My new reality

We went back. Dan had one more week of vacation time so after a few days at home we drove back to PA to continue work on their house construction, now 5 weeks in.

Christina and her beau, Conor, visited over the Labor Day weekend and came to help. Murphy, however, was the most useful, keeping everyone sane. Anna and I fed tallish Conor the cut lumber and plywood to hand up to Dan and Greg on the roof. We were able to get the final center dormer built and sheathed as well as install collar ties in the attic ceiling (they hold the rafters together as the natural force of the roof is to push out and down). Not heavy work but work made easier for the many hands. Christina, only an inch shorter than me, was unable to access the attic from the ladder (or so she says) so stayed downstairs and ran ‘errands’: where’s the utility knife/handsaw/impact drill/drill bit/start the compressor/generator/check on Murph-jobs. Later, we enjoyed a good meal at Honey in Doylestown, an amazing tapas place.

Labor Day Monday Christina stayed with us while Conor visited his sister. She mowed the field after us ladies figured out how to attach the mower deck to the tractor (ok, Greg did come and help). More work proceeded on the roof/dormer area. Christina left to return home with Conor and we called it an early day to swim and BBQ at Anna’s parents.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday Dan rented a manlift (personlift?) to access peaks and trim and window openings that needed finishing up. For some reason, despite the cooler weather, we were tiring by 5pm and unable to push through to dusk as we did before. Nevertheless, by the end of Thursday we got more than 95% of the roof trim up and ready for the roofing contractors (whenever the contract gets signed). Dan and Anna were hoping to get a metal roof installed but the decision depended on pricing and material availability as everything these days does. It has even been hard sourcing nails and screws and PVC parts that normally would be stocked at any hardware/lumber store within easy reach. And the window delivery was delayed, again.

It rained Wednesday night so, yeah, it was muddy on Thursday. Despite my nagging (does anyone listen?), the peoplelifter was left in a spot that required traversing a particularly mud-prone area. While trying to move the humanlift Greg’s truck got stuck in the mud. (refer to “what Greg loves”, in https://wordpress.com/post/retirementadventureblog.wordpress.com/2748 post “Here We Go Again”. To refresh: #2a his Tahoe.) Luckily, only 10 minutes of mud slogging were required to extract the truck. Using the tractor and many leftover sheets of plywood as a base we were able to move the people-raiser-upper and get more work done by day’s end. By 4pm ‘we’ were all exhausted from cutting plywood, wood, PVC, running up and down ladders and hills while Dan and Greg drilled/nailed/glued/painted what needs done. Greg suggested “let’s keep the Bebernitz-lifter a few more days” and Dan responded “NO, YOU NEED TO GO HOME”. I believed he was thinking of us but some part of me thought he also needed a break after these last 6 weeks. All the rented equipment was returned: the noisy generator and compressor and the Greg+Dan elevator. The next morning Greg and I drove home to spend a couple of weeks recuperating and regenerating. Dan and Anna needed the time to refocus, pay bills, schedule contractors, relax, and, understandably, spend time away from parents. What’s next: the basement floor needs to be poured (to date we’ve installed radon piping and sewer drains overlaid with sheets of insulation and plastic), more excavation and drainage work, window delivery to be scheduled, roofing contractor to be signed, and hopefully someone hired to install the siding.

Lessons learned:

There are ever enough sharp pencils or measuring tapes. Well, there might be, but they’re never in the right place. If you’re looking for a drill bit/tractor key/car key/utility knife/errant screw or nail, they’ll be in Greg’s pocket and later, in the washing machine.

Install ‘I’ joists or anything right side up.

An emergency trip to Home Depot is a welcome respite except if you can’t find what you need but it’s still better than an emergency trip to the hospital (thankfully, none of that!)

Always have 3 points of contact with the ladder.  Although 2 heads are better than 1, it’s often wiser to keep quiet and let other heads prevail. Unless you sense danger. Then run.

Kill all spotted lantern flies.

Drink lots of water. Work volunteers hard; have them do your crappy job so you can rest and save energy when it’s just you and your husband working alone and you get the crappy job. If they ask “what’s next?” do not hesitate and find another job for them. Preferably another crappy job. But don’t let them know.

There is no better functional training than building a house. I lost 7 lbs!

Beam us down, Scottie!