2022 Monday — The Story Continues

The little white pick-up truck pulling away from our place this afternoon (in this photo) belongs to Mercado. The story doesn't begin here.

This morning we phoned a man named "Mercado" and got his voicemail. His name and number were texted to us back in May when we spoke to Scott of "Scott’s Welding."

Scott was here in early May; he was a very kind and polite man, and we believe a very knowledgeable welder, but we sensed that the ramp we wanted built in our backyard was possibly a bigger job than Scott could do or wanted to do, but he never said that. He said, "I use Mercado, a man from Cambria, to do the ground work in a job like this," and then he said very politely, but not very adamantly, "Mercado could do this entire job for you; he could build pathways, and you would not need me to build a ramp." We did not know exactly what he meant, but had already spoken with enough builders that we were fairly sure that disturbing the soil was possibly not the best solution to create a way to the top of our hill.

Way back on Tuesday May 17th, Scott sent me Mercado's number. I responded to ask Scott if he was not interested in our job. His immediate response to me was, "I'll send you an estimate in a day or two."

So we thought Scott was interested in our job. At that time, we did sent Mercado a text and never received a response from him. We let that contact sit and moved forward with Scott the welder. He sent us his estimate that we thought was reasonable and then told Mr. Fun it would be six weeks or more before he could begin the job because of other commitments. We accepted his bid; he did not ask for a down payment; and our waiting began.

We were impatient, especially Mr. Fun, and wanted the job done. We were concerned about loose soil, winter rains, and mudslides. So I mentioned another welder in the area, "Formula Factory Fabrication," to Mr. Fun; I had seen them many times on social media and their work was quite impressive. We phoned just before Memorial Day in May for an estimate and the owner, Cody was here the day after the holiday.

When Cody arrived, he was very interested in this project; very straight forward that he'd never done a backyard ramp project like this but told us that his grandpa built with rocks and that his brother-in-law was a supervisor at a sand and gravel plant and he could possibly assist with rock crushing equipment if that became necessary. So Cody had good resources.

A few days later we received Cody's estimate; it was a little higher than Scott's, but Cody projected a confidence that we never sensed from Scott. We paid a down payment; Cody said he'd order supplies right away because costs were increasing, and we'd get the job started in a few weeks.

Cody's team completed our backyard ramp a couple weeks ago when we were sick. The ramp is strong, sturdy and we're pleased with that part of the job. We are concerned that lots of raw dirt was left exposed after the welding guys did the ground work so that the ramp entrance would begin level with the patio/walkway and end level with the upper portion of the backyard hill.

Currently the handrails are rusting so the entire ramp looks "organic." In a few weeks the handrails will be coated with a clear solution that will stop the rusting and preserve the surface.

When Cody's guys stamped the job "completed" and rolled away, we called the professional landscaper, Nick, that Cody recommended. When Nick finally got to our property, he looked around, talked with us, didn't like some of our ideas, and said he'd like to come back with his business partner to get his perspective on this project (we felt like that was somewhat of a put off). He also suggested that we might want to get a geology report on our land. We already have that.

Nick did tell us it would be November before they could do the job. A week passed and we had heard nothing from him. We sent a text to ask when we could expect to see him and his partner (he doesn't answer phone calls; texting is his method). He replied that he and his partner would be here in a few days.

I pleaded with Mr. Fun this morning, "Let's call Mercado again and this time let's phone him, not text him." Mr.Fun reluctantly phoned; the call was transferred to an automatic voicemail system. That seemed like a zero to us. We were feeling hopeless.

We were out for a ride later today when we got a call back from a Mercado's office in Cambria. The office girl (who we now know is his daughter) told us “Mercado was on his way to Morro Bay and maybe he could stop by on his way back to Cambria."

We headed for the house immediately to begin the wait. Sheeesh! About 4:15 Mercado arrived. He looked like a character in a Hollywood movie. "Milagro Beanfield Wars" comes to mind (see tomorrow’s photo). This is a man we really want to talk to. I think he will be better than the young, "social-media smart” professionals, with fancy Instagram and Facebook photos but can't return our phone calls or texts.

I have a hunch that Mercado was worth the wait, and I honestly think he’s going to get our backyard hill taken care of.

I asked him when could he begin the job, his response was, "Yesterday." We are hopeful that our backyard ground cover will not only be in, but be stable, before the (possible) winter rains.

Mr. Fun contacted Nick, the professional landscaper, to cancel our business with him — the “hurry-up and wait” is now over.

Mercado’s business card reveals that he is quite a professional. He builds retaining walls; he does masonry, irrigation, fencing, landscape drainage, pavers, weed abatement, landscape, and maintenance. He has a very informative website with lots of photos. He told us he has 16 kids; 5 of them work in his business.

Don’t miss tomorrow’s blip.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol
and Chloe & Mitzi too!