The Cat In The Bathroom Wall

#7 Real Estate Man

Every Real Estate Man needs a LeRoy Jones, an all purpose handyman who can get it done. LeRoy was no craftsman but dependable and finished what he started. A slightly build man with an engaging personality, he would do work gratis when he had a free minute or two for older less fortunate people in his southwest Philadelphia neighborhood. Real Estate Man, he charged as much as he could get. As mentioned, his work was not perfect, sometimes further from perfection than others. By way of limited example: while building a deck LeRoy somehow enclosed a decorative backyard ceramic frog under the deck encasing it forever unless the deck was totally dismantled and rebuilt. the tenant chose to allow their beloved frog to stare up at them (with on top of the head frog eyes) through the spaces in the 1x6 deck boarding rather than have LeRoy go through the tear down and rebuild process. The deck itself was beautiful. Encouraged by the quality of the deck, in spite of the frog, the couple retained Le Roy to finish the cellar in their tiny row house. Always can use an extra room in those houses. Le Roy did, in fact, do the drywall but neglected to tape, sparkle or paint it. That was extra. Bit scammer, bit crook, always there to try a new project whether it was beyond his skills or not. Sometimes a Godsend in an emergency and sometimes a Goddamned in quality of work. But he…