All of us elected to spend our time at the worksite, both for the chance to give input on the building process and to watch the crew work. Marten couldn’t help but walk the grounds to keep a close eye on the construction, and Marin followed closely behind him with a seemingly never-ending supply of questions about their soon-to-be-established business. Hana brought along her knitting supplies and was happy to sit on the driver’s bench of the wagon, working away at her current project from an elevated vantage point from which she could watch her husband’s meanderings. Lia and I sat in the grass at the edge of the clearing, following the various tasks of the workers with great interest.
I quickly learned that I had overestimated my knowledge on the topic of building houses. While I had initially assumed that the process of setting the foundation was a simple matter of digging a hole and fitting it with quality construction materials, the intricate level of detail we observed proved me entirely wrong. We watched with fascination as the workers meticulously graded and packed the earth at the bottom of their newly dug pit multiple times, then lined the surface with fresh, finely crushed gravel. Only then did they begin the process of lowering the massive stone slabs into the hole, making sure to thoroughly coat each edge with a thick layer of sticky black mortar. Sturdy support beams were fitted into perfectly shaped holes in the stone floor at regular intervals, creating a grid of vertical timbers that would eventually support the first-story floor.
The foundation was finished by the time the sun set, and we returned to town to find Elise waiting for us on her front steps. She welcomed us inside to a dinner table covered with food and drink, which consistently grew fuller as Bella appeared from the kitchen with even more platters and tankards. Over the course of the meal, Elise asked a multitude of questions about our experience with the workers, pushing us for details on their efficiency and adaptability. When she was satisfied that the project was proceeding as she expected, our conversation took on a more jovial, lighthearted tone, and we ate and drank together well into the evening.
As our visit wound down, Elise made an excuse to head back to her office with the increasingly flimsy promise to return afterwards, and we said our goodnights. Before she left, I inquired about where in town I would be able to buy a notebook and pen, which was met with a hearty laugh; she showed me to a small office behind the kitchen that was lined floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves filled with notes of various sorts, and I was told I could use anything that didn’t already contain writing. After an impressively long search through stacks of paper covered with records, diagrams, and hastily scrawled notes, I was able to find an empty notebook bound with metal lashes on one edge, as well as multiple inkwells and quills.
Lia and I returned to our bedroom for the night and began our next phase of planning. I drew diagrams of the various fittings and techniques we had seen, while Lia wrote a detailed list of the materials we would need and the order in which we would need them. She wrote her notes in the leatherbound journal that she had carried on all of our adventures, and she became amusingly defensive whenever I asked to reference her information. When pressed on the issue, she refused to hand the diary over, opting to instead dictate the necessary information aloud with a comical scowl. I quickly lost focus in favor of teasing her, and we gave up the task altogether soon after.
The following day provided even more new lessons. Due to Marten’s insistence on involving himself in the project, we were privy to a detailed explanation of each step in the process as he and the foreman chatted on their rounds. First, metal rods affixed a wooden sill to the stone slab walls of the basement, which became the framing for the rest of the day’s work. I began to create a rough sketch of what our potential house would look like as the building process continued in front of us, while Lia wrote down the dictated steps verbatim. After a day filled with lessons on joists, support beams, and cantilevers, we had a satisfactory plan for our house’s foundation written in full detail between our two notebooks.
I was continually surprised by how quickly the work on the Corells’ house advanced. With the basement and framing finished, it only took two more days of work to finish the project. I started the following day with notes on how the floor filled in over the frame, and by the time I had finished drawing, half of the walls had already been erected. With the floor in place, Marten, Hana and Marin walked through the skeleton of the house and gave their input on which rooms should go where. The left half was divided into three bedrooms, one large master room and two smaller guest rooms across the hall, while the right side was left mostly open like their original home in Tolamar, with a spacious living room leading to a dining room and kitchen.
As the workers laid overlapping slate roofing tiles on the last day of construction, a second full shipment of building materials arrived, just as Elise had promised. The foreman did his best to reassure Marten that his house had been built exactly as planned and the extra delivery was clearly a mistake that we wouldn’t be charged for. Marten, having been informed of our plan, assured the clearly distressed foreman that they could leave the materials where they were delivered for the time being; we would
