Thursday afternoon the
floor arrived from Bishop.
We counted as we unloaded it. As par for the
course we didn’t get the total amount we ordered but we had plenty to
start with. It arrived in varying lengths from 3 ft up to 18 ft. It was
beautiful and still very fresh with moisture.
We thought we would start laying it down to see how it was going to look.
It was around 4 pm. when we put down the first board. I did the squaring
off of the ends and cutting to length as someone would yell out the
measurements.
Just Dean, Pat and I
started out this little undertaking, but before long everybody had joined
in the fun. There was Walt and his cousins. Max and Tony, Jeff and his dad
Pat and his brother-in-law George. Everyone except Ken. He had already put
in a full days work and was kickin back in his new trailer with Connie.
As the saying goes,
"it was elbows and assholes". Boards were going down almost faster than I
could cut them. People were taking them from me and setting them on the
floor. Others were putting them in place. Somebody else leveraged them in
place against the preceding boards and somebody was using a nail gun
faster than Wild Bill Hiccup! We used 7000 nails in laying down hundreds
of boards. It was so much fun, that pretty soon it became evident that we
were going to keep going till we ran out of boards.
Once we got past the stage and dance floor, we had to move the chop saw
and all the boards over onto the finished floor before we could keep
going. This was just as good a time to take a little break as any.
Then it was back to
the task that LAY before us. He he. It wasn’t too long before we started
to question ourselves on maybe we do have enough to get to the end of the
building. We were shorted about 500 sq. feet on the order. That included
the stage floor and 10% waste.
Well, the way we
were cutting and laying them down we weren’t wasting even 1 %. We could
also do the stage floor in the spruce thus saving us an awful lot right
there. This could actually be possible
now. Theory turned into reality about 10 minutes to midnight when we laid
the last of 4500 linear ft. We even had 30 ft. leftover.
We all turned
around and marveled at our accomplishment. Then we strolled back 100 ft.
and got out a bottle of redrum out of the freezer to toast our newly laid
floor. Unbeknownst to me Dean had told everyone to wait till I started to
drink down my shot before dropping theirs on the new floor thus
christening it. Then he got his new gun out and started to shoot it. He
didn’t have bullets in the gun, just gun powder and wads so all he did was
put black burn marks on it.
Oh well, the floor
has now been broken in and it was time for some shut eye.
The next morning came early, but we didn’t. We got a late start. Ken went
about his usual. Throughout the week, he used his expertise where needed.
He boxed in all the eve’s, hung the front door, finished installing the
windows and did a great job on the back porch/patio area. Then he leveled
out the huge pile of dirt and graded around the saloon. The miners from
Tule Canyon were kind enough to bring back their little bob cat for Ken to
use. This made doing fine grading a lot easier for Ken than using a big
bull dozer.
Sandy arrived Friday night as usual, with her tiny car loaded. She came
right up to the saloon and was amazed at the progress for the week.
Throughout the week it was a lot of fun working with my friends. In the
mornings we had family style breakfast. In the evening it was family style
dinners and later, friendly style drinking.
By Sunday night, Dean and Pat went back to Sacramento and the corn huskers
went back to Iowa. This was the end of the second week of construction and
the building was almost finished. What was left was some of the roof,
putting up the porches and start moving in the furniture.
During the third and final week I finished up the roof. Ken finished up
the porches and misc. Walt finished up the electrical. Wednesday found me
doing a bonsai run to Vegas and back. It was a good day to go because the
wind had really picked up and it was hard to roof in those conditions. We
needed more building materials and electrical fixtures. Most importantly,
Sandy’s little car wasn’t going to be able to get everything up here in
two more trips before the party, so I would've taken a trip anyway.
With the construction finished, it was time for Walt and I to start the
interior furnishings and decorating.
We first moved my 1915 newly restored and updated to nickelodeon style
piano from my house to the stage. Then we put two old antique porcelain
stoves on each side in the corners. Upon these we put such things as hand
made dolls and such.
Behind the new bar in the rear of the building, we moved the old piano
that was collecting dust in the front corner of the building, thus making
the name of the second watering hole the PIANO BAR. This bar is set up
with a refrigerator and glasses. This is for our guests who wish to bring
their own refreshments.
Happy Trails and Sunsets,
Sheriff Harold T. Stone and/or Red Dog Lil
Part 5
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