And The Winner Was... Part II

So after our lunch meeting we returned to the TH Classroom and announced the exciting news... that we had found a place to bring the new TH and we would be raising the walls at the new location this coming week.

 

Although it was very exciting, a bit of a panic set in at the thought of the sheer amount of work that would need to be done over the weekend to make this come together smoothly. We had planned to raise the walls at the campus. Now, not only did we need to finish cutting and framing the South wall, we also needed to move the floor plate and the four walls over to the new site.

 

We went into super planning mode and identified that in order to get everything done we would have to move at least a couple of the panels the next day. So we borrowed a truck, arranged for a trailer, and loaded it up to transport that next morning, which was a Saturday.

 

We were successful in getting two panels over to the site and the only fatality was a splinter (ouch!) After a morning of hard work, we departed and agreed to regroup the next day (Sunday) to move the other two walls that were finished. [Boy, my classmates are so awesome and dedicated! I am so blessed that their love and care have been placed into the building of my TH!]

 

Before we flipped the bottom plate Sunday morning, I would need to seal the plywood cracks. So I went home and had lunch, then drove out to the new site by myself to complete the sealing. My son, excited about the news, came with me. We arrived on site and I began the sealing. After about 10 minutes a young university student who had been living on the land stopped and addressed me. Now this is when things starting becoming a bit odd....

 

 The young student proceeded to tell me how rude he thought I was for moving onto 'his' land without getting his permission first, and how put out he was about the whole thing. When I tried to apologize citing that I thought I had gone through proper channels by working through the Board he quipped, "The Board just pays the taxes, I am the one who has stake in the land here. I am the one who decides what will happen and not happen."

 

His lecture lasted about 15 minute. His colorful language which soon segued to threats made my thirteen year old son so uncomfortable he went to the car. "And it's very ironic you want to come here to community build, because this is a (f&#*&^%) poor way to go about doing it," he said. He closed the conversation informing me that he thought my proposal for Strategic Planning and Program Development over the next 12 months was a pretty good idea, but because I failed to obtain his permission first, it now was not going to happen.
 

Then sure enough, within a couple of hours we received a phone call from one of the board members informing us that our deal had fallen through and to come collect the TH plates from the land.

 

Wow. So the winner was not such a winner after all!