Adrian Watches the Waltons, Wants to Build a House

Nov 2, 2010

Current mood:breezy

I was sitting in the driver’s lounge at the Covenant Hotel when an old episode of “The Waltons” came on.  Since the hotel only gets seven channels it was the best show that was on.  I was only halfway interested in it.  I was mainly taming my frontier in Frontierville. 

While the overall show was more sugary than a candy cane factory, the plot of the episode had a good point.  It was about following your future.  In one scene the future Father-in-Law of John Boy wanted to give him land.  He wanted to give him eighty acres.  He knew the best place on the land to plant crops.  He knew the perfect place to build a house.  He even knew where an artesian well could be dug not ten feet from the house.  It was a perfect place for a family.

It made me think.  Times may have been hard back then, but are they harder today?  Today we spend thirty years to pay off a house.  Back then you built your own house.  You didn’t have to pull tons of permits to build a barn or storage shed.  No, you went out and cut your own wood, and built your barn, shed, and/ or chicken coop. 

I know this may surprise a lot of people, but I always wanted to build my own house.  Not pay a contractor to build my house, but actually build my own house.  That’s not to say that I wouldn’t hire workers or enlist the help of family members.  In the end, I would be responsible for building my own house.  Although it should be noted that I would hire an electrician to do the wiring. 

Could you imagine trying to do that today?  Where would I get a good amount of land?  I couldn’t get a large amount of land in the city or even outside the city of Tampa.  I would have to go way out past Land O’ Lakes.  Even if I wanted to get two whole acres of land that would be tough to swing.  The cost alone would be staggering, even in today’s market.

Then there would be the building of the house.  I imagine it as an old style farmhouse.  Something simple, yet functional with lots of potential to decorate in an old fashioned style.  I would make sure to have a nice porch with a swinging bench.  The house itself would be painted barn red.  The barn would also be painted barn red.  The chicken coop?  Oh, hell no.  There’s definitely not going to be a chicken coop.  I hate being woken up by chickens.

The one thing I would like to have is a barn style building on the side of the house where I could build guitars.  It would be my workshop.  I like the barn style since I could open up the doors at both ends and get a breeze blowing through.  It would also let me drive a vehicle through the workshop so I could move or deliver heavy equipment and materials. 

I’d like to think that it’s possible.  So many things would have to go right.  I would have to work my way up to being a successful over the road truck driver.  If I worked really hard for five years, I would have enough money saved up to where I could take one year off, and build my dream house.