Casnabberfort
I started this post merely to show the "redo" on the chandelier that is hanging on my deck, but now have to share the Casnabberfort and Carpenter stories.
When we were building our addition and I was living out a brief fantasy career of architect and landscape designer, one morning partway through deck construction, I came up with the idea to add this little "tip-out" thing on the deck. Let me tell you, the carpenter was not a happy camper that day, but given that we had no zoning, no permits, and no inspections in this little redneck world that we live in, we were free to change and build anything that we wanted. After much drawing and figuring and a little arm crossing and stamping of the feet, both by the carpenter and I, we came up with this little area that the carpenter promptly dubbed the Casnabberfort. Aptly named, it is too small to be a gazebo, and the name has stuck.
You might ask how he came up with that name? Nothing surprises me about this man. He has been my friend, carpenter, and go to man for every project for years. He and I have replaced windows, built additions and decks, remodeled bathrooms and kitchens, insulated and fixed up houses for 20+ years. He was a friend of my first husband and now friends with John, we laugh and say that I got him and my kids in the divorce, and not much else really mattered!
He has told me stories that have made me laugh so hard I have cried. Stories of Beaver Lindenpitz, Jingles Lingenfelter, his childhood growing up in Rathmill and the first flush commode installed there. Stories of a white cat dipped in kerosene, exploding apple cider and the day that he threw the stove across the yard. The one about his cousin with the feet on backwards that brought the same meatloaf to the family picnic for twenty years and his shoes with the orthopedic insoles that his son left on the back of the truck and lost on the road somewhere have me bent over laughing just in the dry way that he tells them.
When we were building our addition and I was living out a brief fantasy career of architect and landscape designer, one morning partway through deck construction, I came up with the idea to add this little "tip-out" thing on the deck. Let me tell you, the carpenter was not a happy camper that day, but given that we had no zoning, no permits, and no inspections in this little redneck world that we live in, we were free to change and build anything that we wanted. After much drawing and figuring and a little arm crossing and stamping of the feet, both by the carpenter and I, we came up with this little area that the carpenter promptly dubbed the Casnabberfort. Aptly named, it is too small to be a gazebo, and the name has stuck.
You might ask how he came up with that name? Nothing surprises me about this man. He has been my friend, carpenter, and go to man for every project for years. He and I have replaced windows, built additions and decks, remodeled bathrooms and kitchens, insulated and fixed up houses for 20+ years. He was a friend of my first husband and now friends with John, we laugh and say that I got him and my kids in the divorce, and not much else really mattered!
He has told me stories that have made me laugh so hard I have cried. Stories of Beaver Lindenpitz, Jingles Lingenfelter, his childhood growing up in Rathmill and the first flush commode installed there. Stories of a white cat dipped in kerosene, exploding apple cider and the day that he threw the stove across the yard. The one about his cousin with the feet on backwards that brought the same meatloaf to the family picnic for twenty years and his shoes with the orthopedic insoles that his son left on the back of the truck and lost on the road somewhere have me bent over laughing just in the dry way that he tells them. I am always ready for another story and wish that I could write them all down, but changing the names would ruin the stories. So for now those of us who know him will enjoy the stories ourselves and treasure the friendship!
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Kath