Construction

I cannot believe how much work we have all done in this house. My parents bought the land 20 years ago and it was only 6 years ago that the house was ready for living. When we were little my mum took care of it, my father has always been more of a thinker than a doer. But when we grew up, even if by then we were scattered around the world, we decided it was time to give this dream of old some attention.

We are finally making reforms to the house. For a long time (ever since we finished it 6 years ago, actually) we have been planning on extending the kitchen and building a good size Gazebo for argentinean bbq in the back. Fixing and embellishing the garden, maybe even planting a few trees. But, as always, plans have to wait since normally there isn't enough people to take care of it, time and/or money to make them come true. But now, at last, we are on our way.
I cannot believe how much work we have all done in this house. My parents bought the land 20 years ago and it was only 6 years ago that the house was ready for living. When we were little my mum took care of it, my father has always been more of a thinker than a doer. But when we grew up, even if by then we were scattered around the world, we decided it was time to give this dream of old some attention.
Over a year we all contributed with what we could, mostly working with our bare hands to make it what it is, and although Julian and I did the most we cannot deny that it has been everybody´s effort through the years that made it happen.
I have always been an "homo faber" (in opposition to Homo Sapiens as my father jokingly says: a "builder"), someone who enjoys the planning and the actual process of building. When I was little my grandfather taught me how to put a lamp together and I got hooked.-What a strange combination!- my friends say: Art and plaster...
And yes, my days of late have been spent playing the piano or outside participating of the construction. Why is that so odd, I wonder, aren't we all in the business of creating something?

I look around and I can see my work everywhere now, the windows which Julian and I made, painted, barnished and even installled; the floor I chose and travelled so many miles to get, even the glue under each tile. The library, the paint on the walls, even the walls themselves! I see countless hours of work and so much love mixed with the bricks and concrete. And although it would probably have been nice to have someone else do it for us we wouldnt feel such love for this place, such powerful feeling of connection with this something. This is the little world we have given birth to.
Now the work starts again and with it the cracked hands, the dozens of trips to the shops, the supervision, the learning a new kind of terminology (or remembering by now) and all the dreaming of how it will look in the end.
Sometimes I think it will that "end" will never come. There is always the next project... but maybe that is comforting, don't you think? How does the chinese proverb go? "When the house is finally done, death has come....."
Let's keep dreaming.....