The McParland Mountain Retreat

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With most of the necessary earthmoving completed, the McParlands towed their Airstream trailer up the tortuous two-mile path (Roger claims it took only two hours to negotiate the rocky road and its five stream crossings) and set up homesteading. First came the shed, an approximately 40' X 60' pole building with rough-cut siding and a metal roof. There they could store tools and the materials they'd already accumulated ... and add quantities of lumber, wallboard, and the like as they found good deals on such items.

As a result of his days in the swimming pool business, Roger says that he usually finds working with concrete to be a cinch, but the task of pouring the footings and slab was complicated somewhat by the fact that no local concrete company was interested in negotiating the McParlands' "driveway". Consequently, the couple had to haul all the raw materials themselves and do the mixing at the site. Instead of relying on the large continuous pours they'd used in Michigan, therefore, Roger divided the slab up like a pie and poured each section separately ... since he could mix up only a limited amount of concrete at a time. Still, by working steadily, he was able to finish the 4"-thick slab—which isn't insulated underneath but is thermally separated, by polystyrene board, from the 18"-wide, 36"-deep footings— in short order.

The structural block walls and the stud framing also went smoothly, though the dwelling's circular shape kept Roger on his toes. To fit plates along the circumference, he tried soaking 2 X 4's in a nearby stream, but the waterlogging did little to increase the boards' willingness to conform to either the inner 37-1/2-foot radius or the outer 52-1/2-foot one. Careful cutting on the radialarm saw proved to be the only solution, but the drone of the necessary engine-driven generator did cut sharply into the couple's peaceful hours.

Setting the 26-foot-long trusses that support the cathedral ceiling proved to be one of the most physically demanding portions of the job. Roger shouldered each of the laminated 2 X 8 beams to its perch on the back wall ... grunting up a ladder rung by rung. After several creaky journeys to the top, though, the old (but, Roger assured Doris, exceedingly sound) ladder collapsed under the strain ... depositing beam, lifter, and splinters on the ground. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt, but that event, plus—later—Roger's being struck by lightning and burned from his head almost to his waist, left both of them wondering whether wilderness living was really what they wanted.

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