9:30 a.m. — We get home right as the contractor finishes with the dock. The house we bought is on a canal (Fort Lauderdale is the Venice of the United States — canals everywhere), and we had this company perform an inspection for us before we bought. The dock is older and needed some maintenance, which we knew from the start. We were hoping to wait a year or so, but the pilings weren't wrapped and were getting eaten away to nothing. This company cleans and wraps them all and uses concrete to reinforce some of the more damaged ones. It looks great and the guy says they should last about ten years, so it's a relief not to have to worry about it. He said we should also stucco the seawall to reinforce it a bit, but that can wait a year — so we put it off for now. N. negotiated down on the price a lot and secured an additional discount for paying cash. $845