Addition

After more than a decade living in the Granby house, Dad decided to add on to it.

The original two-storied farmhouse was becoming too small for the growing family and we had enough property and means for such an addition to be feasible. So Dad hired his friend Doug for the job.

Doug was a tall and soft-spoken contractor who owned a small farm on the other side of Granby. Often we would go visit his few acres of field to gaze at his supply of geese, ducks, goats, and sheep. He also had a bull, unfortunately for me. One day when Dad and a few of us were admiring the enormous animal I grabbed hold of the metal fence and was swiftly electrocuted. Only a jolt, but enough to hate Doug’s bull forever and ever

Whenever Dad needed help with something, which was every so often, he called upon Doug and Doug always came. He would stride alongside the house in his black farmer boots, listening to Dad’s plans while gazing thoughtfully and silently at the outside structure. Then he would speak softly and quickly and Dad took in his every word. It is strange for a child to find someone who knows something that Dad doesn’t, and we watched in awe this Yankee magician explain the secrets of foundations and footings and metal flashing, and then stride silently to his white pick-up and drive away. His air of quiet authority lingered after him.

The addition grew little by little over the next couple years. It doubled the living space with a single, huge, L -shaped room in which the small arm became the new kitchen, the lower half of the big arm became the new dining area, and the upper half the new family room, all without dividing walls of any sort. Beneath lay the new basement, of the same dimensions. The roof of the upper portion was sloped and spacious, reaching so high in the kitchen where it connected with the original wall that Dad managed to house a nine-foot-tall Christmas tree quite comfortably in one corner. That was, of course, before the addition was fully completed. It took some time before the tiles and tables and cabinets and stove and sink fell into place; and until then the enormous expanse of the Addition offered plenty of room for various couches, bookshelves, and wide open stretches for horsing around. And how.