Lesson #2

Okay so this week I was out of work. I got a call from a friend of a friend who needed help putting in a patio. No problem, I think. Paver, sand, gravel, easy. The patio and path is 20x40 and 4x20 feet respectively. Hmmmm, that's pretty big, I wonder if I can do it? I ask my boss. She says sure you can.

So I start working. Lotta raking and shoveling. Delivering yards of sand, 6 tons of material. Leveling, raking, sand, sweat. It goes on for a while. I'm beat. I don't think I can get this level. This is too big. Hell, I can do it. I can do anything.

So yeah. I just decide I gotta get going on putting down the pavers. I do it the way I was shown, labor intensive and not very accurate. Not flat, kind wavy. They have problems with it, say they are not going to pay me for some of the work I did. I freak out a little. Not get paid? Jesus, all that sweat for nothing. And I gotta put gas in the truck, pay for mileage. Am I gonna lose money? They have problems with the levelness and layout. Okay fine, I tell them, we'll talk about it in the morning.

Turns out hubby was a contractor, and he redoes my work overnight. I look at it and go, oh shit, it's way better then my work. So I say to the client, okay you don't have to pay for that work I did. She says Oh but you did do work, so I say fine just pay me a little. I tell her I'm not the right guy for this, she says yeah, she pays me fairly and I leave. So it worked out, but I feel like an idiot.

Why did I think I could do such a big job without that much experience? Humility is a hard trait to learn. I've been taught some lessons. Start small. Be honest and truthful.