The Wormlips Scrapbook

It’s Halloween at the construction site. Here are M and Dan:

Ever good-natured Robert agrees to model my new foam-rubber Elvis wig. (There was a photo of me doing same, but my eyes were closed and my mouth was open, so the picture is history.)

But here: I’ll put up a Halloween picture of me disguised as a middle-aged, self-employed ex-hippie holding a foam-rubber Elvis wig. Boo!

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The concrete truck arrives on a Monday morning. Vidal gives the sign that he’s ready for the pour to begin. Once the stuff starts flowing, the hose springs to life like a great-granddaddy anaconda.

Vidal levels the first swath.

Robert takes the next turn at pouring…

…and signals when it’s time to pause the flow.

I don’t know if this is ideal way to spend one’s first day back from Hawaii, but Dan’s in good spirits anyway.

The concrete dries quickly, before I have a chance to leave a message for posterity. How the three guys get everything perfectly smooth and level remains a mystery to me, even after Robert’s patient explanation.

The day’s work is done…

… and the foundation is beautiful. I only wish it were attached to something.

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After a bunch of digging, the site was ready for the house-lifters who arrived with a flatbed truck loaded with 6- by 6-inch and bigger wooden beams.

The men hauled scores of these honkers into the backyard…

…tossing them around with such ease you’d think they (the logs; not the men) were hollow.

Then the house-raising guys started stacking the beams like Lincoln Logs…

…higher…

…and higher…

…until they bumped into the top.

Resting on its new supports, the house was liberated from the bondage of its old ties to the earth.

Out came the jacks and the level.

Dan saw that the cantilevered side needed to come up an inch and a quarter.

Up went the house, gently and with the occasional creak, as the crew wedged more supports into place. Despite the skill and engineering involved, I still find the resulting sight a wee bit unnerving.

As the last of the stilts was cut away, I hoped for seismic calm for the next couple weeks at least.

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