As any regular readers know, I have only endorsed three products over the entire decade plus that I've written the Hash.
It was well past time to rebuild the plumbing that was pretty much destroyed in the fire. I had jury rigged a toilet, sink and in the basement, a makeshift shower. Living this way has gotten rather stale.
It took some time to find a decent plumber. We were shopping around and on a whim she noticed a Frew Plumbing and heating truck, scribbled down the name and handed it off to me to see if they would give me an estimate.
They would and Jim Frew showed up.
Now I'm a recently retired Merchant Mariner and at 71 I've been around the block and when I met Jim I knew he was an Old School type. Old School works for me because the Old School guys are straight shooters.
I mentioned that we were also trying to bring the plumbing up to code as the wife and I are getting up there and somewhere probably sooner than later we know we'll have to sell. Getting it up to code makes the place more marketable.
We just had the electrical brought up to code very recently.
He pointed out a couple of things and I agreed to it. I guess code had changed a bit since I redid the place over a quarter of a century ago.
He gave us a straightforward bid and we accepted it. We gave him the requested down payment and got on the schedule. We were given a date and on schedule two plumbers showed up. Frankly to me they looked a little young but they were in their 30s and that's kind of young to me.
They were polite which was nice but more important they were totally competent and well trained. They were a young man and a young woman and they were a team!
As I have said before I have been around the block and it was a joy to see the two of them work like a well oiled team. They knew their jobs, performed them well both seperately and occasionally together.
On top of that both of them loved their work (rare in this day and age) and they were also enrolled in a school to learn more about their trade and advance themeslves. In short, the pair of them were motivated. That's rare, too in this day and age.
This team was a pair of go-getters!
One of them said to me, "It can be hard work, but it's really rewarding." That's another rare comment from a man his age these days. They both obviously enjoyed their work and I noticed they carefully checked their joints as they went along. They obviously wanted to do it right the first time and they did.
They worked carefully and efficiently, checking their work as they went along. It was obvious they took nothing for granted.
I'd wander in and out and make a comment here and there and occasionally say something amusing but in fact I was watching them like a hawk. They did damned good work.
There are no plumbers, electricians or carpenters at sea so I have learned a thing or two in my career. While I am no tradesman myself, I do know good work when I see it. Those two were great.
Later on during the day Jim wandered in and would look around. I could tell he had an eagle eye and was watching his plumbers carefully. I noticed the relationship between the employees and the employer and it was obvious that 'The skipper' was keeping his eyes on his crew and was rightfully proud of them.
The two of them rebuilt my entire plumbing system sans bathtub in two days.
On the third day they showed up with the bath tub and out of nowhere two more plumbers showed up and helped horse the tub into the house. It's cast iron and heavy!
Once they got the tub in they went back to where they came from. The two of them took it from there.
In addition to this, the plumbing inspector showed up to inspect the rough-in and it passed with flying colers as I expected it would.
The tub was installed, leveled and plumbed in by the end of the day, on schedule.
I am now up to code and after the sheetrock is installed I think I'll call them back to do some of the final that I won't do myself.
It's a rare treat to find a company like that. Jim Frew sure knows how to do something rare. He knows how to build teams.
Five Stars! HIGHLY recommended! It doesn't get better than this!
These guys are the Official Go-To plumbers of the Piccolo family.
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