I grew up in the French Hill section of Leominster, MA with a strict protective Irish catholic mother and a dad who would talk to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. No matter where he went, he knew everyone it seemed. I just stood behind him when people asked me questions, I was the opposite. If you've ever been to Searstown, now called The Mall at Whitney Field, its the hill behind Market Basket all the way down to Home Depot. That was all woods when I was kid, I sound like my grandfather. I lived near the corner of 5th and Water. On summer nights the dads would drink beer and bitch about the Habs and Bruins while we took apart bicycles and old doll carriages to make go carts out of or some other important project that involved their tools. All of my friends parents were somehow connected to the construction industry, as was mine. Our family owned a small roofing and construction company started in 1970 by my parents that employed about 6 guys and Gail, the nice lady with candy in the office.
As searched the neighborhood for sidewalk tree root jumps on our BMX bikes, we kept an eye out for interesting curiosities and whatknots. Auto Mechanics, Masonry, Carpentry, you name it, I learned to keep quiet and just watch, hand them tools when asked, help when not asked. Everything we did as kids involved building something, forts, go carts, tarzan swings, custom bicycles, or dismantling a lawnmower just to see how it worked. We always had tools in our hands.
In 1980 we got cable. I remember the box on top of the TV, was tan with a numbered slide bar from 2 to 80 I think. Anyway, 21 was HBO. I'm Gen X cable was todays smart phone. My uncle Johnny came up from the basement to watch TV all the time. Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Addams Family, Alfred Hitchcock, is what he watched. I would always comment on how houses looked like the ones in the neighborhood, especially the house from Psycho.
In 82-83 my dad expanded to residential remodeling. He did the framing and roofing, sub contracted the rest. I was the sub contractors worst nightmare. I sat behind each one of them asking questions, non stop. Some would ignore me, some would kick me out, some would let me take over and do the actual work. By 1984, the die was cast. I was to be in construction whether I liked it or not.
In 1986 we moved to West Leominster, to a dead end, out of place street called Foster Court. All around were beautiful detailed 19th century Victorians, Queen Annes and Second Empire mansions. Most had been converted to apartment buildings or commercial, a few smaller ones were still single family homes. I remember a few of my friends living in these apartment houses pre renovation when they were a single family home, all the original everything from when it was built. Dumbwaiters in the entryway that still worked, servant stairs that hadn't been converted to closets yet, fieldstone foundations that leaked awful into a cast iron pipe in the dirt floor leading to who knows where. Since the early 90's I've seen the houses covered up with vinyl siding, completely gutted, and turned into apartments. Sad.
In 1999 I was asked to do the complete opposite. Remove all the vinyl siding, strapping and aluminum from a Victorian in Gardner, MA. I do and I don't understand the reasoning behind covering up all this intricate woodwork. Being that close to the woodwork made me appreciate the craftsmanship these men had over 100 years ago with only hand tools. I had no excuses with todays metals for hand tools and the available power tools to do mediocre work. The least I could do was some high quality work with these power tools, the same work they did by hand. Unreal. Look close next time you drive down Cushing St, all done by hand.
Working with me
For Homeowners, I'm easy to get along with, attentive, I will work with you to be sure we are on the same page and you get exactly what you want. Make sure its written on the job description anything that is of concern moving forward. I rarely forget, does happen. I refer to the job description often as reminders. I am intense, if you want a deck shaped like a guitar, you'll get one. I will not shy away from any challenge. I enjoy what I do, and usually costs no more than a square deck. If you want the best deck ever built on planet earth, I will do it, and it will be. Want a waterfall inside a deck? Let's do it. I'm pretty creative and have mad drawing skills. I have OCD or I'm very detail oriented, I pay close attention to every little detail, I'm not sure which it is. "You need serious help" I am told often by my employees.
Its not often you will find something I am not aware of. 99.9% of the time, it's just because we are not finished yet or its just roughed in.
Time goes wrong. Start dates, time to complete jobs, hidden surprises, there are so many things that impede progress in construction and remodeling I almost have to laugh (cry) sometimes. Many moons ago I took a management class, maybe you know it. You own it. I would love to tell you my guys texted me at 7 they can't come in, or the new guy just used all the wrong nails and they have to come out. I own it, I don't make excuses for other people. This has a domino effect on other scheduled jobs, probably yours! If you are not the next job, maybe 3 or 4 away, you may be delayed a month. The only way I can control and speed things up is to rush, do half ass'd work and stress out my employees. I do the last one anyways, I'm not doing the others. If you get impatient, maybe best to part ways or not hire us if you can't wait. If you want it NOW, we can work it out, just don't be emailing me on Sunday night after a couple glasses of wine about starting. I will have a refund check in your hand within an hour if you just can't stand it, you are certain I am in Las Vegas with your money, or I've conned you, or I'm just flat out doing nothing, just took your money and am doing nothing. The truth is that I am the most anal retentive, detail-oriented person you'll ever meet. I never say good enough. I will make my guys rip up every single deck board if I think its crooked. Sometimes I lose money because of it. It's both a strength and a curse. Seriously, Relax! You're about to get one of the best decks ever built, or quality work that is second to no one!
Speed, Quality, Price. Pick 2, sacrifice 1.
I am a very private person. I'm not one for small talk, don't take offense, I've always been this way until I get know you. I am Gen X, 1974. I prefer a call or face to face communication. Not a huge fan of instant contact through text or email. I have a cellphone literally, its just a flip phone for work. I check my emails on my office computer. I tried social media, no thanks. I believe you are not the same person to all friends and family at the same time. I use social media as a tool for promoting my business and thats it, my wife runs it, it's not me. I survived until now with landlines and emergency contact forms. Why not just receive calls & texts? Back in my day, we had weekends off, no boss, no customers, just a note pad by the wall phone or an answering machine with the volumn down low. Customers before you would call, text, or email at all hours of the day on any day with no boundaries no matter what I said. Also, words have meaning, they have tone, they have body language. I need tone, I need body language to understand you, seriously. I don't know how to receive words on a page. Are you happy?, angry? curious? informative? If something is wrong lets talk face to face, please dont text or email a book, I'm not Yelp.
Architectural Construction Drafting was my first choice as I entered Leominster CTE in the Fall of 1988. I chose that because of Michael Brady and the cool house they lived in, and the fact I was pretty good at drawing, no kidding. I watched all my friends jump in the shop van to head to the school jobsite for the Carpenters, Electricians and HVAC kids while I stayed behind in the classroom drawing 3D objects. Did I make the right choice? Nope. Unfortunately I waited until the end of freshman year to come to that conclusion. Take 2. Fall of 1989, I went in with every intention of taking carpentry. It was something I had been doing since diapers, so it makes total sense. So naturally I chose Electrical Theory to be my profession. There was a box that controlled traffic light signals, it was so complex, I couldn't stop looking at it to see how it worked.
In 1993 with my new certificate of knowledge in Electrical Theory, I decided to go work for my uncle doing industrial and commercial roofing, the absolute most physically demanding job on earth is roofing. I will bet anyone! My dad had pimped me out many times to him before when I wasn't needed with him. After 6 months, I had enough of roofing. (I really continued for another 25 years, then called it quits, I still do small jobs, maybe)
In January of 1994 I enlisted in the USAF to build cellphone and microwave antenna towers because they said I had a strong background in math, who knew? I was honorably discharged in January 2001. I saw no combat, was in just after Desert Storm, and out months before 9/11.
In 2006 I installed my first composite deck board, Trex Winchester Grey. Meh. Heavy, wouldn't rot thats for sure. Some months later it swelled up, instead of shrank like wood did. The deck I built now had a pond on it. Not impressed at all.
2014. I get asked to build a Trex deck. He knew right away, no way. Not because I couldn't. I wouldn't. Then he showed me a brochure and a sample. This isn't the same stuff from before, this was nice! I hop on the google express that night. Oh my. Look at all these fancy decks. Myself included with every builder out there, decks were an after thought, a square platform off the kitchen to grill and hangout on. Now they are curved?
How do you curve? I watched a video of a company do it in Europe, board was sandwiched between some 20' heated pads. I actually used the same tool in school only shorter for bending PVC conduit. Goes in just like spaghetti, solid in, flexible out. So I got one to try on a new job in Maine. Tripped the breaker. Moved it to the garage, tripped the breaker. Ran it on a 10k watt generator, it did not like that. Well that didn't work. And then it hit me, Europe uses 220 volts in the home, the entire home. Maybe there is another way, like how my grandfather steamed wood in cast iron pipes? Back to the Google
The Trex Custom Curve Oven - Heating & Bending Solutions. Interesting. Go to the website, see how it works. This could work! Go to the shopping page and 10 GRAND! No can do to experiment with, oh well. Something to work towards in the future.
2017. Tell my friends about the oven I had seen online. They want to be the guinea pigs. She works in commercial banking. Explains to me how commercial lending works and what I need to do to play in the sand box with the big boys. No more P&L and 1099s, time to distance myself from the neck tattoos and cigarette above the ear clowns my mother warned me about lol. There good guys mostly, just give the business a bad look in my eyes. No one in my family smokes, no one in my wife's family smokes. I let it slide a few times, but no more. I no longer allow anyone to smoke, vape, dip, chew anything before or during the work day. Period.
We pulled into a driveway and my dad jumped out. Before he closed the door he pointed at me, scowled and said "stay here!" This day and my mom taking that picture are my first memory, and for good reason.
I jumped on the seat and watched him untie the ladder from the truck. As he was fully extending a 40' extension ladder the homeowner was pointing at the roof and saying something. He was laughing and seemed really excited. They both talked and laughed and pointed up at the roof. It was a 3 story apartment building with a flat roof. One of thousands you'd see in the greater Boston area. That conversation just continued, what is up there? One by one they climbed the ladder, I watched them the whole way, step off the ladder, and gone. What magical world did they just enter? Let's find out!
I reached the top of the ladder, my eyes just crested the roof line. They were both squatting by the chimney. I walked up and squatted between them, What are you looking at? I says. The homeowner was wide eyed as my dad said very...very calmly. How did you get up here?, I did an about face and pointed "the ladder" he said can you climb back down the ladder? sure!!, as I sprinted away! When I say fast, I mean time travel fast!, I went from a full sprint to the ladder to standing upright next to the chimney again. Not sure how that happened, but it did.
He went down the ladder first, I followed. Homeowner held the ladder. The homeowner must have been tired, he went right to sleep on the grass I remember. Out of nowhere my mom showed up and took this picture in driveway, and me home.
How did you come up with Daydream? You guys stare at airplanes?
1974
Carved my name in a tree behind the Searstown mall just after the Challenger explosion. That hit me pretty hard, I was 11 at the time. Returned again after high school I see. This was a short cut through the woods from my neighborhood to the mall. These woods are where it all went down. Still to this day every one of my dads tools I borrowed are withing 1000' of this tree. The hill going up behind it on the left is at 40 degrees, the side of French Hill. John Henry had a tarzan swing in his yard at the top of that hill that went over this tree, a good 300' above the path on the right. The 80s, good times.
Detroit Auto Show 2022 for the unveiling of the new 7th generation 2024 Ford Mustang GT. 2030 will be the last year Ford makes internal combustion engines for mustangs :( No sound better than a 302 5.0 thru Flowmasters! As a hobby I restore 79-93 mustangs to factory condition. I would rent a 2024, but have no interest in owning anything newer than a '95 5.0 for maintenance purposes only.
I would definitely do a resto-mod, twin charged Godzilla 7.3L in a foxbody, LMR did it! It can be done!
My baby is a Black 92 GT with a black interior, all original. Was a low mileage car I found in Ohio with an AOD that had seen better days. Had to warm to operating temp to even engage drive. NEO Mustangs set me up with a kit to swap that beat AOD with a 5-Speed swap kit from a donor car.
Let's Barter
If you want to trade a new deck or some other project for any condition 1979-1995 mustang/capri 5.0 or 2.3 or late 80's to 90's American muscle cars or diesel trucks, Diesel F-Series, K-10, Suburban, Excursion 6.0 diesel; Camaro IROC-Z, Monte Carlo, Road Master, Cutlass, Regal, Taurus SHO, Trans-Am, Firebird, Thunderbird let me know. No interest in Corvette or Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler cars, unless its a Ram with a 12 valve Cummins! their best years were before and well after the 80's. If Mark Worman would approve, then I'll consider it.
The Holy grail for me is the 1993 Mustang Cobra, Teal with black interior. Need a house addition?
Quality Roofing & Construction Co.
1977 age 3
I bought my first house in April 1999 when I was 24, a multi family in West Fitchburg, MA. I parlayed that into a single family in North Orange, MA in 2002, then again in 2004 after the cabin fever set in and moved to Westminster, MA where I stayed put until 2008 happened. Between my wife, the realtors, and homeowners who watch HGTV, people would daydream right in front of me about things I could build. You were probably doing it just before you read this :) I do like watching airplanes, just C-17s and the occasional F-16 over my house, don't worry.
"If you build it, I'll get sand" ~ Grampa
1980
Cut up an old roof plank with a circular saw by myself this day. Instead of scaring me away from his workshop my grandfather showed me how to safely use power tools from a very young age. He had 3 fingers blown off by a dynamite cap when he was 12 in 1928. Right before I started any power tool he would say "If you dont do like what I said, you will cut your fingers off like I did" Because of the many times he said that to me, I am still to this day, fully aware of where my fingers are.