Sunday, June 1, 2008

June 1st

Way back in December when we sold our house and had this vague plan to build another one, we rented a house on the water until the middle of June. We thought that by June we'd have some sort of structure up. Something at least to put some stuff in. This was a wild guess based on our progress building the last house. We started in March and moved in at the beginning of June. There was a framed structure with a roof and tarped-over windows. We had a dry place to sleep and kept the mosquitoes at bay with a net. This time around we envisioned framing the house quickly with the help of Richard Warfel. And while the place wouldn't necessarily be habitable with Chloe and Hazel running around getting into unimaginable trouble, at least there would be SOMETHING there. A shell. Well on its way to housedom.

Now on June 1st we don't even have a passable driveway. (We've got a mailbox though!) The path that led us to this point is chronicled in what I've written over the last several months. Long snowy winter. Road posting. Road building incompetence. This last one has been by far the most damaging obstacle. One that even with hindsight couldn't have been avoided.

We've rented another house to take us through the summer and fall. Once we get beyond the site work, I'll be more in control of the pace of things, but there are too many variables to guess what we'll have accomplished come November. We'll just have to roll with the punches. A call from Lewis Tapley yesterday promised to fix our road first thing tomorrow morning. It's a start.

There is a silver lining to all these delays. We've had more time work on our house plan. It's gone through uncountable changes, and now we're both satisfied with the space. It's going to be a beautiful little house. Our home for a long, long time. If I ever get to drive that first nail.

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