In Bridgeport, CT a bunch of contractors agreed to build a house quickly for the Habitat for Humanity Builder’s Blitz. The boss thought five days should be adequate.

“I sat down with my subcontractors and handed them the schedule and for three minutes nobody said a word,” recalled Glenn Tatangelo, a principal in Connecticut Realty Investment Group LLC and a board member of Habitat for Humanity of Coastal Fairfield County.

“Then Jay said I think we can do this in four days,” Tatangelo said of the ambitious schedule set by the home-building charity.

Jay Borkowski, construction supervisor for the investment group, said, “I saw gaps in the schedule where we could buy time. I looked at is as a 24-hour day instead of an 8-hour day.”

They started at dawn on Monday morning. Sure enough, they were done by Thursday evening. That’s some impressive construction supervision!

By the way, sanfroid (pronounced san-frwa’) is one of my new favorite words and means coolness and composure under trying circumstances. Have you got it?