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These informal reports, filed every couple weeks by Sensei (and e-mailed to interested members), are meant to provide snapshots of what's happening at Chapin Mill, plus the who, how, when, and where of it.
The most dramatic change in the past fortnight is in the road work that has been done immediately in front of the building. All along we have been required by the local fire department to have some kind of road surrounding most of the building. Where it runs in front of and around the building we will leave the surface as gravel, for a more natural look, but from Seven Springs Road up to the building it will be paved with asphalt this summer. (The transition point from blacktop to gravel, at the west end of the building, will be softened with stone or other materials to be recommended by our landscape architect.)
This week many huge truckloads of gravel were brought in to build up the road next to the building, as specified in the plans. Road warrior Alan Temple,
 with decades of experience as a builder, was on site every day, supervising the work. He himself spent many hours in the saddle of a vibratory roller, compressing and smoothing the successive layers of gravel while dodging the bulldozer and backhoe we had hired. It was a veritable ballet of menacing machines. The result: a more finished look. The building appears - in fact, is - more accessible, even though there is more space between it and the road. And the handicap ramp has now settled into the design nicely.
Self-congratulation Department:
Non-parents will never know the quiet joy that wells up upon hearing someone praise the qualities of their children as they develop into adulthood. But a small semblance of that hard-earned pride rose up in some of us yesterday as we showed a first-time visitor through the new building at Chapin Mill. Chuck Vella had driven out there with me from Rochester to give us an estimate for stuccoing the concrete lower half of the building.
Chuck is arguably Rochester's premier mason, with a stellar reputation for quality work and honesty. All his customers come via word-of-mouth; he doesn't even have a business card, much less advertise.
Yet his brick- and stone-laying work is booked for a year and a half in advance.
Last fall Chuck had spent time advising the Building Committee on the stone that we planned to clad the concrete with, but when we realized how much it would cost (ballpark estimate: $100,000 - or months of back-breaking volunteer work), we switched to stucco, which can still be stone-clad someday when we can afford it.
Lou Kubicka and I spent almost an hour showing Chuck through the new building. Stooped and nearly 67 years old now, and wearing shabby work clothes, he heaves his bulky frame, step-by-step, much as he has done, no doubt, with wheelbarrows of mortar for most of his life. As a successful small-business owner, it's hard to believe that he could be as guileless as he seems, but he has a boyish effusiveness that is disarming. He has the heart of a puppy in the body of an old, battle-scarred grizzly bear.
He was absolutely blown away by the new building. Granted, it is standard bidding posture to praise the potential customer's property, but Chuck was so specific in his admiring remarks that most of it had to have been genuine. For some examples, read on.
- On the poured-concrete foundation and surrounding walls: "All poured-concrete! You don't often see this these days! Do you know how well-insulated this is going to be? You won't feel a thing!" And later, gleefully, "This is going to last forever! If there's a war, I know where I'm comin' - this place is a fortress!"
- Facing the front of the building, which is now mostly covered with the 10,000 cedar shingles that were individually hand-stained and applied by members: "This isn't a building - it's a painting! You can't get a contractor to do this kind of work."
- Entering the building, and walking through the main, communal rooms: "Look at these vaulted ceilings!" "Those beams - I love them!" "Who designed this place??"
- On the drywalling and mudding: "I can't get over this - not a mark anywhere! You can't get people to do this kind of work anymore - you can't afford it!"
- On the beaded-board back-porch ceiling (slapping his forehead): "You don't see this much anymore!"
- In the basement mechanicals room, as he gazed upon the enormous assemblage of pipes, valves, and gauges: "Unbelievable! You just don't see this kind of work anymore. Who did this job??"
- In the huge temporary zendo, gawking up at the underside of the floor above: "Look at all these trusses! Amazing!"
- And finally, on hearing that no building inspectors had shown up since our volunteers took over last August: "A building inspector would be embarrassed to see this place - he wouldn't have ever seen anything like it! He wouldn't know what to do!"
Before arriving at the site, apparently he had not understood the scale of the project any more than the quality of it. At one point in the tour, as he lumbered along, eyes to the ground, he chortled to himself, in mock derision, "Yeah, just a little retreat cabin out in the woods.!"
When he finally left, the notepaper on his clipboard still blank, he told us that he wanted to have "Patrick," his main stucco man, come out and see the place for himself, present us with the different stucco materials and colors to choose from, and advise us. Their bid may prove to be unaffordable for us, but, especially for those of us who have seen little new construction with which we can compare it, or who have somewhat lost our perspective through months of immersion in the work, it was heartening to hear the admiring perspective of a veteran tradesman of "the old school."
Anything well-made acquires an immortality to it, even in its impermanence. The caring attention that goes into this labor of love called Chapin Mill will illuminate the project and outlive it. And with months more of finishing work to do in and around the building, there is still time to play a significant role in the effort. All ye who long to escape your routine work and help build something that will benefit generations of practitioners, come on down!
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