House

Thirty-something years ago I built a shop there. Thirty by forty sheet metal over post frame. A crew came out from Oklahoma and did it in a day. Usually they started early in the morning and were finished in time to drive back home but were delayed and had to stay over and finish the next day. I called a local ready-mix outfit and had a floor put in with aprons at the doors. They used a ten-foot sliding door and those are good enough and for years I left it as it was. It warped a little but but I could cinch it down tight with the latches.

The Planedemic occurred and I had a medical adventure that left me crippled I ordered a 16x80 mobile home from a local dealer and moved in. It was another year before I was physically able to do much of anything and just as I was beginning to enjoy that a tornado smacked it and shoved it off the piers. While I was inside. I had just gone out on the front deck and smoked a cigar while enjoying a glass of Irish Mist and was back inside talking to a girlfriend eighty miles away when it hit. When the shaking stopped I told her it seemed to be over and I'd take a look at the damage.

The floor was about ten degrees from level so I figured it wasn't good. And it wasn't. I called my girlfriend back and told her my house was hosed and asked her if she would get me a hotel room where she was as I figured any rooms in my area were going to be taken before I could get to them. She said no deal I'm coming to get you. It was 2100 or so by then and I didn't want her driving down that late but the best I could do was get her to meet me halfway. Chapman is about halfway and while it only has a population of about 2100 it sits a half mile off the interstate and there are about a half dozen motels and restaurants.

While I was checking into a Super 8 she went to Taco Bell and got me a six-pack of tacos and got a six-pack of Heineken. It's not a regular beer for me but I like the bite sometimes and this was one of those times. There were four vehicles sitting at the site of my wrecked mobile home and it was a little early for looters to get there so I let it wait until morning. If anyone knew some of the stuff that was in there...

The next day I went down to survey the damage. It wasn't bad - it just slid off the piers and pulled up the anchors. It was that new system that was supposed to be superior but if they had put tie-downs every six feet or so it wouldn't have moved. It was probably an EF-2 and one of a small swarm that demolished a good part of Twin Falls about four miles away but I figured it for a good deal. I paid 68,000 cash and about three to four in setup and it stickered at 70K and prices had gone way up. Insurance paid me 73K and I sold it for 19K. Works for me.

I still had my house in Arlington but didn't fancy going back there. My two older siblings came out the next day and my kid sister came down later and asked me what I wanted to do. I had been fully functional mentally for a good year or more but was still shaky physically. My oldest sister Charlie asked me what I thought about fixing up the shop as a house. It had a small apartment in one end - a kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and bedroom - but I hadn't used them in years. All the plumbing and wiring was there. And I'd often thought about building a house like that.

Actually by that time quite a few people were doing it. It's hard to do it cheaper or stronger or quicker and this one was already build. So we did. I watched and signed checks and occasionally approved of whatever was suggested. Three months later I had a house pretty much soundproof and weatherproof. A portable carport over the front entrance and the driveway put in and all I was good to go.

A year later I built the annex - another thirty by forty building about ten feet away and at a right angle. I lined up the front porch of the new building with the existing one and it all looked good. Plenty of room now. Fifteen foot walls so even with nine foot ceilings the upstairs crawl space is almost big enough to stand up in. Added two bedrooms and two baths and a new office and still had a lot of extra space.