Chapter 26

In late June, I was honored in our new home with a birthday party for my 19th year. Sometimes I forget how old I am, as almost everyone I deal with is older me. It is refreshing to have Sandy around, since she is a little over two years younger. While we were happily celebrating, I reflected on how much had happened since my seventeenth birthday and coming to the university. There had been a lot of water flow under the bridge.

The basketball coach caught me in the weight room and asked if I had been on the courts much. When I told him not at all, he told me try to come by the gym every day for an hour or so to shoot some baskets and get in shape for the coming season. Rats, less golf, more basketball. The football coach caught me in the gym shooting some baskets and reminded me that practice started in August, so get in shape and be ready.

The second summer session was going to be another classic biology course. Lecture for two hours three days a week and then lab three to four hours in the afternoon. Good luck came my way; Sandy was taking the same biology class, and we instantly became lab partners. Her being there shortened the day by at least an hour and all but guaranteed me an “A” in the class again.

The girls and I used the break between summer sessions to paint most of the inside of the house. We also put new tile down in the kitchen and the bathroom. We had a neighbor, who was a cabinetmaker, put new tops on the counter, plus he made a little “L” on it so we could put three stools up to it instead of using the little table. The table was fine for studying, but the counter was better for morning coffee and snacks.

I had replaced the roof of the garage and staked out an addition so we could have a three-car garage. I was thinking that we should build a garage apartment on top and rent it out. The rent would pay for taxes and utilities and leave some cash to George.

Dan and George said they thought I had a good idea and that I should get some bids. I really hadn’t thought of bids; I was going to do most of it myself.

First, I dug under the corners and the middle of the concrete block wall of the garage and poured three-foot footers to hold the extra weight of the rooms over the garage. Next, I poured another footer for the expansion, including deeper concrete at the corners. I found a guy with some steel beams that I had delivered to the house and borrowed a neighbor’s gas welder to cut them to size and put large stand plates on them.

It was at this point that I told George and Dan I was going to buy a cheap pickup truck to use around the house. I found an old Chevy pickup for one hundred-fifty bucks. It cost sixty for insurance for the year and eighteen dollars to get it registered.

I found some more beams at a welder’s shop and rented some floor jacks to lift the roof up so I could put the support beams in place and weld them altogether. I’m not any good with concrete block, so I paid another neighbor who was good at it to lay the blocks for the addition. We put in a door and couple of windows in the original garage while we were at it. Next, I framed the outer walls of the addition and framed some corner braces to lift the roof onto. I built a stand that looked like the braces for an umbrella. Using two large floor jacks, I jacked up the roof three feet, moved the next jack onto a higher platform, and then jacked it up three more feet. I had placed two by sixes notched like stairs on all four sides. Each time the roof would go up about eight inches it would catch another notch. It took me all day to get the roof up high enough and the corner braces in place and then let the roof back down on the corner brace studs. It all fit. The next day, I framed in the rest of the outside and framed the rooms.

I knew how to do the plumbing, but I didn’t know how to get the waste pipes connected to the city sewers. I roughed in the bathroom and kitchen pipes, had the big waist pipe into the floor of the new addition, and dug in all the way to front of the house. I piped water from our basement to the garage and put fitting for a hot water heater in the back corner of the garage addition. Next was electrical. I knew how to do it but was a little uneasy about it, so I found a neighbor a block over that was an electrician. He made me a deal if he could do it after hours. We had it done in two evenings ready for the first inspection. We didn’t have to pull permits – just file an intention to build. Electrical and plumbing were inspected for safety measures. The girls and I dry-walled the place in three evenings, and that included putting insulation above the ceiling and below the floor. I found a place that sold small heating units that would work perfectly for the apartment and installed it in the garage next to the water heater. I had forgotten to run a gas line for the kitchen, so I did that while I was hooking up the heater.

Finally, we did all the painting and put in tile and carpet. We went to a flea market and bought a nice-looking refrigerator and stove plus found a deal on a set of kitchen sinks. We had the final inspection and then had the electric and gas companies come out and put up meters on the garage just for the apartment. Not bad, we had a rental apartment in just two months without spending more money than I had saved up. Plus, we now had a big utility sink in the garage and the means to heat the garage it if we ever wanted.

We had done this while going to school and while I practiced basketball and football. We also did get some golf in, but not much.

The girls were proud that we had been able to build it ourselves. They had many hours of labor into making our garage addition and an income-producing apartment. George and Dan applauded our efforts and the result. They finally understood how much a kid could learn growing up on a farm. Farmers built everything they had by themselves. If they had kids, then they had apprentices who learned on the job.

The rent was going to be enough to pay for all of our utilities plus make a nice donation toward what our rent should be. I was excited to finally contribute to our surroundings.

George and Cecile surprised me. They had some contracts drawn up that were for the purchase of the house. The painting and garage was listed as the down payment with an extremely low monthly payment for the principal. I don’t know whether it was smart or not but, the new owners were listed as us three in a resident partnership agreement. I sure hoped we could swing this, as our income level was really low, like nothing.

The first thing I did was to go over the pickup mechanically, and then I painted it. It takes forever to sand, primer, sand a couple of more times, and then brush paint then sand and paint and sand some more. It can be done, and it can turn out nice. When I was done, I had a bright red pickup truck for sale. A neighbor bought it for four hundred dollars. That was nice two hundred fifty dollar profit after using it to build the garage. I went to the insurance company and canceled the insurance and received thirty-five dollars back. It was nice to have some money back in the bank.

The girls were disappointed that we didn’t have a truck any longer and wanted me to go out and find another one right away. I told them that if we needed one again, I would find one and buy it, but we didn’t need the expense of another vehicle right then.

The short vacation between the second summer session and fall semester came at just the right time. I think we three needed the break. Sandy came with us to the country club for a Saturday of sun and swimming pool. The second day, we played golf in the morning before church and then we all went to the lake for an exhausting day of water skiing. We had a blast trying to teach little Sandy how to ski. She did finally get up on them and skied for a while but was practically drowned by then.

Monday morning we played golf in the morning with the Moms, Terry, and Fred. That afternoon, while I was at football practice, the girls were learning what was expected of them in their new grad staff positions. We met at the cafeteria for supper, thinking we were in for another grueling fall.

During the rest of the week, we golfed in the morning, swam for about an hour, ate lunch, and prepared for our afternoon activities at school. This was the first time since they had started kindergarten that Trish and Delta were not together all day. Trish had one group of classes to teach, and Delta had another, so they didn’t see each other for three to four hours. If you had seen the two of them running back to each other and hugging, you would have thought they had been separated for months. It was going to be an adjustment.

Sunday, we celebrated by going to church really early before going to the lake for a picnic and some skiing. We also lounged around in the backwaters fishing a little but didn’t catch anything. We were getting ready for the grind with a smile.

The first week of school was like a wind up. The second week smacks you on both butt cheeks, yelling “Go.” We had a football game at home Saturday and practiced like demons during the week. On Thursday evening after supper, after visiting the library and walking home, we were surprised by cars in our driveway. Inside were George, Dan, Cecile, and Carol but with them was the big surprise: my mom and dad. George handed Trish, Delta, and me a beer, and then I had to find out what my folks were doing.

“We came to see you play football, Chuck,” my mom said. “I want to see how a basketball player does it on the field.”

“Your mom has been wanting to come see you play since your first year. I thought it would be nice to come while the weather is still decent to see you play. How do you think you’ll do this weekend?” Dad asked.

“We’re playing Northern Illinois in a non-conference game. They are a tough team. We have watched a couple of game films of them and know what they can do but not how we’re going to do against them,” I said.

“Bet you do great,” Dan said raising his beer with George nodding next to him.

“Do you guys stay at school this late all the time?” Dad asked.

Trish filled him in on our schedules and study group. This was how we had accomplished everything up until now.

When Dad was asking about the apartment, he let it slip that I had built the chicken house and one of the back barns by myself. He told George and Dan that he had only helped when I couldn’t lift something by myself or I didn’t know how to do something. George told Dad I had sold a perfectly good pickup truck when I was done building.

“Bet he sold it all painted up and made a profit on it too,” Dad said.

“I don’t know whether he did or not,” Dan Said. “Chuck, how did you come out on the deal?”

“Let’s see. I bought it for a hundred-fifty, insured it for sixty, and then used forty dollars in parts and paint to fix it up. I sold it for four hundred and then got back about thirty-five from the insurance company. So I made right at a hundred eighty five plus used it for two months to get the garage done,” I told them.

“You doubled your money?” George said.

“And he used it to do what he needed to do,” my dad smiled.

George then started in on the garage. “So how much did the garage cost? You had guys doing stuff for you, and I know you bought a lot of materials.”

“It really wasn’t too bad,” I said. “The steel would have been expensive, but Ted’s welding shop had a bunch of steel beams that were rusting out back. He gave me those cheap. Actually, I welded up some plow shears for him and sharpened them for his customer. He gave me the beams and plate for the work I did. All the plumbing stuff came from that used place over by the rail yard. They have tons of stuff that’s almost like new. We also got the hot water heater, fridge, and stove there, too. I had to buy the solder, some of the copper pipe, and all the drain and soil pipe, but that’s not too expensive. The concrete block, lumber, drywall, and paint were a little steep, but I bought it all from a contractor who had overbought for the apartments on Main Street. The concrete wasn’t too bad because we mixed it ourselves. The cabinets, doors, and windows came from the flea market. They were used and only needed cleaning up. We did the whole thing for under two thousand.”

“Two thousand?” George stuttered.

“No way,” Dan agreed.

“Bet he can show you his receipts and an itemized list,” Dad said.

“I want to see it,” George said.

Trish got up and went to the desk. She pulled out a fairly large account book and brought it to her Dad. She flipped through the pages until she got to the garage addition. She pointed at the total.

“Holy shit,” George exclaimed. “One thousand, nine hundred seventy-two dollars and sixteen cents. He has it down to the penny. Look at this Dan.”

“He learned that from the farm,” my mom told them. “On the farm every penny counts. If you don’t keep track, you don’t know whether you made ten cents or lost ten dollars when the year’s over.”

“An addition like that would cost somewhere between five to six thousand just to get it up, much less raising the roof on two thirds of it,” Dan exclaimed. “And you did it for under two thousand. I see you didn’t list the truck in this. You could reduce the total cost by almost two hundred more.”

“George, our kids are in good hands,” Dan said smiling.

Dad was grinning, “I think Chuck is in good hands too.”

Delta said, “We’re proud of what we have done. Now all we have to do is for Chuck to figure out what he’s going to do. Did he tell you the dean of the school of chemistry offered him a graduate fellowship?”