Twenty-five feet of crumbly brick walk in need of replacement. Our walk was an open invitation to tumble and spend time recuperating from a bad fall. The brick beauty was long gone, replaced with broken shards interspersed with weeds. But just try to get a brick and concrete expert out to restore it. Not twenty-five feet. Contractors on big box store lists have homes to build and landscapes to design. Finally, Al found a local contractor who agreed that he could do twenty-five feet. He suggested a concrete walk with brick to match the house inlaid on either side.
Twenty-five feet the local contractor showed to his brick and concrete guys. I could see immediately they took to my twenty-five feet. Examining the damage, they dedicated themselves to forming a plan. I could see eagerness in their discussion. They planned out exactly how the walk should fit under the porch. I watched their work over the next few days. They poured concrete and endlessly smoothed it out. After checking to be sure the brick matched the house, they laid and meticulously filled in on both sides.
Twenty-five feet – I love it when I see people who see the significance of their job, value their own expertise, and take pride in doing it well. When the local contractor came back at the end to check what his brick and concrete artisans had done and collect his check, I told him how much I had enjoyed watching them as they expertly attended to details from the beginning to the end of the project. He said, “That’s the only kind of people I hire as sub-contractors. I’m local and depend on my reputation for business. I can’t afford to hire people who don’t give their best.”
So, what did we gain from this experience? A nice new twenty-five-foot sidewalk that won’t land someone in the emergency room, an enjoyable few days of watching experts at work, and a phone number for a contractor the next time we need a job done, even if it’s more than twenty-five feet.
