T his project represented one of
the most intense yet most enjoyable periods of my life. I have always
loved buildings and knew I wanted to build one. My parents built
the house I grew up in, and I never questioned that I could do it, too.
When Stan and I bought our first house, we could best afford a "fixer-upper,"
and spent years repairing things which we thought could be better designed.
After 10 years of repairs and remodeling, it seemed we had some grasp of
what went into building a shelter.
Well,
thank goodness we don't know the full extent of things before we get into
them, or we might be afraid to start. There was plenty more than
we knew; making mistakes, learning from our mistakes and fixing them and
going on. There was terrible frustration when a seemingly insurmountable
obstacle stood in the way of doing what we needed to do. There were
the long, tired weeks and the parenting of our small children while on
the road or at a rough construction site. We had head-to-head confrontations
over design details and learned how to negotiate something better than
either of us could have done alone. There was also the enthusiasm of our
families; my parents who were onsite whenever we were; Bruce who worked,
often alone, through the first heavy construction days and was hugely responsible
for the good pace of the early construction; the excitement and support
of the rest of our brothers and sisters. We discovered a real generosity
of spirit in our friends who we leaned on for help when many hands were
needed to pull off some particular step. The joy of many people laboring
together on a project is something everyone needs to experience.
Not least is the satisfaction of making something as basic as your own shelter. So often, people sail through life, taking for granted the basic necessities. Sometimes we don't even know how to put them right if something goes wrong. Setting out to learn the process, struggling with it and finally seeing it standing finished produces a sense of self-confidence that is hard to match.
I also learned the value of saying "This year, this is what I am going to do." Simplifying all the "ought-to's" for a time period and refusing to be distracted by other appealing stuff is easier when you set a time period. And I had never experienced the kind of peace of mind which being single-minded brings. It is a worthwhile exercise.