Love, Exciting and New

Every Saturday night in the late 70’s, my brother Dave and I would watch “The Love Boat” and “Fantasy Island,” two programs that featured formulaic plots, cheesy humor (in the case of The Love Boat), predictable eeriness (Fantasy Island) and the presence of B-list celebrities. In both shows, the three story arcs led to complications, minor suspense, and ultimately, resolution. The Love Boat ended with, well, love, and Fantasy Island ended with the guests having either experienced their fantasy or some permutation of it and as a result, Learning An Important Life Lesson.

Valentine’s Day approaches, with its emphasis on love and fantasies, and here, I reflect on both. First of all, building this house, despite its making me a disorganized, cranky crazy lady, has given me occasion to reflect on the things I love about the homebuilding process. God knows I need to concentrate on the positive, what with four more moves (1 more apt, two house-sitting jobs, and the Big Move—aka the BM) on the horizon.

1. I love that I have amazing friends who offer living and storage space (see my future storage space above my garage at left), and continue to not only listen to me talk about this project, but actually ask questions about it. Their deep reservoirs of patience for my talking about the house amaze me. I know people who are currently growing whole other human beings inside their bodies who talk less about what they’re doing than I do. And these same people often ask me questions about MY venture. Wow.

2. I love that I have a builder who is conscientiousness and quality-obsessed, not because he gains from it, but because that’s just he way he lives. James is, of course, creating a signature product that will help him generate future business, but he never talks about that. His concern is doing the best work he can do to create the best house he can create. And he is sensitive about including me in the decisions about things, rather than assuming he automatically knows what’s best. Choices, however, are often winnowed down to Really Awesome and Really Super Awesome, so my decision-making often takes the form of two shoulders rising skyward. Choosing things for this project is like having someone offer me a large pizza loaded with cheese and delectable toppings and then asking, “Do you want that calorie-free or extra-calorie-free?”

3. I love that I live in a country where this entire project is even possible. Everybody just calm down for a minute while I get all political and American and shit. Last week, I attended a school assembly featuring guest speakers who (I wish I were making this up) told the girls in the audience that boys had a problem with their necks that made it physically impossible for them to not turn their heads when “honeys” walk by in tight pants and midriff-baring shirts. Think sexism isn’t alive and well in 2008 America? Guess again. (Here I am on the pull-down ladder to the storage space, modeling the same decidedly unsexy grey sweatshirt that I wear for most of my photoshoots at the house).

4. I love that I learn something every day, whether I want to or not. I learned from the roofers that hooks will be left in the roof for future repairers to snap their harnesses into. I learned that the “trap” in drainpipes is there not to trap wedding rings that have been dropped down the sink, but to prevent gasses from the sewer from rising into your house (apparently so we can claim to neighbors that in fact, no, our shit does not stink).

Yes, there are many days when I wish I could just Rip Van Winkle myself through the gloomy winter and the waiting and awake, refreshed and content (but without a beard) in the bedroom of my new home. I dream often of the day I won't be on a ladder, peeking out the hole in the shower that will be a skylight. It’s easy to forget that less than a year ago—just six months ago, in fact—I had an empty lot, a truckload of rotten boards that needed transport to the landfill, and a longer wait ahead of me. I love that I’m no longer waiting for the beginning, but for the end.