The "A-Mason" House

OK, so the title of this post is an inside joke from Mark's family. His mother was born a Mason, and his grandpa loves to joke about having a-mason adventures and the a-mason family reunion, and so on. You get the idea. We're all pretty much a-mason.

Well, we didn't know it at the time, but that reunion in June was the end of An Era, because now Grandpa and Grandma Mason are moving to Missouri. They've lived in Colorado pretty much their entire lives. We've always gone back to the suburban homestead for the reunions, and stopped there to say hi and spend the night whenever we were going farther West.

They are building (or having built...) a straw-bale house on Mark's parents' property. Straw bale construction is pretty nifty stuff. It's a very "green" way to build a house. I had never heard of it until I married into the family. When I first heard of it, I thought "hummm, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow the house down..." Yeah. Little did I know.

Three years ago, March 2005, we broke ground on Wayne and Cindy's house. It took nine or ten months until it was "substantially complete". It seemed like the construction would go on and on for ever and ever. But that's what happens when you do most of the labor yourselves (or your sons do most of the labor, while your daughters-in-law wander around, watching the guys work, and trying to keep your grandchildren from killing themselves while they frolic amongst the construction debris...my Eliza learned how to walk in that construction zone).

Anyway, but this is Grandpa and Grandma's house. And they have hired a general contractor to do the majority of the work. A lot has changed in the last three years. Most of the original workforce is only available on weekends and holidays. And Grandpa and Grandma want to be moved in by Christmas. So, it's really nice to have a professional doing the Nine-to-Five deal on the house. When we come over after a couple of weeks, we can ooh and aah over the progress. We came down for Labor Day, and Mark and his brothers framed walls. Then, this last weekend, we went down again so Mark could install the windows. It was a-mason! At the beginning of September, it was just a concrete platform with a huge mote around it. This weekend, the mote was filled in - thank Heaven! - there was a roof, and the straw bale walls were mostly done. And Mark didn't have to do it! (of course, Seth, Caleb and Nathanael have put in a lot of volunteer hours...)

Anyway, here are some pictures from our weekend. I would put up ones of the house-in-progress, but those are all on Mark's laptop, which is at work with him.Seth and Nathanael trimming bales to fit the wall postsYvette, wandering around the construction site.Bekah's Wyatt, climbing up the ladder from the first storey to the second storey deck.
Katie sweeping up: the girls helped Grandma Cindy sweep up all the loose straw into big piles.Jacob, Gabba, Eliza, Annie (in the hoodie), Ella, Blake and Mason playing in one of those big piles.Lucy loved helping with the straw, because she loves playing house.Bekah on bottle duty: there were 19 grandkids there on Saturday. Bekah came with her boys to hang out and visit. Here she is with Jason and her Oliver.Mark and Nathanael putting in the upstairs living room windows.This is a picture of Tate and a marigold plant that somehow survived the bulldozer and the concrete forms and the framing crew, and bloomed and thrived on the edge of the chaos. Tate tried to pick one of them for his mom, but ended up uprooting the whole plant and carrying it to Grandma. Sweet little boy...Poor little plant!Annie and Gabriella, resting (on the bulldozed dirt pile) from their make-believe, watching everyone else.
Nathanael holding Jason, who has eyes only for his dad, who is off camera helping Mark install the deck sliding door. If you look close, you can see the round red spot on Jason's forehead, from when he over-balanced on a kitchen chair, and bonked himself on Grandma's kitchen floor.Jared, Tate, Kyle and Wyatt played tennis-bowling-football-derby in the hall. Jared and Kyle are both turning eight this fall.Seth winding up baling wire before trimming a straw bale with the chainsaw.