My mother always calls my Dad a blooming genius, more on that later....
Sunday morning after attending my ward choir where I perform my no-talent talent that of singing soprano I got in the car with my boys and headed home. Benjamin had the girls in his car and had beat us home from choir. They were standing in front of the house waiting for us to back in and unlock the front door. As I was backing in I thought to myself "Man I drive really well in reverse" just than my foot slipped and I don't really know what happened and I accelerated right into the front of the house. Full force right into the bricks. I hate those shoes that I was wearing. I bought them on an impulse buy and have regretted my very non characteristic decision of buying them in the first place. Anyways back to the awful wreck. The girls and Benjamin stood by and watched the whole thing absolutely stunned. Benjamin said he was just seconds away from walking behind the car to help me unload, but on an impulse (tender mercy or prompting from the Spirit) he hesitated just long enough to see me accelerate into the house crushing the wall where he would have been standing. Yikes....When you are trying to sell your house it is not good to have your brick wall completely bowed by five inches in the center, also if you have a seating area it is not good to have the seats slanted and on seatable. Benjamin assures me that he is not mad at me for as the girls put it, for almost killing him. He also says he is not mad at me, he is mad at the situation, I don't know how those two can be separated but beggars can't be choosers.
Benjamin took out the non functioning window benches, love that handy man and waited for my dad to arrive to basically save the day. Now for the blooming genius. Dad and Benjamin hauled these massive beams that Dad had had left over from a job site ( before Dad worked for IBM he was a general contractor and apparently a very good one!) . Dad braced the wall with a beam and had another beam in the center with a jack at the end, braced with another beam on the good wall. He basically forced the bowed wall (and bowed windows which amazingly did not break) back into place nearly five inches of movement. The wall looks incredible it still has some unsightly cracks do to well be running into, but we are planning to hire a mason to hopefully replace the bricks. Dad saved us a ton of money and relieved some of my heart ache over my untimely mishap! I think one of the reasons I love Benjamin so much is his ability to do all things handy just like my Dad. Thanks to Dad he gave Benjamin a new thing to add on his list of things he now can do. Blooming genius!
P. S. I wish I would have taken before and after photos but my faith was pretty small I was just at the hoping things would be better stage.
3 comments:
I know this shouldn't have made me smile, but I couldn't help it. Are you sure it wasn't a subconscious attack on the house? :-) For some reason it brought back the memory of the Thanksgiving where Scott and Suzie lived in that house down the street and I think as they were putting the turkey in the car (to take to Grandma's), one of the doors was open, the car started rolling, and the door got caught on one of the carport beams. I think we were staying at their house or something, because I remember this pretty clearly (I think). Maybe Suzie remembers better? Now I am dying to see the infamous shoes that caused all this trouble!
That John Albert Holman IS a blooming genious. I am so glad he enlightened me with his house expansion technique. All I want for Father's Day is a tube jack!
BTW, it is very easy to be mad at the situation and not at you. I love you way more, I mean WAY more than I love this house.
PS The carport in our new house will run parallel to the house not perpendicular.
Oh I am so glad this all worked out. Just what you guys needed huh?
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