As Greg and Susan predicted, their weekend passed in a whirlwind of busyness. Susan was right though, making decisions about things as concrete as the rock for the fireplace or the finishing materials of the house was very exciting and effectively distracted Greg from thinking about the current stage of their project or the cave or even the image of the deer along the trail in the fog.
Monday came, bringing with it a stack of papers to sign and the funding of their construction loan. The result was a check to use for covering the costs of building their house, accompanied by a schedule of monthly payments to be made to the loan company, which would eventually be converted into a more conventional sort of mortgage for their new home.
Greg made an appointment with Denis, his accountant, for early Tuesday morning to get some help managing the construction funds during the building process. He met with him as scheduled on that day, got some advice on how to handle the money in the interim, and had two checks cut, one for each of his contractors, from the funds that very same day. With his loan finally in place, Greg managed to get to their building site by noon on Tuesday.
c
Greg parked beside the sunshade Mr. Thompson was using as his office and went looking for him as soon as he arrived.
"Hello," Mr. Thompson came to greet him. "We were wondering when we'd see you."
"Is there a problem?" Greg asked.
"No, but Mr. Sato is here working with us today. I think he wants to talk to you," Mr. Thompson explained.
"Oh okay. Before we get into that, I have a check for you," Greg said handing over one of the two checks he'd had prepared that morning.
Mr. Thompson looked it over carefully, thanked Greg and put it away.
"I also have materials choices for both fireplaces," Greg told him.
"Both?" Mr. Thompson asked. "I only see the one in my plans."
"Oh that's right, the second is in the cottage Mr. Van Kirk is going to build," Greg recalled. "Sorry."
"That's all right," Mr. Thompson commented looking at him curiously. "Mr. Sato is down in the cave."
Greg nodded and started to head towards the tunnel entrance on the north side of the hill, when Mr. Thompson stopped him, handed him a hard hat and said,
"This way."
He led Greg down into the valley on the south side of the hill instead. It quickly became apparent that what on Friday had been simply a dark hole in the side of the hill was now much bigger and was beginning to look like an actual cave, which of course is what it was.
"Hello Greg!" Lee Sato called when he spotted him. "I was wondering when you were getting here."
"I didn't know you were waiting for me," Greg said apologetically.
"We weren't, really. That is, we have been able to proceed without you. But I did want to go over some things now that the cave is essentially open and you are here," Lee said.
"With the exception of lunch, I am at your disposal, Lee. I brought mine with me," Greg explained.
"How about we walk through this first and afterwards we can talk about it while we eat. I haven't had mine either," Lee suggested.
"That's why I'm here," Greg assured him.
"Come this way then," Lee invited and together they walked up the incline of soil and rock that was still mounded half way up to the roof of the cave. The left side was lower than the right and this is where Lee led Greg, up over the crest of the slope, stopping at a place where they could see both sides.
"You see how this is opening up nicely," Lee said, pointing to the exposed volcanic rock that made up the actual mouth of the cave. "Now that the workers have cleared some of this old slide away we can begin to see the rock which supports the hill. We've cleared this left side, which is the west side, down to where we're beginning to see volcanic boulders mixed in with the other rock. We'll stop there for the time being on this side and carefully take down the level for the rest of the opening, a little bit at a time, looking for the same sort of thing. As long as the rocks that make up the debris are all sandstone, we know its slide material only and not part of the structure of the cave. Are you following me?"
"I think so," Greg said. "Does this have something to do with stabilizing the hill above it to prevent an additional slide, which would simply cover it up again?"
"In the short term, yes," Lee told him. "We have to get down to the supportive matrix of the hill and the cave first, without triggering an additional slide in the process. Once we've done that, that's where landscape design and little structural engineering come into play."
"How do you mean?" Greg asked.
"Brian mentioned to me that you weren't opposed to the Disneyland method for creating the right setting, is that correct?" he checked.
"It is," Greg said regarding Lee and the cave curiously.
"Unlike Disney, we have an actual cave to work with. We don't need to make one, but we do need to reinforce this hill and stabilize the hillside around the opening to this cave we've just uncovered," Lee said. "So, we're going to add to it. Find the bones so to speak then build supports, retaining walls and the like to help support the soil on top of it. Some of that can be done with Disney type rocks. They will look like the natural cave material. Some will even be formed over or include some of the non-volcanic boulders we've pulled out from the top soil and dirt they're pulling out of the hole."
"I understand," Greg assured him, "but isn't that what Mr. Van Kirk's company specializes in?"
"They do, but one of the two main supports for your bridge house is going to not only support your house, but also part of this hill. This is where your two contractors are going to have to work very closely together. Mr. Thompson needs all the soft soil we can pull out of this hole as soon as possible. They are moving it into what you call the second valley, leveling it and packing it down to form the pad for the rest of your house. Mr. Van Kirk needs us to leave enough material for him to work with bared, without causing another slide in the process. The cave is going to remain a hard hat area for the foreseeable future, even though it does look tempting to simply walk into it this way," Lee explained.
"Thank you for telling me," Greg said. "You're right; it does look like the easiest way to enter the cave at this point."
"And it will be someday, but not yet. I just wanted to warn you, just in case you decide to bring your kids to take a look," Lee said.
"To be honest, other than my step-son Neil, I haven't told anyone in my family about the cave yet," Greg said.
"You haven't?" Lee questioned in a tone of astonishment. "Not even your wife?"
"As Brian may have told you, there are a number of aspects about this building project that are intended to be a surprise for my wife," Greg told him.
Lee stared at him for a moment. "That's going to be one hell of a surprise, Greg. I don't know as I'd want to go forward with something like this without my wife being on board."
"Susan and I have a unique understanding between us when it comes to caves," Greg assured him.
"I see," Lee said doubtfully. "Well since its open, I suppose it's too late to change your mind when she does find out. So, we'll just have to make it look as good and as interesting as possible, as well as making it safe."
"So how do we do that?" Greg asked.
"We essentially create a set of lips around the mouth of the natural cave. The upper one will curl up and over the upper edge and hold back the hill so it won't slide down over the opening. The side lips will do the same. Together they'll function as part retaining wall, part funnel for anything that tries to come down this way. At the bottom, we'll create an interesting apron, complete with walkway and a streambed for water to flow into. And the side of the hill to the east, where we've cut into it to reveal the cave, will get an irregularly shaped retaining wall, which will look like an extension of the natural eastern cave wall," Less explained.
Lee went into great detail in describing what the structure would look like when finished and started to get into the engineering aspects for how it would be built when Greg stopped him.
"Could any of this be discussed over lunch?" Greg asked.
"Of course," Lee told him. "I think Mr. Thompson's set up a portable picnic table up near his desk."
"I saw it when I drove up," Greg assured him and the two men hiked back to the top of the hill, just as the workmen were returning from lunch.
The two of them talked for well over an hour about the engineering involved and the process for building the so called artificial lips for the cave over lunch, and by the time he left, Greg knew more than he ever thought he would about the building of a Disney-style entrance to a natural cave.
c
"How's it going?" Susan asked her husband when he returned home that day.
"Good. I was able to give Mr. Thompson a check today. People are always pleased when they get paid," Greg remarked.
"Of course they are," Susan said. "Have they made any progress with the house?"
"Not yet. Today I received a lesson on what is involved in stabilizing a hill, once you cut into it. There seems to be a lot of that to do as a result of deciding to build in the valley. Of course we probably would have some of that even if we built on top just to keep the house from sliding down the hill as a result of a mud slide during a rain storm, but their purpose with this seems to be to keep the hill from sliding down on top of the house," Greg explained.
"I wouldn't want that to happen either," Susan said.
"Nor would I," Greg agreed. "Lee is heavily involved and so I am confident that the method they are using is both effective and will look entirely natural when they are finished with it."
"Lee?" Susan questioned. "Have you told me about him?"
Greg considered her question. "Perhaps not," he conceded. "I have told you about Mr. Brian Stevenson?"
"He's the architect, right?" Susan asked.
"Yes. And I've mentioned Mr. Cliff Thompson, the contractor?" Greg asked.
"Yes, and you mentioned we have a property development contractor too, a Mr. George Van Kirk?"
"Yes," Greg agreed. "Mr. Lee Sato calls himself a landscape architect, but I think he's more of an outdoor architect than a landscaper. Brian recommended him to help us build in such a way to have as minimal an impact on the natural beauty of the property as possible. He is proving to be invaluable and is doing for Mr. Van Kirk what Brian is doing for Mr. Thompson," Greg explained.
Susan nodded. "Greg, are you certain all these people are really necessary just to build us a house?"
"Trust me, Susan. I think you'll be pleased with the result. And remember, it's not just a house we are building, but an environment with those features we identified as important to us when we initially talked about our plans," he said.
"You mean all the outdoor spaces we've always loved ... the water features, such as a beach, a pond, a stream, or a lake; green areas such as a forest, a garden, a jungle, or even a kitchen garden; places with a view, whether it is from a balcony or a ledge outside a cave or a hill top ... though that one should be easy. That property came with a magnificent view," Susan recalled.
"Yes, but there is still the issue of how to make the best use of that view in all directions," Greg reminded her. "There are a lot of hills on that property, and there are places in the valley where the ocean view can't be seen at all because it's blocked by the hills. Making the best use of that requires planning by someone who knows what they are doing. That is where Lee comes in."
Susan nodded. "And I suppose he has something to do with how you are deciding to use the tunnel?"
"He is," Greg said. That much at least was true, though he knew Susan had absolutely no idea just how much of that part of the project that had come to involve.
"Then it sounds like I should be thankful that you've got all the right people working on it," she said.
"Thank you, Susan," Greg said with a hint of relief. "Did you say you're going to the Bay Area next week?"
"Week after next," Susan answered and their talk turned to their work and home schedules for the coming two weeks.
c
Wednesday of the second week in April was a studio day for Greg, and Thursday had him occupied with the writer for his script, so the next time he was able to visit the site of his future house was on Friday.
Greg arrived early, roughly the same time as the work crew. He planned to spend much of the day walking around his property and watching them work, and immediately he noticed a change in the sorts of activities going on. Supplies had begun to arrive. In addition to the boards and frames used for pouring cement, there were now stacks of piping of various sorts at strategic locations around the top of the valley.
Walking carefully around the supplies, Greg followed the line of protective orange fencing down into the valley where the men and equipment were working to discover the mound of soil in front of the cave was now much lower. The rock Lee had referred to as the bones of the cave, were exposed on the top and both sides, and the mound of dirt in front of the cave was low enough as to be a mere rise in the valley floor instead of a hill. Table-sized rocks were stacked in piles in the center of the upper-most valley as well as along the sides, and still the back hoe was digging.
"How much farther down are you going to go?" Greg asked Mr. Thompson in surprise as he watched.
"Down to the bones at the bottom, Mr. Sato said," Mr. Thompson told him. "We've done some test digs and it looks to be only another ten to fifteen feet down. I think we'll finish with the back hoe today, maybe even by noon today. My operator says he's pulling out mainly boulders now."
Greg watched as the back hoe dug out a few scoops. A little bobcat had joined the other equipment working at the site, and was pushing the loose dirt away from the boulders as they were deposited on the valley floor. Once separated, the boulders got pushed to the side or to a particular pile, based on size, and the dirt got pushed to the second valley drop off, which now was less than half the drop in elevation it had originally been. Another piece of equipment, a roller, was driving back and forth over the soil which had been deposited in the second valley and leveled by the grader on top of the original valley floor, making the difference between the levels of the two valleys a matter of only two or three feet, or half what it had been before. With a full crew there and the four pieces of equipment working simultaneously, the work progressed in an orderly fashion all morning, until suddenly a quarter of an hour before noon, the back hoe stopped. Mr. Thompson came to inspect the depression necessary to reach the bones of the cave floor, and immediately called Less.
"Are we finished?" Greg asked.
"We may be. Mr. Sato wants to inspect it before we send the back hoe away. He was planning to be here by three, but said to call if it looked like we'd be done sooner," Mr. Thompson explained.
He made the call then looked critically over the area where the back hoe had been working. Together he and the operator identified a half dozen more scoops they could remove. The little bobcat organized the last of the boulders and pushed the rest of the loose dirt away. The grader made a last couple of passes, then stopped. The roller, kept rolling until everything was flat, packed and smooth as a paved parking lot. Everyone stopped shortly after noon for lunch, clearly thinking they were probably done for the day.
Greg ate his lunch in his car while the workmen used the picnic table, and Lee Sato pulled up in his car before they were finished. Mr. Thompson immediately jumped up, interrupting his lunch to take him for the inspection. Taking his cue from Mr. Thompson, Greg set the rest of his lunch aside too and tagged along. He watched curiously as Lee poked at the bottom of the dig with a long pole, apparently testing the depth of the soil and the integrity of the rocks below.
"That's good," he declared. "We should be able to clear the rest of this with a bobcat when it comes time to shape it."
"Excellent," Mr. Thompson said and he trudged back up the hill while making another call.
"What's that all about?" Greg wondered aloud.
"My guess is he's done with the back hoe and is making arrangements for the truck to come pick it up. Possibly the grader as well, though it's possible Mr. Van Kirk may have use for it," Lee told him.
As it turned out, he was right. The afternoon was spent driving first the back hoe, then the grader out of the valley and getting them ready to send away. The roller continued to work as water was sprayed on top of the soil being compacted, until it as firm as well as smooth, and suitable to use as a pad to build on. Lee didn't stay long, but Greg was still there when the truck arrived and the back hoe was loaded onto it, chained into position and taken away. Nearly at the same time, a similar process was happening with the grader, and very late in the afternoon, the roller too was taken away.
Greg surveyed his property once they were all gone. The valley looked very different than it had only two weeks ago. The exposed opening to the cave and the raised and flattened level of the second valley had done much to transform it, and Greg began to wonder if Susan would even recognize it as the same place when she saw it next. He thought that too initially about the deer, but when he walked down to the orange fence barrier at the bottom of the third valley, he could see the little family that lived on his land grazing placidly by the pond just beyond. Somehow his heart felt lighter after seeing them there and his doubts from the week before all but disappeared.
c
It was late in the afternoon on Friday when Susan ended work earlier than usual, and on a whim decided to take a drive up into the hills in their new car. Her curiosity about Greg's project and their new house was understandably growing, and she couldn't help wanting to take a peek. She decided she wouldn't go onto the property, but only look to see what she could see from the street. She didn't want Greg to know she was there, but she did want to get some sense of what was going on.
Susan arrived to see two semi-trucks with flatbed trailers parked on their property. Workmen were loading heavy equipment onto the trailers: a back hoe and a grader ... the kind they used in making a road, and yet from what she could see from the street, no driveway had yet been graded, nor was there a noticeable building pad anywhere on the property. She guessed the grader might have been working in the valley where they planned to put the house, but Susan couldn't imagine what kind of work they might have been doing with the back hoe. Clearly things were happening and work was progressing, but her curiosity was hardly satisfied.
As the trucks became ready and left their property, the workmen's cars started leaving too, and Susan decided it was time to go home. She didn't want to spoil Greg's surprise by allowing him to discover her there. And it still mostly was a surprise, she told herself. After all, she now had more questions than answers after her clandestine visit to the site. Besides, it was fun to have secrets, and Susan decided her husband shouldn't be the only one to have one or two.
c
The second weekend in April was spent by the Abernathys attending their usual complement of religious services, watching baseball games with the children, and shopping for materials for their new house by Greg and Susan. On this particular weekend they'd started to look at cabinetry for the kitchen, the bathrooms, the laundry, and anywhere else in the house where built-in storage was needed. It didn't take them long to determine that choosing cabinetry for so many rooms was a major job. It would take them not just the one weekend with their shopping squeezed in-between other activities, but several weekends if done that way. Or, they could each take a day off from work during the coming week and try to get at least some of the rooms done all at once by focusing on it more completely for an entire day. Deciding that might be a better approach, they left the store relatively early on Sunday afternoon intending to spend time looking at their respective calendars to find a weekday when they could go to the store without the children and devote themselves to that job exclusively, hoping to make better progress.
"How about tomorrow?" Susan asked, determined to start at the beginning of the week.
"Our property development contractor starts on Monday. I need to be on site to meet with him," Greg said. "What about on Tuesday?"
"I have meetings from ten to noon to review the specs for the new report with my team," Susan said. "I'm supposed to have it programmed before I go to the office next week, so I'll need the end of the week to do that."
"Okay, so Tuesday is out. I'm in the studio on Wednesday. Thursday morning is my meeting with Andrew," Greg read.
"Is it all day?" Susan asked.
"Only in the morning," Greg said. "But we'll probably need a full day. I doubt we can do it in a single afternoon."
"Maybe not everything, but I bet we could get a couple of the small rooms done, maybe some of the bathrooms?" Susan suggested.
"All right, we'll do some on Thursday afternoon," Greg said and he made a note on his calendar.
"What about on Friday?" Susan asked. "Are you busy then too?"
"I should visit the site to check on things sometime towards the end of next week," Greg said.
"Oh I suppose," Susan said with a frown. "That leaves us with the weekend again. We'll have the same problem next weekend as we did this weekend."
"More than likely," Greg agreed. "What about the following Monday? I know you have your trip that week, but is there any possibility you could take the Monday off before you leave to spend with me?"
Susan hesitated as she studied her calendar.
"That depends. If I've got the program running and the new report is ready for my team by the end of Friday, I could. But a lot of that depends on how things go this week. If I run into problems, I might need Monday to finish," Susan said.
"All right. How about we plan tentatively for Monday, April 22nd? If things don't go well or you can't spare the time, can we make it Friday the 26th instead? Would that work?" Greg asked.
"It should," Susan agreed. "You see, we really are making progress with our part of this."
"Yes, we are," Greg agreed. "I think all in all, there has been quite a lot of progress made this week."
c
With their plans for the following two weeks laid out before them, Greg was on site as promised early on Monday morning to meet with Mr. Van Kirk, his second contractor. As happened two weeks before when Mr. Thompson started, Mr. Van Kirk's first day on the job was largely spent getting organized by setting up a work area for himself and his crew. He chose a location close to that used by Mr. Thompson, near the picnic benches the workmen had been using, expanding the area above the valley being used for business by the contractors but still out of the way of traffic that needed to come and go from the site and the major grading and site contouring that needed to be done. He also toured the current status of the newly opened cavern and the exposed rock faces that had been revealed, the pvc lines which were still embedded in the hill and the access points for the utility leads where they came onto the property from Deer Hollow Parkway.
Mr. Thompson's crew on the other hand, employed the skills of a surveyor on that day to carefully plot out and mark the corners and outlines for parts of the foundation of the house, utility line intersections and the positions for the other significant features, according to the plans. By the end of the day, Greg decided to come back for an hour or two on Tuesday as well, in order to see the beginnings of the significant changes that would soon be made as work on his project progressed.
Tuesday morning while Susan was busy in her teleconference, proved to be the perfect time for Greg to be away from home on that day, and so Greg arrived mid-morning to find Mr. Van Kirk's crew unloading rebar and equipment. Meanwhile Mr. Thompson's crew was operating a trenching machine which was digging out both the footings for the hotel wing foundations and the trenches for the sewer and water lines which would need to run under the floors. Seeing work actually starting on the house was nearly as exciting as opening the cave had been, and it amazed Greg to think he'd already gotten used to the idea of the cave being there.
c
Work at the studio and on his script for the movie occupied Greg in the middle of that week, but by Thursday afternoon, he was ready to turn his attention back to thinking about the house again, this time for his date with his wife to look for cabinetry for their new home. They spent their time looking over styles, stains and finishes for the various cabinet designs, thinking in turn about each of the rooms that needed them. It was overwhelming at first, but by thinking of each room one at a time, they managed to decide on some.
"So what do you think?" Greg asked his wife towards the end of the day.
"I think we still have a lot to do," Susan lamented.
"We did make our choices for the laundry, the children's bathroom, and the master bath," Greg pointed out.
"True, but I still haven't made up my mind about what to use in the powder room off the library. I like both these styles, and I'm torn between the lighter or darker stain colors. Any combination of these would be good, but I would I like it to be consistent with the tones we set in the rest of our living spaces and rooms. Of course we haven't decided on those yet either, so I don't know what to do," Susan told him. "It seems odd to set the tone for a decorating design for the whole house based on what we put in the bathroom, but that does seem to be what we're choosing first."
"But you do like both of these styles, in both stain colors?" Greg asked. One was light and the other medium in tone, making their appearance significantly different from one another, although the styles themselves were very similar.
"Yes ... which I understand doesn't narrow down our choices all that much," Susan recognized.
"It does limit it to four possible combinations from a much more extensive list," Greg assured her. "Think about it, Susan. I can take Mr. Thompson the lists for the ones we have chosen, and we can make our decision for that particular room a bit later."
"And you don't think that will delay things too much?" Susan asked in a worried tone.
"Not significantly, but especially when we have yet to make our choices for the kitchen," Greg reminded her. "I expect that could cause a much more significant delay because there will be so many more of them to be ordered."
Susan nodded. "Something to do next week, on Monday," she observed. "I think we're out of time for today."
"It's time to pick up Jessie," Greg agreed. "But are you going to be able to take Monday off next week to do this?"
"I think so. The report I'm working on is coming together well. I expect I'll be finished testing it by tomorrow morning, in plenty of time for my trip to the office next week," Susan said as they gathered their notes and the paperwork to give to the contractor as they got ready to leave the store.
"Then we can plan to finish as much as possible of this on Monday," Greg proposed.
"Hum," Susan murmured, taking a moment to read the posted hours on the store door as they headed out to the parking lot and towards home. "You know, they stay open until seven most days. We could probably get more of this done if we didn't have to leave so early today."
Greg glanced at his watch as they walked through the parking lot and got in their car. "It's only four now. Do you really think spending another three hours here would help?"
"It would help ensure we get the kitchen done completely on Monday if we could stay until they closed ... and maybe that last bathroom too," Susan said.
Greg arched his brow. "Then I wonder if we should plan to do that."
"How? When both Jessie and Zack need rides home from baseball practice after school on Monday? Not to mention homework time and dinner afterwards," Susan pointed out.
"Perhaps Marion would be willing to help if we asked her," Greg suggested as he started the car and they headed towards Jessie's school and then home.
"She probably would ... but do you really think we should be asking her to do that?" Susan wondered.
"Why not? She seems to enjoy spending time with the children when she's at our house."
Susan regarded her husband doubtfully. "I don't like to be imposing on Marion, Greg. We've already depended on her quite a lot since we've been home."
"I don't think she minds, Susan. And we can definitely return the favor once in a while once the twins arrive," Greg reminded her.
Susan nodded. "Maybe. How about we see how much we can get done on Monday in the time we have, and if we still can't get finished, ask Richard and Marion to watch the kids on Saturday, after your services. Then maybe we can treat them to dinner out afterwards," Susan suggested.
"That is an excellent idea," Greg agreed, feeling pleased.
They still had a lot left to do, but they now had a workable plan for how to get it done within a week or two, helping to ensure they were doing their part to prevent any construction delays.
There was also a second thing Greg was feeling pleased about by the time they got home. There were four additional bathrooms in their plans that Susan didn't know anything about: the bathrooms that were part of their hotel-style guest rooms. He wanted Susan to like the style and the colors used in those rooms, but he also wanted them to be a surprise. So consequently, he'd been wondering how he could go about selecting cabinetry for them which he was certain Susan would like without her knowing about it. But her dilemma about the style and stain colors to be used in the cabinetry for the powder room solved his problem. He simply made notes on her top two style and stain choices, intending to use each of the four possible combinations in one of the four guest bathrooms. The decision was easy, and would able him to deliver a much more comprehensive list of the cabinetry to order to Mr. Thompson when he saw him at the construction site the following day.
c
Greg was back on the building site on Deer Hollow Parkway early on Friday morning, ready to pass on the information for the cabinetry they'd chosen so far to Mr. Thompson. He was also there in time to see fittings for sewer pipes being attached to pipes already in place in the ground. When he looked closer, he realized the positions for those particular pipes represented the future locations for each of the guestroom baths inside the outlines for the foundation of their hotel suites. The pipes were the fittings for the toilets and shower drains, the very rooms he'd been shopping for the previous day. Seeing the first concrete evidence for those rooms was very exciting, but it became even more so when he realized the water lines had been roughed in too and were already buried with only their unconnected ends exposed. The ends of the pipes outside the foundation still didn't go anywhere for either system, but they were there, ready to be connected eventually to the lines which brought those services onto their property.
While pipe layers were working on the water and sewer lines, the forms for the foundations were also being set into place and would be ready for inspection on the following Monday, prior to the cement being poured.
Meanwhile, Mr. Van Kirk's crew had been busy too. They'd started work on the lips for the cave, as everyone involved felt that was the most critical task stability-wise to do. Rebar was now in place along the exposed edges of the rock around the mouth of the cave, looking like long, unimaginative eyelashes, set into deep divots in the rock around the top and sides of the opening. Eventually they would be shaped and cemented into position to form the beginnings for the upper and outer lips, which needed to be there before any more excavation or shaping of the top of the hill could occur. They had more to do, but they hoped to be ready for cement to be added for the lips on the same day the foundations were being poured. All in all, the progress that week felt remarkable, even though they were clearly still at the beginning.
c
The weekend came quickly that week, and once again the Abernathy family devoted themselves to the usual weekend activities of religious services, baseball games and shopping for additional things for the house.
"Aren't you and Mom doing some this stuff on your own?" Zackary asked as they set out on Saturday afternoon.
"We are, but only the cabinetry, which we will be working on, on Monday. However, we as a family still have a very long list of things to choose," Greg assured him.
"Okay, so what's left that we're looking for?" Zackary asked curiously as Greg withdrew his list.
"We should, if possible, select the mantel piece for the fireplace and the rails for the stair cases today," Greg said.
"That shouldn't be too hard," Zackary commented. "Is that all?"
"No, we have a long list of things that are left to pick out," Greg said. "Everything from molding pieces for the interior door frames to the doors themselves, to the flooring for each room, paint colors for the rooms, wall paper where we choose to use it, faucets for everyplace where there's a sink, the sinks themselves, toilets, tubs, tile for the floors and the counters and around the bath enclosures, ..."
"I get it," Zack said, "pretty much everything."
"Pretty much," Greg agreed.
"How soon do they need all this?" Susan asked.
"Anything that needs to be ordered needs more lead time in order to get it here by the time they are ready for it. Other things that are more standard can wait," Greg said.
"So that's why we're doing the mantel today?" Zackary asked.
"That's why. Mantels of this sort tend to be custom made," Greg explained. "Depending on our selection, it will take some time for it to be ready."
With that in mind, the family eagerly turned their attention to the task they'd set themselves for that day, and were not only able to select a mantel and the staircase railings, but also the molding to be used for the interior doors, the baseboards, and the crown molding. Unknown to most of the family, Greg also selected a second mantel and recorded that information as well.
"When do you need to give this to Mr. Thompson?" Susan asked.
"I'm meeting him next week on Tuesday, while you're away," Greg said. "That is, providing you are able to take Monday off to work on the kitchen cabinets with me."
"I should be," Susan said. "I'll finish up some things tomorrow evening so I'm ready to go on Tuesday, so I'm planning to be."
c
True to her word, Susan was able to spend all day on Monday with Greg at the cabinet shop, going over the plans for the kitchen in great detail. With some effort, they managed to select the style, wood, and stain color they wanted, based on those on display on the showroom. However, selecting the individual pieces they needed or wanted to use took a longer. It turned out there was much more to consider when it came to kitchen cabinets than there was for other rooms with built-in cabinetry in the house. In the kitchen, they also needed to consider things like counter height, fixed shelves vs. pull out drawers, width of the pieces to be used, door arrangement, and any special storage or accent pieces they wanted to include. There was much more to it than simply choosing the color and style of the wood. Which meant when four o'clock came and it was time for them to leave, they had only a partial list of the pieces they needed selected. But they had a much longer list of pieces they still needed to choose. There was such a variety of sizes and the types of pieces available, that they ended up going home with a series of measurements for available pieces, a booklet of line drawings to consider, and an appointment with the kitchen designer to help them on the following Saturday.
Susan sighed as they walked out the door with the paperwork they'd accumulated so far in her hand. "This took us quite a bit longer than I thought it would," she remarked as they walked out to the car.
Greg said nothing. He simply looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"You didn't though, did you?" Susan guessed.
"No, not really. Madeline and I went through something similar when we re-did the kitchen for our Los Angeles home. I believe Richard and Marion did too when they remodeled the beach house. Designing a kitchen is a major task, even when you think you know exactly what you want," Greg told her as they both got in and headed for home.
Susan arched a brow at him. "Richard and Marion went through this too?"
"They did. And Madeline and I watched Jack for them on several afternoons so they could."
"Who is Jack?"
"Jack was a black lab they used to have. He passed away not long before our journey. He was a good dog, very sweet tempered. But he had a lot of energy and needed looking after whenever they had to be away for hours at a time. So, we offered to dog-sit on several successive weekends so they could spend the time they needed to, to get it done," Greg explained.
Susan cocked her head at her husband. "Does this have something to do with why you think Marion won't mind babysitting for us?"
"It does," Greg said calmly.
"I see," Susan said neutrally.
"Helping one another between Richard and I is not a new thing, Susan," Greg remarked.
Susan nodded. "I guess not. I don't think I really thought about it before, but it does make sense that this is something that would have gone on before."
"It did," Greg assured her.
"Okay then. What do you propose?"
"Ask Marion if she would be willing to babysit the whole of next Saturday like we mentioned once before. I'll go to the early service. That way we can be at the store by the time they open," Greg suggested. "If Richard and Marion can not only watch the children, but also take them to their sporting events and give them dinner, then we won't need to come home again until the store closes. We won't be rushed, and yet in that amount of time, I feel confident we can decide on the pieces we are still considering."
"More than likely," Susan agreed. She fell silent for a minute. "What would you think of this, Greg? We ask them to babysit for us, but then we treat them to dinner afterwards."
"It would be late before we returned home, too late to consider going out for dinner. How about instead we have them over for dinner at some time in the future?" Greg suggested. "Their choice on the weekend."
"That would work too," Susan told him. "Okay. I'll ask Marion tomorrow and I'll invite them to dinner too."
Greg grinned, feeling pleased by the plan they'd come up with.
"In the meantime for today, shall we pick up dinner on the way home?" he suggested.
"I can cook," Susan said.
"Don't you need to pack for your trip?" Greg checked.
"Yes," Susan conceded. She took a moment to think about it. "Okay, we'll do take out. What do you want, pizza or Chinese?"
They discussed their options and decided on pizza. Greg called their order in to their favorite neighborhood pizza place while Susan drove, and they stopped by the restaurant to pick it up on their way home. For the children it was a treat, until they remembered the reason Susan wasn't cooking was because she was leaving for Bay Area early the next day, and that she would be away for the next three days.
c
It was up to Greg to get the children off to school on Tuesday morning, but they were almost getting used to Susan being away on business trips now and then. And so the children got themselves ready with a minimum of fuss while Greg made them breakfast; and right on time, they were out the door. That left Greg with the rest of the day free to spend at the build site to observe what was going on and to meet with Mr. Thompson about the materials choices they'd made.
Greg arrived to find he'd come on a relatively exciting day. The position of the forms for the foundation had been inspected and approved by Brian the previous day, and so a cement truck was scheduled to arrive by mid-morning at the site. Everyone seemed to be waiting for it, with Mr. Thompson's crew making ready for the work, and Mr. Van Kirk's crew making use of the trencher Mr. Thompson's crew was temporarily finished with to bring the utility lines closer to the north side of the cave. Greg met with Mr. Thompson while everyone was waiting, going over the list of materials and the choices the family had made. They were very nearly finished reviewing Greg's notes on everything when the cement truck arrived. Suddenly the nature of the activity everywhere on their property changed.
Mr. Thompson's team needed the cement delivered in bulk into the forms for the foundations they were pouring, while Mr. Van Kirk's team needed smaller amounts very strategically placed. And so they decided to take turns. The operator of the cement truck filled a large bucket with wet cement for Mr. Van Kirk's workers first. They in turn used the cement to set the rebar into the rock everyplace a piece had been inserted, using a cherry picker to maneuver them to the right place. Each bucket they estimated would enable them to fill and set two dozen of the holes with rebar in them, a process which would take the workers twenty minutes to complete. While they were doing that, the cement truck backed down to the level of the second valley. There they began the task of bulk delivering the cement into one side of the forms. Twenty minutes later they were ready to change the position of the truck before continuing to pour the foundation for the first of the two hotel wings. But first, the truck drove back up the hill to refill Mr. Van Kirk's workers bucket while Mr. Thompson's workers continued working with the already poured cement, removing bubbles, smoothing the surface of the side already poured, and inserting bolts that would be used when they were ready to build the frame for the floor. Then the truck backed down the hill a second time and repositioned itself in order to fill an adjoining side of the same form.
Working like that, back and forth to supply both teams with the cement they needed, it took two hours of steady work to complete pouring the foundation for the first of the two wings, and to set roughly half the rebar into the rock. Even though it was now lunch time, the cement in the truck couldn't wait, and the work continued steadily, with individual men taking breaks, eating quickly then replacing another man on the team. By mid-afternoon, the foundation for both hotel wings had been poured, all the rebar which would be used to create the lips of the cave were cemented into place, and all that was left to do was to wait for the cement cure. This, Greg was told, could take several days. In the meantime, both teams would begin work on other areas of the project.
"So what is next?" Greg asked Mr. Thompson at the end of the day.
"We begin work for the bridge house supports. Unlike a regular foundation, those will need a deeper and wider footing put into place first. In order to do that, we'll need to do more grading, surveying, marking, and another inspection for position will be done. Hopefully that will be finished sometime this week. Then we'll need to dig the holes for the footings and to start building the forms for those. They'll need to be more heavy duty than a standard foundation too, so we'll be shaping the rebar that goes into them too. Then we'll need another delivery of cement, though a smaller at first. We'll build up from there and more concrete will come later for the main body of the supports," Mr. Thompson told him.
"Won't Mr. Van Kirk need more cement too?" Greg wondered.
"He will. Once his rebar is set and the cement is dry they'll start shaping and making their forms. They're somewhat different from ours and will need a different grade of cement, but once again we plan to coordinate delivery," Mr. Thompson said.
Greg talked with his building contractor a longer about the details before going to seek out Mr. Van Kirk and talking to him too.
"We'll be doing surveying work the rest of this week as well," Mr. Van Kirk shared, "though ours will be focused on the boring work we need to do on the north side of the hill with the cave in order to make your garage. The rock we remove we're going to use for our grading work to help make your driveway in front of the garage flat. There will also be reinforcing work to do around the opening of it, similar to what we're doing around the mouth of your cave. We want to make sure it's ready to set the rebar when the cement truck comes again. Then it should be ready for the form makers by the time they're finished with the front of the cave. We expect that to take the rest of this week."
Greg did his best to absorb what each of his contractors told him, and he thought about it as he walked around his property at the end of the day. He looked for the white-footed deer as he did, but he didn't see her anywhere and he couldn't help wondering what she thought of the changes being made to her home.
c
Though Susan was way from home Wednesday and Thursday too, Greg didn't manage to get back to the construction site again until mid-day on Friday, after she was home. Work on the script for his movie was suddenly becoming more demanding and Greg found he couldn't afford the time away if they were going to have it ready to try to sell again by the end of May. That meant he couldn't spend quite so much time simply watching his two contractors and their teams work, no matter how fascinating it might be, and yet the need to stay on top things for the building project was foremost in his mind. For that reason, Greg decided to set himself a schedule based in part on the schedule given to him by his contractors. Major deliveries of materials or equipment often seemed to occur on Tuesdays, while each contractor appeared to have certain goals they wanted to accomplish by the end of any given week. And so Greg decided that Tuesdays and Fridays would be his usual days to visit the site.
On that particular Friday when Greg went to visit, he found a number of notable changes had occurred. The positions for the two large bridge supports had been graded, marked and dug out by Mr. Thompson's team. Rebar was also in place for the foot of each support, and connected to pieces extending up into the air. Lumber to build the forms with had been delivered and work on that would be done the following week, just before the cement was delivered to fill them..
The foundations for the hotel wings showed changes too as the forms had been pulled away and pieces were being attached to them in preparation for building the frame for the floor. More lumber would be needed for that and was scheduled to arrive in the coming week.
Mr. Van Kirk's team had made progress too. The rebar sticking out from the edges of the rock surrounding the cave no longer looked like eyelashes, but instead had begun to be shaped in a relatively freeform manner as the rebar was bent back over itself, away from the cave mouth and attached to other pieces to add strength. At least that's what it looked like until one consulted the landscape architect's plans. One sheet which had been prepared after the shape of the natural opening of the cave had been revealed contained detailed design information for construction of the lips. It was while Greg was inspecting that part of the plans that Mr. Van Kirk informed him Lee Sato would be on site personally during the following week to help create the custom forms they would use to create the cement lips that looked like natural rock. The texture of its surface would be made from a combination of wire and resin, using impressions made from surfaces deeper inside the cave, then reshaped to fit the mouth opening. It was this kind of work, Mr. Van Kirk explained, that made what his team did different from that of most building contractors.
As seemed to be the case after every site visit, Greg left that evening feeling both pleased by the progress that had been made, and anxiously anticipating the work planned for the next few days.
c
Greg arrived home after his time at the build site late on Friday afternoon to find Susan in the kitchen making a roast for their Sabbath supper.
"Welcome home," she said as she met him with a smile.
"Thank you," Greg said as he kissed her cheek.
"How's our new house?" Susan asked curiously.
"It has a beginning," Greg said with a smile.
"Oh? What sort of beginning?" Susan asked tentatively.
Greg regarded her with a tolerant smile, seeing both her curiosity and her willingness to honor his secret, while thinking about what he would tell her.
"As of today, part of it has a foundation," Greg answered carefully. "As I've said, it is a beginning. There is more of that sort of work to do."
Susan's smile broadened. "Thank you. It's nice to have some idea of what's going on."
"You're welcome," Greg told her. "So what's been occupying your day?"
"Work," Susan replied vaguely. "I've been programming another new report. And also ... I was looking at our calendar."
"Yes?"
"We're meeting with the kitchen designer tomorrow," Susan began.
"Yes we are," Greg confirmed. "Is there a problem with that?"
"Yes and no. Do you know that tomorrow is April 27th?" Susan asked.
"It is," Greg agreed, looking at her curiously.
"Did we miss your birthday again this year?" she wondered as she prepared potatoes and put them in with the roast.
"We might have, why do you ask?" Greg asked.
"Isn't your birthday in April this time?" Susan asked.
"Yes. It's April 22nd," Greg told her.
Susan frowned. "That was last Monday. Why didn't you remind me? We're not supposed to be ignoring these things anymore."
"It doesn't matter, Susan," he assured her.
"Yes, it does. It does matter, Greg; because you matter," she insisted.
Greg shrugged as he began to set the table.
"What were we doing on your birthday?" she said, trying to think back past a busy week.
"We were at the kitchen shop all day," he reminded her.
Susan's frown grew deeper. "I intended to try to spend your birthday together, to celebrate it with you in some way."
"We did spend the entire day together, trying to decide on the cabinetry for the kitchen ... a task we plan to complete tomorrow," he replied.
"That may be ... and I know it's something we needed to do, but it's hardly a celebration," Susan pointed out.
"That's alright, Susan. I enjoyed the day out with you, to be honest," Greg assured her. "And I do enjoy working on these sorts of things with you."
"I know, I do too. But we could have done something after to celebrate, and we didn't. We didn't even recognize it as a special day, and we should have," she scolded herself. "I don't know why your birthday is so hard for me to remember in this life. I can remember four of your other ones perfectly well, but not this one."
"Which ones?" Greg asked curiously.
"August 10th, which was Jalyn's I believe," Susan said.
"It was. That's one," Greg said.
"June 17th, which I think was Harald's ... but I can't be sure," Susan said.
"I think that's right," Greg said. "Do you remember another?"
"August 12th and August 30th," Susan said. "I think one of those was Isaac's the other may be Aaron's."
"How can you remember that?" Greg asked. "I can barely remember your birthday in this lifetime."
"I don't know, but I think that's why I missed it. Your birthday is usually in August ... or at least in the summer. April just seems so early for you, but I'll adjust," Susan assured him. "And next year, I'm definitely going to remember."
"How?"
"I'll program it into the calendar on my computer," Susan told him. "And I'm so sorry I forgot."
"You didn't, Susan. You remembered nearly all of them, but as often happens with us, knowing which one applies to this lifetime isn't always clear. I have always felt that August should be my birth month too. As Max, I was born on August 7th to be exact. I'm not sure why it wasn't in August this time," Greg shared.
Susan sighed. "You know, we really should try harder to consider this life to be a new beginning instead of always assuming it's simply an extension of the past. Maybe that's why we had different birth months this time."
"Is yours different too?" Greg asked trying to remember.
"Yes. Mine is normally in June, January once, but usually in June."
"Hum, June to September, August to April, Jessie younger but first, then Zack. I think a lot of things have gotten switched around," Greg mused.
"It would seem so," Susan agreed.
They fell quite as Susan concentrated on her preparations for supper, making the salad and preparing the vegetables to go with their meal. When it was time, she slide the heavy roast form the oven and Greg helped her carry it to the counter, helping to lift the meat from the roasting pan onto a carving block when it was ready where he began cutting it into slices which Susan arranged on a waiting platter. When it was ready, Susan set the meat on the table and began to take up the rest of the foods.
"It's about time to call the children in for super," Susan commented as she began carrying the rest of the things to the table.
"I will in a minute. But before I forget ..."
"Yes?" Susan questioned.
"Speaking of forgetting things, I don't think you ever told me; were you able to make an appointment with the neurologist back in January? You said at the time it was about a two month wait," Greg said.
"It was a least a two month wait," Susan told him. "I have an appointment. It's the first Tuesday in May."
"Oh okay," Greg said. "That's week after next, isn't it?"
"Yes."
Greg nodded. "I don't want to forget about that. It's much more important than when my birthday is."
"Not to me," Susan said. "In every life it's always been more important to me when you arrived to join me rather than when you leave. Isn't the same true for you?"
"It is, but even more important than that is delaying your departure from this life as long as possible. I want a long, full life with you Susan, not the typical hand full of years we usually have," Greg said earnestly. "We need to make sure we have everything worked out."
"I know," Susan said in a reassuring tone. "Have faith Greg, we will."
"I'm trying," he told her. "But I still want to know about your appointment when you go."
"I'll tell you," Susan assured him.
Greg's response was to nod. "I'll go get the children," he commented and he disappeared down the hall, finally ready to switch his attention to family, their evening meal, the coming of the Sabbath, and their weekend before them.
c