Furthermore...
Yesterday I wrote about good neighbors...today I got a huge dose of GREAT neighbor and in light of the fact that I just blogged about it yesterday, I had to share with whoever is reading this.
Brief background (for those of you who might not know), my parents have 2 homes...one at the NJ shore and one up north. You might think of the "shore house" as the summer house, but you'd be wrong. It's the other way around, the one in north NJ is actually the "other house" as they spend at least 80% of their time in their lovely ranch home just outside of Mantoloking, NJ.
Or at least that's where they DID spend most of their time until October of last year. I hope you all remember what happened last fall...a "little" storm called Sandy...SUPERSTORM Sandy. The one that destroyed most of Mantoloking.
I could go on and on about the storm and devastation, but this is supposed to be an addendum to yesterday's blog, so I'll shut up about that and continue onward.
We're coming up on Memorial Day weekend, the start of summer in every one's books (expect maybe Mother Nature's) and thanks to the hard work of a great contractor and his team, my parents house is ALMOST ready to be lived in again. (And just to give you an idea of the damage that the house sustained...the contractors have been working on their home pretty much non-stop since the end of November). As I write this, my parents are heading back down, joyful in the knowledge that they have working toilets for the first time in 7 months and hoping that some of the furniture they ordered will actually arrive today as promised.
It's new furniture because most of what they owned was completely ruined and was not worth salvaging. But what little could be salvaged was brought up North partially thanks to a wonderful neighbor, Jack McEvoy.
Jack, his wife Jessica, and I all went to school together. But I didn't really get to know Jack until he and Jessica moved to our block. Jack is a wonderful general contractor. (http://mcevoyhomeinspection.com/McEvoyhomeinspection.com/Home.html). I can vouch for that. I've seen the work he's done and it is amazing. (If I had won the Powerball, Jack would have been busy for a LONG time!) He doesn't work down the shore...that's not his territory. But he did go down shortly after the storm to help another friend (because that's the kind of person he is). And since he was in the area and he had a big van, he offered to bring whatever furniture he could back north. A coffee table and some end tables may not seem like a lot, but when everything you've got has been washed away, believe me it is!
That alone would win Jack the "Great Neighbor" award in my book. But that's not why I am extolling the neighborly virtues of Jack today.
I was coming back from my morning walk, all sweaty and gross, and Jack was bringing out his recyclables. He called out to me and said that he had to go back to the shore today. It was a last minute thing, but he was heading a block or so away from my parent's now nearly livable house and he wanted to know if he could take anything back down for them.
In under an hour, Jack was heading south in his van with those same tables that he helped to rescue back in November. It's one less thing that my parents have to deal with. Jack is taking them "back home."
Again I say, this may seem like a little thing, but to my family and I, it's not. And of course it's more than just this that makes Jack not just a great neighbor, but truly a great person. I could go on and on, but extolling the virtues of Jack might get a little dull as the list would be quite long.
So let me end this entry by saying: Thank You Jack McEvoy! My world is a better place because of you. And if the world had more "Jacks" it would truly be a better place.
Brief background (for those of you who might not know), my parents have 2 homes...one at the NJ shore and one up north. You might think of the "shore house" as the summer house, but you'd be wrong. It's the other way around, the one in north NJ is actually the "other house" as they spend at least 80% of their time in their lovely ranch home just outside of Mantoloking, NJ.
Or at least that's where they DID spend most of their time until October of last year. I hope you all remember what happened last fall...a "little" storm called Sandy...SUPERSTORM Sandy. The one that destroyed most of Mantoloking.
I could go on and on about the storm and devastation, but this is supposed to be an addendum to yesterday's blog, so I'll shut up about that and continue onward.
We're coming up on Memorial Day weekend, the start of summer in every one's books (expect maybe Mother Nature's) and thanks to the hard work of a great contractor and his team, my parents house is ALMOST ready to be lived in again. (And just to give you an idea of the damage that the house sustained...the contractors have been working on their home pretty much non-stop since the end of November). As I write this, my parents are heading back down, joyful in the knowledge that they have working toilets for the first time in 7 months and hoping that some of the furniture they ordered will actually arrive today as promised.
It's new furniture because most of what they owned was completely ruined and was not worth salvaging. But what little could be salvaged was brought up North partially thanks to a wonderful neighbor, Jack McEvoy.
Jack, his wife Jessica, and I all went to school together. But I didn't really get to know Jack until he and Jessica moved to our block. Jack is a wonderful general contractor. (http://mcevoyhomeinspection.com/McEvoyhomeinspection.com/Home.html). I can vouch for that. I've seen the work he's done and it is amazing. (If I had won the Powerball, Jack would have been busy for a LONG time!) He doesn't work down the shore...that's not his territory. But he did go down shortly after the storm to help another friend (because that's the kind of person he is). And since he was in the area and he had a big van, he offered to bring whatever furniture he could back north. A coffee table and some end tables may not seem like a lot, but when everything you've got has been washed away, believe me it is!
That alone would win Jack the "Great Neighbor" award in my book. But that's not why I am extolling the neighborly virtues of Jack today.
I was coming back from my morning walk, all sweaty and gross, and Jack was bringing out his recyclables. He called out to me and said that he had to go back to the shore today. It was a last minute thing, but he was heading a block or so away from my parent's now nearly livable house and he wanted to know if he could take anything back down for them.
In under an hour, Jack was heading south in his van with those same tables that he helped to rescue back in November. It's one less thing that my parents have to deal with. Jack is taking them "back home."
Again I say, this may seem like a little thing, but to my family and I, it's not. And of course it's more than just this that makes Jack not just a great neighbor, but truly a great person. I could go on and on, but extolling the virtues of Jack might get a little dull as the list would be quite long.
So let me end this entry by saying: Thank You Jack McEvoy! My world is a better place because of you. And if the world had more "Jacks" it would truly be a better place.
Aw I love it when stuff works out like that! I hope you have some wonderful times at the Shore this summer!
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