Grandfather Says: The Continuing Chronicles of Elaine, Part 37

The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is one passage:

All the doors in this house, except the front door – which came from Grandpa Miller’s home in Saginaw, Michigan – came from houses in Akron, Ohio which were torn down because they were in the paths of interstate highway construction.

Finishing the house has been a mainly do-it-yourself project for us for 24 years. When our families come to visit, they have privacy on the lower floor, which will soon have four bedrooms, because Dave is going to move his work room to the “crawl space.” Dave installed an attractive ceiling last summer, he and I wallpapered the open area and the hall, and new carpeting was put down throughout the downstairs. It was finished yesterday, July 25, 2001. This has been a comfortable, livable house. We love it! And finally, it’s completed.

I appreciate very much that when Dave designed our house, it was his plan that everything would be easily accessible for us, with no stairs to climb, for when we got older. That’s now!

He built the stone wall by himself; it took two years to finish and the kids and I helped find the rocks, picking them up in streams and along roadsides. And a few friends gave us particular rocks to use in the wall. Whenever we drove to Roanoke, we watched for red rocks along the road, when we would stop and pick them up. Other people may have looked for red rocks, too, because eventually we just didn’t see any more along that road.

To build the wall, Dave pushed in many wheelbarrows from outside where he mixed the sand, water and cement. It was a heavy, tiring, difficult project but I remember, and took a picture, when he carried the last rock up the scaffold to the very top of the center peak.

He made all the paneling for the large room out of the walnut logs he brought here from Warrenton. He cut all the parts out and assembled everything.

He completed the spiral stairway, which he designed and built by himself, in 1999. He used his practical knowledge when he designed it, and checked on his calculations for the curve measurements by calling Virginia Institute of Technology in Blacksburg. The stairway was his last major house construction project.

I appreciate all his talents, used while planning and building this house, and am grateful for his south-facing driveway for quick melting of snow and ice, and I’ve enjoyed the large “Everything Room” which takes advantage of the views to the west. He never overlooked that view when making all the house-design decisions. Thanks, Dave.

To be continued…

***

About the Author: RD Blakeslee is a nonagenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.

Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family