Leonidas, our occasional carpenter, is outside making a deck at our front door.  A couple of weeks ago, he called out of nowhere, needing work I guess--unless his telepathic aptitude is better than it appears--and though i had already started the lengthy process of exploring the possibility of buying a good saw in order to carry out the several building projects we need here, and even though we had not budgeted any money for carpenters, I jumped at his offer, since you can't always get Leonidas when you want him.  I had tried calling him over the last couple of years and got no response.

We first engaged him when he was part of a work crew which was remodeling our Los Angeles house some years ago.  He let it be known that he was available to do work on his own, particulary since he didn't think the people for whom he was working were treating him right. In fact, Leonidas likes to work by himself, at his speed and schedule, doing things his way.  His prices are reasonable, and he doesn't waste materials. 

So far, he has built a covered deck outside my workshop; he has rebuilt Marj's front steps, which were rotting away; and now, the front deck, since our little staircase was also rotting away, and Sandy had designs on a deck where we might sit and sip coffee in the morning, looking out at the pines and the boulders.  Though I usually go to Home Depot, the redwood there did not meet Leonidas's standards, so we trucked over to Loew's, where he went through sixty two by sixes to find twelve good ones.  That was for the workshop deck.  For the house deck, we asked the Loew's people to bring down a new palletful of redwood, but only after we moved elsewhere the unsatisfactory sticks which were already there, as I knew they wouldn't agree to bring more down unless the slot was empty. 

Leonidas's woman, Teresa, likes it here, so she comes along every day and sits in the shade while he works, or hands him nails.  He asked for an advance on the deckwork Monday, to fix the differential on his pickup, which was grinding and leaking grease.  Yesterday he took care of the truck, and today he's back, building the frame, with the curves we asked for.  He doesn't charge extra for custom work, which is nice for us, since we like curves.

Back when we first hired him to do the initial remodeling of our house here, along with concrete work, and electrical, we didn't know anything.  It was summer, which is brutal, we had no air conditioning, and one of the things we wanted was to insulate and drywall the ceiling, after removing the acoustical ceiling and exposing the joists.  At the time, I thought he was asking too much for the job.  Everyone knowledgeable who has looked at the work since then is amazed that anyone would even undertake it.  The cabinets he built for us outside, out of mostly scrap materials, to hold a freezer and washer and dryer, are solid to this day.  This time, I made it clear that had under-appreciated his work back then.

The only thing that Leonidas needs, other than his own methods, is lots of acknowledgement of the quality of his work.  Sandy and I are happy to take turns praising him lavishly, as it seems to take two people to do that job properly.  I suppose I could be out there helping him; surely I would learn something in the process, but I am taking advantage of the time to restart my writing, which I am better at than carpentry.