Counsel and Chorus

Yesterday, I had a great chat with my Grandma who partnered with her husband and 3 young boys (one of whom is my Dad) to build their cabin in 1960 next door to the one we are building in 2013.  I asked her to share some stories about when they built their cabin, which eventually became their home, which eventually became my parent's home, and will eventually be our house next door.

Most of it I had heard before from others...about the tornado that came through just as the shell was up and left the house leaning to the southeast, how she single-handedly cleared the swampy the land with a double-headed axe during the week while my Grandpa worked in the shop, how they had an outhouse for years, how they poured the concrete by hand from an old mixer using water from a hole in the ground, how they trucked in yards and yards of fill dirt to raise the swampy ground above the water table.  Though I know these stories, it was great to hear them again through her eyes.

But there were things I didn't know.  Like, they built their cabin on the weekends one summer because Grandpa worked. During that time they camped in tents, cooked on a fire, bathed in the lake. In my head I pictured a younger version of the Grandpa in my memories, falling into a tent to sleep on the ground after a hot exhausting day of hard physical labor (after an exhausting week of hard labor in the shop).  I pictured a younger version of the Grandma sitting in front of me, singing songs while tending and cooking on a fire, healing sunburns and splinters and minor construction injuries, keeping everyone together and happy and looking on the bright side.  I pictured a very young version of my Dad and his brothers helping where they could and feeling so proud to be so useful. 

Grandma and Grandpa (right).   Their cabin is in the background.  1962.

I couldn't help but think about our project and compare.  My husband is a teacher so he has the whole summer to do this work and the full-time help of his dad and my dad and others.  We live 30 min away and have my parent's house to sleep in, so our nights contain comfortable beds and air conditioning.  The campfire is only needed for marshmallows and conversation, not meals.  I work, so I rely on my mom and grandma (well-practiced) for singing songs and healing boo-boos, sunburns and feelings for the kids during the day. 

But there are similarities too, strong in their 53-year span. My son is loving to help pound nails, dig, sweep the foundation floor, just like my Dad did with his dad all those year ago.  The ground is still wet, and we are bringing in trucks of dirt to get us to high ground.  And, we just rented an outhouse! True, we have a real bathroom in my parents house, but felt we needed this one for construction overflow so we don't overtax the septic system. 

Our conversation ended with some understated advice set to music.  Grandma told me that once they got the shell up, they took down the tent and moved in.  With only a rope to climb to get upstairs, no interior walls, no kitchen, no heater,  and mattress springs set as railings so her boys wouldn't fall off the 2nd floor, they use the cabin as an "up scale tent".  They spent every weekend there the rest of that summer and, I gathered, every weekend for summers afterword.  In her own (paraphrased) words:

"I am embarrassed to say it, but your Grandpa and I always made plans on Thursday about all the work we would do on the cabin that weekend, and once we got here, we played on the lake all weekend and no work got done". She said this with her usual bright smile and eyes tinted with the 50-year-old conspiracy between her and her loving husband. 

At that point she broke into song (as she often does).  I asked her to sing it again so I could record it. Here is a video:

 Lyrics:

The window she is broken and the rain is coming in
If someone doesn't fix it we'll be soaking to our skin
But if we wait a day or two the rain will go away
And we don't need a window on such a sunny day
Manana manana is soon enough for me
Manana manana is soon enough for me

Though she wasn't setting out to give me advice, her advice was clear.  Have fun.  Your house will get built -- look we are are sitting in mine right now and we had lots of fun but still managed to build it. Enjoy the lake while your kids are young.  There's always Manana.  Man, I love her.

Grandpa, taking her advice

Grandma, taking her own advice

PROGRESS

The foundation is done, the excavation is done and the building has begun!  Here is a picture of the first few nails:

My Dad and Father-in-law

Our Son, the helper

At this point, many friends and family have offered to help and this being the week of July 4th, we expect many hand for lightening the work (and lots of fun on the lake!).  It doesn't look like a house yet, but its like we can see it if we squint our eyes and it feels good to get through the permit and contractor phase and have it be exclusively in our hands.  

Thanks for reading.
Sarah