Getting Soft Washed

*Author's Note: The inspiration for this story comes from a video I watched a few months ago. A young man in my home state of Washington (King County specifically and not too far from one of the towns mentioned in the story) started a pressure washing business when he was 19. He's a very nice looking guy who's enthusiastic, hard working, and well spoken.

He later transitioned into 'soft washing' houses, something I'd never heard of. He now has a bevy of employees (team members) and a small fleet of vehicles and makes a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year. He's done so well he can take a substantial draw from the gross income and is continuing to expand.

My cost estimates are bases on internet research. If they're off, they're off. :-)

Enjoy!

*****

"Sarah, I love your new home!" her best friend, Tammy Cooper, said as she got the full tour.

"It's new to me, anyway," Sarah replied with a laugh. "It's definitely a fixer-upper, but it's mine."

Her friend already knew that, and nothing she saw surprised her. She'd known Sarah since middle school and knew she'd take one thing or one room at a time, focus on that until it was perfect, and only then would she move on.

After seeing every room in the house, Sarah took her outside to examine the curb appeal, or in this case, the distinct lack thereof. The flower beds were in the right places but needed a ton of work. The roof was the only thing that was relatively new, but even it needed a serious cleaning. The siding was still in decent shape, but it was even worse than the roof in terms of accumulated filth.

"I'm thinking about buying a pressure washer and really go after the outside. The driveway, the sidewalk, the porch, and especially the siding. Ick!" Sarah explained as she and her friend discussed the obvious concerns.

"Hey. I know someone who washes houses," her friend said at the mention of pressure washing.

"Washes houses? How to you 'wash' an entire house?"

"It's called 'soft washing' and they spray this chemical--don't worry, it's completely environmentally safe--on everything from the roof to the ground. It does its thing eating away at the moss, mold, dirt, and whatever else is on the roof or the sides, then they wash it off with a low-pressure hose. The end result is pretty stunning."

Sarah had a decent amount of money available for home improvement, and the thought of someone else taking this huge problem off her hands sounded appealing--especially the part that required getting on the roof.

"It costs an arm and a leg, doesn't it?" she asked.

"That's relative, I suppose," her friend politely countered. "My husband's friend paid a little over $700 and his house is quite a bit larger than yours."

Sarah laughed, because most houses were larger than hers. But with the cost of real estate anywhere in King County, Washington, sky high, it had taken her many years just to afford a downpayment on a 1,425sqft house that was 58 years old. The kind of house she dreamed of living in would run at least $1.5 million, and that would only buy a reasonably nice, reasonably newer home.

Were she to move to another state, the amount she paid for this fixer-upper would buy her the home of her dreams, but leaving the area she grew up in and loved was out of the question. The gray skies occasionally got her down when they hung around for months at a time, but when the sun peeked through them it was still heaven on earth. Well, outside of downtown Seattle and Tacoma anyway. The endless encampments of homeless people and drug abuse was something she didn't like to think about and rarely did, and the problem only kept getting worse with time.

"So maybe $500?" Sarah asked.

"Maybe. Probably a bit more, but that should be close. I can get the name and number of the company for you."

"Okay. Sure. That would be great. And see if they do driveways and sidewalks, would you?"

Her friend assured her they did and promised to text her the info as soon as her husband got home that evening.

It was around 8 o'clock when Sarah's phone rang.

"What did you come up with?"

"Lots!" Tammy said excitedly.

"Okay? And?"

"Well, first of all, I spoke to the owner himself. Actually, we Facetimed, and oh...my...god! He is GORE-JUSS!"

Sarah laughed even though she wasn't looking for a relationship. Tammy was just so dramatic she couldn't help herself.

"Great, but did you find out anything important?"

"Party pooper!" her friend said so flatly that, too, made Sarah laugh. "Yes, I have a ton of information, thank you very much."

Tammy explained that the business was located in Federal Way, a city that was just a couple of miles from Puget Sound and just shy of 25 miles due south of Seattle via I-5.

"Okay. That's about 20 miles or so from our little vill of Enumclaw then."

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Regardless, he's been out here several times recently, and he said if he continues getting business here and in neighboring towns, he'd like to open another location."

"Wow. That sounds interesting," Sarah said, not sure what else there was to say.

"Anyhoo...he said he needs to be in Buckley on Friday at around noon, so if he could stop by on the way back that would be perfect. Would that work for you?"

"Friday afternoon," Sarah said as she mentally ran through her to do list. "Sure. I can make that happen."

"Okay. I'm gonna send you his name and number, and you can let him know!"

"Great. And thanks, Tammy. You're the best!"

"No, he's the best. Trust me!" she bubbled.

"Tammy? I'm divorced not desperate," her bestie told her.

"I know, but did I mention he's like way hot?"

Sarah sighed then said, "What am I gonna do with you?" only partially joking.

"I wanna know what you're gonna do with him!" she replied.

"Okay. We're done!" Sarah announced. She heard Tammy trying to say something else, but she ended the call.

Just seconds later the contact info came in. Sarah had some time and gave the number a call.

"Northwest soft wash, this is Dillon," she heard.

"Oh, hi. Listen, my dear friend said she called you earlier, and...."

"Tammy?" he said immediately.

"Um, yes. Tammy."

"What a nice person," he said. "I really enjoyed our talk."

"She is nice. We've been best friends forever, and she just sent me your number. Is this a good time?"

"It is. I'm on my way back from Issaquah right now. I just signed a contract on a new office building there, but I can definitely talk. Tammy said you recently bought a house out in Enumclaw."

"Yes. That's true, and congratulations on the new location. Mine is an older home, and it definitely needs good 'scrubbing'. Inside and out."

Dillon laughed and told her he could help with that, at least the outside part.

"Wonderful. I'm also interested in having the driveway, patio, and sidewalk pressure walk. They're both pretty dirty."

"I started out doing nothing but pressure washing," he told her. "We still have two crews that do only that, so I'll be happy to give you a quote on that, as well."

"All right. I guess I'll see you Friday then."

"You will," he told her. "And I'm looking forward to meeting you, Sarah."

She didn't remember telling him her name, but she rightly assumed that Tammy had.

"Yes, same here, Dillon. And again, congratulations on the new location."

"Oh, gosh. Yes, thank you very much. We're really excited about it."

There was a brief pause before he said, "We've been growing like crazy and the Enumclaw-Buckley area has been really good for us. With any luck we might be able to open a third location there in another year or so."

"Sounds like things are going well for you."

"We've been very fortunate," he told her.

He didn't mention that he'd put in an average of 65-70 hours a week for the last three years after working around 50-60 per week on his own before he started expanding. He didn't like braggarts and wouldn't have said that to anyone other than a member of his family, a close friend, or a team member, but it was true, and he had no intention of slowing down.

Sarah taught school at Westwood Elementary School in Enumclaw which was only a few miles from where she attended at Byron Kibler Elementary many, many years ago.

She was only 39, but lately she felt like she was going on 50. She'd just gotten her divorce finalized and was now rid of her cheating ex-husband who confessed to fooling around with a half dozen women during the seven years they'd been married. Now there was the new house and she had maybe ten weeks of summer vacation to get everything done she wanted to do before school started again.

Fortunately the weather had been great. June was an iffy month in western Washington and could be bright and clear or rainy and cool. July and August were typically gorgeous, and when the air quality was just right you could see both Mount Rainier to the east and the Olympic Mountains at the same time to the west.

Some liked to joke that summer was the best two weeks in the Seattle area, and there was some truth to that, but it really was closer to two months. The rest of the year was, well, Sarah tried not to think of the dark, low-hanging clouds that um...hung around...for days and weeks at a time from October through March and occasionally into May.

For the next several hours she busied herself removing old wall paper, disgusting carpeting, and anything else that had to go. She couldn't afford a dumpster, but she'd already filled the three trash cans that were left when she bought the house, and the lone recycle bin the city provided. The good news was that tomorrow was trash day and recycle would be picked up on Friday. Probably right around the time that Dillon would be stopping by.

Tammy was also a teacher, but she taught biology at Enumclaw High School where she and Sarah graduated from back in 2002. From there both of them went to Washington State University in eastern Washington where Sarah majored in elementary education and Tammy in secondary ed. Upon graduation in 2006 both had no trouble finding a job in their hometown.

Enumclaw had grown tremendously since her parents were in school back in the 70s when the population was around 5,000. The town now had just over 12,500 residents, and while it wasn't exactly a sleepy little hamlet, the downtown area was too busy for her, so she took the job at Westwood that was on the edge of town.

The home she'd just bought was located on 212th just three miles north of the school making her commute a breeze. She had neighbors on all sides, but it was so much more open than living inside the main area of town. It wasn't a perfect house, but it was perfect for her, and she couldn't wait to get it fixed up.

The one thing her house didn't have was central air. Nearly every new home in the area did and many existing homes around there had had it installed for years, but her parents and most of their friends grew up without it. For the most part the only time it was really needed was for a couple of weeks in the summer when it might hit 80-90 for a few days. Then again, if you grew up there, even 75 felt hot. On pretty much any day it got up to around 70, the shorts and sandals came out and people would start complaining about the heat.

It wasn't Phoenix or Miami, and Sarah knew that what was hot or cold was relative, but to her when it hit 78 or higher it felt hot. It was 74 that evening, and while she knew it would cool down quickly once the sun set, she couldn't wait for that to happen.

The next day she spent several hours in the flower beds. She borrowed her dad's hedge trimmer, lawnmower, and string trimmer, and after pulling weeds for a couple of hours, she went to work getting the beds spiffed up.

On Friday morning she ran to the Home Depot out in Bonney Lake, a healthy but pretty drive where she picked up a bunch of flowers, plants, and mulch and spent the rest of the morning finishing off the flower beds.

She'd just finished and was making a sandwich when a green and blue truck with Northwest Soft Washing on the side pulled up to the curb. Sarah popped a chunk of turkey meat in her mouth and chewed it up before grabbing her water bottle and going out to meet the owner.

She'd forgotten all about Tammy's ravings until she saw the pickup's door open. She knew her friend was prone to exaggeration, but this was ridiculous.

"Good afternoon!" the driver called out when he saw her.

He walked right up and said, "Good morning. I'm Javier. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs...."

He glanced at his iPad then said, "Mrs. Cox."

"It's Miss. Or Ms.," she told him politely. "Actually, please call me Sarah. I'm...I'm not married."

"Oh, okay. My bad, my bad. I do apologize, Sarah."

"I uh, I was led to believe that someone named Dillon would be here," she said, wondering why she felt so disappointed.

"Right, right. No, Dillon is the owner and he's super busy, you know? I'm the operations manager, and he asked me to handle this appointment. He wanted to be here, but something big popped up at the last moment and he just couldn't."

"Oh. No, that's...that's fine. And perfectly understandable," she told him, making sure to smile.

"So I understand you're interested in our soft washing and some pressure washing. Can you show me what you have in mind?"

Javier was friendly and thorough, and while the price he quoted to her seemed high based on what Tammy had said, he gave her the impression that their company was worth a little extra money, and she agreed to let them do the work. Also, she'd quoted only the cost of the house, and the cost included the pressure washed areas.

In total, it was going to set her back $1,250 but if it was a good as Javier and Tammy made it seem she felt like she could justify the additional expense. He told her their first available opening was the following Tuesday at 8am, and Sarah agreed. He 'penciled' her in, shook her hand, and thanked her for the opportunity to earn her business.

By the time she left she'd again forgotten about Tammy's 'hottie' and felt pretty good about the deal she'd just made. She ate some lunch then got right back to it as she tackled the next chore on her very long list of things to do.

Sarah was thrilled to know Tammy was available to help her on the weekend, and the two of them got a huge amount of work done on Saturday. They also had fun as they worked, laughing, goofing around, and trying to scare one another with dead bugs or anything they could find. Both of them were 39, but at times they felt 30 years younger as they worked and laughed together.

Just having a friend around made the time fly and the hard work seem like fun. It was especially pleasant to have someone to eat with, and Tammy stayed for both lunch and dinner both days. She was unable to help on Monday, but because she hoped to get an in-person look at Dillon, she told Sarah she'd be there early on Tuesday.

She showed up at 7:30, and the two of them had a cup of tea together. At about ten til Sarah went to change into some work clothes while Tammy washed out their cups. As she was looking out the kitchen window, she saw a truck from the company pull up and nearly dropped one of the cups.

"Sarah! He's here!" she yelled as she set her cup down and headed for the door.

She didn't hear Sarah holler back that she'd be right out. She wanted to get a look at this handsome younger man in person. She stopped at the door to the garage and tried to adjust her hair as though he'd notice or even care, but she felt she had to do it.

Dillon turned off the company vehicle then glanced out the passenger window. He saw a woman of about 40 walking his way and thought, "Javi. You are the worst judge of hotness in the history of the world."

He didn't really care, but Javier had built this Ms. Cox up as some kind of smokin' hot woman, but as he got out and said 'hello' the best he could do was say she was 'okay looking' with the caveat 'for her age.'

"Dillon?" the woman nearly gushed. "Hi! It's so good to finally meet you."

She had her right outstretched, so Dillon shook it as he made and kept eye contact. That's when he remembered having Facetimed with someone about this job.

"Right! Yes. We spoke on the phone," he said, as he mentally apologized to Javier. She was so plain looking he'd completely forgotten about their phone call.

"We did, and I have to say, you're even better looking in person!"

"Oh, wow. That's really kind of you to say," he told her, his smile and the dimples that went with it causing her all sorts of emotional reactions.

Sarah came out a few seconds later as Tammy was leading him inside. When they saw one another, both of them stopped for a brief moment and just looked. Tammy noticed and smiled as she glanced at both of them a time or two.

Dillon broke the awkward silence by speaking first.

"Ms. Cox. It's a pleasure," he said as he held out his hand.

"Sarah, please," she replied, an equally beautiful smile on her face as the one on his. "And yes, it is a pleasure."

Both were thinking, "Wow. Tammy/Javier wasn't kidding. He/she is FINE!"

"So, ladies. My guys will be here in a few minutes. I try and show up first to meet the homeowner, and I apologize for not being here last week, but I had a crazy situation with the bank that couldn't wait."

"No. No problem!" Sarah assured him. "Can I show you anything or get you anything?"

Dillon smiled again and told her, "I just ate and had some coffee, but thank you. I would like to take a look around, though, if that's alright."

"Yes, of course," Sarah told him. "I apologize for the mess, but I'm trying to get as much of the demo done myself before I have contractors come in to do the remodeling."

Dillon had seen everything from exquisitely well-kept, multi-million dollar homes to rundown shacks with trash strewn all around and cars on jacks, and everything in between.

"We've really been going at it," Tammy said, as she looked at Dillon and mouthed the words, "He is SO hot!"

"I can tell," Dillon told her. "These flower beds look great. And don't worry, we'll cover these up completely and they'll be just fine."

"That's all Sarah. She's really good at gardening. And pretty much everything!" Tammy gushed.

"Hardly!" Sarah said with a laugh as she gave her a friend a look. "But I can pull weeds, put plants in the ground, and lay down mulch."

Dillon laughed politely and said again that it really looked good. He took a few photos as they walked the perimeter and at one point he asked Sarah how long she'd lived there.

"I just closed at the end of the school year, and...."

"We're both teachers," Tammy let him know, the smile on her face so big it looked painful.

"Wonderful. We need good teachers, that's for sure."

When they came back around to the front another vehicle had pulled up. This one had a huge plastic tank on the back, and when Dillon saw it he asked if his guy could pull into the driveway.

"Yes. Of course," Sarah told him.

Dillon waved the driver in then went over to say a few words before coming back over.

"You're in good hands, Sarah. This is Liam, and he's my #1 team chief. If you have any concerns at all just let him know, and if you need me...."

He pulled out a business card and handed it to his newest client.

"Don't hesitate to give me a call for any reason."

"Does it have your personal cell number?" Tammy asked, drawing another sharp look from Sarah.

"What? I mean, what if you do need to call him?" she said both playfully and a little defensively.

Dillon saw the interplay and said, "I believe I'm missing something here, but I'm not about to ask." He laughed as he said it and wasn't expecting an answer.

"I did mention that my best friend in the whole entire world is single, didn't I?" Tammy then asked.