Building: Little Victories

I have always liked building projects.  Though building my own home got a bit rushed and intense at the end, I found the project both enjoyable and immensely satisfying.  I have been steadily working to construct and complete my cabin since 2003.  I work in “flurries” when I am there.

I have learned a lot about construction while doing my various projects.  I regularly reach out to others I know in the trades when I bump into something that confounds me.  Laying out the stairs at my cabin, for example, was a bit much for me.

One aspect I like about construction is that when you get hung up on details in one spot, you can always move to a new spot, make some noise, make a big mess, and produce some kind of progress.  Eventually—maybe after outside advice—you go back and finish the spot where something hung you up.

Actually, finishing a project is not nearly as satisfying to me as the thousand little victories that got me there.  Even today, as I sit writing this, I recall some of the victories in my home's construction twenty-seven years ago: finishing the lighting valance above me, completing the bay window framing.  I recall the day my buddy Bill and I finished joist lay-out for the sunken living room.  When we pulled corner-to-corner measurements to see if the layout was square, we discovered the layout perfect.

I can go from room to room filling my mind with these memories.

-- Mitchell Hegman