Well, I guess I’m not ready for it,though my neck, shoulders, back and knees, say otherwise! I did get the brick off of the water soaked sand today. In a way, it was a relief.

When I was building the house (15 years ago), it went like this:
Months before, we had selected a hot tub from a home show. “We won’t deliver it till you say so” they promised. yeah, right. The day they called we were putting the 8 x 8 beams (to hold the ceiling and the trusses to hold the roof) in place…one every four feet. I was in charge of connecting the straps from the crane around each beam and my staff were on the walls ready to guide them into place, when the call came in. They wanted to deliver the hot tub. The walls of the room were built, but no door frame or windows yet, and certainly, no floor(or roof for that matter). Since the floor is brick on sand, that was problematic (oh, way more than we knew then.) So, I’d strap a beam, climb down, run in, lay a few brick, run out, climb up, strap a beam…………you get the idea.

The sum of it is that it was less than perfect, by a long shot. The crew from the hot tub place arrived s I layed the final brick, brought in the tub, leveled it (miracle) and left.

All this time and since, that tub left (in pieces) and another came in, and left (in pieces) and now, after 15 years that floor has come up and is stacked in rows in the only level area that existed, right in front of the double doors. No tub coming in just yet. The sand underneath is miraculously drying (since it’s been raining off and on for the past few days) and it’s clear I’ll need more sand to get it level. The room, in this state, combined with the overcast skies and rain take me right back to 1994 and building this house. Then, it rained for 13 weeks straight. Well, I supposed it stopped now and then, but it sure didn’t feel like it. When it rains up here, the temperature dropss to 55 (or lower) and it’s just plain cold and damp. Problematic when you are building a house out of dirt…but that’s another story. A long one.

Stay tuned. I’m tired. good night all. and here’s to you, Dad. (Veteran, Vietnam, multiple tours. Also, another story)