Not wanting to simply demolish and waste the 20+ feet of buffet that lined the existing restaurant space, I turned to Craigslist to find someone who might find a use for it. This being Houston, surely someone could use a buffet! I made the mistake of advertising the buffet as free to anyone willing to do the work of removing it from the site. Dozens of emails poured in within a few hours. Many were strangely picky for something free – “what is the exact color of the granite? Can you send more pictures? How much does it weigh?” One email stood out from the pack. It was from a couple who had lost their restaurant due to Hurricane Ike damage and were looking to rebuild. They’d be commuting from up north and doing the work themselves, but had a truck and tools and were ready to assess the materials.At the time, my landlord’s start on construction was eminent, so I got the interested couple into the space soon and explained they could help themselves to the buffet and to any of the tile on the walls. I was initially concerned about the weight of the granite as they were an older couple, but they assured me their sons would be in to help. We made arrangements to meet the following weekend and they could spend the day attacking the tiles with an air hammer.
I agreed to meet them at the site on Saturday, but when I arrived, only the wife was there – no tools, just a screwdriver in tow. She explained that her husband wasn’t feeling well and she’d give it a go by hand. What a marvelous women! She spent the entire day prying tile after tile off the buffet by hand, with only a portable radio and a tiny dog in tow. At the end of the day, my boyfriend and I helped her load up her car and insisted that she bring help in both manpower and tools for the remainder of the job.
Unfortunately, when the following weekend arrived, I was out of commission with a broken jaw. Unable to speak, I had my boyfriend reschedule with the couple. While I recovered from surgery, my boyfriend spent the next couple of weekends coordinating with the couple, getting them access to the site and helping them with the buffet demolition. The pictures of work finally being done on the site were my only real non-cream-based source of joy during those two weeks.
The next weekend arrived and my boyfriend called to schedule what looked to be the final day of work. The couple had successfully removed the buffet top, all of the granite and much of the tile. They simply needed to come pick it up!
Voicemail after voicemail was left on both mobile and home phone. I sent a few emails. All to no avail.
On Thursday I received an email from our landlord in regards to the granite, noting that they would begin construction on Monday and would be moving the granite if I did not have it removed. I told her that they could move it as needed and figured they’d stack it back on top of the buffet. It would easily sit out of the way of their work. Still, I keep trying to get ahold of the couple and warn them that their granite and tile might be damaged if they don’t pick it up soon.
Monday arrives and I receive another email from the landlord. This one telling me that their contractors were “unable” to move the granite and it would need to be removed before they begin work. Astonished, I wanted only to ask for clarification of “unable” and how exactly a crew of construction workers were incapable of pushing something aside. Alas, tired from surgery, I gave a courteous response:

Hi Natalie,
I appologize. I had some donors in the space that were instructed to make sure the space was clear. I will try to get them into the space to move it asap. I just got out of the hospital actually as I had my jaw broken last week but I will try to have someone come into the space since I cannot yet drive. If your contractor could simply push it aside, though, it would be very helpful.
Regards,
Lucrece

The boyfriend now up in Austin for exams, he continued calling the buffet couple to explain the urgency of the situation. As the week drew to a close without a word, I began to wonder if something had happened to them. I assumed that my landlord would be a bit understanding that I wasn’t about to lift 700 lbs of granite with a broken jaw just so their contractors could work more comfortably. Having grown up around construction workers, I also knew that they were sensible and, despite any further instruction, would simply move something out of the way should it inhibit their work.I was wrong. “Our contractors will not be able to move it,” was the response, along with a reprimand for daring to begin removing equipment before the landlord’s work was finished. “I’m working on having it moved as soon as possible,” was all I could manage.
Construction commenced and seemed to proceed quickly, stone in the way and all. I continued to call the buffet couple incessantly, changing the focus of my messages to simple worry about their well being rather than the buffet.
Finally, just over a month after the couple had begun demolishing the buffet, my landlord hit me with an ultimatum: either remove the stone over the weekend or they would charge me $500 to move it on Monday. I could hire a laborer to move it on the spot for less than a quarter of such a ridiculous fee, and that is exactly what I planned on doing when my boyfriend insisted on doing it himself. It seemed fairly simple. All we had to do was nudge the granite onto my heavy duty stainless steel rolling cart and stack everything back on top of the buffet. The fact that three new walls had been erected placed an additional burden upon the process, but it could be done.We arrived back in town from Austin that Sunday evening to complete the work in the nick of time. There was only one problem – my heavy duty cart was nowhere to be found! We searched endlessly for the cart, pouring over every corner of the site. The cart had simply disappeared while the landlord’s contractor, the same contractor that was “unable” to push aside a few tables, were the only people who had access to the space. Low and behold, it looked like they were capable of moving something after all! Unfortunately for me, that one thing was a $500 piece of very handy equipment that they moved right out the door. In its place, they ever so kindly left me several half-eaten bags of McDonald’s and a trail of soda cans.

In the end we were able to dig up a smaller, weaker cart that barely survived the great granite trek. Four hours and a great deal of sweating later (they still hadn’t turned on the AC) all of the granite had successfully been maneuvered back to my side of the space and stacked neatly out of the way. Please just don’t tell my surgeon that I was lifting heavy granite when I was supposed to be recovering.
As an update, it’s been over two months now and we still have not heard from the couple that did so much work to remove the buffet. If you’re out there, give us a call to let us know you’re okay!

Tags: No Comments