My new reality

Many of you know that Greg and I lead openly secret lives (oxymoron, anyone?). Greg loves building things and I love Greg so I build things too. As his mild mannered Clark Kent persona Greg built molecules in his day job as a chemist and furniture and cabinets in his spare, now retired, time. But his true love is building houses. Here is the ‘what Greg loves most’ list: 1. building houses, 2a. his Tahoe, 2b. his John Deere tractor, 3. his workshop/tools, 4. maybe me, maybe the kids – it’s a toss-up. In the pre-kid era, while scientists by day we also had a business remodeling kitchens, building furniture, and decorating houses at night. And then we did a thing: we built a house. Of course, like any green first timers we decided to go big and ended up constructing a 3,500 square foot beauty of a home. I was naive and capable of hard work so just followed along and learned how to measure, cut, hammer, and haul sheets of plywood. We plumbed, electrified, and sheet-rocked that house. And landscaped, painted, and decorated. We spent every night, weekend, and vacation working. I lost finger nails to errant hammering and went to bed unable to move my exhausted arms. Luckily, we had many friends and family members help for which I am eternally grateful. Seventeen years and 2 kids later we moved to Massachusetts thanks to Novartis. I’m a little grateful that I didn’t have to strip all the cabbage rose wallpaper when we sold that house. We loved it and all the memories we made there. That first project enabled us to afford our next beautiful home (which we didn’t build) and the workshop/garage (which we did).

We then started construction of a vacation home on our beloved Upper Saranac Lake. The property was purchased years previously but construction was delayed due to major life events. Once settled, we began. Framing was done with Greg’s 2 brothers but also with Dan and various nephews. Holidays and weekends for the next few years were spent driving the 5 1/2 hours to the Adirondacks and working, kids somewhat reluctantly in tow, then driving home to our day jobs and school. We ‘camped’ inside the house shell, cooked on a rickety table, and bathed in the lake. Again, family and friends came to help and we again, were, (and still are), grateful. Almost 20 years later what I thought we had built as our vacation house became our full time ‘retirement home’. We added a garage/workshop/guest space, a lean-to, and a barn. And various sheds for more stuff that goes along with building and constructing. Along the way, on the side, Greg also built a house in northeast PA with a coworker, and he and his father and brothers also built a house outside of Rochester on his dad’s farm. Construction is seemingly endless. I once told Greg “build your second house with your second wife”. Apparently I’m not good at following through. Then there are the exceptions, like now.

All it took was for Dan to say “Anna and I want to build a house”. And so it begins again…

Anna and Dan moved to Pennsylvania near her parents (actually, with her parents for an entire Covid year) and purchased a lovely 10 acre pasture lot. The work then began. The paperwork, that is. With Greg as consultant/general contractor/foreman they chose a house design and began working with the architect and structural engineer. During the long winter and spring months of impatiently waiting for the changes and design to be structurally approved and permits granted, Greg read and re-read the Residential Building Code, studied the house plans, and boned up on up-to-date building practices. D+A shopped around for foundation/excavation contractors and Greg negotiated the purchase (and price-freeze) on ever more expensive framing materials. (Shout out here to our friend Doug and Huston Lumber for excellent customer service). I managed to avoid being involved in the design and planning and was able to keep my anxiety level low as I am well aware of the magnitude of the work yet ahead. This is a big thing that they (and we) will be doing and big things require big effort. Greg is thrilled. I worry ‘are they ready for the long hours and hard work?’ Am I? Teenager Dan was none too thrilled to be constantly working when we were building our projects way back when; is 30-something Dan ready for this? I know he is; he’s excited. Apparently we instilled a work ethic. I know we can do this, again. A year from now we’ll look back and say “look what we have done”! Every day the goal will be ‘head down, work on the project in front of you, ignore the long list’ and it will get done, day by day, despite my agita. We have many friends and family willing to help; why they haven’t learned to say “no” to us yet I’ll never understand. Follow along, will you? And, if you want to come help lift a 500lb beam or two, haul a few sheets of plywood, or several hundred 2×6’s, give me a call.