Later

It’s a little bit later than usual; it’s about 1:30 in the afternoon and I drove back from Susanville this morning, arriving about 11. And since I closed Friday’s entry with a cat story, I will open with another one.

Just after I drove up, Boo came walking in to the garage to get a little something to eat. I petted her and scratched her ears as I usually do. She purred and stretched as she usually does. And then Laurae arrived and was quite upset to see Boo. It turns out that Boo had been missing ever since I left on Friday afternoon and Laurae had seen a dead black cat on the highway…was it Boo? Of course it wasn’t but Laurae didn’t know that and she was very worried. Bad cat!

While I was in Susanville, I can truthfully say that we did get some work done. And we had fun doing it. The best part was when the neighbors showed up to help us push the framed walls up into place; it took 6 of us to get the one long wall up. With that done, the addition to Bill’s house now looks like a building, minus a roof and siding of course. But it is now ready for the trusses to be delivered and installed. Roofing and shear panels will follow, then electrical, plumbing, insulation and drywall, all in that order.

I’ve never built a house and now I am glad to say that I haven’t…I couldn’t stand the waiting; the inefficiency, the frustration! When it involves the building of houses, schedules seem to have no value to the various subcontractors. All do as they please, coming and going without respect to their place in the order of things.

I was a carpenter for 30 plus years, but I never worked with wood. Steel framing was my career and an arc welder was my favorite tool. And in that kind of construction, schedules were carved in stone. If you caused a slippage in the schedule by your inattention to detail, you knew you were liable for all sorts of financial damages, both real and imagined.

Speaking of imagining…Imagine building a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in less than a year. It might be done. Now imagine our building a 16 story hotel and a casino expansion (The Peppermill – Reno) in 5 months. It was done.