Young boys especially tend to focus on trucks, sticks, rocks, bulldozers, cranes, building blocks and any manner of things which can be manipulated into other shapes. Not that girls cannot enjoy those things too, but their interests often move in other directions. As a youngster I certainly enjoyed playing in a sandbox in our backyard. Roads, buildings and landscaping were all part of the mix. All I needed was the sand, a few sticks, a few leaves and a little cast-metal car or truck and my world was complete for hours.
Fast forward. As our children were growing up, just a sandbox was no longer sufficient. In part that was because toy manufacturers are marvelous marketers. Our children “had” to have the latest transforming toys, plastic building blocks and movie related figures. And of course there was (is) a collection of stuffed animals. But, I digress.
My early construction toys were blocks. My grandma Jennie had a set of wonderful wooden blocks which my brother and I would stack in varied combinations—making buildings and roads. Shapes were square, cylindrical, rectangular and triangular. Colors were primary red, green, blue, orange, purple and yellow. Sometimes we’d match colors, sometimes we’d mix them. Sometimes the shapes were the controlling factor, sometimes the height, and sometimes the colors. We’d arrange them to be roads, buildings, cars, trucks, trains or ramps. Then, we’d destroy our creations and try something new.
When I was eight, my parents were able to buy a lot in the Lake Tahoe basin not far from the beach. Now that is a sandbox! Dad was a summer recreation supervisor and had one day off per week. So throughout the summer on his day off, he started to build a small cottage. This was in an era before power tools were commonplace in construction. Electricity had not yet been brought onto the lot. His tools included a level, plumb bob, brace and bit, wooden folding tape measure, carpenter’s pencil, hand crank drill, carpenter’s square, hammer, nails of various sizes, a cross cut saw, miter saw, miter box, plane, and chalked string wound on a stick. Some of those tools were gifts from his father-in-law, a wonderful craftsman—especially in metals. As dad worked on building this structure from informal plans, he let my sisters, my brother and me in on the process. We learned how to hammer a nail using long true strokes—letting the weight of the hammer do the work. We learned how to use a cross cut saw…again with long strokes, letting the saw do the work—staying on the line but not forcing the cut.
We learned how to mark rafters using the carpenter’s square. We learned how to measure twice and cut once. All the while (and unnoticed by us) he was teaching us math, geometry and physics. That cabin is a treasure to this day because of the love and learning which went into its construction.One lesson we learned in this process is that good construction takes time. We had to be patient and only accomplish in one day what was possible even though the whole project would not be finished. We learned that one step often led to another. We learned that sometimes before you finish what you thought you were going to finish you were forced “by the project” to do something you had not expected to do in your planning. We learned that hard work was very satisfying, especially on an item which showed tangible results.
The following year, my parents purchased a larger structure which was manufactured in a mill. Known then as a pre-cut home, it offered the advantage of saving lots of time in construction, since the boards were already the correct length for the model. All a carpenter had to do was assemble the various components in the correct order and voila, you had a house! The only problem was that the wrong house was delivered! In the construction yard, they had fork lifts to load the truck. In our driveway, that job of re-loading the wrong house had to be done by hand. Eventually the correct house was delivered and my parents hired a carpenter to put it together.
All except the electrical, finished plumbing, septic tank, water pump, interior and fireplace. Over the next few years, we were able to complete the project. Dad was very resourceful. He had a small book on how to wire a home. If he got stuck on an item such as a three way switch, he’d refer to the book. We’d help him by holding tools, a flashlight or sometimes twisting wire nuts in place. He also built a fireplace even though he had never laid a brick in his life. All the while we learned new things, such as how to mix mortar and what a hod carrier is.
That first fall and winter we visited for several weekends. The fireplace was not yet complete and it was very cold. Upstairs was dubbed “igloo alley” by my sister. The following summer, we finished the fireplace and enjoy it to this day. The rest of the cabin has been the object of numerous ongoing upgrades. Part of the fun even now are little projects to make it better.When our children were young, R and I had the opportunity to share the experience of a construction project with them. Beginning in about 1981, R and I had dreamed of adding on to our modest home so that we and each child would have individual bedrooms. First we played with different floor plans on paper, ultimately consulting with an architect who was able to provide us with working drawings. We made a cardstock scale model too. The plans were approved by the City Building Department without variances being required. However, we didn’t have enough money or credit to complete the whole project so we planned to do it in stages. First we contracted to have the “rough” work done beginning in early August, 1983. That meant confining the work to demolition of the roof and front of the home, beefing up the foundation and the framing of the exterior shell out to the plywood and windows plus matching the stucco of the first floor. That meant that I would be responsible for either contracting or completing myself the finished roof and shingle siding of the second story as well as all the interior, wiring and ducting. As the six week project progressed into the eighth week, it became clear that we needed to hire someone to finish the roof, as I simply would not have enough time before the rainy season. We got a crew to work on two weekends, finishing the roof for a good price. The shingle siding I did myself, often working until about 10 p.m. well into December high up on the rented scaffolding. Our neighbors were very understanding.
Once the exterior was finished and the scaffolding was taken down, that left us with an unfinished stairwell, upstairs rooms with studs but no drywall, one working bathroom, plywood floors and neither a working furnace nor a hot water heater. We did have limited electricity and a kitchen with an instant hot water maker, so we managed to keep the family going in a somewhat rudimentary fashion. Since it was winter, my first priority after finishing the exterior was to install the flue connections to the heater and hot water heater. That done, we started on the rough wiring for the second story. Then the drywall for privacy. For that we enlisted some very good friends to help in exchange for pizza and some good laughs. Then I worked on the finished electrical outlets, switches, lights and telephone wiring.
After working on the project and living on the plywood floors for a few years, we finally got tired of “camping at home”. So we negotiated a loan and hired a contractor to finish the job. Because of his fine work, we are happy to recommend Ed Levitch of Levitch and Associates. We camped in the downstairs while they finished the upstairs. Wow. We had underestimated the skill and time it would take to do such a major construction project on our own. It took a crew of three professionals six more weeks full time to do what I thought I, an amateur, could do in my spare time on the weekends. They finished the stairwell and banister, the finished plumbing for the two full upstairs bathrooms, the trim around the windows, the tiling of the entry hall, the finished hardwood flooring throughout the house, and all interior painting. We had realized our dream house with a room for each child and a master bedroom / bath for us.
Now that we had our new space, we diligently set to work raising and to some extent entertaining our children. Part of that involved those little plastic building blocks which made one Danish company very wealthy. It seems that every time we’d go to the toy store, we’d end up in the plastic building block section. Those little pieces became the next generation’s sandbox. We kept the boxes with instructions just in case the parts got separated, which they always did. Every once in a while, we’d all gather together in the attic and piece them all together, which seemed to take a whole day. Since flying was a big part of our dreams, there were lots of flying machines…from helicopters to spaceships. We rigged a board suspended from the rafters so that the arrangement would have some sense of spatial reality. Countless hours were spent up there over the next few years dreaming up out-of-this-world construction possibilities.
Fifteen years after our home addition, after having raised the children and sending them off to college, we decided that it was time for a nicer kitchen. The old one, in the style of 1923, was looking a bit worn. Even though we had used it successfully for twenty-seven years and had served countless family and guest meals, the old kitchen had outlived its original sparkle. So we looked at options for re-facing, replacing or refurbishing. None were as attractive as the idea for a NEW kitchen with all the modern conveniences. So that is what we did. By this time, money was less of an obstacle, so we hired a very competent contractor who got the bid and the job. In short order, he stripped the kitchen and breakfast room back to the studs, joists and rough flooring and started building our dream kitchen.
If you’ve ever worked with a contractor, you’ll know what I mean when I say it must be assumed that everything will NOT go exactly as planned. We had ordered beautiful maple cabinets from a company in Canada. They didn’t arrive when promised. When our contractor called them, he started to get pushback. It turns out that this supplier which he had used for years was about to declare bankruptcy. They did deliver some cabinets, but not in the materials we had ordered. Fortunately for us, our contractor assumed all liability and at his own expense ordered a local cabinetmaker to match what we had ordered. It took a lot longer but it was worth the wait. Because of his extraordinary attention to detail, he too deserves a plug…John Ferguson of More Than a Carpenter. Because of the delays, our estimate for a six week project doubled into twelve weeks. We ended up having our rainy Thanksgiving dinner on the outdoor barbeque under a tarp that year.
Over the last few years we have enjoyed watching a truly big construction project…the East span of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. Running into the billions of dollars, squabbles among politicians have caused extraordinary delays which have run up the cost. It takes amazing professionals to anticipate all the things which must be done to complete such a project safely, on time and under budget.
But that is the fun of construction. It is planning for contingencies. It is solving problems as they arise. It is being flexible in the face of disappointment. It is the art of making our part of the world a better, more comfortable and safer place. Construction is often messy and dusty. The end result is usually neat, clean and very satisfying!
©Frank Bliss 2008 All rights reserved
October, 2008
