BUILD RELATIONSHIPS, SOLVE PROBLEMS & HAVE FUN

During the past two months I was able to do as Sean Carpenter wants me to do: build a relationship, solved a problem and have fun.

Above you will find a photo of the powerful Ben Harden, no ordinary 15 year old.

I built a relationship: Due to a problem of tennis elbow from last March I had a problem. My yard needed to be straightened out big time. Besides my personal residence, Andrew Guanciale and I own a home that was in middle of a major rehab need.

Ben solved my problem: He came on June 1 and worked, I found him totalling amazing. He cut down shrubs almost twice as tall as he and then pounded out the root balls with a maddock, cleaned gutters, set up the patio furniture, waxed a car and too many other other things to remember. After the first three weeks, 1027 W. Church Street became Ben's new office. His initiative to do things before being asked is a large asset to have in an employee. As an example, he painted the rear deck railing one day, the next day I stopped by and he was painting the front porch railing that I had never thought about. When he saw me walking up the sidewalk, all he said was "this needed paint also". We were on a tight deadline to have the home completed for a new tenant and there was many things to do. A job I thought we should do together was to install a new window in the garage, it had been sitting at the home for two weeks. Thursday, I stopped by and once again he looked at me and said "I installed the garage window". With Ben knowing our deadline, he hired a friend to help clean, Savannah Hottinger. For the one day, Savannah came to the plate and did a terrific job. At 2:00pm, Ben had this home looking the best it had looked since it was a brand new home, 65 years ago or so. He solved a problem that Andrew and I could not have done to meet the deadline.

I had fun: Watching Ben work will go down as one of the best summers I have ever had. Brought back many memories of when I was the same age working a construction job and especially watching his father Kurt Harden nearly at the same age doing odd jobs for me.

My award: we had a great lunch at White Castle one Saturday after a Lowe's run, just the two of us. Making sure he did not consider me as an old guy my plan was to keep up with the number of burgers eaten, he only beat me by one slider. I was worried, but knew he would carry me to car if I had made myself too full or a fool.