No More Gorilla on my Back

We began an addition to our house long ago. LOOOOONG ago. I have a picture of Katie's standing in the trench dug for the addition's concrete footing. She's four years old. You do the math.

When we started the building project it seemed like a good idea. We had two children and a dog, but no garage for our car and no shop for Carl's creativity. A 10 x 12 foot breezeway attached our small three bedroom, one bathroom house to a crudely-finished area that probably originated as a garage. Our plans returned that space to a garage and added another one-and-a-half car width. At the north end of all that garage space we added a shop, a bathroom and a bedroom. Because Carl could build, he constructed our addition and we paid as we went. No debt. Great so far, right?

We acquired the appropriate building permits and began tearing down walls, our own Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Young and energetic--still with only two children--Carl and I decided we wanted a rec room too; however, dry basements did not exist in our part of Kansas. We solved that by building upwards: two more bedrooms, a bathroom, and a great room. Sheesh. What started as a modest project became a monstrosity, yet we remained optimistic and determined.

The dog died. Hannah was born. Surprise!

Well, not exactly surprise. I knew how those things happened. She simply wasn't someone we planned to happen. Her special needs qualified as a surprise, though. Construction abruptly stopped, though thankfully the roof, windows and vinyl siding were in place.

The square footage of our addition exceeds that of the original house and remains unfinished except for Carl's shop and garage. I suspect that has as much to do with the construction stagnation as anything, but I haven't been out there erecting walls or painting so who am I to complain? We've used the space, even sheetrocked a couple of walls and set up a bed for out-of-town guests, which contributed to my unwelcome redneck status. The enormity of the monstrosity coupled with our life changes altered it from a "good idea" to the proverbial monkey on our backs, a monkey that began as a little rhesus monkey and metamorphosed into a big gorilla. Some days the damn gorilla even threw sh*t at us, but I digress.

Finally, after seven-or-so years, I have hired someone to complete the, ahem, addition. I have to give Sheri, the "Just Do It Posterchild, credit for lending me some motivation. Seeing Matt, a mutual friend and construction guru, do her home improvement projects inspired me to hire him to complete ours.

Originally Carl dragged his feet, having taken pride in doing most of the work himself with the help of a buddy. But my desire to see the project completed before the girls graduated from high school outranked his pride. After seeing forward momentum and the quality of Matt's work, Carl stopped his foot-dragging and donned running shoes. He and Matt are working together on plumbing today.

No more sh*t-slinging from that pesky gorilla.