Framing the Stories

View through the Front Door; taken Sept. 27, 2014

The stasis of definition asks us to think about the words we use to name the object we are contemplating. In defining, in naming, we call that object into being in a particular way. The hackneyed example is calling a problem an opportunity. We solve problems; we avoid them, duck them, hand them off, fix them, and sometimes cause them, but a problem itself is not a good thing. On the other hand, we take opportunities; we seize them, welcome them, look for them, and sometimes miss them. As soon as we reframe the word from negative to positive, we have opened potential.

This week, in literal and figurative reframing, our land became our house. The foundation and outline of the basement has been there for a while, but Mike has mostly been hauling rock and dirt to shape the land. We could see where he had dug out the septic field, and we had a conversation about where the downstairs bathroom plumbing would be going in so that the plumber could run some lines before Mike poured the basement slab. But most of what we had was the land. So when we went to Mendon, we were “going to the land.”

The Back of the House; taken Sept. 27, 2014

Not anymore. Now we’re going to the house. We weren't able to go last weekend; general busy-ness and {the threat of rain + large field of dirt + fuzzy dog + need to use the smaller car = muddy back seat} got in the way. On Thursday, Carl went out and found the framework going up. Yesterday, the day before my 50^th birthday, we both went.

What was land – albeit with a bit of concrete – is now walls and doorways and window outlines. The first floor has taken shape, giving the basement a ceiling and the workers a flat surface to stand on while they provide additional definition to the first floor and add the second floor. Our bedroom, our dining room, our foyer, our kitchen, and our living room are being rendered in 2x6s. There’s our bedroom window! There’s the window over our bathtub! There’s our picture window looking over the trees out the back! There’s the doorway to what will be our deck!

While we were there, the front wall of our garage went from horizontal to vertical. While I am mostly a word person, words don’t quite take shape the way a wall does. There’s something about the 3D version that the story does not capture. Or at least not my version of the story. Perhaps one of my poet friends could manage it. Instead, I show you pictures.

We will go back next weekend, perhaps sooner if we can manage it. By then, I expect the second story will have definition. I may see the shape of the offices we’ll have up there, as well as the bathroom and guest bedroom. I’m especially looking forward to seeing my office, the first true room of my own since I was about 17.

When we outlined this house on paper, I knew what I expected to see as it was going up. I did not anticipate what I would feel in the face of this definition.

Definition. Framing. Structure. These words have been important to my writing and thinking for as long as I can remember. I'm a highly structural thinker and writer, sometimes forgoing the flesh for the sake of the bones. As I look at the bones of our house, I feel the power of naming it. This is our house.