Do you have a dream house in your head?
I did, for eight years.
Then the dream became a reality.
Have you ever seen a barn raising where
family and neighbors came together
and raised a barn's framework
in just two to three days?
It is an amazing event.
That is how our dream house's framework
of posts and beams was erected,
a "house raising" by family and friends.
Not only was our dream house
a special one-of-a-kind, like no other
in our area, but how we built it
was also a special event in all of our lives
that included families and friends.
Now, over 25 years later, we still talk about it and
remember the special role each one of us
played in its construction.
New friends are fascinated by the house
and by the story of how it was built.
❦
Our dream house was a "kit" of posts and beams
cut by a New England sawmill.
Our package of information
from the sawmill's architects was
mailed on December 31, 1986.
As the sawmill cut our timbers,
the Long Tall Texan worked on weekends and each night
after work to ready the house site
and to build the foundation for the house.
A pier and beam foundation on which the
posts would rest...
The flat-bed truck loaded with
posts, beams, ceiling decking, variable-width
pine flooring, and with an architectural expert
from the sawmill to oversee
the house raising, arrived after lunch
the second Friday of April.
Just thinking about it
rekindles the excitement of tracking
the truck across country, through snowstorms in
the east, and finally seeing it pull into our
new driveway.
The Long Tall Texan's family was in the commercial
construction business in Houston, Texas.
His father was a construction
superintendent for an independently-owned
local Houston company.
The Long Tall Texan worked with his father on
construction sites part time during high school.
While he attended college, he worked part time
as a house framer.
The Long Tall Texan's brother worked full time
with his father in construction, and
The Long Tall Texan's sister was married to a
man who owned an air conditioning company.
With all their construction expertise,
The Long Tall Texan's family came together the
second weekend of April 1987
for the house raising.
That's the Long Tall Texan's brother operating the crane
needed for unloading the truck.
In addition to the Long Tall Texan's family,
friends from work and church came to help and
to be part of a once-in-a-lifetime house raising.
All of them were excited, curious, and eager to be
part of a tradition from America's past.
Between twenty to thirty people worked that
weekend in April.
The first post is the most critical one.
It must be square;
all others are positioned from it.
After checking the position from all sides using
a carpenter's level, the post's position was
secured by a bracing board.
By sunset Friday evening,
all of the first floor's posts were set.
What an exciting day!
The first floor frame was up.
Saturday morning, all of the first floor posts
were double checked to make sure each was
"plumb."
By Saturday sunset, the second floor
posts and beams were set.
On Sunday, the roof rafters were set
and checked for accurate placement.
Family and friends were finished by late afternoon,
long before sunset.
In one weekend,
the entire framework was erected.
This was truly an old-fashioned barn raising
in which family and friends
came together.
After that amazing progress in just one weekend,
construction slowed to the normal pace
of other house's construction.
The Long Tall Texan took six weeks of accrued
compensatory time off his full-time job
and worked to build our house.
His brother and one nephew worked
full time with him.
There were others, including subcontractors
for plumbing, electricity, fireplace stonework,
and cabinetry, and both the Long Tall Texan
and I worked on our house.
Late in the summer as we were finishing
the house, my sister's husband came from
New Hampshire for about a week
and helped frame the garage.
One of our good friends worked full time on
building the house, and he was the one
who created the beautiful siding that fanned out
around the round-top windows.
The last inspector approved move-in for
Labor Day weekend in 1987.
In less than a year, we contracted the
kit, built the house, and moved in.
I also finished the final coursework for a
master's degree in mathematics.
What an incredible year 1987 was!
That was only the beginning.
More to come about what materials
we used in the house and how we
continued to upgrade the interior
over the years.
❦
See the first post
about Dream House Plans if
you missed it.
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If you are considering building a house,
and think you want to do the actual building,
remember you still need a builder/contractor.
❦
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