Undercover Rose
Chapter 97

Copyright© 2013 by carniegirl

It was too late to mark the fence line when they came back from Williamston, so we made plans to make it the next morning after breakfast at which time we all went our separate ways. I did some research on the Internet, then went to hang out in a chat room. It wasn't long till I got bored. I went to bed frustrated at that point.

I hadn't paid any attention to the two of them driving into the compound or what they had done after I went to bed. So I guess I was a little surprised when I was greeted in the parking lot by Steve on the bike I bought for him, and Sterlin on a bike I presume he bought at Walmart.

I didn't even slow down. I just took off for the dairy Queen on my trike. I got there ahead of the boys, but not by much. Steve handed Sterlin a dollar bill. "Son of a bitch cheats," he said.

"Well I suppose the Dollar is cheaper than 'loser buying breakfast'," I suggested.

"I expect so," Steve said with a smile. "I'll get him next time, when he doesn't cheat."

It reminded me of Jeremy, Alice, and me going out to breakfast, I thought. What I said was, "Boys and their toys."

Bart was waiting for us. "Well did you find your workers?" he asked.

"Yeah, the fence man was recommended by the guy at the diner. The contractor is coming over this morning. He is a nephew of Miss Sadie," Sterlin said. He hadn't told me about Miss Sadie.

"So you met Miss Sadie," Bart said. "She is a handful. If you want to know anything just ask Sadie."

"What did she have to say about her great niece Hannah?" I asked.

"Said she would come talk to you one day," Sterlin suggested.

"Sounds ominous," Bart said.

"Well she is either going to apologize, or bring a few family members to kick my ass," I said. The rest of breakfast was spent comparing ass kicking experiences. I knew I had them all beat for having had my ass kicked, so I just listened. I didn't want to share.

When the three of us arrived in the parking lot at about the same time we managed to get the tools out and to start working in the greenhouses. "Why don't you start the inspection of the new plants" I suggested to Steve. We had transplanted them the day before. "If any of them needed help this was the opportunity to do that."

"Sterlin you and I will mark the fence line, then we can start on the weeding," I decided. "We left Steve with his hand digger and the rolling stool, while Sterlin and I started to walk the perimeter we wanted to create.

We started with the woods along the parking lot. Then ran the marks from the drive to a point about twenty five feet past the parking lot. We took a hard right turn and marked a line through the evergreen trees more or less the length of a football field.

We made another right and went about half the length of a foot ball field then turned right again and continued to square it off. So we had about seven hundred feet of eight foot fencing to install. Then go back and install another seven hundred feet of six foot tall fencing.

When we finished our spraying Sterlin and I joined Steve to help with weeding the other two houses. I figured even with the interruptions of the builders we could be finished with both houses by the end of day.

"Tomorrow you two need to do some maintenance of the misting device," I said to the two of them. "Maybe together you can figure out how it works. It doesn't seem to want to move." It was busy work and they both knew it.

Before lunch the two heavy set young black men pulled up in a beat up truck. "Hey my dad was here yesterday he said to come over and measure for some fence," one of the men said. He was obviously in charge.

"Yeah we were expecting you a couple of hours ago," I suggested. Steve and Sterlin walked up behind me just to make sure there was a meeting of the minds.

"We had to finish repairing a day care's play fence. Somebody drove a car through it," the fence man said.

"Okay you know what kind of fence I want, so let's take a walk," I said. Sterlin come along and show them where you want the gates."

So the four of us started to walk the fence line. "We want a drive gate on each fence along the driveway," Sterlin said. "And a walk gate at the rear of the property in case we need to get out in a hurry."

"I make it just under eight hundred feet around the perimeter," the fence man said. "So two fences that is about sixteen hundred feet of fence."

"We figured it a little less but that's close enough," I replied. Sterlin and I hadn't made any kinds of measurements.

"Before we work up a price, if we had to cut some of them trees, you ain't gonna get all pissy on me are you?" the fence man went on.

"I think we can take care of the trees for you before you start," I agreed.

"We normally charge ten bucks a foot," he said.

"Yeah for a hundred feet maybe of new fence. Your dad said he would use some materials you had removed from an industrial building," Sterlin said.

"We will do it for ten k even," the builder said. I had figured the range at eight to fifteen k, so I was good with it.

"Well we want to call Allied for a price first, but your price is close to doable," I said.

"Well you do what you want, but nobody is gonna be cheaper. We got some good used fence," he said.

"Well I don't know that is the best anyone can do. So we will see," I said. He might have tried to bully me, but Sterlin and Steve discouraged that idea, if he had that thought at all.

"How about nine thousand five hundred and we start tomorrow. Your two white boys can come along and keep the trees cut down for us," the younger looking black man who hadn't spoken before suggested.

"Nine thousand and we will go buy a chainsaw with the difference and cut those trees," I suggested.

"Nine thousand, but when it is over you give us that chainsaw you are buying," the young man said with a smile.

"That's a deal half down before you start and the other half on completion," I said.

"Fair enough, but we want cash, no plastic or checks," he said.

"You have to sign a receipt," I demanded.

"Done, we gonna be here bright and early," the older and larger one said.

After they left I turned to Steve and Sterlin, "We need to go to the bank and then go buy a chainsaw," I said.

"I know you are going to have to give it to them after, but we need a good chainsaw," Sterlin said.

"Well from watching the timber cutting shows I think we need two saws. One to drop the thing and one much lighter saw to cut the limbs off," I said.

"You mean to buck them," Sterlin asked.

"Buck em, we give them the cheaper one at the end," I suggested.

"You are truly an evil bitch," Steve said with a laugh.

"Well thank you sir. You did mean that as a compliment?" I asked.

"Of course I did," he said.

I drove my truck and Steve drove his truck to Williamston. On my way to the bank, we stopped at Home Depot and bought a five hundred dollar Echo chainsaw with a long blade. We also bought a Homelite chainsaw with a smaller blade for one hundred and change. I put them on the company credit card. In the parking lot we loaded them into Steve's truck and sent them home. I gave them twenty bucks to buy a gas can and fuel for the saws.

I continued on to the bank. It took me twenty minutes to get the forty five hundred in cash. It was closing in on 5 PM when I got the cell phone call.

"Rose, Miss Sadie's Nephew is here," Steve said on the phone.

"Tell him I'm on the way. While you are waiting show him your plans for the house, and the location where you want it," I said.

When I got back to the compound I found the man to be at least sixty. He was Sadie's Nephew and she was eighty so his Father or Mother must have been an older sibling, I thought.

"You must be Iris?" he asked greeting me in the parking lot. "Your friends gave me this drawing and left me here."

"Well let's start over," I said. "Now I say, yes I am Iris, then you tell me your name."

"Oh I'm Doyle," he said. "Sorry about that. It's just that those two really don't seem like they know what they want."

"Well they have drawn you a floor plan. Now you and I can refine it," I said with a smile.

"My Aunt Sadie says we owe you so take it easy. Best I can do is prevent you from wasting money on this drawing."

"Okay lets have a cup of coffee and get down to it. When the sun goes down it's going to be cold so come on in the house," I suggested.

I had the coffee microwaved and ready to go inside of ten minutes. "Now Doyle what seems to be wrong with their drawing."

"Frankly it looks like half a house," he said. "And their measurements are the most wasteful thing I have ever seen."

"Doyle here is the deal, I want to make them comfortable, so where is the compromise?" I asked.

"They want it to be a concrete block structure even though it clearly was designed with future additions in mind," Doyle said.

"I don't know about that, but the idea of additions does appeal to me," I admitted. "But the concrete block is non negotiable."

"Okay, so first thing I say is change the width from eighteen feet to sixteen feet. That will allow for maximizing the labor and materials," Doyle said.

"That makes sense to me," I agreed.

"Okay, so we just change this. Now the interior walls should be frames so we can move them when we add on to it. The rear wall should also be frame. We can skip the rear window and go with a patio door leading onto the deck," he said.

"No deck, a concrete slab instead. The sliding doors is an okay idea but definitely a concrete slab," I said.

"Okay that's not a big issue," he said.

"I want a shed roof sloping forward, if we ever do add on, we can attach another part of the building to that roof. I also want lots of insulation," I explained.

"They have the building laid out like a railroad tunnel. It would be better if we did it different," Doyle said.

"No they have the right Idea with a bath for each and then a center kitchen area," I said. " I don't want any walled closets. I want open shelves with drawers and doors enclosing them. I also want a built in desk in the corner of the wall with the cabinets."

"Okay I'll call you with the price," he said. He was not even guessing as to the price.

When he left for the night, I stood in the parking lot to watch him drive away to the sound of chainsaws. I sure as hell hoped one of them knew how trees fall at night.

 
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