In 2006 I won a car on “Live with Regis
& Kelly.” Having just purchased a used
diesel and not wanting to deal with
higher insurance rates or taxes for a
brand new car, we took the money
instead to put into: The Addition.
The Addition was to be a large den with
a wheelchair accessible bathroom and
tornado shelter. That was 2006. It is
now that, plus an upstairs library, a room
for Kilory, and a room for Nikki which
will convert into a rental studio
apartment someday.
The Addition has taken on a life of its
own...
From the Newsletters...
2007: This spring, we started digging
trenches (relatively speaking, Kilory
dug way more than any of us --
without being asked!) and laying
drain pipe for the wheelchair-
accessible house addition we are
building, funded in part by the sale of
the Hyundai Sonata I won on “Live
with Regis & Kelly” in 2006. We
planned to pour the concrete on April
13, 2007. Ha ha ha.
2008: We poured the foundation on
February 18, 2008. I (mostly) lay the
cinder-block tornado room in April –
trashed my wrist, and fell off the
scaffolding doing it, too!
May 30 we poured concrete into the
block walls, and made retaining walls
for the porch and a concrete slab ceiling
for the Oz-avoidance shelter. The
retained area is now overgrown with
rosemary, basil, mint, (edible) sweet
potato, and lantana. It hosts many
lizards, toads, and butterflies, and is
swarmed with peaceful buzzing bees
who have interest only in blossoms.
September 23 the building crew arrived
to spend three days (they predicted)
tearing off a 1/4 of our roof and
enclosing it within a roofed second
storey before it rained. They stayed for
three weeks of paychecks. It RAINED.
We’re nearly broke.
The house wrap had to be covered by
February so Mom and Dad bought us
the siding as an early Christmas
present. Thanks, Mom and Dad. I’m
putting it up bit by bit on the lower
sections, by myself. We don't have
fiberglass insulation in, but we have
radiant-barrier sheathing all over the
framing, house wrap, some of the siding,
and R-matte inside next to the sheathing.
Our heating and AC bills for the
original house are already lower
because of the add-on (which still
doesn't have the fiberglass insulation in
it yet!).
Nikki and Kilory have been fantastic
workers. Kilory is best at high stuff that
Nikki and I are too acrophobic for.
Uncle Steve (Brain) told Nikki he still
has the hammer his parents bought him
when they built their house, Nikki asked
for her own.
“What color?” I laughed.
“Purple!” So I bought her a hammer
and painted it purple. Kilory requested a
green hammer. Then I decided the crew
would borrow my generic hammer less if
it were pink. Juan borrowed it ONCE
and couldn’t endure the guys’ catcalls
and teasing for more than a few minutes.
2009 (November): The addition
walls went up last September. Now
they’re covered and painted on the
outside. The plumbing is nearly
done. I’ve put in every electrical
box and Alan is busy wiring them.
But we were at the “need to get
ready for the electrician so we can
do insulation/drywall” for months.
I wanted the girls to be able to
inhabit their private rooms by
March of their freshman year. *sigh*
I could beat my head against my
insulation/drywall-free walls.
 "9-2009 -- The glamorous couple: Chrissie & Alan.")
 "Our 1920s window, in the style of Charles Rennie-Mackintosh, from Chester, England.")
 "2008 -- Chrissie on the roof. You won't see it again unless we get a taller, sturdier ladder!")
 "2007 - Kilory chiseling brick away from our new inside wall.")
 "Bitsy helps Kilory.")
It was a Tuesday in May...
I’m inside.
Alexandra, Nikki,
Kilory, and
Catherine are out
back.
I assume they are out
in the playhouse
fending off dragons
and black knights, as
usual. But wait. The sounds of
laughter do not triangulate from said enchanted
fortress. What are they doing out there?
I walk out into the chaos that is the scene of
our add-on construction site and look. They
stand shoulder to shoulder in a straight line,
their faces gleeful, yet with that touch of “deer-
in-the-headlight” as they see me and freeze.
Their grins get toothy and a tad hopeful. It’s
not this that I find strange. They are not as tall
as I expect them to be. They appear to be
Hobbits.
“What are you doing?” I ask suspiciously.
The grins get toothier and a little desperate.
They explain (in a rush, all at once) that they
are exfoliating in the way that the most
luxurious, expensive salons do, and that their
feet feel fantastic. They are standing in a
mud-filled trench that used to be a dry
footing for a future concrete slab.
“Is everybody up-to-date on their tetanus
shots,” I enquire, eyebrow raised.
They shrug expansively. “Do we have to get
out?”
“Not until I get the camera.”
 "Since the project began Diet Pepsi Vanilla and diet vanilla Coke have changed their can art. Here's hoping we're done before the next change!")
 "Bitsy \"helps\" me.")
 "The retained area is now overgrown with rosemary, basil, mint, (edible) sweet potato, and lantana.")
 "Alice trying to help us cover up the framing with tarps before the rain hit.")
 "Despite tarps the rain flowed right into the ceiling and flooded most of the garage. Parts of the ceiling disintegrated.")
 "Kilory & Alan: 2008-10-19")
 "2008-10-13: Kilory")
 "Itsy Bitsy Peggy Suess helps Nikki: 2009-1")
 "Thanksgiving Day 2008: Alan & Kilory")
 "Alan & Kilory: 2009-1")
The Dangers of Audiobooks
One of the many audiobooks
listened to during this project
was “The Outcasts of 19
Schuyler Place,” in which
Margaret Rose thinks a “rose
window” is a leaded glass
window of a rose. So, of
course, I had to retrofit a rose
window -- this is not it. The
rose window is still in
process. When I went to eBay
to see what they had in rosy
stained glass, this 1920s
Charles Rennie Mackintosh*-
esque window from Chester,
England came up. So, of
course, I had to have it. Mom
and Dad bought it for us as a
Valentine’s gift.
*He had so many stained
glass windows with particular
roses, the rose designs have
names: WIndyhill Rose, Hill
House Rose, Mackintosh
Rose, Heath Mackintosh Rose,
Glasgow Rose, Open Rose,
etc.
Some of the audiobooks
listened to during this project:
Great Expectations; Our Lady
of the Camelias; Brideshead
Revisited; A Farewell to Arms;
Atlas Shrugged; Around the
World in 80 Days; The
Outsiders; Roll of Thunder
Hear My Cry; Treasure Island;
1001 Arabian Nights; The
Sound and the Fury;
Robinson Crusoe; The Iliad;
The Time Machine; The Bell
Jar; Alice in Wonderland; The
Secret Lives of Bees; Daisy
Miller; Dostoevsky’s The Idiot;
Shakespearean sonnets;
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy series; Artemis Fowl
series; Eragon series;
Sherlock Holmes series; Lord
of the Rings series; Cornelia
Funke books, and many more.
Rose Windows
 "Super Bowl Sunday 2009: Kilory and Bitsy. Bitsy climbed through a window opening onto the roof and found it cold. Kilory gave Bitsy her knit cap. Nine months later, that section of ladder is still on the roof.")
 "Kilory and Alan putting in a window 2009-11-27.")
 "Dogs kept me company as I put siding on the lower portions of the house.")
 "This is the \"hearth\" for our dragon-bedecked woodstove, Smaug.")
Chrissie, why did you build this addition?
So we’d have a wheelchair-accessible bathroom in
case somebody ends up in a wheelchair.
And how did you end up in a wheelchair*?
I broke my foot walking around Home Depot
waiting for a tiling seminar to start.
Due to diabetic complications it is “crucial to
keep weight off the foot.” I insisted to my family
that I could still mortar, lay, and grout tile
because I’d be doing it on my knees -- I’m NOT
putting weight on my foot and I’m wearing my
ugly, black, post-op shoe. So there!
*Wheelchair is just for shopping...for now.
