Big Truck In The Beige Garage

On Thursday evening, soon after I arrived home, I had called my insurance agent. The agent for the truck's owner had already been on-site, before I arrived home. My agent noted the details of the situation, and promised that a claims specialist from the Crystal Lake office would be out on Friday morning.

I was up at 5 a.m. and back to the house by 6. Around 9 o'clock the claims specialist arrived, took some pictures, and gave me a list of possible contractors who could perform the work of getting the garage temporarily enclosed. Yes, there was still a large truck parked in the wrong place, but the truck couldn't be moved until the beam was raised from the cab.

I started at the top of the list, and contacted Sterling-Ross Restorations. I explained to them that I wasn't just looking for some eventual patches to a problem, but that I needed emergency repairs to secure the building. Fortunately, the owner of the company lived nearby to McHenry, and he said that he'd come over to look at the scene.

While I waited, I began to clean the interior of the garage, moving everything over to the right-hand side. My own agent arrived a little after 10: he was in the area and just had to see the situation. Like almost everyone who saw it, he didn't believe the damage either. He was expecting maybe a dented door, but not the sight of a garage that was half useless.

About 11:30, Edd Tyrell arrived. After making a quick assessment of the situation, and a few phone calls, he assured me that he'd have a crew out here by 1:30 and that by tonight I'd have a closed, albeit empty, garage. Edd departed, and I continued to clean.

The crew arrived on time and started work by tearing out the damaged sections of the wall and removing the somewhat-wrinkled left-hand garage door. They piled the debris to the side of the garage. They they began the most important task: moving that I-beam back into place and shoring it up.

The damaged sections of the wall removed, the Sterling-Ross crew begins to deal with the I-beam, which is lying on the cab of the truck.

The I-beam is back in its original position, with a temporary jack supporting it.

Now that the I-beam was safely out of the way, the next task was to remove the truck. Don's Towing got the call, and they sent a wrecker over in about twenty minutes. Moving the truck wasn't easy: it was hung up on the foundation, and it did weigh about six-and-a-half tons. But a half-hour after attaching the winch, the wrecker operator pulled the uninvited guest from its cozy resting spot.

The truck is attached to the wrecker, and slowly pulled out of the garage. Much scraping of metal and concrete was involved, plus some damage to the blacktop of the driveway (that wrecker was heavy!)

Lisa and Ed pose with the big catch of the day.

The errant vehicle departs, ignominiously dragged away by its captor. It has not been seen since. Good riddance.

With the truck gone, the crew began to construct a temporary wall. This procedure was relatively quick, taking only two hours. By 8 p.m., the garage was secure and we could once again occupy our house.

The garage, without a truck and still without a wall or two.

From the inside: the studs are in, and the front wall's got plywood on it.

The temporary repairs have been completed. A few feet out from the wall is the jack that supported the I-beam during the repairs; in the wall itself you'll see a 6-by-6 which is acting as a temporary lolly column.

The garage, once again safe from the elements. Unfortunately, there's no way that we can park in it.

Their work done, the men of Sterling-Ross drove into the sunset. Well, they actually drove east, but "drove away from the sunset" doesn't sound very poetic.

Big Truck In The Beige Garage

Episode Two: Attack of the Contractor