The Dark Room Materializes

Yessirree Bob! Today was the day we’ve been waiting for...for how long? I don’t even want to think how long it’s been since Dad had the bright idea of rescuing that nearly 100 year old log building and placing it behind the house for his very own personal use as a dark room. And all the prep! At least 100 hours worth if you count building the foundation and pouring the cement and moving the floor (remember my earlier pics?) and then the bracing etc. for this move. It looked like it was never gonna happen, and some said it couldn’t be done. Well, actually, only Aunt Grace. She bet him $100 three weeks ago that he would never get it moved. So, because it has been such a production, I took pictures for those of you who have invested time and energy in it. Congratulations and thanks for helping Dad achieve his goal!

We began this morning-- Dad and Glen and Ruth and I and 2 tractors– met about 8:30 a.m. It was a beautiful spring like day, except for the fact that there are no evidences of spring, beyond the temperature being hospitable. Glen had had the fabulous idea of pulling the house on a sledlike structure–cross logs and braces beneath the floorless building. Dad was prepared, having built that already. They hooked up heavy chains to the tractor and the sled and pulled the house out of the field, across the small ditch and up the dirt and gravel road.

The seemingly enormous feat of dragging the log house down the street was perhaps the easiest part of the entire day. We hadn’t imagined that anything would be harder than that task. But, that was easy. Next, we placed the house near its intended location, and rotated it so that the doors and windows faced the house. That actually worked all right too.

The hardest part was moving the building up to and onto the foundation– without the walls bending completely in and the house tweaking. If you have ever moved a refrigerator by yourself you have probably done just what we did–first this side, then that side, moving the appliance back inch by inch–“walking it” almost into position. Well, let me tell you it’s much easier to walk a refrigerator to its designated place than it is to walk a house to it. We used 3 tractors--We had to get one more tractor-- and we did a lot of brainstorming about bracing and blocking and log rolling the house.

As you can see by the pictures, we had an electrical pole to work around as well, hence the house sitting half on and half off the foundation initially.

The funniest thing to me was that I stationed myself out in the field to take pictures of the progress. The shots you see are of the strongest side, the one without a door breaking the rigidity of it. So, I thought it was all going along pretty well, until I went to the other side of the house and saw this picture! See how it looks like a cartoon house, the door coming to a kind of triangle and the end wall shoved in! It looked like a collapse was imminent.

It’s true it looks dilapidated and old, and don’t forget about the tree limb sticking out of the top of it. Earlier in the morning Ruth roped the end of that branch and tried pulling it off, until we looked inside and could see it was wedged through the gaping hole it had made in the roof! But it was built to last apparently, and in spite of all the pushing and pulling and tugging and raising and jimmying and all, we made it work!

So, here is the last photo of the smiling crew! I am there, too, you just can’t see me behind the camera.

I liked taking the pictures. I took 50 good ones. It was, after all, considering its intended use, a photographic event.