At the time there were no restrictions on what a homeowner could do to his own home. All that was required was an inspection when you finished. Since Cape Cod is a glacial moraine with large quantities of sand non-centralized plumbing waste were handled with cesspools. My introduction to plumbing was started with digging the hole for our new cesspool. A backhoe was an expensive item for this young family but labor on the part of myself and my father were cheep and the lot was all sand anyway. We proceeded to dig this new 7-foot deep 7-foot diameter hole by hand. Since we were digging in pure sand by hand we ended up with a rather larger hole than would be desired. As we approached the seven-foot mark the sand was getting rather damp. We were coming near the water table. The moist sand made for a bit more stability in the sand and since we weren’t quite down to water we were able to make a nice firm base for our cesspool. Soon a kit of cinder blocks arrived to create the physical structure. The blocks were shaped to interlock in rows and had openings to permit the easy flow of water into the sand. There would be no bottom so we started with the prescribed number of curved blocks and soon had a circle of blocks that would act as the base of our cesspool. The next row was started with each block straddling the block below so that no block end would end above another. Since the blocks were not held together by any mortar as soon as we had three or four rows completed we would back fill the hole outside of the blocks. This insured the blocks would not move and allowed us to continue higher and higher. We soon got to a cylinder about four foot high and switched to a different shaped block which tapered in as we climbed. By the time we got to the surface level our seven-foot cylinder had been neatly narrowed down to the correct diameter to support the manhole like cement lid. As we had build the tapering portion we had left one stone out of one of the layers to provide a way for the waste pipe from the house to empty into the enclosure.

From there it was a simple matter to trench back to he house and run the waste pipe to our new facility. We were using cast iron pipe and I learned about packing the sections together with oakum to minimize leakage. I then learned about copper pipe and tubing and how to solder. We had a shallow well dug for a new water supply using a submersible pump, which actually goes down into the well, and is therefore self priming. This alone made a significant improvement to our lifestyle.

Over the years I learned how to plan a plumbing job, how to select the proper materials, how to transition from one materiel to another and one size to another, where to use copper tubing and where to use pipe. How to choose the correct diameter for different parts of a system. I learned how to run a drainage system and properly vent it to eliminate gasses and minimize blockages. I learned about heating systems, sizing a heater for a house, and setting up proper lengths and placements for baseboard heating systems.

Of course all of my education would not take place in this original cottage. My father became more and more interested in building homes as the Cape grew in popularity. Initially Dad and a fellow salesman from the same company formed a partnership and bought an area of land that could be divided into several different lots. Initially they would build their own houses and when finished sell them and build more. Soon it was decided that things were going well enough that they would hire a crew to build the shell of the house. The shell is the main structure of the house from the foundation to the roof with nothing inside except the interior partitions as two by four-inch framing. They were doing this on weekends and during vacation periods. Eventually the partnership broke up and both men quit their sales jobs and became independent contractors. My father eventually ended up building luxury homes and condominiums and ended up with a license to construct buildings as large as four stories in both Massachusetts and Florida.

As the business grew, my knowledge base grew. In the beginning when we were building homes for ourselves to finish and sell I had the job of helping my father with the plumbing, electrical, sheet rocking, finish carpentry, and flooring.. My mother and sisters were responsible for painting, ceramic tile, decorating and painting.

I learned basic framing and was soon helping assemble and raise walls. I learned to build spring braces, which permitted adjustments to be made to insure the wall segments were square as the frame of the house came together. An important feature in those days of pre-truss construction was the placement of internal support walls that helped carry the weight of the structure. Then the layout and cutting of rafters for the roof came into my world. The setting of the ridgepole and planning the overhang all came into it. We used plywood for sheathing and I became familiar with ½’ and 5/8" single sided and double-faced sheets, CDS and NON-CDS, which told you if you had a sheet with glue that was good for exterior use or not. .

In a couple of houses I even got involved in roofing and siding. I learned about builders paper and tar paper to provide weather barriers and proper overlapping of each. I learned about ridge caps and valley treatment, both flashed and woven. I learned step flashing and basic watertight sealing procedures and, of course, how much area a square of shingles would cover and just how much one weighed when it had to be carried up a ladder to a roof.

Electric wiring was surprising in its simplicity. Many of the variables were spelled out in the local building codes. From the meter into the house came three wires, two power and one neutral. When I started out the power legs were each 110 volts providing 220 for the heavy-duty appliances. Then they went to 115 volts and now the standard 120 and 240-volt systems. When I started wiring houses 60 amps was common for the entire house. Now it is very rare to find a house built with less than 200-amp service. The size of the main service box is measured in the number of amps of power that it can handle. This is then divided into various individual 10, 15, and 20 amp circuits that provide power to various room outlets, lights, and appliances. Individual circuits are protected by their own device, originally a fuse, which would heat up and melt breaking the circuit if to many amperes were pulled through the wire or circuit it was protecting. Now they use circuit breakers, which pop when overloaded and can be reset once the overload is corrected. A pair of large fuses, which limit the total power drawn by all of the individual circuits, protects the whole service box.

Individual circuits were a snap, at first we didn’t worry too much about which wire carried the hot and which the neutral, and the ground wires weren’t always as consistent as they should have been. Eventually I learned to carry a ground from the service box to every outlet or connection and to insure that the power leg was identified by color. I learned about three way switching and wiring various lighting arrangements from florescence to halogen from a 350 watt ceiling lamp to low voltage outdoor lighting.

I learned how to plan the layout of sheet rock for a room, a proper nailing pattern, how to mix the mud to the proper consistency. I learned how to apply the mud, edge inside and outside corners. Using the correct spreading knife can greatly reduce the amount of sanding required. Ceilings can be the most troublesome, but I learned to make two by four braces which would permit you to apply the ceiling rock properly. I learned about blue board (humidity resistant) sheet rock for use in high humidity area and eventually to use cement board in the shower areas.

I learned to build kitchen cabinets, hang the doors, and build and assemble draw units for the kitchen. I learned how to install dishwashers and connect them to drain through the garbage disposal, how to safely wire surface mounted cook tops, over the stove vent fans, and built in the cabinet ovens. I learned the tricks of applying high-pressure laminate counter tops and using a router to cut it to fit precisely. I learned how and when to use a circular saw, a table saw, and a radial arm saw as well as rip and crosscut hand saws. We used to build the base cabinets in place. Overhead cabinets were built as clusters on the floor and then put into place.

In flooring I would learn to prepare a sub-floor for asphalt and then, later, for vinyl tile and sheet flooring. I also learned how to put down an oak board floor, sand it smooth, including the areas abutting walls and to give it a good finish. I learned how to cut and trim ceramic tile to properly fit and surround pipes, sinks and tubs. I would learn how to cut and lay wall to wall carpet and how to make smooth transitions between all of these combinations. The trick was in knowing what was going where and making the preparations to the underlying floor so that no one is tripped or even notices when they move from one surface to another.

Initially foundations were a moot point the original cottages were simply set on single cement blocks placed at critical support points. As the houses became larger and more complex we moved to building houses on crawl spaces. This required learning about footings and permitted running plumbing and other utilities under the house more easily.

I learned about operating a wheeled tractor. Initially we would scrape clear a lot and pile all the topsoil along the back of the lot. This permitted easy access to the building site and allowed some of the vegetation to enrich the topsoil, which we would spread over the lot after the house was in place. This clear cut method was obviously a poor way to treat the land and we were soon involved in planning house placement and clearing the lot accordingly. We would go into a new lot, clear out much of the undergrowth and remove vines wrapped around the biggest trees, Scrub Oak and small pines. After clearing the first lot I found out exactly what Poison Ivy was.

We only cut down trees in the footprint of the house we were going to build, about ten foot around that and a drive way in to the site to provide access for the trucks. The trees were not all that plentiful and once we had cleared away the undergrowth each lot was reasonably accessible. It made for a much nicer lot overall than our earlier practice.

One time I was using the backhoe on a Ford wheeled tractor in the rain. I was digging a trench for a water line that needed to be four feet deep to insure it was well below any possible frost line. I was very proud of how straight and narrow I had managed to dig the trench. The Soil was nothing but sand with about 1" of vegetation on the surface holding everything together. I was concentrating on doing my best to dig the trench exactly one bucket wide and marveling at how nicely the sand walls were holding together (thanks to the rain). I was so interested in my progress that instead of moving the tractor forward before digging more I ended up digging too close to the big rear wheels. When I did turn around in my seat to start moving the tractor instead of going ahead the whole machine just slid down and to the left as the wall collapsed and my tire started to sink into the trench. Instead of going for help I decided to see if I could rescue our tractor before my father found out what I had done. I turned back to the backhoe and placed the bucket on the ground as far as possible off to the side and slowly pushed down on the bucket taking the weight of the tractor off the sunken tire and placing it on to the arm and bucket. Once I had the weight off of the sunken tire I released the brakes and used the bucket to push the tractor away from the hole. One shift wasn’t quite enough, but by carefully resetting the brakes and repositioning the bucket I was gradually able to move clear of my disaster. Once back on firmer ground I was able to remove the sand that had collapsed into the trench and finish my job. Alas, I no longer had a perfect trench to brag about. The evidence of my disaster had been far too obvious.

We then moved into partial cellars, which could hold heaters, water heaters and sometimes laundry facilities. After spending a lot of time crawling through many many crawl spaces we moved into full basements. I started to learn about foundation forms, how to tie them together to safely hold the concrete. I learned how to set blocks and cans into the forms to provide precise holes for water and gas supply lines and for sewage lines as well as frames for windows. Placement of bolts to secure the house sills to the foundation is a crucial element of any foundation. Removal of the forms and water sealing the foundations is another whole chapter in my education.

Pouring a concrete floor is a another of the fine arts of construction. It starts with preparing the ground, applying water barriers as desired, wiring together the reinforcing steel grid, deciding what kind of mix to use and the strength of the final floor and calculating the volume of concrete needed. Remembering you will pay for the amount you order whether you use it in the floor or it is dumped in a waste pile. Once the delivery starts it must be spread while insuring that it is to the predetermined thickness with the steel grid positioned in the middle of the thickness. Once the mass starts to firm up it must be smoothed to the desired level at the desired point remembering you want it to be flat, but you want it to drain to a specific point should any water end up on it. Then, as it sets up you go over and over the surface with a Float to bring the liquid to the surface and smooth it. A good finishing team can come up with a very fine surface.

I have covered my education in home building basically from the roof to the cellar, but that seems to have been the sequence I learned it in. As the company grew, my father became more and more of a contractor planning and coordinating larger and larger subdevelopments with all physical work done by sub contractors. His experience in creating the company and my experiences growing up helping with the various jobs was invaluable for both of us. Had I not gone into the service and found that to my liking I am sure that I would have become a general contractor and inherited a good business that I was well prepared for.

As I look back on it, it is truly amazing how trough my knowledge of home construction was as I headed out for college. I could figure the angles of the bird’s mouth on a roof rafter, calculate the angle and rise and run on a stairway, or the volume of concrete to order to fill a foundation form. I could cut finish moldings for either inside or outside corners, and even correctly cut the angles on cornice moldings or properly frame a window or run a wainscot around a dining room. I can sculpt a drop ceiling or counter set a finish nail. I can drive a bulldozer or move the bucket of a backhoe through a window in a house side. I can build a non-asphalt non-concrete driveway that will stand up to all types of weather with the proper selection of various gravel sizes and types. I can tell if a plumber or electrician is doing the job correctly or if a roofer is doing a good job or not. There is no way I could have learned these things from a book.

Thanks Dad!