Home Improvement The Hunky Way

Pam: I can’t believe what a husband will do to get out of doing a home improvement project.

Ann: Remember what my ex used to say when I asked him why he hadn’t completed a home improvement project. “If it was easy, I’d have done it.” So you must have asked Bret to do something tough.

Pam: No. I just hung up with Bret’s brother’s wife, Kerry.

Ann: Bret’s brother Donnie, the fire fighter who passed away? How’s she been, anyway.

Pam: She and the kids are doing okay. The firemen from his station have been great. It’s been more than three years now, but they still come by every other weekend to see what they can do to help around the house.

Ann: That’s amazing. I’ve heard they’re a real brotherhood. That sure proves it. If I were her I’d intentionally break things just to see those hunky guys work.

Pam: They’re willing to do anything.

Ann: Anything?

Pam: Douse it, Ann, I was referring to when they put a whole new roof on her house last year.

Ann: Wow, they sound like great guys.

Pam: They are. They’ll tackle anything. In fact, for years, even before Donnie passed away, Kerry always wanted to hang her grandmother's mirror on the big blank wall in the entry. When she had asked Donnie to do it, he told her he couldn’t because that was a ‘load bearing wall made of solid concrete covered by sheetrock’. He explained to her that it would take an engineering report and special tools to do it and that it just wasn’t worth it. So she’s tolerated that big blank wall for years before he passed away and for years since.

Ann: Don’t tell me….how sweet. Those firemen got an engineer and figured out a way to hang that mirror?


Pam: Well they came by this past weekend, sporting their tool belts and looking for something to do for her. She told them that things were in tip top shape, thanks to them, and confessed the only thing she wished could be done was to hang her grandmother’s mirror on the wall in the entry. Then she told them about the situation with the concrete wall and about why it was such a big job.

Ann: Well if anyone could manage it I’d think a bunch of off duty firemen could.

Pam: They decided to go for it. They moved the plant, table and chair and put a canvas drop cloth on the hardwood floor to prevent too big a mess when they used their masonry drills and stuff. Kerry had to leave but left them there, rolling up their sleeves, hard at it.

Ann: If I were her, I wouldn’t have left. I’d have stuck around to take pictures to make my own personal calendar.

Pam: Great idea but I hope you’d at least make a copy for your best friend.

Ann: For the right price.


Pam: Well, Kerry got back an hour later expecting to still be able to enjoy the show. But the mirror was hung masterfully above the table, everything was back in place, and she found the guys all out on the back deck drinking beer.

Ann: They finished up fast for such a big job!

Pam: That’s what Kerry said. And they told her, “We don’t know who told you all that bologna about a load bearing wall and sheetrock on concrete. It’s just a plain old wall. It only took a hammer and two nails to put that thing up.”

Ann: Donnie had lied to her?

Pam: Apparently so. Kerry figured he just didn’t want to quit watching the game long enough to hang the mirror so he told her that it couldn’t be done.

Ann: Did she tell the firemen that it was Donnie that had said all that?

Pam: Yeah, she did. At first they were mortified that they’d inadvertently snitched on a ‘brother’. But they got over it pretty quickly when Kerry began to laugh, poured herself a cold one, and proposed a toast to the man they all loved.