We're all bound to have one once in awhile and today I cashed in! This thread could honestly go into several other sections, from the "let's see your Garage thread" to "Good People".
It started by taking the day off and sleeping in until 7:30 (that's two extra hours for me!). Had my coffee and breakfast (made by my lovely wife), spent some time with my daughter (not uncommon, but always nice). Then I got to work. I have an old Garage built 40 years ago with gravel for a floor. Five years I've tolerated it, Five long and gravelly years. That all changed today! I ordered the Concrete a couple days ago and it was scheduled to arrive at noon. Now all of this is good, but what makes it perfect? It's all the little details that synchronized into perfect harmony... Let me explain.
I've never worked with concrete before. I get incredibly impatient waiting for, well... anything! And while I abuse HomeDepot because it's so incredibly close, it's always tedious going in there.
For starters, when I ordered the Concrete, the guy charged me contractor pricing, cheaper than regular ol' Joe's pricing!
I headed to Home Depot, walked in and got a person who actually used to do concrete for a living! Brandon was full of helpful advice and made several suggestions that proved more then useful. I rented the needed tool and headed home. I will say Brandon was concerned that I was tackling this job by myself since it was an 11 by 12 slab and I have no experience. *shrugs*
The truck arrived at 12 sharp and the driver, Todd, took time to discuss with me a strategy. When I payed for the concrete, it was a set price, no hourly fees. Todd was totally cool taking his time and not rushing me. We were just getting started when I guy walks right up to my garage and says, "Hi. I'm Kurtis, Ladonna's son. I'm here to help." (Ladonna is my neighbor across the street, her and her husband are Awesome people and we help each other out all the time.) Kurtis does this for a living and has been doing it for TEN years!!!
I should back up a week and explain that Today wasn't the original day to pour concrete. I was going to do this last week, but postponed it for various reasons. Kurtis wasn't at his mom's house last week... He was here this week. It was perfect timing.
I put a divider right down the middle to work with smaller areas, and we busted them out in just under an hour. Because it's the shop floor, I opted to not go with a glass finish, and Kurtis made an incredible finish with the float tool anyways. Pics below...
Here's a couple Pre-concrete shots.
Here's Kurtis, or as I like to call him, The guy that saved my a$$!
A finished shot.
This is me... Pretending like I'm doing all the work!
Great pricing, free professional Help, Went Quick with no mishaps, No rain while we were working (no rain in Oregon is as likely as all of us selling our SOHC4's for Harleys!), Perfect curing weather scheduled, and I got to take a nap when it was all done ta-boot!
Of course, it's not the fast drying stuff, so in Three days I can walk on it, and after next week I'll be re-organizing and moving the project bike back in.
I understand not everyone believes in God, but since I do, I am totally grateful he pulled this day together for me.
One last thing... It's a running joke (I'm not even going to try and explain it) but I buried a full can of Mt. Dew in an out of the way corner.
Thanks for reading!
Rachet~
