I wrote about that in my last blog on Christian Benefits. I remember in the movie “National Treasure” how masons were very involved as founding fathers and hiding most of the secrets in Washington D.C. They must be still currently involved in world affairs and building hidden treasure troves because its difficult to get one to your house to work!
We
called over ten for job estimates. Only three came by to look. One of
those said he’d call back the next day, never heard from him again. We
got only two estimates, one pretty costly and the other very
reasonable. The second contractor needs to finish a job before starting
ours. Both said the repairs would be labor intensive, which is greek
for “its gonna cost you”.I’ve always felt like there was a mason trapped inside me wanting out, so I asked our visiting estimator to describe the labor intensive part. Well, it was tearing apart the bricks, cleaning the old mortar off, and digging out behind the wall. Ok, I thought, doesn’t sound so difficult. I can probably do that.
So, I’ve spent my spare time in “wall prep” while waiting on a contractor to turn loose of world affairs long enough to earn some cash. They must live on stored wealth from all the previous generations of rulers.
I started my work by tearing down most of the damaged section from the worst crack to the end of the wall. It was somewhat challenging to remove the bricks without cracking the good ones. There were a few casualties, but overall I did a fair job of brick rescue.
After that, I had a pile of bricks covered in old mortar. Sadly, the mortar has to be cleaned off.
I decided this is the part of the job where “labor intensive” should be capitalized. It was slow going and muscle tiring. My method involved taking a chisel and carefully pointing it between the brick and mortar and tapping it with a hammer. Sometimes it went well and the mortar would pop off, more often though, it took repeated taps and rearranging of the chisel to get it all off.
I was working on this one evening when an older gentleman walking by commented that it looked like a hard job. I said, “yeah, we’ve got the pay scale all wrong. CEOs are getting tons of money for a little work and guys who do a ton of work get a little money”.
I think I do appreciate the guys who clean brick for a living. They probably don’t even get into the secret society. I am hoping that my mason work will at least land me an honorable mention if and when the masons take complete control and their plans come to fruition.
I started stacking my cleaned bricks up on the left and the broken ones on the right. I noticed that masons often use the broken ones for support behind the wall so I didn’t discard them. I’m still not finished, but my cleaned brick pile has grown pretty large.
I also dug the dirt out from behind the wall so the broken cinder blocks could be replaced. I’m sure they’ll have some additional “labor intensive” work to do, but its a good start.
This being our first ever home owner’s claim, I want to mention how well everything was handled by Travelers Insurance. Our adjuster was Alex Lovell and I’ve never seen anyone so anxious to give us a check for the damage. I appreciate their prompt service and willingness to work with me on the delays( I wanted more estimates).
I need to give a Bible illustration from all this. Our lives are oftentimes wrecked from sin and we can’t figure out who can fix it. Jesus is the world ruler who has time for any life crisis, big or small. He can clean up the sin problem quickly and at little cost to the owner. He is available 24/7 and is just a prayer away. I wholeheartedly recommend His work and would encourage you to call Him anytime! His pain is your gain!
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. John 3:16 (CEB)
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