Originally posted October 2007
Over the course of building our house, I have had a few very minor disagreements with my builder, Dennis.
A few months back, he did not appreciate my decision to leave the pine treads and risers on the steps to the loft unpainted. I had originally told him that I was going to paint [...]
I woke up on Thursday morning, looked out the window and saw a familiar truck parked in my driveway. A truck that was a fixture around this place for over a year. A truck that I used to tuck little envelopes inside of, under a spare pair of pliers or a hammer so that it [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The country doctor grew up in the house his grandfather built. His own parents did a lot of remodeling on that same house over the years. As they worked on it, I have heard stories of how they uncovered notations left by my husband’s grandfather.
Dennis, our builder also does a lot of figuring [...]
There have been several occasions during the construction of our farmhouse, that various men have made drawings for me. It is always a man, and it is always a very little drawing. Usually on a tiny scrap of paper.
They use these drawings as tools to try and explain some construction [...]