If you’ve ever considered buying a house and remodeling it, you should probably reconsider, unless you’re into self-flagellation, or insane, or you’re a building contractor or have the necessary skills to build a house from the ground up.Those skills include plumbing, electrical, carpentry, dry wall, painting, heating and air conditioning, tile, and a multitude of other skills as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of local building codes. None of which I possess. Well, I can paint, but only if the drywall has been taped, mudded, and sanded. It’s not that you can’t hire someone to do the work, you can–as long as you’re willing to wait a couple of years or so. In a county with a population of less than 30,000, how many skilled craftsmen do you think are available? I don’t have any idea, but I do know that most of the ones I’ve talked to prefer to work on new construction, rather than remodel work. There are far fewer headaches in new construction.

I’ve been working on our humble little cottage for almost three years now with the assistance of an interesting variety of people. First was Lester, a self described hillbilly, who has never traveled outside the state of Virginia. He and I constructed what I consider to be the best roof in the state. One day this house might fall down around our ears, but I guarantee the roof will remain intact. The electrical upgrade came courtesy of Jim and his crew, who did a good job at a reasonable price. After Jim was a concrete guy named Donnie, who did some really mediocre work at an exorbitant price (read rip-off). Next came Chris who turned out to be a cocaine abuser and thief who disappeared with some of my equipment. Chris was followed by Leo and his crew of non-English speaking vaqueros who came down from N. Virginia and who disappeared when Prince William County cracked down on illegal immigrants, even though Leo and his guys were all legal. My second cousin Jason from North Carolina next lent a hand until his job and other obligations prevailed. His father Mel has been my one constant in all this, but Mel’s skills are not much better than mine. Which brings me to my friend Bernie Coveney.

Here’s Bernie backing out of my closet.

Some of you might recognize Bernie as a world class musician who has toured with Emmy Lou Harris and Juice Newton, hung out with Robert Duvall, scored a movie, recorded several albums and lives a pretty cool life in Floyd County. Bernie also built his own house. All those skills I mentioned above? Bernie has most of them. He’s also a hoot to work with. For the first time, we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Last month when my five year old grandson and heir apparent, Connor, was visiting, Bernie had him wrapped around his little finger, or maybe it was vice-versa. In any event, we took Connor to the Friday Night Jamboree in Floyd where Bernie and the Floyd County Irregulars (a group of guys who just came together for the evening) played a set. Connor was beside himself watching his idol play. He and a little girl he met on the dance floor did their version of the chicken dance. I have some great pictures of the evening on a 2 gig memory stick. Unfortunately, my antiquated laptop has only 1 gig, so it’ll be awhile before I can download them. In the meantime, here’s a picture of Connor (in the Red Sox shirt) and his posse that I took when I returned him to his home in Maryland.

If you think I wrote this post to do a little name dropping and show a picture of the little prince and heir apparent, you might be right. It’s my blog, and I’ll brag if I want to.