Chapter 88

Alex and Jorge finished up going through three plates of pancakes and a couple of cups of coffee. Jorge got into the blueberry syrup, he'd never had it before. I was done and went out to see what they were up to.

Alex had a long handled squeegee that he used on the floor. It wasn't dry but it wasn't flooded, either.

In the meantime, Jorge opened up a long roll of plastic on the front lawn. He went up the stairs to the second floor, got up on a ladder in the middle and measured from the peak down to each edge of the roof. I went up with him and held the end of the tape as high as I could on the back and front walls. He got the approximate dimensions and went back downstairs.

I helped him again with the tape measure and he rolled out enough to cover the whole roof and a little more. His roll was about two thirds as wide as the room so he cut off two pieces. I then helped him roll it up from both ends so we had two rolls with the join corresponding to where the peak of the roof would be. He got out some duct tape and taped each roll.

The stuff was light as a feather but was bulky and I'm sure he was glad of the help. We got the first one upstairs and Alex was up there, putting staples in a staple gun.

"Isn't that going to mess up the wood for when you cover it?"

He snorted, looked at me, and said, "No, Jack. If staple holes were all we had to worry about, we'd be in fat city.

Alex and I set up ladders at either end of where the plastic would go, close to the peak. The three of us had to lift it between the roof supports so it was front to back. Once we got it above the supports, we had to twist it 90 degrees so it was in the right direction. We set it up with some overhang and took the duct tape off one side. Jorge got on a ladder and shot staples through the plastic, into the supports, all the way across. He got up on the ladder and held it, we moved our ladders back and unrolled another five feet. Again, Jorge stapled from side to side.

This continued until he put the last staples in, about a foot from the edge. We let go and about three feet went over the edge of the roof.

We repeated the same procedure for the other roll, working from the peak toward the driveway. Then we brought the second roll up and covered the other side. By the time we were done, the roof was covered and there were about five feet extra on each side and three feet hanging over the front and back. I wouldn't want to sleep up there when it was raining, but it would handle the problem for a couple of days until they got the plywood and then the shingles up.

Alex sent Jorge home and the two of us went into the house. He helped himself to a cup of coffee while I went to find Mom and Jill.

Alex told them both to put on jackets and follow him into the new room.

We went up and he pointed out where all the rooms were. There was drywall on one side of the walls but we could tell how everything was going to be when it was done. He had the whole place wired for phone and cable and even had some data cables run into a closet for a future network. He had phone and cable into the closet so a DSL line could be plugged into the network whether the tenant got one over the phone line or via cable.

He went over the locations for the various appliances and made sure the two girls were happy with it, now that it was built. There was a closet in the kitchen that was going to have a vertical washer and dryer combination.

Mom and Jill were satisfied with every thing so far. Satisfied? Jill looked ready to pee herself.

"I figured all that would be fine. The real reason I brought the three of you up her is to go over colors. We're going to put laminate flooring in. It's going to be oak." He went over to a stack of drywall on the floor and picked up a plank. It looked about seven or eight inches wide and four feet long. He laid it down in the middle of the floor.

"That's what we'll have in both bedrooms and in the hallway." He put a couple of floor tiles on the floor, away from the oak. They were an off-white color. "This is going in the bathroom and the kitchen. OK?"

Both women nodded. Jill squeezed my hand and sort of wiggled. Something like Bozo might do.

"The appliances will all be stainless steel. The washer and dryer will be your normal everyday white enamel. Now we get to talk about the walls. Jack? Do you have any preference on what color the walls are?"

"Nah. I'll leave that one up to the women."

"Smart man, Jack. I can tell you from experience, you'll never win on that. I've seen husbands fork out thousands of dollars because they OKed the wrong shade of yellow."

The three of them hemmed and hawed, checking out color samples to their heart's content until about half an hour later, both women agreed that white would go with anything.

Alex had obviously done this many times before. He had a standard notebook that could be opened completely so the front and back covers were touching. There must have been 100 of those plastic sheet protectors, each with a different color letter sized swatch. So, he could open the book and there was an eight and a half by eleven sample he could lay against the wall. Much better than those little inch and a half square samples.

"OK. This is the color. You both agree. Right?"

Mom and Jill both nodded their heads, smiling.

Alex opened up the edge of the sheet protector and pulled out three sheets, all the same. He handed one to each of them, then took out a pen and wrote "OK for walls — all rooms" and the date on the third sheet, using the notebook for support. He held out the pen to Mom. "Sign here." Mom did and gave him back the pen. He held the page out to Jill and handed her the pen. "You too." Jill signed her name.

He took the page, folded it up and put it in his pocket. "OK. That's the color. I don't want to hear any complaints or anything about changing it after we get started."

"What if we change our minds before you start?"

He looked at Jill as if he was completely bothered, then opened up the notebook.

"OK. This is it. What color do you want?"

"The white will be fine."

Jill took Alex's empty coffee cup and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She gave me a hug.

"Aren't you excited?"

Mom said, "Come on, Jill. Guys don't get excited about stuff like this. Do they, Jack?"

"Not really."

We made out way out and into the house. Mom opened the gate and the puppies ran up to us. Dino headed for Mom, Bozo went for Jill. Queenie lifted her head up and came over when I called her.

"Come on guys. You can keep me company while everyone else is gone."

"Aren't you going with us, Mom?"

"It would be a little awkward, Jackie, don't you think?"

"I don't know. You did go over and talk to them the other night."

"I just think this would be different. Let's give them some time together before I go to any more of these social gatherings. It's not like I don't have things to do."

"OK, Mom. If you say so."

We went inside and Jill and I got washed and changed to go. Mary and Sara were all ready, waiting on the couch. They played with the dogs while they waited.

We drove by to pick up Chris. He must have been watching out for us because he came out of the front door as soon as we pulled up. He had his guitar with him. He got in the back next to Sara.