SEEING THROUGH STAINED GLASS

Conservatory of Flowers, San Francisco, California
Photo: c. 2006   Susan L. Friesen
See this cool slideshow of historical postcards of the conservatory

I just got up at 5 o'clock, up before the sun. Do you ever get up early and enjoy watching the changing colors in the sky? Out my kitchen window, I view the low-lying hills to the east. Some mornings, we get a beautiful pink/ blue sky.

Yesterday was super-busy around here. My son came up from Los Angeles area and helped my husband take off more roofing material. Our home was built in 1961. Before we bought the home, someone roofed-over the original rock roof. We always wondered why the roof was un-level and now we know why. The rock was supposed to be stripped off, but it wasn't.

I took a digital movie of my husband and son putting up a center beam in our master bedroom. It was back-breaking work. At one point, all the weight of that beam was on my husband's arm.  Thankfully, my son relieved some of the burden. Even he, an athletic guy, thought he was being flayed, as it hurt so much to lift that beam.

All the work in this do-it-yourself home construction project makes me appreciate construction workers a lot more. I see why they get paid what they do, even though they, for the most part, haven't gotten an advanced  college degree. People in the trades work hard for what they do and it's often backbreaking work that demands a fair wage.

By doing the work ourselves, we'll save more than half in labor costs.  The pitfall is the wear and tear on the body. I wish we were more monied people to pay for people to just come over here and roof, build the rooms, dry wall, haul stuff to the dump, more.

We have to fix this house to make it safer for our two girls with heart transplants.  We thought of selling and moving to Los Angeles, to be closer to UCLA Medical Center, but we'd still need to fix the place to code, which would leave little to buy a place in expensive L.A.

Life is full of snafus, isn't it? Go one step forward, take two steps back. Eventually, we get where we want to go, as we strive and strain.

Looking through stained glass windows sounds like a good idea. Everything looks rosier.


Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

A large Perpendicular Gothic window of 8 lights in Canterbury Cathedral, c.1400, which contains medieval glass.  Courtesy of Wikipedia

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Posted by NZCate

I love the stained glass windows in the English & Europen Cathedrals - they are just stunning!

Thanks for visiting my blog & I look forward to seeing you Christmas tree too!

And yes, Irwin's death as tragic wasn't it? Amazing legacy though.

Cheers,
Cate

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Posted by mom2ZAW

I know what you mean about construction workers. My husband went and helped a member put in a new vinyl window (just one window) and it took all day. But now that they know what they are doing the next two should go faster. It is a lot of work and it is even more work when you do the job well, and right, the first time.

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