Thrifty Home Building

Daniel T. Leary (born: 4 Jan 1900) in loving memory of my grandfather, whom passed away long before I was born (5 May 1953), I would like to tell you a story about how he was a thrifty gentleman.

Grandpop was not a rich man, and with seven children to care for, money was tight, lucky for him, though, six of those children were boys. Why does gender matter? Well, because Grandpop had a brilliant plan and he needed all hands on deck.

Just down the road a house burned down, a two-story home, burnt completely to the ground. All of the debris was in the basement, there was nothing more to the property, just the burnt out house. Grandpop bought the property for dirt cheap, and the boys shoveled the basement out until it was clean. Once the basement floor was found they built a roof over the basement and moved into the “hole in the ground” as they fondly called this home.

Grandpop wasn’t done yet; he bought a cinderblock maker and taught the boys how to make cinderblocks. The boys made those blocks for what seemed to them an eternity. Then, together they jacked up the roof and laid a layer of blocks around the house.

The boys thought they were done, but not yet, Grandpop had them make more blocks and lift the roof again, this continued until the hole in the ground had a basement and one additional story. Finally, they were done and everyone loved their new home, except my dad (Raymond Leary).

When the roof was close to the ground, Dad would climb to the peak of the roof, lie down, and roll to the bottom. He found this to be great fun, and it was painless, but he often questioned why none of his siblings joined in the fun. Maybe they just couldn’t imagine telling their grandchildren, in the years to come, that they used to roll off the roof.