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They were doing a pretty nice job. Edwardo's father needed some extra help, so Edwardo decided to sneak in his girlfriend Roxanne and me, on a Saturday when the bosses, mainly the owner, the architect and Edwardo's father, would not be around. We could learn a little of what taping sheet rock was about, since we had utterly no experience.
The idea here was that when we went in on Monday with the bosses there, we could fake it. The trick was, well there was more than one, a paint brush. If we could not produce a smooth plaster finish, we just brushed it with a paintbrush and water and it looked passable. Had to use the right brush though - no brush marks.
Roxanne did not last. I think I worked there until the project was done which
would have been several months. They had to put in a lot of new plumbing
which probably cost in the hundreds of thousands. The owner offered this
small plumbing contractor the job, but wanted him to start immediately.
The contractor was on another small job and left it unfinished for the big
money. He got his license suspended as a result. Without a license it was illegal for him to be doing the hotel. Well the owner, an older guy whose family money was in paint factories, had him by the globular. He jacked him around all over the place promising to pay him and continuously delaying.
A few years later when Gerry and I were there doing some repainting, we would always get our weekly Friday checks late, sometime the following week. The accountant told us that that was standard policy with this guy, so that the owner could collect a few extra days interest on our money.
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