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Last-Minute Work Contractors Feel Deadline Heat As Flurry Of Activity Readies Nine Homes For Public Inspection

Eric Torbenson Staff writer

Neil Maddox sweated eight hours Thursday so thousands can see the Glen Garry Estate in its full hydro-seeded glory.

The biggest home in this year’s North Idaho Building Contractors Association Parade of Homes confronted Maddox with the biggest yard he’s sprayed in his six years of hydro-spraying.

“It’s the same every year at the Parade of Homes,” he said. “Everything gets done the day before the show starts. And I’m usually the last guy at the house.”

Landscapers, rain-gutter installers and all kinds of contractors rushed to finish homes at three different sites for this year’s show, which kicks off tonight with a VIP event at Riverside Harbor.

Maddox’s North Idaho Hydroseeding sprayed yards at six of the nine homes in this year’s show, but the Glen Garry Estate swallowed most of the day. “I’ve done two jobs before it. I was up around 5:30 this morning, like I do every day.

“I never get to go inside these big homes because I get all mucked up and dirty, and I say, ‘I can’t go in there looking like this,”’ he said.

Maddox can rest assured that the Glen Garry Estate, tucked deep in the Highlands Golf Course, boggles the mind in its size and luxury. Owned by course owner and real estate developer Bob Coles, the $1.5 million giant anchors this year’s Parade of Homes.

Coles agreed to open his new palace for an estimated 10,000 people over the next week to “give something back to the business that he developed some of his wealth from,” according to Dirk Scott of Pioneer Title Co. in Coeur d’Alene, a co-chairman of this year’s show.

Meanwhile, back at Riverside Harbor, Dan Pfister’s two workers were busy tacking up rain gutters on one of the Parade homes.

“I do most of the work out here because I work with the major builders for Riverside Harbor,” said Pfister, who owns Action Rain Gutters in Post Falls. “I’m just swamped with work right now, which keeps me busy, and I like that.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo