A Few Mistakes, A Big Success.
Speaking of mistakes. There is one in the kitchen that an observer wouldn't notice, but had W in a panic till I thought of a simple solution. We used radiant electric heat. Wires are attached to the ceiling and then plastered over to seal them in place. Each room has it's own thermostat and there is no air blowing dust around. It's a constant, steady heat. With the heatalater fireplace as a backup for the rare power outage, we got along great with it. Our utility bills were lower then our neighbors too. But, when the wire was put up, W forgot about one full length cabinet in the kitchen that extended out even with the counters. It went from the built in double oven to the wall and housed Grandpa B's built in pantry. The wire was suppose to be kept a certain number of inches away from any other surface. Such as ceiling lights, walls or cabinets. With the wire already sealed in the plaster, it looked like I was going to lose my deep pantry storage cabinet. Until I asked why it couldn't just drop down those required inches. At the ceiling it was even with the top of the cabinets and then we dropped it down like an open shelf before coming back out to the depth we wanted. This gave me an exposed , open shelf to decorate with collectables. And, looked more like a design then a goof. No matter what problem developed, one of our minds came up with an answer. That house has a lot of each one of us in it.
Another one of those problems presented itself with the 32 Ft. wide garage. The men wanted seperate garage doors and a small walk in door. They decided to put the small door in between the big doors. So that was how the concrete blocks were layed. Then when it came time to set the center beam, they realized all the weight was going to land right over that little door and not a solid wall. They had to come up with a header that would distribute the weight. Of course this was early in construction and I quickly learned of their ingenuity. A house can be built without blueprints, if you have experienced builders with minds for the job.
W wanted a sunken living room. None of the family had built one, so they put their heads together and worked out how the wanted to do that. That design went well and without a problem or mistake. So well in fact, that when the carpet layers were doing their jobs, we discovered just how solid they had built it. The carpet men made a comment to my Father-In-Law that the sunken room had to be done carefully. They had actually moved walls before when they tried to stretch a carpet. F was a bit offended and told them he dared them to move one of "his" walls. So they tightened some more and had to admit everything was solid. The challenge extended to the other rooms, and I believe I had the best stretched carpets ever layed. And, the most solid walls.
Another one of their ideas gave me a shallow closet at the end of the stairs to the basement, at the end of the hall between the kitchen and dining room. The other end of the hall that led to the bedrooms. In the shallow closet they put in shelves that doubled as steps to the attic. It was my broom closet. The dining room wall was also the wall inside the stairwell that led to the basement. In the dining room, W built in a china cabinet that was high enough in the stairwell, and shallow enough, that you wouldn't hit your head on the back of this built in china cabinet going up the stairs. It had glass doors to keep out the dust and it was beautiful.
We were finally finishing the fall of 1969. I wanted everything done before we moved up and out of the basement. Everything except one bedroom. J.T. had picked the room he wanted and we let him pick the colors he wanted. He chose a corner room because it had two windows. The bedroom beside his was for the child W and I hoped to have some day. I thought we should wait to finish it when we discovered if it would be girl or boy.
There were still some details to finish in the kitchen and bathrooms in early December. My family was there one weekend to visit and offer help. When Mom and Dad saw how much was done, they decided it was far enough along to get us out of the basement. And, they moved us up. Except that my oven, stove, and fridge weren't ready to be set in place. So for a couple more weeks I lived upstairs, but had to go to the basement to cook. Or raid the fridge. I believe that gave W the push he needed to finish sooner. He had to run the water line for the ice maker (and sinks in kitchen and bath) and finish the cabinet tops to bring the kitchen out of the basement. By our second Christmas together, we were living in the house we built. Above ground. The most perfect Christmas gift I had ever received.
Another one of those problems presented itself with the 32 Ft. wide garage. The men wanted seperate garage doors and a small walk in door. They decided to put the small door in between the big doors. So that was how the concrete blocks were layed. Then when it came time to set the center beam, they realized all the weight was going to land right over that little door and not a solid wall. They had to come up with a header that would distribute the weight. Of course this was early in construction and I quickly learned of their ingenuity. A house can be built without blueprints, if you have experienced builders with minds for the job.
W wanted a sunken living room. None of the family had built one, so they put their heads together and worked out how the wanted to do that. That design went well and without a problem or mistake. So well in fact, that when the carpet layers were doing their jobs, we discovered just how solid they had built it. The carpet men made a comment to my Father-In-Law that the sunken room had to be done carefully. They had actually moved walls before when they tried to stretch a carpet. F was a bit offended and told them he dared them to move one of "his" walls. So they tightened some more and had to admit everything was solid. The challenge extended to the other rooms, and I believe I had the best stretched carpets ever layed. And, the most solid walls.
Another one of their ideas gave me a shallow closet at the end of the stairs to the basement, at the end of the hall between the kitchen and dining room. The other end of the hall that led to the bedrooms. In the shallow closet they put in shelves that doubled as steps to the attic. It was my broom closet. The dining room wall was also the wall inside the stairwell that led to the basement. In the dining room, W built in a china cabinet that was high enough in the stairwell, and shallow enough, that you wouldn't hit your head on the back of this built in china cabinet going up the stairs. It had glass doors to keep out the dust and it was beautiful.
We were finally finishing the fall of 1969. I wanted everything done before we moved up and out of the basement. Everything except one bedroom. J.T. had picked the room he wanted and we let him pick the colors he wanted. He chose a corner room because it had two windows. The bedroom beside his was for the child W and I hoped to have some day. I thought we should wait to finish it when we discovered if it would be girl or boy.
There were still some details to finish in the kitchen and bathrooms in early December. My family was there one weekend to visit and offer help. When Mom and Dad saw how much was done, they decided it was far enough along to get us out of the basement. And, they moved us up. Except that my oven, stove, and fridge weren't ready to be set in place. So for a couple more weeks I lived upstairs, but had to go to the basement to cook. Or raid the fridge. I believe that gave W the push he needed to finish sooner. He had to run the water line for the ice maker (and sinks in kitchen and bath) and finish the cabinet tops to bring the kitchen out of the basement. By our second Christmas together, we were living in the house we built. Above ground. The most perfect Christmas gift I had ever received.
posted by LeeAnn | 6:45 PM
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