being underbid so he didn't work steady. Bijorn was single and very quiet, never saying much.
I asked what Hans made for wages. If he was any good he was being underpaid. "Hans, I'll tell you what. I'll want to see what you can do before I hire you permanently. Right now I only have one construction job lined up myself. That is on this building right here. I'll show you the plans in a few minutes. I am not a construction company. I'm a handyman and I and anyone who works for me will be called a handyman even though I will be employing some women for different things.
"Right now my youngest employee is fourteen and my oldest one is seventy-five. I need a journeyman carpenter and I would like to have a plumber and an electrician working for me. I don't know how much work I will be having for you or others. But I do have a lot of odd jobs coming in. This area is full of well-to-do people who don't mind paying if they get quality work done and fast.
"They want their estates kept looking nice and running well. For anything really complicated, I will hire professionals to do it if I can get them. For instance, the ceiling above your head was done by me and the landlady. When it came to painting it, I hired a painting company, because I knew I might mess it up. I knew it was good, but if the painting wasn't done right, it would be crap.
"The same with another ceiling I just did. Painters are finishing it, and sanding the floor in the room because I wanted to walk out of there when the job was done, proud of my work. I will be paid very well and will have more work because of it. I've had a couple of jobs pruning shrubs and have done some lawn mowing. I have built an access ramp for a store.
"What I'm trying to say, this company will do anything as long as it can be done well, on time and as soon as possible after we are contacted. I want customers to trust me, trust my work and trust my employees.
"Now as far as pay is concerned, all deductions apply both yours and mine. I also pay for workmen's compensation. I don't pay any other insurance at this time. If you work at your licensed job, you get scale. Otherwise I pay you fifteen bucks an hour for any handiwork I assign and I guaran
tee forty hours. That will get you six hundred bucks a week and more if I have scale work for you."
"What kind of handiwork are we talking?"
"Who knows, but it will be something that you can do and do well. It may be painting a porch, mowing a lawn or even washing windows. This winter it will have to be inside work, so I want to have all the outside work that I have contracted for done by the first of December. Whatever job you do, I'm going to require quality work. If I assign something and you know you can't do it correctly, tell me and I'll give it to someone else or hire a professional."
"When do you want us to start?"
"I have handiwork this afternoon for Bijorn. Hans, you will be working on scale. We will be starting on the construction project just as soon as the material is delivered. I want you to plan every move so there isn't any hitch as we go forward. My landlady, my partner in this will be home before you finish for the day and make out the required paperwork."
"Will there be any overtime?"
"I'm not sure. It depends on how anxious customers are to have a job done. Probably some Saturday work. Those jobs that are complex enough, maybe. I can't justify paying time and a half for someone to mow a lawn. Let's take a look at the jobs I have been contacted to look at."
I spoke across the room to Becky who had been manning the telephone. "Becky, would you bring me a list of those customers that have called?" Ralph had been very quiet through my interview. He was looking over my shoulder as I went down what she had written.
"Milo, it looks like you are going to be busy. You are definitely going to need an electrician. There are two garages on this list and they will need to be electrified. You will need building permits for them as well."
"Okay, I'll find an electrician before he is needed. Ralph, would you go with me this evening in case the owner wants something special? How about you Hans, can you go with me?
"Becky, would you ask Mark to come up here? I want him to make a poster to put in Henry's deli saying we need to engage an electrician." I explained that Mark knew calligraphy.
Mark came up and I introduced my new hires to him. I took the job sheet and went down it. "If this work is what it looks like and we get to do it, there is work here for everyone. Becky, I most likely won't need you on the telephone much after today. Have you ever mowed lawns before? There is enough here for both you and Steve.
"Okay let's talk tools. I don't have many except for personal ones. The bigger ones, I rent, mainly because I don't have a place to keep them. As time goes on we will buy the ones we use the most frequently. I imagine we will have to rent or buy a place to work out of in a more industrialized setting. Until then we will use the space downstairs. For today, Mark, when you get the poster finished, pick up some sandwiches for all of us at Henry's. I'll put you all on the clock at one o'clock."
Ashley came home a little after four. She was somewhat dumbfounded at what had transpired during the day. In the garages were stored the majority of the material needed for the addition on this building. Sawhorses were put together to lay the columns on as they were constructed. One was completed and another in progress. Hans and Ralph had planned the sequence of the construction and the footings for the columns were to be dug first thing tomorrow.
Hans had suggested that a small office should be constructed in one corner of the garage. Myself, I had worked on some of the estimates for customers. Lindsey and Marie had gone with me when I contacted them.
"Ashley, in one way I think we are going to finish this porch and columns as soon as I projected. There are going to be some days we will not be working on it much. Some of the people that contacted me will pay a premium to have their work done ASAP. But with the added help, I think I can do both.
"Plus I have Becky who is willing to do some things. This is the only chance she has ever had to earn some money and when Mark told her what he had earned so far, she wants the same. She has done a whale of a job on the phone today, so I want to give her the chance to continue."
"Okay by me. Oh, I don't have to work tomorrow, so if she is willing to do other things, I can man the phone." I looked around and knew we were momentarily alone, so took advantage of the opportunity to show my love how much I missed her for the few hours we had been apart.
The three Burgess teenagers left in the company truck. I thanked them all and especially Becky. "You know, you are going to have to be careful. That girl is working up to having a powerful crush on you." Ashley was laughing at me.
"I don't think so. She knows she doesn't stand a chance with you in the picture." Ashley thought that over.
"Okay, but I'm going to keep my eye on her. I trust you but I don't know about a sweet nubile young teenager."