After over 10 years of dreaming and planning and 18 months of very serious considering, my husband and I finally bought a farmhouse about a mile from where I grew up. Neither my husband, David, nor myself had any experience with decoration, but we jumped in with much excitement. There was much to be done before the winter came to knock at our door. We rearranged the garden, laid out the lawn （草坪）, and set all the furniture in place. Then there remained only one thing to worry us: We didn't have a fireplace （壁炉）indoors against the extremely winter.
I knew the perfect choice of person for the work is my uncle, Richard Jones. Being a senior construct worker（建筑工人）for almost40 years, he could do the job better than anyone else. On thinking of the idea that my house would be in my uncle's hands, my heart was filled with expectation and comfort. The problem was that he lived far away in Florida, about an 18-hour drive from our home in Cortland. Another problem was the cost of building a fireplace. Buying the farmhouse cost almost all our savings, so could we even afford to pay him?
Much to my relief, the drive turned out to be no problem at all. On receiving my call, my uncle, at the age of 65, loaded his suitcase and his tools into his truck and headed to our place. When I asked how much he would charge, he replied, "We'll figure up a price when the job is finished. Just have coffee and cookies ready when I get there. The more you bake cookies, the lower the price will be."
My uncle wasn't joking. As long as I had served coffee and cookies, he could work pleasantly. The man was obviously born with a sweet tooth. For two weeks, the coffee machine never stopped, and the cookies often disappeared before I could put them into the cookie box.
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The construction was slowly coming to an end. …… I found the paycheck （工资）lying quietly next to the coffee machine. |
