Movin' On Up

 More evidence of global warming.  The rain fell on the plastic cover, and then froze solid.  Instead of waiting for it to dry it could just be broken and thrown off the side.

   The first story is all framed up now.  You can see the bay window to the left.  The first of 6 posts that will hold up the wrap-around porch roof is in.  The crossbeam is sandwiched between the two floors so it had to go in now, and the post needed to hold up the other end.

  In the early design stages I brought a stepladder over to figure out what design made best use of the view.  I want the bay to be a great place to just sit.
  Near as I can tell, there isn't anyone following this blog to pick up pointers on building their own place so I've kept lessons learned to a minimum.  I will say, angles are difficult.  Also no matter how carefully you try to order materials so it's delivered in an order that you can get to the boards you need and the order you need them, you're going to have to devote time to just moving material.  I had 6 days in a row off work; the first 5 were good weather.  4 days framing and the bay and last three lower walls were done.  I wanted to start putting in the upstairs floor joists but they are attached to 2" thick rim joists which were at the bottom of the wood pile.  Day 5 was spent moving wood up to the wood rack to pre-stage it for the next step.  Day 6 was a family day down the hill celebrating Mckenna's 17th birthday (though I was able to finish getting the lumber up just as it started to rain

It doesn't really look like much lumber in this picture but it's about 8 truckloads

Love

     I guess I used the term a bit loosely, without really knowing much about it.  I liked AnnaMarie and couldn't imagine anyone else with her.  Besides, my Dad thought the world of her.  I thought the whole mystique around 'love' was a bit overinflated to sell albums to pre-teen girls.  
     We had a lot of fun when we were first married.  When she told me she was pregnant I accepted it as the next stage.  I didn't really get it though.   I still followed selfish pursuits (motorcycles mostly) and took it all as it came.
     The day for the c-section arrived--AnnaMarie was all smiles.  I was sick as a dog.  We got to the hospital and they set up a cot for me...they took her away on a gurney and said they'd be back in 15 minutes to get me so I could cut the cord and stuff.
     15 minutes went by in my feverish delirium...Then 30.  Then 45.  I heard all the overhead pages for any surgeon and  anesthesiologist available to report to the 5th floor, but never made the connection.  After an hour went by, this fat nurse in full scrubs, blood stained---only her eyes showing---crashed into the room and just said "You better come now"...
    So I get into  all the surgical gear and into the suite to see my wife restrained to a table, doctors all around.  Her eyes are taped shut.  She's intubated, the anesthesiologist breathing for her.  A quick glance at the monitors let me know she was alive, at least.....They pulled McKenna from her, cut the cord, and said "You're a paramedic.  You take care of her"  
    OK...I'd delivered enough babies to do the simple stimulating, APGAR, swaddling, warming....All I could think of, though, is---is AnnaMarie OK?  What's going on here"
    What was going on was the spinal sedation, Duramorph, was a bad batch.  It didn't work and they had to get the baby out under emergency general anesthesia before it reached the baby.
    So I just took McKenna back to our room and held her.  About an hour later they wheeled AnnaMarie back in as she was just waking up.....She asked  "What happened?"  I tried to tell her, not sure what was comprehensible.  She smiled and said, in a kind of sleepy voice, "I had a little girl?"
   THAT's when I really fell in love.  About time---we'd been a family for an hour already.  That's when I started to get it.