Chapter 3

END COMMERCIAL BREAK #2

Henry and Seanix started to lug the odd-shaped sheet of plywood into the tree. All seemed well as they topped the ladders, but then a sudden gust of wind caught it and threatened to pull both men off of those ladders. Together the two men had but one thing to say:

“WHOA!!”

Seanix managed to hang on, barely, while Henry only stayed on by hooking his head around the ladder. The wind soon subsided.

It was a closer call than Henry liked. “Are you OK?” he called out.

“Yeah,” Seanix acknowledged, “But let’s not do that again.”

“Right.”

The two of them soon had the scrap in place. Henry had braced himself inside the hollow tupelo tree and was tracing the opening onto the plywood from the inside while Seanix traced it from the outside. The opening actually extended from just below the floor to well above the second story roof, though about seven feet from the floor it narrowed too much for an adult (or teenager) to squeeze through. Henry was annoyed by the whole thing.

“That’s gotta be closed up.” he muttered. “Under the floor too ... right here looks like a...”

Suddenly Henry’s face broke into a huge smile.

“It’s a Valentine!” he shouted.

Henry started drawing a heart shape inside the overall shape of the opening. It fit well.

“Hey Seanix,” Henry shouted, “let’s see what you’ve got on your side.”

Seanix was done tracing out the opening, so they lay the plywood flat on the deck, Seanix’s side up. Henry started to draw a heart, and it fit ... barely. The two men flipped it over, talked a bit, and soon Pete was there to consult on this new door design.

“If you go beneath the floor...” Pete started.

“You get the point at the bottom,” Henry nodded. “And we can show that, with the block of glass...”

“Like a window in the floor?” Pete scratched his head.

“Yes,” Henry told him, nodding. “But a window that moves with the door, and only on the outside. You don’t want a window in the floor of your toilet stall.”

Pete rubbed his chin. “You know that window would be looking down the trunk of the hollow tree; it’s not like anybody can look up at you.”

The younger Nelson scratched his head.

“That’s true. Hey, maybe a light that shines up through the window on the inside?”

“Yes,” the elder Nelson agreed, “as long as it isn’t a bright light...”

“Mood lighting,” father and son intoned together.

Henry was soon cutting the plywood scrap piece, and then other bits of wood, to make a solid door in the shape of a squiggly Valentine heart. After that he installed a window around the point, about a third of the way up the heart. The door was nearly two feet wide here. The window extended a foot on both sides and six inches in front of and behind the door. A sliding fixture insured that there was never an actual hole in the floor.

“The LED lighting will shine up through this window,” Henry explained to the AP crew, “casting multiple colors on the door and the ceiling right above it.”

Meanwhile, Chuck and Devin were installing the shower in the inside bathroom. Electrical wires, LEDs, and speakers were everywhere.

“If this shower were any bigger,” Devin exclaimed, “you could have dance parties in it. It’s got the sound system and the lights for it.”

“It’s big enough for her and her boyfriend,” Chuck pointed out.

“It’s big enough for her, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s boyfriend,” Devin said.

“Well I don’t know about that,” Chuck said with a laugh, “but I hear some of the young girls are into that; they call it ‘yaoi.’”

Pete was on the roof, nailing down shingles. These shingles had a foam core, as Pete explained for the benefit of that eventual home audience.

“These shingles have a core made of recycled Styrofoam,” he told the camera, holding up one shingle so that everyone could see. “They improve the insulation value and they help block sound. We’re going to put them on the underside of the floor, too.”

Seanix and Henry installed the toilet door with its in-floor window panel and LEDs. Pete came down from the roof to look it over.

“This door, with its silver finish and the different color lights, it’s going to give it a real party vibe,” Pete said. “Which is great because as soon as you’re done, um, doing your business in here, you’re going to want to get back to the fun!”

The operation didn’t take long. Chuck and Seanix moved on to hanging a second floor, with staggered studs, below the main floor. Wherever it connected to the main floor there were special plastic connectors.

“These plastic connectors don’t transmit sound as well as wood or metal,” Chuck explained, “so we use them to protect the parents against whatever it is that Julie listens to.”

“I think it’s Japanese techno music or something like that,” Seanix put in. “And it protects Julie, from musical interference.”

It was a distinction Seanix felt was important, especially with an audience in the hundreds of thousands or potentially even millions watching.

Henry and Devin moved to ground level to install a metal tank inside the hollow tree. It had been lowered from above but now had to be anchored and all the fittings fitted. It was a bit complicated doing everything through the child-sized opening at the base of the tupelo, but both men had worked through smaller openings and the connections were soon completed. Next, a strange contraption was lowered atop the tank. Henry turned to the camera as Devin used a long-handled ratchet tool to connect the two installations together.