Chapter 43

Day Forty-three - Monday

Sue and I woke at the exact same moment, opening our eyes to look into each other's. She smiled so gently, so sweetly at me that my heart melted. Kissing was the only appropriate response. We did, we kissed and kissed until we had to do more. We did more, so much more, that we didn't finish with the shower until six-fifteen.

Good thing the coffee maker works fast. As soon as we turned on the light to plug in the other coffee maker on the bar, Tiny and Ruth came in. The rest followed quickly, energized in anticipation of another exciting day. Charlie, Jim, and Tiny felt left out as it would be same old, same old, for them.

Ruth said she was going to take Glenda with her so she would have a second opinion as she shopped for furniture. She wanted to know how many offices I wanted to furnish. I told her to furnish the fancy office and the one next to it, but not the other two upstairs. The office next to the big one was going to be hers. We could use the big office for big shots that visited for the impression factor.

Downstairs I asked her to find a double desk for my office so Sue could sit on one side and me the other. We would put the desk so we could both look out into the shop to our right or to our left, depending who sat where. The other office should probably have something similar, a double desk, a small table with chairs, and a file cabinet. Team leaders might use that office in the future as we built teams. The big instruction was to have the furniture sellers deliver it, with enough people who could get some of the stuff upstairs. We would need a table and chairs in the lunchroom.

For decorating, the outside windows upstairs needed blinds. Perhaps the corner office should have drapes to pull across the shop windows, as well as blinds and curtains for the outside window.

I wanted the big plate glass windows on the showroom to be tinted. That would keep down the heat in there. There was a six-foot overhang that acted like a porch, but it would not provide shade for very long during the day.

That was all I could think of.

Abe said he was going to move the two big benches and put one in each of the two big shops as his area already had a very long bench to use for various projects. I cautioned him about physically doing too much himself and to let the four young guys do the heavy lifting. He was there to direct them.

They took off early to go get the big truck and a fork lift. I told them how I had done things before so he would know how to drive the big lift up on the truck.

Just the man I wanted to see. The contractor stopped at the house to talk to me about the new addition. He had a drawing with him that he had worked out. It would have to be good enough to pull a permit.

I told him that one, I wanted the whole area paved right away, and also the 100-foot long shed we talked about. Next, I explained that I wanted the side of the building, where the paint booths were going to be built, pushed out twelve to fifteen feet, whichever would work out best architecturally. Then I said I wanted a shop about the size of Abe's existing shop on the other side.

He thought for a minute then suggested. Why not keep the one side the way it is and add the paint addition. We can leave space for the future but why not build the bigger unit on the other side of the building. Let your man move to the other side to the new area. We can duplicate what's on the other side, but just make it larger.

I agreed. That was a good idea and it would free him up to pull separate permits for the different projects. Sue gave him her attorney's name and phone number, who would be issuing checks as they were needed. All he had to do is call him. The contractor thanked us profusely, saying his asphalt guys were going to be ecstatic. I told him that, as it was needed, my guys would move the various junk out of the way. If he needed a forklift while he was there, he could use any he wished.

I called a fuel supply place for a propane delivery for the forklift trucks, giving them both the new shop and the storage place, as the big lift would be over there today.

Next was the insurance lady. After I went over everything we were doing, she said she would have the building surveyed for fire insurance, but would put a binder on it now for our purchase price. I told her we were doing some major additions, so if their surveyor wanted to come by and make suggestions, to please do so.

She said she would deliver the insurance cards for the four trucks and the Mustang in a half-hour.

She also said she loved me and wanted to marry me this very second. We both laughed at that, as she had already met Sue and knew how much we were in love.

I called the telephone company to order the lines relocated and to add two more. Three should be fine for the business, but we would need a fax now that we were a big time operation.

Next was the list of phone companies I dug out of the phone book. I made appointments an hour apart, starting at one this afternoon. They all knew I did not know anything about what was available, but I knew I needed multiple phones and a reliable public address system.

I called the steel supply house and ordered ten sets of the tubing, and five sets of the sheet metal. The lady at the factory said there were trucks waiting for loads and mine would be on the way today and would probably be delivered tomorrow. I gave her the new shipping address, saying it was our new building.

I realized I had not considered where to store the materials. The rear wall could be racked with heavy steel shelves. If I had the steel we could weld it in place ourselves. I called the supply house back and ordered the steel necessary to create the needed racks.

Sue had an adjuster on the other side of the house. He had already gone by the sheriff's office to get a police report. Everything was coming together. My ear was getting tired, but we were making progress.

The insurance lady drove up. She came into the patio area, looking around, stunned at the changes in just a couple of weeks.

"This is amazing, how did you do all this so fast?" she asked.

"There is a little contractor that needed the work. The result is what you see. He's doing some expansion at the new shop too. He is very good and very reasonable. I'll give you his card if you have work for him."

"Please give it to me, my husband and I would like to build an addition on to our house, along with a big screen porch. Not as big as this one though. My goodness, you have a seventy foot long home and the patio is the full length. What is it about thirty feet wide?"

"That's right it is thirty by seventy. Nice size don't you think?"

"It is unbelievable. Anyway, here are your insurance cards, you seem to be acquiring vehicles at an alarming rate. Are you going to keep your original pickup?"

"I'm not sure, probably not, there is no need right now for another pickup."

"Let me know if you sell it so I can cancel the insurance and get you a refund. I've changed all your policies to reflect Steve Sharp, Inc. I have an endorsement for your S&S Enterprises d.b.a.," she said then showing me an invoice, "If you can get me a check for this amount, I will be out of your hair so you can go register the vehicles."

I went in to write the check and ran into Sue putting a check from the adjuster into her purse. She said a tow truck was going to be here in a few minutes to take the car to the dealer to be repaired.

Sue came out to the patio with me to greet the insurance lady and had a few words with her as the lady wrote a receipt. I asked Sue if she wanted me to wait for her or would she mind if I ran up and got the registration stuff taken care of. She thought I should go while it was still early before that office got busy after lunch.

I was back in less than forty-five minutes with the tags. Sue rode with me to the storage place where the two big trucks were. I put the new tags on the two trucks and heard how this was going to be a second load already. We drove over to the new place to find Shawna inside painting the second pickup truck. She said she would add more stuff later but the S&S Enterprises on the doors was a good start. She asked Sue when she wanted her to do the Mustang.

"Let's make some drawings and see what all we want on it," Sue was saying, thinking of what she wanted. "I want the car to look like one of the NASCAR models, but a convertible. I'm going to get Steve to make me a padded roll bar and install it in the car so it will really look like a race car. So let's get some pictures of the different race cars then we'll design what we want."

Shawna said that when the guys took a lunch break or came back with a load, she would do the new big truck. Also they were supposed to bring over the custom welding truck this trip, so she would do that one too.

The contractor was finishing up forms on both sides of the building. Today he had fourteen men working on the project, as well as himself. He was using the surveying tool to get all the posts for grade in place. He had a couple of guys doing the rebar and mesh to hold the concrete together. He asked me if I thought he could put all of the used mobile generators and compressors on the outside of the fence that night and would it okay to park everything else either inside the shop or in the front parking lot. I told him we would put the forklifts inside and everything else in the front parking lot.

I put the tags on the two pickups. Sue said for me to choose one of them for myself so Shawna could paint my name over the door. Both were exactly the same and both had about the same miles. The bodies were both very clean, with no marks on either one. I pointed at one and Sue put a note on that one for me and the other one for Abe.

Alice drove up to the front of the building. We walked through the shop and on through the showroom to meet her. She had lunch for Abe and Shawna and the other men. She didn't know Sue and I would be there. I told her we were getting ready to leave soon.

Sue and I drove down to the Greek restaurant so she could cause her usual stir there. As usual, the owner was eyeball locked on her the whole time we were there.

I had someplace to take Sue after lunch, saying it wouldn't take long but we needed to do it. We drove to Kennedy Boulevard almost to downtown Tampa to my attorney's office. When we walked in he greeted us like a politician with an arm out to welcome us and his right hand stuck out to shake mine. He stuttered a little during Sue's introduction, but recovered his eyes and speech very professionally.

He had us go into his conference room where he spread out a whole bunch of fancy documents. He briefly explained to Sue that I had asked that she be on the corporate structure of the company and these were the documents to amend the corporation. When Sue looked at me funny, I said, "I didn't make this a minority owned business as I'm assigning each of us fifty percent ownership with a buy and sell agreement should anything happen to either of us. Let's get this done, I have appointments pretty soon."

Everything, including a real live "last will and testament" was signed in under ten minutes, ready to be recorded. We left, heading back to the shop to start meeting the telephone guys.

I had Sue drive my old pickup home, saying I would drive one of the new pickups home as soon as I was done with the telephone guys. The contractor had installed pillars along where the new walls were going to be and was pouring concrete on both sides at the same time.

The first telephone guy was a know-it-all that told me what I had to have for a business like mine. He ran his mouth till I finally asked if he was able to give me a quote for what I wanted. He said yes and left saying he would have it ready for me by next Wednesday or Thursday. I planned on calling him and blowing him off Monday.

The second guy was already there and waiting for me a while as the blowhard was getting on my nerves. This guy asked me dozens of questions that I felt were good ones. He drew a floor plan of the shop, the offices, and showroom, then drew the two new annexes, as he called them. We walked throughout the entire building while he asked what kind of activity was going to be done in each area.

He asked if he could use the conference room for a few minutes so that he could get a quote ready for me.

The time for the third guy came and went. I guess a new guy like me can't get all that much attention. The second guy came out of the conference room and said he had all the information and now wanted to give me a proposal. We went back into the conference room where he went over each area of the building, confirmed what activity was proposed to be done there, and went over the new areas, as well as the outside lot and storage area, very thoroughly.

First he gave me a price for all used equipment for the telephones, but new equipment for the paging. Then he gave me a price for all new equipment. We went back over his drawing with the marks for each location he proposed to have a phone and how he was going to wire it so we could add onto the new areas easily.