Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Measurements to Run-on Sentences

We built a house eleven years ago. At the time I wasn't a published author. I spent hours working on the house and the writing was something I did on the days there wasn't a task I could do by myself while my hubby was at his day job.

We are again building a house. This time around, I have deadlines to get books written and published. What a difference it makes trying to find priorities!

The hope is to be in the new house by December first. The drawbacks have been supplies not showing up on time and we are eleven years older and not willing to put in the long hours we did the last time.
The house to this point.

What I have discovered is that planning a house is a lot like writing a book. We called upon a man who does cement for a living to do the foundation of our house.  Having someone who has been doing it for a living for years and knows all the tricks will give our h


ouse a better foundation. In writing you have to start with a plausible plot to be the foundation of a story.

We did the grunt work of digging, filling in, and helping when the cement was poured. My hubby and I both have control issues. ;) We like to know our house is being done to our standards.

After all the cement was poured. The framers came in. while they were framing the house and making things square and easy for us to do the finish work, we were digging and putting in the septic system.  We prefer using sweat equity to doling out dollars.

The frame work on a house equates to the character building for a story as well as putting the character's goals, motivations, and conflicts in order so a logical story can be written.

The house was framed and ready for us to take over in two weeks. Since then we've made trips to gather toilets, a batch tub, sinks, lights, electrical supplies and other necessities to finishing out a house.

By our timeline the metal roof should have been on by now but the day we planned to pick it up at the lumber place, they called to say it didn't come in. It is supposed to be in tomorrow. We have our fingers crossed that over the weekend we get the roof on. We also have inspectors coming tomorrow to check out the plumbing.

Old buffet I'm making into a bathroom vanity.
The things we will be doing to finish the house is the same as writing a story. Once you have the plot, the character, his goals, motivation, and conflicts, the story is prettied up with eloquent phrasing, setting, and the plot and GMC linked together.

The finishing of a house is painting, finding the right lighting, adding tile or wood, the flooring and the molding around the doors a windows. The inspectors are like critique partners helping with the story along the way and the final inspector is the editor who helps make the story the best it can be.

2 comments:

Diana McCollum said...

Congratulations on building your own house. How did the dresser/sink turn out? I bet it's lovely.

Paty Jager said...

Thanks, Diana! I haven't started on the buffet/vanity. I'm waiting for the garage to get closed in so I have space to work on it.