#6 - Laying the Block, Literally and Figuratively

On Monday and Tuesday, they laid the block!  The framing will go on top of this.

I'm learning a lot during this process that I never knew, so I'm going to explain.  If you're an expert...just skip! (And if you read, disregard my lack of jargon.  I'm sure my words are all wrong.)

The bottom course of blocks took three guys a really, really, really long time to lay.  And I knew they were sawing off the bottoms (Oh my, the dust that wafted through our neighborhood), but didn't understand why.  I couldn't figure out how it could take so long to lay out a row of blocks.  I mean, I've played with blocks a LOT in my life and it never takes that long for me to lay some rectangles side-by-side.  And then Matt enlightened me.  The concrete footer isn't exactly level on top, so they cut off the bottom of the first row of blocks to fit the footer perfectly in order for the blocks to be level.  If there's a higher spot in the footer, they'll cut more off the bottom of the block to accommodate that.  Make sense?

Something else I thought was interesting was that they used pieces of plywood to hold the mortar.  See that small square of plywood, between the stacks of blocks, toward the the right hand side of this picture?  They had several of those, all spaces between block piles and could use them to easily mix and access the mortar.  Mortar Boards of a different variety...

So, by the end of the day Monday, the first row of blocks and the corners were finished.  Seeing actual corners made it feel like an actual dwelling place!  I started picturing a chair, lamp, blanket in a cozy reading nook.  Reading nook is my automatic response, but it's actually inaccurate.  One of the back corners is going to be the landing of our staircase and the other back corner will be our master bathroom vanity.  Neither is a good location for a reading nook.

On Tuesday, they arrived a little later than on Monday and left a little earlier because they FLEW through the laying of the next layers of block.  So, all of the time, effort, and precision of that went into the first layer of block made the next layers faster and less tedious to lay.

***Which makes me think of raising children.  (Analogies are my fave.  My college professors LOVED requiring us to draw analogies from the strangest things and how they relate to our spiritual lives.  It was tedious and sometimes we really had to stretch (i.e. make up a bunch of crapola) to explain "How Does Purchasing a Set of Flash Cards For a Classroom Relate to Our Relationship With Jesus."  SAY WHAT?!  However, now I can't not make analogies!)   So, back to raising children.  Parenting is my passion, and if there's ever one thing I say over and over and over again, and if I could only give ONE piece of advice to every parent I know it's this: "Put a TON of effort, energy, time, resources, everything-you-have-to-give into teaching kids to honor your authority during the first 3 years of life."

So, the first 3 years of a kid's life are like that first row of blocks.  If you pour yourself into making sure that they know who is in charge, they KNOW that mom and dad mean it when they say "no," and they become comfortable and used to hearing the word "no" your life will be so much easier in the later childhood years.

When kids are taught early on to respect and obey authority (I'm not talking dictator.  I'm talking lovingly in charge because you know what's best for them and they do not), it becomes a reflex when they're 7,8,9.  If you don't tolerate resistance; fighting about getting dressed, flipping out during a diaper change, not coming when they're called when they're little, they'll learn early and you won't have as much work to do in that area later on.  As you live through the later years (the next rows of blocks!), your focus can be on other things because there won't be any temper tantrums over hanging up a backpack or coming for dinner.  I highly recommend the book Shepherding a Child's Heart.  It has a lot more on this topic and says it much more eloquently than I can.  It's deep, and I'll confess to quitting it twice before reading it fully because it was dry in the beginning.  But it's SO GOOD, so keep at it.  (I have an extra copy.  If anyone wants it, let me know and I'll send it to you!  I bought it at a garage sale to give away, so this seems like a good time to do that!)

Something that was a tremendous help to me was to change my verbage from "You aren't listening." to "You aren't obeying."  It addresses the heart attitude and not the ear function.  And makes it more concrete.  There is then the opportunity to frequently say, "Thank you so much for obeying! You brought me your shoes right when I told you to!."  Again, concrete.

It's not easy to do.  It takes commitment, sticktoittiveness,  energy, dedication and a lot of S'Mores supplies.  You'll have to hide in your laundry room and eat chocolate bars on many occasions just to keep your sanity, and then answer the question, "Mom, I thought you bought S'mores supplies again...but we haven't had S'mores in, like, 3 years."  But the return-on-investment is massive.***

    So, all of that to say, the next rows of blocks went quickly because of the precise first layer and NOW it really looks lovely.  I'm a sucker for an outdoor corner.  I love that when I look out my kitchen window now, I'll see house.  I love that the back of our house isn't just one long flat wall anymore.  It's going to add character and make our patio so much cozier now.   Here's how it looks.

The view through my kitchen window.

The dip in the blocks is where a patio door will be.

And finally, one last picture.

Matt has dug this far, by hand, to find our water line.  The city says it has very precise instruments and that our water line should definitely be in that hole somewhere.  But, he hasn't found it and because this is obviously a safety issue now, he won't be digging anymore!  We'll cross that bridge some other way when we need to.   (And I thought this hole was deep when it was only waist high!  He's STANDING at his full height in this picture.  Made me very nervous to say the least.  He's bound to hit quicksand at some point and sink into the cavities of the earth never to be seen or heard from again.  I'm glad he's done digging.  We like having him around.