Sunday, January 26, 2025

Monday, February 3, 2025

Welcome to a Peaceful Sunday!

Yesterday was…exactly as expected. A deafening orchestra of hammering, vibrating saws, pry bars, and whatever other power tools that could conjured up. If it had a motor, it was singing (or screeching) in the key of demolition.

The crew was fantastic — despite the noise — friendly, personable, and surprisingly considerate. They did their best to protect the house from dirty winter foot traffic and demolition dust…as much as anyone can, given the circumstances. Cindy will be strictly adhering to the following: “

“I’m going to start cleaning the house. And by cleaning, I mean drinking wine & spraying everything with Febreeze.”

Nate, our contractor, was late. Typical. While the demo team had a 90-minute commute all the way from Lansing, IL, near the Illinois-Indiana border, Nate lives just 10 minutes away. Guess who showed up early? Yep, the guys from Lansing. A drive through Chicago requires good planning to avoid serious congestion, Nate might need a lesson here. The Ratajack mantra was always — “If you’re not five minutes early, then you’re late!”

Despite his tardiness, Nate seemed happy with the team’s prep work, and we moved on to “business” (a.k.a. handing over a huge pile of cash). Can I just say? There’s something inherently shady-feeling about handing over $10k in cash, even with a signed receipt. It’s perfectly legitimate, but tell that to my nerves! On the bright side, this informal, off-book arrangement is saving us $40k compared to the $70k quotes we’d been getting. So, goodbye skepticism, hello bargain.

Then Nate said something that caught me off guard. He mentioned he’s donating his time for free and even convinced his crew to lower their rates. That hit me hard. Sure, we’ve had Nate over for one other job, but we’re not lifelong friends. His kindness and generosity floored me. He knows why we’re tackling this project—it’s not a “want-to” but a “have-to.” When he asked if I was excited to get started, I had to be honest: “no!”. But when it’s all done, I’ll be thankful we did it. February (of this year!) can’t come soon enough.

Meanwhile, Alex was up early too, testing out his shiny new laser for crafting items he plans to sell for Andy’s Army. He’s full of ideas, but, as with anything new, there’s a learning curve to conquer. Thankfully, he’s got 258 days until the Chicago Marathon. Let’s just say Nicole is way ahead of him—both in training and fundraising. He’s got some serious catching up to do.

Speaking of the laser, well it burns the material as it cuts? Imagine the joy of wood smoke filling the house—nostalgic if you want an outdoor fire, not so great indoors. It was similar to starting a wood fire in the fireplace with the flue closed. We had to open all the windows, crank up the exhaust fan, and pray the smoke alarms wouldn’t go off. Alex will need a robust ventilation in his apartment or he’s going have few complaints from his neighbors. I did buy a smoke filter to go with the laser and Alex is a smart guy…he’ll figure it. I’ll try to learn more about how the laser is working out for him.