Building on Dreams

Chapter 39 - Schedules and Things

Monday of the following week was eagerly welcomed by the adults in the Abernathy household. Although for the children it meant going back to school, for Susan it meant getting ready for a three-day business trip, and for Greg it meant a meeting with Brian and a chance to turn his attention back to the more concrete dream he hoped to fulfill: that of providing his family with a house.

Greg met with Brian early as planned, and saw ample evidence of the progress that had been made while he'd been occupied with other things the previous week.

"What have you got planned for the access route to the house from the garage?" Greg asked curiously. "I assume you plan to use the cave as part of that route."

"We do. Those natural passageways really are quite conveniently located. There is some finishing work we have in mind that will make them easier to navigate, but we plan to place the connector from the cave to the house here," Brian said pointing to a wall in the room they were calling a library, which according to the plans were to be occupied by a built in bookcase.

"Through the bookcase?" Greg asked in surprise.

"It will be hinged and specially built to also serve as a door," Brian explained. "There will be a short connecting piece we will need to put in to attach the house to the hill, and some boring work to be done from inside the cave, but there is a natural passageway located in just that place that should work out quite well, and the position is above the beams we'll insert into the hillside to support the house, so that part should work out too."

And he began to describe the details of what he had planned. It was fantastic, imaginative, and entirely wonderful. What was more, nature had already done most of the shaping and contouring work for them. What Brian had in his plans truly was finishing work, nothing more.

"That is amazing," Greg told him honestly.

"Do you like it then?" Brian asked.

"I do. I doubt there is another house anywhere in the world quite like this one will be."

"I know it's the most unique one I've ever worked on," Brian confirmed. "Now as for the grading, we'll have the plans for that back at the end of the week. We'll need you to approve everything. Then after that, we're ready to submit what we have for building permits and to start asking about bids. We can handle the office piece separately to allow us to get going on this."

"That would be good," Greg agreed. "I'm working again this week, but I should be able to come by Friday afternoon to pick up the plans."

"Sounds good. Now tell me about this structure for your office you mentioned to me before," Brian invited and Greg began telling him very specifically what he had in mind. The building would look like a cottage, function as an office, and be located on the western-most point of the hill in a place so as to be connected with the cave.

"You are right, that design is very simple. Quite unique in this day and age, but it shouldn't be difficult to do. The only challenging thing will be placing it correctly above the air pocket of the cave you plan to use for the basement stairs instead of an actual basement," Brian said. "Mr. Craig's been down there several times though. I'm sure he'll know how to do that as well. And I like the idea of using the natural passages of the cave to connect it to your main house. That part is so exciting to me."

Greg smiled. "It is to me too. I hate to think what his services are going to cost me though."

"Do you believe that will be a problem?" Brian questioned.

"I hope not. I believe I will have a word with my accountant this afternoon to be sure. I'll let you know if something I learn is likely to have an impact on those plans," Greg said. "I suspect the final price tag for this project has been steadily going up."