Raising the Roof
Yup. That’s me raising the roof to my house in Florida. I guess I should say ‘my former house’ in Florida. Lots of labor and lots of love went into building that house, and this year…I sold it.
When I tell people that I built my first house, they usually don’t realize what I mean. They think, sure…you hired a contractor who hired people to build your house. That could not be further from the truth. Here is what really happened.
After an endless search, my mother and father found a nice little piece of property in a quiet community on the northwest side of the city. We purchased the last lot in the neighborhood. However, since the community was developed several years prior to our purchase, my lot was overrun with trees, bushes and vines. Now, we could have hired someone to come and clear the land, but what fun would that be? No, my father decided that it would be much more practical if we cleared the land ourselves. That way…we could save the trees we wanted to save…practical.
Laying the foundation
Several months after we purchased the land, we finally finished clearing it. Of course, after you finish clearing the land, it is time to begin work on the foundation. Right? Well, right after you level everything off and extract the stumps, you can begin to work on the foundation. Now surely we hired someone to dig the foundation, pour the footer, mix the mortar…yada yada…? If you think we hired people to do any of that, then you haven’t met my father. No, we hand dug the foundation and laid the block. I personally mixed so much mortar that I had blisters covering my hands.
Framing the house
O.k. so, foundation done. Now, on to laying the floor and framing the house. Certainly we would hire someone to help us frame the house. Wrong again. On to raising the roof… I personally carried trusses over to my brother, father and uncle. Luckily my uncle and cousin helped us to lift the trusses. Otherwise, I may have been sleeping under the stars. The insulation? We did that. The floors? That too. The roof, the kitchen, the bathrooms, the cabinets, the painting? Yes, all of it.
So, did we hire contractors for anything? Certainly…we called in contractors to hang the dry wall, install the plumbing and wire the electrical. Now, if our patience had not been wearing thin at that point, I imagine that my father would have done all of that work on his own as well. I love my dad.
It's a lot of fun to lay shingles on your roof in July
My beautiful little house in Florida
Of course, it sounds like a really long drawn out process. It was, but it was all worth it. One day as we were finalizing the interior of my home, one of my neighbors came by to talk with my father. She asked if she could get a tour of the home that ‘love’ built. We nearly burst into tears when she said this. My neighbors realized that this gift from my parents came straight from the heart.
When I think back on it now, I feel proud of what we accomplished. Not many people can say that they built their own home. As crazy as it sounds, I actually miss hanging out with my father and brother on Saturday and Sunday listening to NPR while hammering a few nails into wood. And now that I have sold that beautiful little home, all I can hope is that the new family living in it loves it as much as I do.
