And Summer turns to Fall

September has been falling by but we've been busy at the new house. We passed the rough inspection last week and the insulation was finished this week. Jesse the excavator is coming Saturday to move several large oak and cherry timbers to Sawmill John's to be milled and kiln dried for use as porch posts and interior trim. In addition, the drywall is being installed next week, and a pump and water tank will be hooked up to the well, so we'll have water in the house.

After the drywall goes up, we'll be able to install the hardwood flooring and tile. For the porch, we picked out Trex decking that Mickey would like to get in before the weather turns too cold. We're trying our best to pick out a ton of things we still need to decide on like tile, interior paint colors, lighting, and carpet.

Mickey constructed porch posts over the weekend, put in a rough set of steps, and added a construction door with lock.
This is the 600 pound tub that Sean and a dedicated group of guys got upstairs and into the master bath a couple weeks ago. Our engineer buddy Don was the mastermind behind the project, and Jonathan, Anthony, and Mickey all pitched in to move the massive cast iron beast.
Insulation in one of the bedrooms. Not sexy but certainly important.
Sean and Peter sit on the new steps in the garage.

Labor Day

At the end of the 1894 Pullman Strike, when over 125,000 railroad workers went on strike in protest of low wages and poor working conditions, President Grover Cleveland made Labor Day a federal holiday as a tribute to the workers. Thirteen of the striking workers were killed by the United States military during the strike; Labor Day is a celebration of their memory.

This year, the work that men and women do, particularly men and women who work in the building and construction trades, seems much more tangible to Aimee and to me. The excavators, the masons, the concrete block contractors, the carpenters, the plumbers, the electricians, the heating and cooling whizzes, the insulators, the painters, the roofers...these guys are helping to build the kitchen we will eat in, the fireplace we will gather around on cold winter days, the porches we will laze on in the humidity and heat of August, the home we will make a life in.

Just this last week, Eddie, the roofer, finished his job just in time for some big storms that rolled through southeastern Michigan. Thousands lost power, roofs caved in, basements flooded. But not at 40 Oaks. It was the first time that no water leaked into the house, sparing us work and worry. And it was thanks to Eddie.

The past week was also spent prepping the basement and garage so concrete can be poured as soon as those permits, delayed by the holiday weekend, come through. I removed debris that had been accumulating, Jesse delivered sand, Joe leveled the spaces and covered them in plastic, and Aimee, Peter, and I spent an evening taping the seams.



Mickey and I spent all of Labor Day working on odds and ends around the house. We built the raised hearth for the fireplace along with many other things that needed to be finished.
In addition, John, the electrician, and his son, Jeff, have been hard at work. There are wires running all through the house now, and it's getting close to being ready for insulation and drywall.
This week the basement and garage should be poured and the guts of the house--plumbing, electric, heating and cooling, low voltage--are just about done.

It's work we've done with a whole lot of help. Work done by friends, by family, by real professionals, and all of it done by people who know that work is what makes the world go around. So this week, we celebrate the workers who have helped raise our house. It's not just for Aimee and me, it's for Peter, too. We just hope he grows up in a world where work, the kind that fills the lines in your palms with grit, is still something that people value.