Day Two: Building the Frame

The day started innocently enough, with the flashing cap on the wall tops, the facing on the building...

I went inside to leave them to their work.

The saw was set up under the studio window, where Brian and Bob conferred.

There was a LOT of banging and hammering from outside, and things were jumping off the shelves on that wall. I was rescuing figurines left and right. I kept at my blogging about the prior stages, though, never thinking to check on the progress...

and the next time I went out to look, there was a building frame in place!

I squawked so loudly the three men jumped and stared at me, thinking I was upset about something, when I was just hopping mad at myself for missing the construction. We had a laugh afterward.

Lots of ladders for three men. More ladders than men! 

I didn't expect it to look quite like this. I don't know what I expected. I keep walking around and staring at it, like a kid whose dad went away for a few months and grew a beard. It's just so different! I realized that I had this kind of wispy image of a lean-to greenhouse and this looked so solid and square and strong. So it took some getting used to.

I went out with Curtis to take some mail and stared at the clouds for awhile. Truly, it's all too much for me, the way it's happening all at once, and it's going up so fast.

When I won't be in the way, I sneak into the space and imagine it with glass and plants. That makes me very happy.

The glass awaits, leaning in boxes against the house. But for the swarming ladybugs, they've got perfect weather to work all week. For that I'm very, very thankful!

The overall scene.

 By sundown, they had the frame all built, and had put in quite a bit of the glass. The McCollister men do not fool around. They work sunup to dark, head to town, do a Door Dash, sleep, then get up and do it again. Next: Glass goes in! 

I promise I won't make you wait so long for the next installment. I can't apologize for not blogging daily. It's been so much work getting everything done that needs to be done before the cold clamps down. In one day, with a forecast for days of pouring rain followed by freezing temperatures, I turned the earth and finally replanted the flowers on Bill's grave, mucked out the fishpond and cleaned the filters, and dug a 9-foot L-shaped trench for the greenhouse gas line. Then I went to Lowe's to (fruitlessly) try to buy gasline fittings. I gave up after two hours of trying to figure out what to buy, because I know when I'm beat. I'm doing things like that, and trying to keep up with blogging in the cracks. My body is sore all over at nightfall, and then I, too, get up and do it again (albeit with a lot less sleep than I'd like, because it all worries me). But it's all for the good, and I can't wait to show you the end result! And there IS an end result!