Heller and Shannon: Pouring the foundation

Heller called in sick to work the day the cement was scheduled to be delivered.

He had been able to put in the forms for the footings in the daylight hours after he got home from work but cement trucks show up when the cement company says they will.

It was telling to Heller that he was able to get one to show up three days after he called. The economy was definitely cooling off.

Foundations were always the first thing to hit the wall. Jobs that were in progress would be finished regardless of the interest rates. Dry-wall hangers, painters and roofers were the last to feel the pressure of rising interest rates.

Heller helped Clayton during the morning, then he moved to the job-site when he got the call that the truck was an hour out.

Pouring the concrete was almost trivial. The ground was dry and hard. The forms were more than adequately braced and leveled.

***

Shannon asked Fred if he knew of any computer programs that might be useful for estimating construction costs. "My boyfriend and I are thinking of starting a construction business and I want to be sure that we are not under-quoting jobs because of costs we weren't aware of."

 

Fred gave her an approving glance. "That is pretty on-the-ball. There are a lot of costs that aren't obvious. The physical depreciation of equipment means you will need to replace them at some point and the smart business owner adds that depreciation cost into every quote. Same for taxes and fees and such."

"And then it seems like a lot of business owners don't bother to write down mileage. They figure....Hey, I am going to town anyway...so they don't consider the lost time or the miles as a job cost."

Fred said he knew of several but would check to see which was currently considered the best.

Then he asked her if she was any good with Excel Spreadsheets.

As a matter-of-fact, she was a middling-to-fair user and had even recorded some “macros” to make things go faster in one of her previous assignments.

“While we are talking about this” Fred said “would you be willing to help one of our clients to apply for a building permit? He is a builder and paper-work is not his best thing.”

“Sure...but I don’t know if I can do it without visiting the site” Shannon said.

“Not a problem. You can do it on the clock. The address is….” and Fred filled her in on the details.

Shannon printed off the topo maps using the Credit Union’s printer and the printer was much, much faster than the one at the library.

It was almost comical how the guys at the proposed building site tripped over themselves as they tried to impress her. Kim Kardashian would not have caused more of a show than Shannon did.

For their part, they were impressed that Shannon noticed that they had already called Miss Dig and the site was flagged and marked with utility line paint. They were also impressed that Shannon had a pair of suitable footwear in the trunk of her car and that she asked questions and didn’t try to impress them. 

***

Shannon was taken aback when she popped open “Anita’s” Pluggedin account at the library. She had fifteen connection requests. Shannon did a quick, preliminary look at who was asking for connections and two of them were members of The “C”-Suite. In other words, about five levels above her in the corporate food-chain.

That made her more than a little uneasy. The men in the “C”-Suite, short-hand for the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Manager and so on, were powerful, proud men who were not to be trifled with.

Maybe it was time to think about a bail-out plan in case things went sideways.