Friends,

I am sorry that I have not been communicative with everyone lately. It 
is not from lack of desire. I know some have been calling me concerned 
that they have not got calls back, others waiting I assume patiently but 
I know want to hear from me. To be honest business has been more than I 
can handle. It has been this way getting worse since last year. I had 
wanted a break over the winter to catch our breath and it never 
happened. It is good, just too damned much of it. I have tried to make 
it more difficult for people to get hold of me and unless potential 
customers know my cell number or send an e-mail to the business address 
I’m likely not going to respond in very hurried fashion. Regardless not 
a day goes past without someone calling me asking if I am interested in 
working on or bidding on their project (last week it was a short list on 
a $400,000 project on a fort -- or I'm called on Tuesday and told I can 
put a bid in on the Roosevelt house by Friday -- I said on that one that 
they should have fun) – and all these folks had to figure out how to 
find me in the first place. I can’t get one request done without getting 
three or four more to work on. By the time they find me I guess they are 
sort of weeded out. Sort of. We started the business with one principle 
in mind, to only work with people that we like… I’m thinking of adding 
to it to only look to build relationships on projects that we want the 
relationships to last 20 years. Nothing works out like we plan but I 
figure if you start out with everyone talking having to deal with each 
other and all our oddities for 20 years it sure makes the relationship 
not only stronger but more honest and trusting. When I look at my 
various current business partners for the most part I can say that I 
have had a 20+ year relationship with the ones I’ve kept. I’m a bit 
embarrassed to say all this. Kathy says I should say NO more often… I’ve 
been doing it a lot, hard to get used to how nice it works sometimes to 
increase the demand and make even moire sticks to cram into dark spaces, 
but possibly I’m not saying it enough so I keep raising our prices -- 
except for friends and those interesting folks that pay us before we do 
the work. I sure don’t want to see the dollar fold but the cost of gas 
don’t bother me much right now. It looks like a big wave to ride and I 
hope we don’t get drowned by it.

The attached photos are of one of the oldest houses in our area of the 
south shore - The Petty House. We are real near the Atlantic halfway 
between Brooklyn & Montauk. David and I a few years back on a hot July 
4^th weekend did what ended up for our own entertainment a survey of all 
of the sticks and their condition. There were a lot more of them than is 
shown here that could have been easily salvaged. We had put in a bid to 
restore the timber frame… but never heard zip back from anyone. The 
shopping mall right behind the building wanted to expand and the 
town/citizens, particularly the ones against the expansion looking for a 
political weapon (a sacrificial goat), came to the defense of the 
‘historic’ structure. It was a farce from the beginning. So the 
developer agreed to put $300,000 into ‘restoring’ the structure. The 
architect they hired was a know-nothing… wanted to put a quaint cupola 
on top w/ a whale weather-vane though it had never had one sort of stuff 
– I know, I saw the damned drawings. (Our whaling claim to fame here is 
that the Poosepatuck Indians -- they have a reservation nearby - lost 
all of their men who froze in the rigging one winter offshore... our 
other claim to fame is Flight 800 landed just a ways south of us.) They 
were going to dismantle the structure, rebuild the foundation then 
reconnect the pieces. The SHPO caught wind of that and said they could 
not dismantle. What should have been done was move the damned thing but 
common sense don’t work here any better than elsewhere. I swear that I 
have daydreamed about torching it (get Mr. Gray to come out to the DII 
[Damned Idiot’s Island] for a pyro Barbie). So it went to court and was 
stuck in litigation for like 2 years. It held up the developer getting 
his certificate of occupancy on his additions which held up our 
wonderful bank from getting the branch office that we use - we liked 
visiting them in their trailer. And the chain store next door sells 
pretty decent work boots cheap. In the mean time the local newspaper 
wrote an article w/ the smiling faces of the only truly heritage 
conservation folks in the area standing out front of the fence as if 
they endorsed the restoration… David and I withstood one of them for 
about 2 hours in the blazing sun while he downloaded his pent up anger. 
His pet project is an inn where either Jefferson or Hamilton or 
Washington or all of the above downed a few ales and likely pissed in 
the little white house. So David and I decided that though we have uber 
histo presto experience we had better leave it alone in our own front 
yard sort of thing. Nobody within 30 miles of us has a clue who we are 
or what we do (actually that is not quite correct... a few people in the 
local NPS know us). We either work in NYC or the east end North or South 
Forks and sometimes the exotic clime of Northern NJ and we go on lots of 
entertainment junkets to CT. Anyways… they stripped off all the shingle 
siding and roofing then jacked up the frame and put in a new concrete 
footer and new brick foundation… and I mean NEW. Don’t talk to me about 
mortar analysis or authenticity of materials. They set the frame back 
down… and what you can’t see is they probably threw out all of the 
timber sills and replaced them w/ PT. Slapped the plywood on and did the 
very historic framing that you can see. I don’t know if the SHPO is 
watching – don’t even know if God has not decided to forget. What gets 
me is that as far as the local pols are concerned, and the citizens in 
general, this will likely in future be billed as a restoration and 
everyone will be proud to point out the ‘old house’. That is if they 
happen to see it when they drive past. I won’t laugh or burp if it goes 
vinyl. The actually significant old house we have down the street, the 
William Floyd estate nobody knows how to find because they can’t drive 
past it in their car – have to get out in the parking lot – that they 
can’t find the parking lot because it is the only destination in the 
area unless you are going crabbing, necking or gonna be eventide skeeter 
bait -- and walk to it. WF (there was no M then between the W & the F) 
was a signer of the Declaration and his family used to own everything 
now surrounding us in Spastic Beach. One major problem though is that 
there is like zero parking at the site of this particular little house 
and it is too close to the road (and there are master plans calling for 
widening the roadway – the old Montauk Highway – at one time it was the 
major thoroughfare to Montauk from NYC) and likely not much in the way 
as a use for the building once they do get it glued (lots and lots of 
Elmer's) and nailed back together again. The location is lousy. What 
they say about retail: Location Location Location! It will be an empty 
shell owned by the mall developer. It could end up one of those places 
where you pawn gold jewelry or buy a cell phone or beeper. Last use it 
had before it was abandoned about ten years ago was a lawyer’s office. I 
am afraid to ask my friend the lady around the corner what they should 
sell there as the last time I asked her a blue-sky business question 
like that she suggested little boys.

Postscript: I went to our bank and saw that somebody had put their 
signboard up on the plywood so with nothin but a pure heart and abundant 
curiosity I went to take a look. Fellow out in Westhampton Beach billed 
as a Preservation Consultant w/ a phone number. Nobody I'd & ever heard 
of before. So when I got back to the office I called him. Well, first I 
checked our suvey photos just to make sure I was not dreaming that a 
whole lot of the frame that was salvageable is now missing. I feel 
validated. Introduced myself as a local contractor w/ histo presto 
experience. Said we were almost neighbors and should know about each 
other. He said he was moving his office into an historic building so 
that is why he has no e-mail address. Hmmm? Anywho... also said he does 
a lot of work in NYC. Hmmm.... and I never heard of him? He never heard 
of me. So he suggested I MAIL him our information and he wld take a look 
at it. I did not say anything about my questions re: Petty House but I'm 
curious if he has any idea what he put his sign up on? I mean, did they 
hire him on after they threw away all the heritage fabric? There is no 
other sign on the building, not even one from the developer who is 
writing the check. Ha! This will be a new adventure.

][<en

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