Ultimate Backyard Makeover 2010 – Honoring a Local Hero! Pt. 3

As we continued on with our Backyard Makeover, my cell phone began to ring. Offers were coming in to help with the project, in fact at one point I thought we might have too many people running around the site. Calls came in from John Borovicka’s Carpenter’s Union Local 43, as well as Local 24, with which he had been working the day he died. John’s Union brothers were great, they showed up asked what needed to be done, and got to work. They agreed to finish up the trim work on the sauna addition John had started, install a screen door for the space, and helped out with the Memorial garden, by pouring the slab for the Granite bench. It was quite a site, seeing some of Connecticut’s best bridge builders, pouring a slab that only measured 14 inches by 42 inches. The scale of this project was much smaller than they were used to, but they handled it with the same precision reserved for our state’s major roadways.

Locals 43 and 24 finishing the sauna addtion exterior

Making the forms for our slab

The slab must be level

A job well done!

While the Union guys were seeing to their tasks, our crews lead by Readco Landscaping, were busy working on the sitting wall and patio under the watchful eye of our Director and camera crew. Construction had to be halted from time to time, but Readco did a great job staying on schedule.

Our Director would not miss a shot

At times it feels like fish in a fishbowl

Sometime during the afternoon hours on Wednesday, a woman walked down into the backyard carrying two large plastic containers. We were use to friends stopping by at this point, but could not imagine what she was bringing by. Maureen, and her family, are good friends with the Borovicka’s, and she began to tell us of the many times John had been to their house to help with repairs and projects. Tears filled her eyes as she told us of John’s generosity, and that she had brought us cookies and peanut butter bars to say thanks for all that we were doing. Her story warmed our hearts, and the treats were delicious. Unknowingly though, she had broken one of the rules of dealing with contractors and stray dogs; If you feed them they might never leave!

As the stories and visits continued a renewed sense of what we were really there for kept us focused on finishing on time, and the wrap party planned for the end of the week.

Check back in to see what else lay in store for the Borovicka backyard!

Scott

www.blueheronlandscapes.com