August 24, 2008: Setting the Stage for Act II

Once years and years ago, I went up to the top of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in North Carolina’s Black Mountains. Near the top, there are some extensive areas suffering sadly from deforestation, with the trees standing bare and gray like old arthritic fingers pointing to the clouds. There was a stark beauty in that desolation, even though it is a situation that may never be overcome by nature without help.As our house begins to take shape from the patterns of 2x4’s separating one living space from the other, it has the same look of bare beauty that I saw on Mt. Mitchell. The patterns are structured and orderly, unlike those of a mountaintop forest, but there is a sense of waiting and hoping for what comes next. I needed to look carefully to understand what I was seeing: This is the closet, this is the laundry room, on and on. Vince and I enjoy telling each other our own wonderful images of what those rooms will be like in time. We aren’t expecting the leafiness of spring, but we are surely looking forward to wall board and paint, books on shelves, and food in the pantry. I would guess that Vin is planning the first meal he will cook there, and it will be one of my many favorites! To me, this is like previewing a memory that hasn’t happened yet or standing on an empty stage before rehearsals begin for a new production: You know the play, the cast of characters, the setting, and what the words will mean once they are said, but the reality of the play is just an illusion until the curtain rises on opening night. No matter what may be expected, but the play itself becomes real when the audience is there listening. I think that Vince and I feel the life that will be in our house and have a sense of what will happen when this raw framework becomes home, but the magic will come when we unlock the door and go home for the first time.Now that the first floor of the house is completely framed, Vince and I were able to climb around and look at the spaces. The house seems both bigger and smaller than I had imagined from the plans on paper. The house is long, about 74 feet, but it is only 33 feet wide, making the distance from the front door on the west to the window wall on the east look short. The roughed in openings for the windows are bigger than I imagined, so the ocean will be in full view from most parts of the house. I think it is beautiful. A person standing at our front door will be able to see through the house to the beach, which I find both amazing and wonderful!Some of the sheathing on the south side has been applied, so there’s a small feeling of enclosure on that south wall. Our specifications call for the plywood sheathing to be glued and screwed, so it’s slow work. Using the polyurethane construction adhesive and the 2 ½” screws provides some assurance that the screws will not “back out” of the wall, and the adhesive also keeps the plywood from twisting out of plane. We are using ¾” exterior grade, pressure treated plywood in an effort to prevent any environmental damage to the plywood and avoid its losing strength. Mother Nature may still surprise us, but the exterior walls will be strong.