Final Touch Construction

04/24/2020

To all our valued customers,

We miss you and are hoping that you are healthy and safe during this difficult time. For those of you who are seasonal residents, Nantucket has had a stay at home order in effect since March 20th. This order included all construction work, including excavation, other than emergencies. The rationale for that is that a large portion of our construction workforce cannot afford to live on the island, and for other reasons, commute via boat to work every day. Although Nantucket has a brand new hospital, it is small, isolated from mutual aid, and has a very limited staff. With hundreds of people packed on a boat twice a day, it would be impossible to control the spread of the Covid19 and would quickly overwhelm the medical resources. This drastic measure has been successful, we only had 10 cases and currently are 20 days with no new cases.

Almost all island companies are small businesses surviving month to month to meet our obligations, all of us are ready to get back to work. As of April 21st, the Board of Health has allowed certain projects to move forward. Any building projects for year-round residents and any employee housing that needed to be completed may now get special permitting for a limited number of workers to complete the job. Landscaping can proceed, but with only two laborers per job site per day. And “one man, one job” projects can proceed, as long as only one person per day is necessary for the job. All off-island workers are discouraged from coming to the island.

With these lifted restrictions we are now able to take on smaller jobs that only require an operator and no laborers, or any job deemed to be landscaping. We are also able to do septic pumping at this time to make sure you do not have any unnecessary backups when you finally arrive on the island. We encourage all of our customers to consider what jobs they want to get done this summer and call as soon as possible for scheduling. We will be happy to look at your larger projects as well, to get a head start for when more restrictions are lifted.

We would also like to remind all seasonal residents that the island as a whole is two months behind getting ready for the summer season. Not all caretaking is on schedule and most companies will be trying to finish projects they anticipated finishing during the winter. With that being said, we are missing the hustle and bustle that this time of year would normally bring, we can’t wait for all of you to get back and get back to some sense of normality.

03/19/2020

I have just about had it with everybody’s response to this corona virus. In 2011 my son, then 23, was admitted into Cape Cod Hospital as the first H1N1 flu patient on Cape Cod. He flat lined four times that first day, and several more times in the following weeks. He was in a medically induced coma for 45 days and then sent to rehab for another two weeks. He had to learn how to talk, eat, drink and walk all over again. Our family has pretty much seen the worst the flu has to offer, other than death.
Our son had underlying reasons why he got sicker than most, his brother had the flu at the same time and was back to work in less that a week.

There is no doubt my husband and I were exposed to the flu, we were taking care of two sick children. But we had healthy immune systems and never got sick. We were never tested, because we never got sick. Our other son was never tested because he never needed medical intervention. Would we have tested positive for H1N1? You bet. Even the doctors said we would have, we had been exposed and our bodies had created antibodies towards the flu. So the three of us never became statistical numbers for the media to count.

How did the medical and public health community deal with us? Other than protect us from the media, nothing. We ate in the hospital cafeteria with no protective gear. My husband flew back and forth to the island every day to work. Nobody did special cleaning on the plane and not one of my husband’s co-workers contracted the flu. I stayed in the ICU family room with a family whose son had head trauma, one of his sisters was pregnant, they never got the flu. What we did do was wash our hands, cover our coughs and not go visit my elderly mother or asthmatic sister. We ate healthy, took extra vitamin supplements and forced ourselves to get sleep, even if it meant taking turns to do it. I am not saying that the flu is not dangerous, it most certainly is. Driving in a car is dangerous, follow the rules of the road, wear a seat belt, don’t drive drunk and take your chances. Your chances of survival will be better by following basic common sense measures.

What I am saying is that there is no evidence that this version of the corona virus is any more contagious or dangerous than the other 100 or so known pathogenic viruses out there at any given time. The difference is that there is a “test” for this one, a test that was never validated. A test that by pure definition of testing will have false positives. A test that is being administered to more people than any other flu test, so the positive results are going to grow exponentially with the number of tests given.

Fear, not common sense, is guiding our society right now. The H1N1 virus came and went, so did the avian flu and all the other ones. This one has come and will go. Stopping living is not the answer to solve the flu. Yes, social distancing will help limit the spread. But the fear being generated is stressing peoples immune systems. The very immune systems that we need as a community to stay well. What we need to do is stay active and healthy in our daily routines, not disrupt them. We need social interaction to stay mentally healthy as well as building a healthy immune system to fight off this virus as well as the ones to come. There is no miracle cure for this, so it is up to each individual to take care of their immune system, go out and get some fresh air and sunshine. Take advantage of living in one of the most beautiful places on earth, go to the beach, take a walk through the moors just don’t hug the other people out there. Take your kids and dogs out to play, not only will they thank you but their immune systems will thank you too. Everyone just take a deep breath, a chill pill and keep carrying on, this is not the end of civilization.

09/19/2019

Final Touch Construction is pleased to announce that we are now doing septic pumping and sewer connections.

After several years of driving for Nantucket Septic, Stephen has now taken over operations of the pumping portion of the business and all pumping operations will be run from the Final Touch office. For emergencies or to schedule a pumping please call the office at 508-228-4062.

We are also on the list of approved installers for sewer connections. If you are in the Shimmo area, or any of the other areas of the island just put into the sewer district, please feel free to contact us for a consultation and estimate. Again, call the office at 508-228-4062.

We are the small excavating company that does it all: foundation and pool digging, utility trenching, septic and sewer installations and septic pumping. We look forward to hearing from you.

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For all your Nantucket excavation needs.

01/31/2013

Just started a blog 'The Dirt on Dirt' at http://finaltouchconstruction.com/the-dirt-on-dirt/

11/25/2012

Stephen and I would like to welcome everyone to our page. We will be adding more content as time goes on.Please feel free to call us at 508-228-4062 with any questions or a free estimate. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and safe travel. Vicky