I recommended that a contractor be selected as construction supervisor, and I thought I was done. Boy, was I wrong.
G and G asked that I captain the project. Knowing what was ahead, I reluctantly accepted. I stamped my drawings with my Professional Engineer's Stamp, obtained the building permit from the local office, and we were off to the races.
George and I went to Columbus to get the necessary plumbing permit, and even though my percolation tests were very positive, we were told, emphatically, that the leach/tile field would have to be twice the size I planned, and consist of 2 alternating systems with a diversion gate: half the field one year, half the field the next year. The entire north west hill is leach field. And it all had to be preceded with a big septic tank.
I supervised construction on the weekends and bought materials during the week. What followed was calling work party after work party each Saturday for the next 2 years. Most members did not complain. Members pitched in. The project started with an almost, "Aw shucks." I laid out the structure with a transit, oriented the building parallel to the roads, set the batter boards, and started to dig footings--then I looked up and saw the lake. I had screwed up. Nothing to do but re-do/change the orientation to view the lake, and I breathed a sigh of relief when the batter boards were again in place. Close call.
I remember Dick Evans used his paper company trucks to haul twenty-four foot long 2 x 12's, the longest 2x12's ever supplied by the Remier Lumber Co. in Cincinnati. Who knew that a boat trailer (mine) could also be used to haul pipe columns and other construction materials. I dare say that the Shelter House has the only anchor bolts, in the United States, which are galvanized. Wally Vail, who worked for Witt Galvanizing, wanted to galvanize everything, including your shoes if you were standing still. (Wally was a good sailor. He fell out of the Scot he singlehanded, climbed back in, and still beat the fleet to the finish.) Wally's plant housed large vats of steaming zinc mellowed with floating pigs of aluminum. Sunlight streamed through large holes in the roof from fuming acid. Hell must look like that. The pipe columns are galvanized, inside and out. They will last forever!
Big timber center beam was raised with trepidation while Mike O'Toole stood in the loader bucket raised very high. He guided the monster beam carefully into place, as I shouted, "End clearance 2 inches, Mike, 2 inches!" Mike, in later years told me, "I will never do that again." Center wash room big beam, smaller side beams (cantilevered), were raised and installed by my wife & family. Weekend after weekend, members who had never swung a hammer, raised roof joists, nailed on plywood deck, and nailed on roof shingles bought from low cost Sutherland Lumber Co.
George More brought his crew of students from Sycamore Trade school to place and finish the floor slab. And it rained torrents!! The concrete truck got stuck in the mud! But in spite of everything, the concrete slab was finished for patio , both wash rooms, and sidewalks in one long Saturday. George Bell guided the concrete saw at 10:30 at night cutting contraction joints--cut too early the concrete would ravel, cut too late cracks would appear.
I can remember Jack Rudy ( jet engine welding engineer) biting adhesive glue from his fingers, and grinning, after installing underground plastic pipe for the toilets and other drains.---the same white 4 inch sch 40 plastic pipe that Doris (wife) hauled on top of our station wagon, driving fast downhill to stop the 10 ft joints of pipe from sliding forward, and slowing down going uphill to stop the pipe from sliding backward and landing in the street. (They were not well tied to the roof rack). She said the experience was worse than sailing through a black squall--and she has sailed through a few.
Plextone paints were applied to the block walls. Toilet partitions and special lavatory counter tops and mirrors were bought and installed by uncomplaining members. I remember--Jim Carey singing and having a ball as he and I troweled black adhesive and laid asphalt tile in the wash rooms and Bill Claypool, grinning and having the time of his life riding the ditch digger to cut the trench for the water pipe from club house well to the well-saver cistern on the hill. And then there was Denny Kreimer, Master Electrician, quietly wiring electricity to all the lights and pumps without which everything else would be superfluous. Finally, the construction of 10 picnic tables. The final cost ten dollars over the $15,000 budget, and then it was finished-------or so I thought.
George and Gordon then asked that I gut and remodel the main club house and we began another year of "construction" on weekends, buying materials during the week. New kitchen with new stoves and refrigerators thanks to Julian Magnus and his wife's discount from Swallens, rerouting the storm sewer system to stop the leaking roof, new red quarry tile for the floors, new kitchen layout, and new lavs and toilet partitions for men's & women's restrooms, & paint, paint, paint. Gordon Stafford signaled the end when he provided carved wooden door signs BOUYS and GULLS for the newly renovated wash rooms.
In 1981, I was Vice Commodore, and in 1982 when I was Commodore, at the end of the annual dinner, George & Gordon surprised my wife and me with the bronze plaque they called The Marcotte Award.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"--Dickens