I dunno, maybe it’s cuz I owned my own bakery for over 20 years, employing no less than 13 people at any given time, and all that bakery equipment, sheesh, which tended to break down now and then, needed fixing, and that’s how I became a compulsive fixer. Maybe it’s cuz the rol-sheeter seemed to always need a new bearing, or the thermo-couple on the oven was spent, or the proof box needed a new floatation unit, or the roof over the roof mounted air conditioner was leaking, or those oddball thinline flourescent lights in the cold case wouldn’t stay on, yikes, I could fill this page with all the little fixes that I have done over time, out of necessity.
Or maybe it’s cuz I have lived in old houses for most of my adult life, those lovely and gingerbready and broken down painted ladies, or those old Portland Craftsmen Style Beauties, with their chipped and buckling wainscoting and unfinished and freezing water closets attached to the back porch, that has made me the compulsive fixer I have become today. When I go down to my small basement workshop in my home, I am amazed at all the tools and tool stuff I have acquired over the years. But I still need a dust collection system, I mean for the table saw, hint, hint.
I have had a small warehouse attached to my commercial building, on upper N.E. Fremont Street, here in Portland, for almost 15 years, and last summer, we decided to clean it out, you know, sell off all the detritus of entirely too many marriages, and the lawn chairs piling up at one end, and the bakery related stuff that mounted to the ceiling before I sold my store in 1995, et cetera, and get it completely cleaned out such that I could turn the old warehouse into a nice 830 square foot retail space, bring a cute little store in there, to complement the other 3 businesses in the building. It has taken me a year to finally get a permit from the City of Portland to make these changes, that is, to secure a proper drawing which was completed by my friend and killer architect Dan Glennon, and to trudge through the permit process, and I have just recently ordered the installation of 5 very groovy skylights, which will be hoisted into place somewhere during the first part of September. My plate is fullish.
So it might surprise you to learn that, given this new project of mine, and other stuff, oh, music, the care and feeding of my commercial tenants, the care and feeding of my wife, the care and feeding of my son Blaine, keeping up a blog, other stuff, that I have decided to hang out a shingle as a fixer, a little enterprise i have coined “Call the Fixer”. I helped our neighbor Nancy with some projects a couple of months ago, around her tri-plex, and I enjoyed it so much, and made some money at it, so I have decided to go pro.
My wife might describe me as a compulsive busy person, not just a compulsive fixer, maybe even squeeze in the term “antsy”, but anyway you look at it, it’s a good fit, for me to come over to your house and do some much needed fixes for you. So if you live in Portland, or Vancouver, USA, and need me to put a handrail on that dangerous basement staircase, or install some light fixures, or put some molding ‘round that kitchen door, give your friendly, compulsive fixer a call. Or email me for details.
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