THE FIRST YEAR

Believe it or not, the below photograph is the first photo taken of the place. For whatever reason, I had not even thought of keeping a photo record until a friend took this shot.


The slab has been poured, all under-slab plumbing had been completed, and the walls were on the way up. This first section would include the family room, utility room, 3/4 downstairs bath and the furnace room. I would use the family room as a bedroom/living room and the utility room as a dining/kitchen as soon as feasible.(rent goes to zero) The gal in the photo is the wife of the friend, not my future spouse, who was still in the dark.

The next photo shows the place as the first section block-laying was complete and the window and door lintels were poured. Reinforced concrete lintels here, no puny wood stuff. I had intended to live here forever. Silly me.



Next came the roof over the family room. The three front porch arches were started. You can see one of those 7" x 14" x 25' roof beams I had cut special by a lumber yard in Espanola. The house had a total of four of them.



The second floor framing and roofing is shown below. Note the second of those huge roof beams. You can see the leaves are starting to fall.



By the time of the first snow, I had tarpaper on the roofs, plastic over most of the windows, and the first of the hand-made double-paned windows was installed downstairs.



Not bad progress for one guy with an 8-to-5 job and the occasional help from a friend or two on the heavy stuff.