Work Like An Egyptian

Remember all those neighbors we were going to recruit to help us lift the first wall with the really heavy header for the 16' radius eyebrow dormer? Well nobody was going to be home Sunday, sooo..Ed started thinking about plan B. Finally he says to me on the phone,"If the Egyptians could build the pyramids, I should be able to think of a way to raise this thing up by myself."

So Sunday morning, he got up and finished building the wall. I could see him up there just staring at the darned thing, and I don't dare make a sound because I don't want to break his concentration. He's seeing the whole thing play out in his brain first. Finally he gets a steel cable and starts hooking it around the top of the header. Then he took a ..oh I dunno.. 2x10"? board, held it up vertically, and took the cable over the center to hold the cable up higher than the forklift prong on the tractor, and tied off the cable to the forklift prong. Ok now here's the cool part. He comes down the ladder and says. "I'm pretty sure this will work." He gets up on the tractor and starts ever so slowly backing up.

Now go way back... the movie 2001 Space Odyssey..at the very beginning when the pre-human manages to make a tool, and the monolith comes rising out of the ground. The drums are pounding,, DUM DUM, DUM DUM, DUM DUM, DUM DUM,,, I can hear that music in the background as Ed is inching the tractor backwards...

The tractor is inching further, the drums are getting louder DUM DUM, DUM DUM, DUM DUM , DUM DUM , the orchestra comes in .. Dee Dee Dee.....DEE DEE.. the center board comes to the upright.. Ed keeps moving every so slowly..

The brace board fell over just like it was supposed to. Now I can't decide whether to close my eyes and wait for the crash, or to keep taking photos. Just like a witness to any crisis, I stand staring with my mouth open. Not that I doubted for a minute, of course! More drums... DUM DUM, DUM DUM, DUM DUM, DUM DUM,,,the orchestra reaches a crescendo.. well.. you all saw the movie.. you know how it goes..

Then we got up on the roof..er..floor.. and inched it over to the edge and nailed it down. It really felt like a milestone.

The following day Ed started on the front wall. We also snapped out the interior walls, and came to a suprising realization. The windows front and back will be 4' off the floor, making any kind of view minimal, if not impossible. Since we'll be living in the apartment for 2 years while the house is under construction, this could be a bit claustrophobic. We may have to revise the plans a bit to include a balcony off the back like we will have on the house. Fortunately, the building department here isn't difficult to work with, and we don't expect a problem with the revision.

Ed finished framing the front and back walls, and since they were much lighter than the back wall, we were able to just lift them into place. It felt really good to be able to see such tangible evidence of all of Ed's hard work.

Here's a little known fact.. if you're 15' up in the air, and the wind is blowing like crazy across everyone else's pastures... all the pollen goes right in your face. Go figure. But the sunshine felt wonderful all three days, there was no rain, nobody fell off the roof, and Ed built the pyramids, so who can complain?