Cabinet maker! Traveling handyman! Electrician! Come One, Come All. The stars must have been aligned since Jason, Carl and Jim all came to our house today. We tracked down a lead on Carl since we thought our trailer needed to be leveled. Carl, traveling handyman, who lives at Chadouirs Dock year round, had been recommended. Carl is quite the character; he is a recovering alcoholic who rides a Harley as much as he can on the weekends. We liked him right away since, as it turns out, we don't need to be releveled at all. Thank goodness! Like in the door frame in the bathroom that had gotten wet and swollen scratching all the paint off the door when opening and closing, the door frame of our front door has swollen and the door won't shut at all. Carl and Justin talked about a stop-gap solution, but the remedy is a new door. Well, we can't do the exterior door without also getting a new storm and new locks. And we can't do the front door without doing the back door. So, looks like we will be getting new doors! Carl and Justin also talked about plumbing and blowing out the lines in preparation for winter, switching out the sinks in both the bathroom and in the kitchen and a few other projects.
Before Carl left, Jason arrived. Justin and I have decided that we want to adopt Jason. He is just the bees knees; he is fitting us in on evenings and weekends. He is very knowledgeable, he is prompt and responsive and he is kind. Jason is building our bar, the wall under the bar and the shelf above the bar. We are using reclaimed wood from a fence that was taken down at Windjammers. Later, he will rework the cabinet above the stove to include a microwave.
For now, we are selecting the pieces of wood for the wall. After being at our house for about an hour, he took twenty or so pieces back to his shop to plane them and bring them back so we'd have a better idea of how they would look. The selection process was long, but really fun. Jason set up his sliding miter-saw on our poach. The character of the wood began to be apparent as we determined which pieces would go where within our wall.
Jason was almost ready to start packing up his tools and the wood when Jim, the electrician called to see if he could come by.
As nice and pleasant as Carl and Jason were, Jim was a curmudgeon. We'd just painted the first coat of Sandal colored deck paint on the living room floor and we were all in socks or barefoot. Carl and Jason had complied with my request to remove shoes, but a Jim did not. He said he had a sprained ankle and couldn't remove his shoes. I said ok, but... then he started trashing our trailer... all kinds of comments about the safety, or lack thereof.... about how he hated to work on them... how he sure as ever wouldn't go underneath one... how they get blown away in a good gust, etc. Now I can't say that anything he said was untrue. He was out of line and I probably would have showed him to the door within three minutes. Justin, kind man that he is, continued to work with him and to try to engage him in decent conversation as they walked through the list we had ready for an electrician ( the lights outside, the light in the gazebo, lights above the bar, connectivity for the new range and microwave, and a few other specific concerns). Jim left with the plan to return at the end of next week. He left his flashlight so he might be back sooner.
Despite Jim being a grouch, we did make significant strides on the house. After everyone left, we carried on with the endless chores before getting ready to go to dinner at The Lorelei in Green Bay. The restaurant was Jim Brice's choice since he is visiting from San Francisco. I met Jim when he visited us in Germany. Dave and Terry Gay are also part of this clan that were running buds back in college. Ed and Joan Rousseau were also at dinner this evening. Ric and Sherry Larson were also part of the group back in the day; I hope someone told Sherry they Jim was in town. Ric and Carolyn had planned to be at dinner but they didn't show. German has never been my favorite choice for dinner so I didn't have high expectations. I wasn't disappointed.
Justin was a bit melancholy after the evening. My assessment was that sometimes when you meet with old friends, you find, sadly, that you've grown apart.
Lisa and Alan were
set to arrive this evening. We busted it all day hanging pics,
arranging and rearranging and getting ready for our first official out-of-town
guests. When we hung a small shoji door over a window, Justin was
inspired to build a frame around it that looks like a tori gate. The wood
matches perfectly and the end result really does make quite a
statement along with our black and white woodblock prints. 
The new sink and faucet for the
bathroom is ready and waiting in the garage, but for now, since it is the only
functioning sink, we are embracing the harvest gold one.
We went sailing with Dave and Terry Gay. What a lovely day on the water! Dave and Terry are both such hoots -- it was nice to spend time just with them. I did laugh when we got back into shore and several others were commenting on how hot it was and how nice it was to be out of the sun. I wanted to ask which one of them had even broken a sweat. It was such a great day with just the right amount of breeze. Awesome!