From Jelly Roll to House: One Year Ago

I think we were in the last of a series of ferry line ups when we decided that we couldn't build our house on Hornby while living in Vancouver. Commuting on weekends, eight hours there, eight hours back was adding up and we had to get something in place. The image on the left is when it all started on January 14, 2007.

Here you can see Doug with Garth, and his 'Little Red Giant', clearing the footprint where our house would go. The following weekend we started the process of measuring, remeasuring, digging, hitting rock, realizing the holes were misaligned.... And we acknowledged that we were in over our collective head - under supervision by trained professionals - but winging it nonetheless.

Now, I have picked up many a book and learned, for example, how to make paper. I have learned from a book how to do many things that ultimately had no real impact on my life. Doug, on the other hand, is the kind of guy who picks up a book on 'how to build a house' - and then builds one.

Doug's mother, Marilyn, tells the story of how when Doug was eight, he took out a cook book and figured out how to make jelly rolls... Then, like now, he consulted the professionals. She got a call from Doug at work asking what was meant by 'separating an egg'.

Marilyn, like the electricians, plumbers, engineers and builders (Rob, Greg, Paul, Wayne, Marc), talked him through the process and he forged ahead on the jelly roll front just like he's forging away at the house project.

At the very start Rick and Dan contributed architectural advice. Wayne helped make the original lumber order from those plans. Our Hornby friends Jules and Ian helped to get 'locals' to work with us, after a little prodding...

The 'Mighty Marc' came out from Kingston to frame the house, joined that same week by Tom, Mike and Iain. Also, Jeff and Sarah blocked all the framing in that two-week-long work party. And then there was the Zadall gang: Russell, Dave and JJ, who worked like Tasmanian (beer drinking) devils to get whole sections of the house up. And most recently, Bob and Suzanne, our Welwyn Street cheer leading section, turned Hornby Island shelf builders.

Without the help of many, this mother-of-all-craft-projects would never have got off the ground - figuratively or otherwise.

One year ago today, the place where I'm now sitting was a tree stump and we were daydreaming about what our life would be like here. Now, drinking a hot cup of tea, looking at the fire in the stove, the insulation in the walls, and the tall, tall trees outside the cathedral windows, I'd say life here, with Doug, is perfect.