Mabel & Galusha

The cool thing about building 2 houses is that if you missed one step the first time around -- dang the day job -- you just might catch it the second time. For instance, I looked into the back yard this morning and thought, Oh, there's the radiant-heating guys! They weren't so radiant, tho, looking up at me while coiling up the lines with equal parts caution and pity, thinking, "That poor renter lives here."

The daily construction routine starts thus, when the foreman's truck rumbles past the side of the house about 7:30. He's followed by a few workers who arrive by foot and bicycle. Then the street itself fills with trucks of all shapes, colors, and vintages for the rest of the crew and the odd sub. And then I hear the spigot turning on in back, so the coffeepot can get going. The tent has become a regular little hangout place, and we've all gotten comfy there.

Then the hammers start swinging, the machines start whirring for another day in Mabel & Galusha Land.

It's kind of a charming routine, but I still can't sleep through the arrival of the huge trucks, the cement spinners, say, or the lumber semis, that shake the glass shade askew in the dining room fixture. I just pray I never hear stucco cracking.