We had two rose plants that I transplanted last fall. They were both gifts from me to my wife. I figured best to transplant them in case we sold our house (stop laughing) in the winter and I couldn’t transplant them in the cold. Turns out the spot I picked was just about the worst and the Fall rains wiped out the one plant that was as tall as me. The smaller plant, that at one time I had nursed back from a twig, was done in by the Spring rain and a second attempt at transplanting. The symbolism is not lost on me, especially after a long week 2 on the project.
Building a house is a god awful, miserable, experience.
I don’t even respond anymore when I tell people I’m building a house and they say “How cool”, “I’m envious”, “Sounds like fun.” Or the best one, “You must be excited.” Define excited. Is it exciting to consistently wake up at 3:57 a.m. unable to go to sleep worrying about some aspect of the new house falling apart, while my left eye twitches uncontrollably? Is it exciting to watch your budget swing wildly in amounts equal to new Land Rovers? I certainly don’t get excited as I measure out the house for insulation and come up with a different number fourteen times in a row. Not exciting. I don’t get excited. I drive up to the Quickcheck, buy a twelve pack of Budweiser and contemplate if I can make it to Wyoming before anyone misses me.
Building a house is about the least enjoyable experience I can think of short of any real tragedy such as death, famine or being kidnapped by Ecuadorian Rebels.
I have not gotten back the soil report, but from what I hear we’re supporting 1,500 lbs. psf which is what we thought all along. I’m going to beef up the crushed stone footers to 12″ x 24″ and we’ll lay down stabilization fabric. Also we’re going to install a sump pump, just in case the blue clay is more aggressive than it looks. We’re still on schedule for foundation installation next week. My happy foundation walls are drying somewhere up the road in the New York heat I suspect. I talked and emailed quite a few people and I’m sticking with the original plan regarding the foundation with the adjustments noted above. I think I’m doing my due diligence and I guess only time will tell.
When I said I had everyone looking at our foundation, I meant everyone. Daphne examines the basement plan and can't make heads or tails of it. She spends the next two minutes licking her butt on the print and saunters off. I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm an idiot.
I did not go out to the site yesterday or today. Spent most of my time on email, phone calls and pouring over books regarding the soil and foundation. I did attempt to measure for the XPS & ISO rigid insulation that will go under the slab and the exterior walls. I think I’ve got a good square foot estimate. We’ll have to order that soon. Also, since we’ve got a free Saturday we’re going to start looking at plumbing fixtures and flooring. Which is good because it’ll get my mind off of all the “exciting” parts of the project (add to that bank, appraisals, disgruntled neighbors, etc. etc.)
So not every day is rosy when designing and building a house. The bloom is definitely off the rose for this project. But roses bloom again. So I’m sure once we get framing, picking out wall sconces and debating the pros and cons of this stone versus that stone our rose will bloom again.
Though with my track record for helping rose bushes, maybe I need to be more hands off.
nine apple trees 