We live in the 21st Century, I get it. I spend hours every day on my computer, filling out on-line applications, zipping out files in google docs, video editing, website updates, etc. When you have 5, you spend A LOT of time doing that. (shameless plug encouraging you, dear reader, to visit my resources page for a run down of the current other 4 projects).
I am hardly a Luddite. That being said, there just isn’t anything like a good manual task that shows calculable results that you can use all of your senses to determine.
I thought about that when I was in the shop the other day. The sight of the clean cut of wood. The smells of the fresh timber. The sound of the cut or plane. The feeling of a really smooth surface. The taste of fine sawdust in your mouth. There just isn’t anything like it.
Imagine what those senses are when one walks into The Green Mill on a Tuesday night. You get it all. The dimmed light, the lime in your drink, the music, the hand of a dance partner, the first sip of gin.
One of the things I think I really like about the coach house project (there are so many things I like, and so many things that I fear, on a daily basis!) is the 97% of the project that is analog. The materials are brought to the job site, the goal communicated, the weight is lifted, the work is done, and the progress is obvious. Rarely, if ever, could I imagine a ‘ghost in the machine’ of a building project. The Ghost in the Machine is NOT the Gilbert Ryle r WWII era reference, but rather the more commonly used application in the today times.
On Tuesday I had a beautiful collection of blocks that were creating the interior structure of my coach house, and in a matter of just a few hours on Wednesday, the floor surface that will hold the weight of people meeting each other for the first time, experience the joy of dancing feet, support tired bodies, silently hear sorrowful tears and reverberate with laughter for the next many decades was erected. It was a not so modern miracle.
The next step to the sky now awaits the future progress.
What a difference a day makes.
#chicagocoachhouse #chicagoADU #coachhouse #analog #girlgeneralcontractor #whatadifferenceadaymakes #sincethatmomentofbliss