Wednesday, May 08, 2013

There has been some discussion about it, but I am finally convinced that we moved into our home in June, 2004.  Especially convincing was the loan paperwork and the title to the property.  I had been sure that it was 2005, but as I have aged, relative time means less and my children who better relate events in their lives to dates made me begin to doubt my surety.  We moved in almost a year to the day after the official start of construction, which must have been June 1, 2003.  High level mathematics leaves me assured that our move in was 9 years ago on June 1, 2013.  Tempus Fugit.  These thoughts come to me as I see the new wear off.  The carpet is 9 years old.  The paint is 9 years old.  The unfinished basement has had some improvements, but it is still unfinished after 9 years.   As I evaluate how the construction has held up to wear, I am more or less satisfied.  We have had some challenges.  Early this winter, a column of windows in our front window wall threatened to blow away in a storm, but thanks to expeditious application of duct tape, the windows were stabilized until the installers could come and reinstall them.  In some places where the drywall wasn’t sufficiently pulled tight to the studs underneath, screws have popped through the surface when someone has pushed on the wall.  Insulation in the attic has blown around during wind storms, baring some spots and a persistent ice dam forms on the back of the house each winter.   In Japan and Israel and Egypt where we saw structures millennia old, they would pooh-pooh the permanence of the best of our construction efforts.  Our home is sound, but I can’t imagine it in, say, 200 years…or 500 years…..or 1000.  Vapor barriers and R-40 insulation and Lifetime guaranteed shingles seem important while we are residents and certainly help us conserve energy and defer the destructive effects of water and mold and weather, but in the long scope of the ages, I wonder if they will matter.  Adding years to the life of a building with responsible construction techniques may be significant in our lifetimes, but they are still not pyramids.  They are, however, way more comfortable than pyramids.