It was late August of last year when I wrote this entry for this section of the website - The Early Years.
Holy Cow, where does the time go? I left off my “Recollections” in that post with a description of the swingset that sat on The Ridge for decades. It marked a spot on our property where we: had morning cups of coffee that had been cooked over a camp stove; took well deserved breaks from our labors in the shade of it’s roof; rocked restless little ones in the heat of Summer afternoons and enjoyed sunsets after those little ones had been put to bed on their sleeping bags in our tents. The swingset structure anchored our campsites and gave us so many years of comfort and joy. But it certainly couldn’t fulfill all of our yearnings for a greater sense of shelter.
The hauling back and forth of larger and larger tents and more and more “stuff” (that gave us all a few more creature comforts) was getting tedious. The weekend visits to The Ridge by our little family of four was calling for some kind of “house.” We could spend more time having fun and making progress on clearing and planning for the future if we spent less time setting up and breaking down our “camp.” So, what could we do with very little (read: no money) to spend on materials and no electricity on site to power tools required for construction? By the way, this was before widespread availability of battery powered tools. This problem called for some good old fashioned ingenuity.
We began our problem solving process by developing our “program.” Remember, this is an architect and designer working together here! What did we want in this structure? A living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and places to sleep for Jim & me (with a little bit of privacy) as well as bunks for two kids and a dog. Great! Sounds like a structure of 1000 square feet or more, right? We didn’t have the resources for that! What’s the smallest footprint of a structure we can build for next to nothing that can accommodate all of these functions? How about 10’ x 12’? Impossible, you say? Nope, that’s exactly what we began to sketch.
In one corner would be a drop leaf table and chairs - the dining room. In another corner would be a small counter with shelves above it and space for a cooler beneath it - the kitchen. In another corner we could use our camping storage boxes as seats with some bolsters for a makeshift couch and use some outdoor folding chairs for loose seating - the living room. And in the last corner we would build a framework for a stacked series of canvas sling “bunks” - the bedroom for the boys and our dog. The structure would have a high pitched roof which would allow for a sleeping loft tucked under the roof trusses, accessible from a steep ladder - a semi-private bedroom for Jim and me.
Our neighbors in Annandale had just completed a renovation of their house. They had 2x4s left on site that had been used to create the scaffolding required to install their new roof and eave extensions. They told us if we would haul the lumber away, we could have it for free. Just the right price for us!
Jim began to make sketches and schematics for construction. The salvaged lumber would be our framing. The exterior would be painted chipboard. There would be no interior wall finishes, just the exposed framing and the interior face of the chipboard panels. Windows would be made out of screening, with hinged panel shutters mounted on the exterior (either you had light and ventilation or you didn’t!). Jim had a miniature sample window left over from a school project that would be our only metal framed and operable window - complete with a sliding sash and screen. We could see our little structure taking shape in our minds' eyes.
Once he had finalized our design for this structure, Jim began to measure, cut, test fit, pre-assemble and label all the parts required for its framework. He did all this working out of his small wood shop at our house in Annandale. When all the components were ready, Jim contacted several of our friends who had trucks and asked if we could borrow them for a weekend. He asked a few more friends if they would be interested in coming up to Runaway Ridge for a weekend to help him with the build. The weekend before Mother’s Day, Jim staked out the location for the structure in a spot not far away from the swingset. Mother’s Day weekend, Jim and four other men loaded all the components and materials we had gathered in our backyard in Annandale into three pickup trucks and headed for The Ridge. The construction was all done by hand with simple non-powered tools (lots of nails and hammers, sweat and blood). By the end of that weekend The Shack was up and standing tall on The Ridge. It was the first significant project that we had friends and family help us with. We are grateful to have continued to find willing, able and loving assistance from so many more people on so many more of our projects as time went on.
[Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures of Jim working on this project in our backyard, or of any of the Mother’s Day weekend of construction. This was before cell phone cameras and I was chasing two small kids around and didn’t even think about taking a moment to document the process! So the pictures shown below are from a work weekend a few weeks after initial construction when some friends came up to help put the roofing on.]
The Shack (now referred to as The Love Shack) still stands today. It has undergone many revisions and refinements over the years. It now has real windows (with screens), electricity, insulated exterior walls and a double roof but the interior framework is still exposed. It has a simple charm that still makes it appealing to us and lots of other folks. Many of them still opt to stay in it when they visit. To this day, it’s probably the best Mother’s Day present I have ever received!
Song by the B-52's