[AGL] Henry Hollman and Arthur Vanz running parts

[Frances Morey]


Hi, Mike and Hans,
We have a terrific contractor who we love to have work on our house because
he is so thorough and economy minded, (being as we are nearing our
expiration date.) We had the whole kitchen done-over a couple of years ago.
Now he is replacing the rotting siding around the base of the entire house.
He is also a dear friend, like one of the family. It is a pleasure having
him around in this time of pandemic isolation.

For example I wanted a tile-splash behind the sink and counter. He asked me
if I would prefer to spend $300 instead of $3000 on it. Of course I chose
the $300 and we backed the wall behind the counter with
antique-style-pressed-tin like they used to put up on the ceilings of the
saloons that I had found at Home Depot. It looks most attractive and was
dramatically cost effective compared to what tile would have been. I got a
new sink, fixture and under-cabinet lighting for the entire countertop. We
also got new floor covering, total repainting of the cabinets, ceiling and
all new appliances for the $3000. In other words I got a $30,000 kitchen
makeover for a fraction of the cost!

I well knew Arthur Vance. For a time he lived at my Three Friends
Apartments on W. 23 and Leon St., after he left you as a housemate, Mike.
He and I became close friends. When I did my Mid-West Tour of the US in
2004 I stopped off in Castle Valley, Indiana, on my way to Erie, PA where I
visited Pat and Ida Holman. I spent four days hanging out with Arthur. It
was delightful. I got to meet his first family and his two lovey
granddaughters and their mother, Arthur's first wife. The grandparents were
big time corn growers in Indiana. They had a huge farm with a horse barn
and training coralle for the girl's horses. The girls were accomplished
riders. Arthur had an impressive garden and sweet little cottage he lived
in. He even took me to his favorite fishing hole.

Best,
Frances

On Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 6:37 AM Hans-Peter OTTO <hpo.photog at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Good for you! You deserve luck because you research so well. But Henry is
> long gone. Regrets
>
> > On 19. Aug 2020, at 12:09, Michael Eisenstadt <eisenstadt0 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > The last time Madelon & I saw Henry out and about was at Breed's
> hardware on 29th st. Arthur Vanz who you may or may not know was fired by
> the mercurial comptrollor Bob Bullock and was reduced to giving dance
> lessons. That didn't pan out so he started doing maintenance work for his
> friends like Ann Richard. He joked to me once that he was put down as a
> maintenance man who had to run parts frequently.
> >
> > I got lucky at Home Depot yesterday with a friendly aisle guy in
> plumbing. On the fly, he speced out the project and sold me a new sink
> drain, 2 couplings, and a elbow with a long stem. So I need to measure
> measure measure and cut the stem twice with hacksaw in our little
> attachable vise. The leaking faucet project should be doable after watching
> a plumber's walk-through of the process on YouTube a number of times.
> >
> > The aisle guy was a POC wearing a mask below his nose. A plumbing
> engineer who knew where all the parts were to be found and found them. Came
> to $27.
>
>
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