Friends with construction skills: priceless

Today's most viewed articles Buy This Photo

Friends like Megan and James Levesque have played a big part in helping first-time homeowner Joey Cresta complete renovations.Joey Cresta photo

Friends have the uncanny ability to pick you up right at the moment when you most feel like staying down.

I've recently been discouraged by the slow rate of progress we're making on our home renovations. Our 1930 New Englander has proven to be a challenging first-ever renovation for this novice homeowner. Particularly, I'm upset that the process of installing our cabinets and countertops has taken so long.

Our cabinets have been in at least two weeks, but just a few days ago, we ordered our countertops. It will be a couple of weeks, at the very least, before they arrive. Even worse, our walls aren't square, and I dread that the countertops as we've measured them won't work out. I'm even bracing for the installation to be much more of a process than one might expect. That's been the way everything has gone thus far.

That was our situation on one recent weekend. It was mid-morning, and I was sitting around, not expecting to do much work around the house. At that point, I was feeling like things were pretty hopeless and why bother exerting effort when the cabinets are going to continue sitting there, taunting me in their half-finished state.

My friend James Levesque had different plans. He has been a work horse on this project. He works for a construction company and has a knack for everything from hanging and taping drywall to installing doors and windows. Our home would be nothing without him.

As such, I often feel guilty about asking him to help. Weekends are precious for everyone and he's done so much for us already. So has his wife, Megan. So, on this particular morning, I hadn't even thought about bothering him. I figured it would be a good opportunity to take a weekend off and unwind after so much hard work.

Then I got a text from James, totally out of the blue.

"Morning, big cat, what's on the agenda today? Meg's workin' so I'm free if you need any help," he wrote.

See original here:
Friends with construction skills: priceless