Sudden Heart

I have been suffering terrible dizzy spells of late and have not been able to figure out what the problem is despite repeated trips to the doctor. I finally decided to stop having my nightly glass—or two—of wine. Then I decided I better eliminate coffee too. Gradually I have been feeling better.  One of the things that has helped me in this new stoicism is being around our builder, Allan Aasen.

I try to visit the site every day. He is a stern man, and a very hard working person, not someone who seems easy to get to know either. But, he was the builder I liked best after we spent quite a bit of time going over bids with several builders and interviewing three of them twice. In thinking back I now credit Allan with having been somewhat sly in what he chose to focus on and recount in those interviews. It was actually quite good salesmanship on his part though none of it dishonest, just a way to highlight his strengths.

For example, he told the story of a young builder he knew, a guy he said who reminded him of when he was younger, running multiple building sites simultaneously. This builder was installing radiant flooring, which is what we are intending to do, and it is one of the more costly aspects of our building plan but also recommended by our architect. The heat is delivered via hot water pipes, but instead of coming through old radiators like the apartment buildings where I used to live in New York, the pipes run under the floor, so the floor is heated. (In Breaking Bad, one of the reasons Walter White’s wife has an affair with her boss is because she is so attracted to his radiantly heated bathroom floor.) The heating system actually caused the early demise of one builder who we thought would bid on the project. He arrived a little late on the scene and announced, quickly after swinging down from his extra high pickup when he got to the site that, in his opinion, radiant flooring was a waste of money in a house as small as ours. Our architect, without blinking an eye, told him without emotion, that this project was a team approach and there would be no room for individual egos. At the time, I wondered if this was exactly on point, but in retrospect, it was and we never saw or heard from that contractor again.

But back to the story that Allan told…He said that the young builder (Allan took out his red pencil and began to draw on paper to illustrate as he talked, something I’ve learned since that he’s inclined to since he seems to think in terms of drawings and pictures), drew a map for his crew of the water lines beneath the floor so that they would have a map of where not to put any nails lest they pierce the plastic pipe carrying the hot water. After drawing the map, the young builder promptly drove off to get to his other site. But, while he was gone, one of his workers, took up the plan, misinterpreted it, and pounded nails in all the wrong places along the path of the pipe. After this story I looked up at Allan and asked in dismay, “How many jobs will you be working on?” He replied smoothly, “Just one…yours.” Though he didn’t have the job yet.

Allan was my choice, but he was not Harry’s, because his bid was the highest. But it was also the most thorough and he broke out what were fixed costs and what were the “allowances,” which could go up or down depending upon how much we ultimately spent on such things as light fixtures, carpeting, appliances, etc. All three of the builders from whom we were getting bids were recommended by Terry, our architect, who assured us that, in his experience, Allan was scrupulously honest with his costs and not an expensive builder. Terry said that perhaps his costs were somewhat higher because he works with his two adult sons.

I have since learned that theirs is a family business and Karen, Allan’s wife keeps the books. That’s just one of her jobs, she also works at our favorite hotel in town, the Best Western on the Beach.

We asked Allan to pare down his prices for the final bid and he did. But he also told us something that he said he feared would cost him the job. He said that he was afraid there was asbestos in the old house, slated for demolition, and that if he failed to get that inspected and removed properly he knew a builder who had been fined $80,000. That did it for me. He was our guy! At the time, our next door neighbor had been opposed to our building project, testifying against it at the Planning Commission twice despite Terry’s efforts to redesign our front door in response to her concerns that we would make noise and bother her. She has since moved away perhaps because she feared the noise of construction even more than our living there. I knew that, in any case, we would not want to risk such an incident and I appreciated his expertise in pointing out this potential pitfall despite the fact that it added another $10,000 to our costs to the abatement firm. He had been right, there was asbestos.

Now, daily I go to watch and photograph as the building begins to emerge from the sand. There are three of them, Allan, Arek and Greg. They are Norwegian and they rarely talk on the job though it’s clear they communicate because it is getting built and the job site is immaculate. They work together measuring and leveling at each turn. I can see how proud Allan is of the boys and the quality of work they do.

Allan is in his mid-60s, about my age, and the boys, twins, are probably in their 30s. Allan is lean and trim. His fare skin has reddened with exposure though I know they are all carful to use sun screen. It’s been a little hot at the site, upwards of 75 degrees but they all stay fully covered, maybe short sleeves once in a while. They play their radio and listen to news, a lot about sports. Allan grew up on the peninsula in Pacific Grove where he lives with his wife in a house for which Terry designed a new master suite. They bought there when the boys were younger so they could walk to school. Allan has been building on the Peninsula for 30 years. He started out working for the father of one of his friends in high school, Herman Hass, who taught Allan more than carpentry, but an approach to life that was about working hard.

Allan takes pride in being old school. He says it’s not about the money, it’s about doing things right, paying your dues. He uses a hammer instead of a nail gun except for a few special aspects of the job. “Nope,” he says, “No nail guns. We’re building your house the old-fashioned way.”

I thought the first couple of times that I met him that he walked with a limp or perhaps had a bad back. I asked him about it recently because I explained I don’t notice it anymore, but I still thought he might have been injured on the job. He said, “No, I guess I just walk funny. That’s what people say to me and I tell them I can walk any damn way I please. It’s just the way I walk.” He is sort of cantankerous too, you see. But he’s very kind also, and he says the secret to his success is that he just works very hard to keep his clients happy. He told me he gets up every morning at 5:30 AM, and at 6 AM he goes running on the beach for two miles. He says it’s sort of a boring life, all he does is work, but he doesn’t ever have an ache or a pain!

He’s been an inspiration! I am not quite sure at what point the tables turned for me and I began to feel better and suddenly to take heart. It’s been a slow steady climb uphill since so that I can say I feel better than I can recall feeling in quite some time.