In case I haven’t mentioned this before, it’s great being retired. Some people relax and do puzzles or read books, travel, spend time with family, and generally take it easier than when they worked for pay. We’ve been doing all that but then we amped up our activity this year. We are about 2 1/2 months into a house building project with our son Dan and Anna in PA, and, it’s going well!
We returned home in early October for almost 2 weeks to relax and catch up with our friends. The timing was perfect as the fall colors were at peak and the weather was superb, warm and dry. We had family visits and took a few hikes with friends. Greg, who can’t sit still when there’s a project on hand, installed aluminum decking on our new dock/sundeck on the lake. This was one project we were happy to leave to the professionals since the original dock we built about 12 years began succumbing to the elements. Dock Doctors did an amazing job building the dock with giant galvanized steel piers pounded many feet into the lake bottom and anchored to ledge rock; Greg will be finishing the second story sundeck for our (hopefully, once again) days of leisure. He also replaced the water heater in the house. I guess ‘relax’ is a relative term. We then headed down south once again.
We took a detour through Westchester County to visit with my dear friend Jeanette. Jeanette was honored by the Mental Health Association of Westchester for her work there and at her place of employment supporting mental health and resilience, all in memory of her beautiful daughter, Ali. She’s an amazing person and role model of goodness and generosity. Visit MHAwestchester.org or other wonderful supportive organizations for more information on treating mental health wherever you are located.
We then headed down to Bucks Co, PA to meet up with Greg’s brother, Bob and his wife Tina, who were once again joining us to help with the build. The weather was gorgeous allowing us to enjoy an extended fall season. We drove from NY through NJ to PA, crossing the Delaware River at touristy Frenchtown and then travelled through some more forest wilds, farm villages, and quaint towns of PA, even crossing a covered bridge, to arrive at the project site. With the 6 of us working in tandem and with our beloved lull/Skytrack back for lifting assistance, we installed over 30 windows in 2 days time!
Since there was time left over on the lull rental and with Bob still willing to help, we also started, and finished, work on the chimney chase. It was decided to leave the roofing and flashing surrounding the chase to the roofers who originally shingled the roof. I was glad to see the extreme aerial work come to an end. I’m not up there doing the work, but I’m nervous nevertheless.
Afterwards, Greg and I took a little time to visit with our friend Christopher, now living in Philadelphia. I also took a weekend off to visit my sister Christine in NorthEast, MD, so it’s not all work. Just mostly all work.
We thought we would return home shortly thereafter but Dan had some extra time off. The weather was amazing and there’s still lots to do so we ended up staying an extra week and a half. Doors were installed in the back so the house was dried in. Greg began the rough plumbing, basically a puzzle of fitting in the drains and vents in the walls. This entailed siting sinks, tubs and showers and identifying best locations for PVC pipes to go through walls, interconnecting to minimize holes in I-joists and roof. Drilling 3 inch holes through multiple layers of 2×4’s is no joke so this became Dan’s job. I continued my assistance as Home Depot runner. The end result looks ‘Rube Goldberg-esque’ or did I inhale too many PVC cement fumes? Plumbing is ‘exciting’ as it marks the beginning of inside-work. (You can see my standards of what is ‘exciting’ have changed.)
Also exciting was the presence of several contractors continuing their work: the town water line was installed and the sewer line was hooked up to the town system. Cement was poured for the basement floor and footings poured for the porches in the front and back of the house. Even PPL, Pennsylvania power company, showed up to install the electric line, but, being a huge F’d-up bureaucracy, nobody there bothered to contact the homeowner or the excavator to schedule their arrival, so no trench or transformer pad was prepared. We sadly watched as the workers left but now we are on the schedule for a Dec. 13 electric hookup, over 6 months after initial contact with the electric company. Waaahhhhh.
With the concrete footings poured, we began construction of the front and back porches. Since a siding contractor was hired and scheduled to start within a few weeks it became imperative to finish these structures so the roofs and siding would be properly installed and integrated. In 3 1/2 days, Greg, Dan, Anna and myself built 2 decks with roofs and the house is now ready for siding. The front entrance was covered with plywood until a door can be selected, but otherwise, the house was locked up and we headed home. It has been 3 months since framing was begun. Time to rest.
My new reality 