Browsing Archives for March 2008

Our library has arrived.

I was at first, somewhat mystified.

Evidently, I overlooked the small box at the end of the order form that said…complete library.

Though everything seems to be in very good order, with plenty of nooks and whatnots, and bins and cubbies, and higglyjoints and sputknacks…it seems that it did not have any…

BOOKS!!

I sprang into action!

Searching for the perfect book, the exact right one, to bless this humble library. The perfect book to first grace the shelves. To set the tone. To determine the character of this space for all time memorial!

I knew exactly where to go. A book of immense wisdom…unerring moral fiber. A book that nurtured me as I grew and taught me right from wrong. A book… actually many books…assembled into a flawless, seamless, whole. Where I still look for guidance and support and courage and fortitude. And I am never disappointed.

Nancy Drew

Of course.

This is my favorite cover.

Now that I have the sacred texts in place, I can move onto the lesser titles.

The foundation for our house was dug in early September. After years of dreaming, planning, and drawing hundreds of houseplans, we had a hole in the ground. I drove out to the site one hot afternoon as a work crew was setting up the forms to pour the basement.

Three pick up trucks were parked around the building site but there were no workmen around. I decided that they must have all gone to lunch in one truck as I got out of the van with my four year old son. My son scurried up one of the big dirt piles as I slowly walked around the foundation snapping pictures. As I approached the back of the hole I noticed some boots beside one of the trucks. Wait, those were not just boots, there were also legs…attached to the body of a …man! No wait – two men. Two men were lying down in the shade under the truck taking their lunch break. I was a little surprised to find them there, but tried to pretend that I had known they were there all along. I nodded and smiled at them and continued to circle the foundation taking pictures.

As I rounded another corner my perspective on the basement changed and I saw another man stretched out in the shade at the bottom of the hole. He had long flowing white hair and looked sort of like a wizard in jeans in a t-shirt. I waved at him and tried to remember if when I got out of the van I was picking my nose or talking to myself – because I was so sure that no one was there. As I completed my walk around the foundation I suddenly noticed another man quietly sitting in one of the trucks with a cold drink. He raised his hand in a slight wave. I slight-waved back.

It was odd how the men were separated from each other and so quiet. I suppose it was just a way to have an efficient break maximizing your rest without having to go somewhere for lunch. The silence was pronounced, but they didn’t seem like the kind of men that would be chatty under any circumstances. The strangest part however was not the quiet or the odd places they seemed to be in (under the truck?), or even the wizardy appearance of the guy in the hole, but rather how I felt suddenly disassociated with my own house. I mean I had planned, and drawn, and sketched, and sharpened pencils, and learned to draw elevations, and read books, and articles, and clipped magazine pictures and figured out a virtual reality architecture program, and measured staircases, and ceiling heights and porch depths, and taken pictures of every old house that turned my fancy to get to the point of actually building a house. And now walking the perimeter of the foundation of my dreams there are suddenly four strange men involved.

Four strange men I have never seen before. Four strange men I do not even know their names. Four strange men hired by our general contractor to build the foundation of our house. And suddenly I feel like I am a trespasser. I feel like an intruder. An intruder in my own dream.

The men were just men – hard working men on their lunch break. It was not their job to shake my hand or tell me that my foundation was the most spectacular foundation they had ever had the privilege to work on. And it was not really my job to shake their hands or critique their work or ask a bunch of questions since I had no idea what to ask and I know nothing about building a foundation. So instead I climbed the dirt pile with my son and looked at the hole some more and snapped a few more pictures. I was trying to make myself feel like this was my building site and this would be my house and I had every right to be here. But I didn’t. I felt like an outsider. So I loaded up my son and we drove home. Later that evening I crept back out to the site and walked around again. This time I was really alone and the house felt like mine again.

This is a picture of the driveway that leads to our house. As you can see it goes over the dam that created our pond. This driveway was a long way coming and somewhat of a sticking point. Before we could build a house, we had to decide where to put the house. We had eight acres to choose from, but there were really only two spots that made sense. One was in front of the pond and one was behind the pond.

The type of house we wanted to build included an expansive wrap around porch, and it seemed clear that it would be nice to sit on the porch and look at the pond. However, building behind the pond required quite a bit more expense including building a dam that was large enough for a driveway, and longer electric and water lines. We actually gave up the idea of building behind the pond for these reasons and I designed a house to build in front of the pond. But it just was not the kind of house we wanted. Why bother constructing a beautiful deep covered porch to overlook a road, when you could overlook a pond.

Finally we gave into the ancient architectural theory of chi, which demands that the mountains be at your back and that you face the water. We moved the building site behind the pond, re-drew the house to fit the new site and bit the bullet on the extra money. It is easily the smartest decision we made as the house is so beautifully sited, reflecting on the water, with a treeline at the back and a few trees framing the house as you look at it from the road. Trust the ancients. They knew what they were talking about.

Click on photo to view more construction photos

I was in the process of hanging some insulation, when I noticed how quiet the work site was. This was somewhat disturbing because seven boys were playing on the site, my four and three friends. However, I figured what’s the worst thing that could happen… at a construction site… with a pond… and the neighbors pond… Then I heard the piercing wail.

I met Jack the youngest outside. This is what he looked like…

He was upset because his shirt had some mud on it, and he was pouring the blame on his brethern. I turned the corner and this is what I saw…

And this…

Show me some muscles mud boys!

So I decided that I would make some brownies for Dennis and the boys. But I am not very good at things like baking food for people and then giving it to them. It makes me feel conspicuous. Plus, it makes me feel like I am a caricature of myself. Like I am this stay at home mom that actually does the appropriate stay at home mom things like bake brownies for people. And yeah sometimes I do bake brownies, but usually I eat most of them myself. Anyway – I was struggling with the concept. I was imagining this scene

Me – Er Uh Um yeah so Hi Guys…

Them – Hello (bang bang bang – hammers)

Me – uh well er um I well

Them – sweeeeeeeeeee bang bang bang (hammers and saw)

Me – I made you some brownies

Them – Bang Bang bang Sweeeeee, ca chunk ca chuck (hammers, saws, nail gun) WHAT?

Me – I made you some brownies.

Them – Ca chunk ca chunk sweeeeeeee, bang bang WHAT!

Me – (sudden silence) BROWNIES!

I knew it would be very awkward mostly because I am very awkward.

However, I tried it a few times and it worked out okay – but it had been a while. So I was in Manhattan and was driving by Panera and I thought how about some bagels for the guys? So I stopped and got a dozen bagels.

As I approached the house I was suddenly caught up in a gale of anxiety that went something like this…

Me – How in the world am I going to give these guys bagels?

Me – They probably don’t even like bagels.

Me – They probably think bagels are sissy girl food.

Me – Heck – they probably have never seen a bagel and will think I am giving them weird tasting donuts.

When I got to the house, I had a some stuff to unload. I started with the light fixtures, carrying them down to the basement. Then I unloaded the stuff I had cleaned out from our closets to make our house more presentable to sell. Finally I could put it off no longer. The guys were working on the second floor, and I was a mess of nerves. All I could do was tiptoe in and leave the box of bagels on the saw horses in the great room. Then I fled.

That evening I came back to the house because I love to walk through the house when no one is there. I noticed the box of bagels was still on the saw horses. I looked inside and not one bagel had been touched. I fished out a chocolate bagel for myself, worried a bit about the cream cheese sitting out all night. But it was still pretty cold out, so I figured it would be okay. Then I put the bagels on the fire place which is a bit more prominent spot and left.

The next day I went out in the evening and the bagels were still on the fireplace, untouched. Clearly, they had either been rejected as sissy food or as food that the builders weren’t sure they were supposed to eat – since I did such a bad job of giving it to them. I took the bagels home and threw them away. Later that week I made a batch of brownies. The builders were grateful for them and ate every last one.

Well I have some rather bad news to report.

Last night I visited the work site and saw something horrible.

It appears that some type of newspaper bomb went off in our house.

Shredded newspaper seems to have exploded in every room in the house!

Actually – this stuff is insulation, but it sure made a mess!

Hoses blow this stuff in and thankfully will suck it back out when they are finished.

One step closer to sheet rock and then paint and then floors and then cabinets and then trim and then plumbing and then appliances and then furniture and then HOUSE!