Wrap it Up

The stones in this house near Nobleton Ontario had to be the nicest I’d come across. They were fashioned ever-so-carefully into various sizes of wide rectangles. And they came in so many lovely colors. I thought quite a bit about coming up with a way to have them taken down and then rebuilt and put in place just as they sat as I saw them on that summer day sometime in the 80s.

I abandoned quite a few ideas that might not have produced either the preferred effect or the desired economics. I’m not sure where the idea came from but when it did, I knew we were on to something. At first, it seemed too simple. I’d never seen it done, but as much as I tried to fault it, I couldn’t. I explained the theory to a couple of my guys who shook their heads, probably thinking it was just another of my fantasies. Christina didn’t though. She seemed to see its merit right away. She even offered to forman the whole job. When I thought about it, I wasn’t surprised that I trusted her to bring it off.

Christina is an exceptional person and I’d been very lucky to have her as my girl Friday, so to speak, for a few years in the 80s. Her expertise embraced many professions. She was an accomplished pianist, a graduate interior designer, a competent carpenter, a landscape designer, my show marketer, and my bookkeeper. I honestly think she could take on any job and do it well.

Here’s an outline of the job. Once we had the roof off and carted away, sand would be set at the bottom of the walls, leaving room for the scaffolding. The key to the entire job was the clear Mylar, prepared in eight-foot square sheets. I’d worked out that about 60 square feet of stone would fit on one strong skid (4 layers of 4’x4’). The Mylar would be duck-taped over the stones, just as they stood on the walls, starting at the top of course. Much could be written on the Mylar; the size of the stone, its colour, and any idiosyncrasy of the stone. Once 8 feet square was diagrammed on the Mylar the sheet was numbered, as was the skid that accepted the stones once they were tossed down. That’s about it. Piece of cake. Christina pulled it off like a trouper.

The skids were delivered to the clients building site, intact and ready for someone to rebuild them. It was a few years later that I heard the bad news. The couple had divorced before the stones were ever laid back up. Perhaps they’ve never been. Alas, the vagaries of life we ponder, as upon this tumbling world we wander.