A gift from heaven

I drew my first house when I was in 9th grade. It was an assignment for my shop class at Beaumont Jr. High. I was hooked. The thought of drawing something that could one day be built into something real and big was awesome. I took an architectural drafting class in 11th grade that further whetted my appetite. While normal people doodled pictures of stick figures doing who knows what, or writing the name of their latest crush in a heart, in class, I doodled house plans. Call me weird. It was fun. My parents bought me my own drafting table and t-square. It was tucked away in a corner of my room, where I would sit for hours drawing. I still have that t-square, as a reminder.

I’ve moved on to bigger and better things. I don’t necessarily draw houses anymore. I manage commercial construction projects – a hospital, telecom building, offices, 34-story condo building, and so on. But I still remember the days of the house.

My Grandpa owned his own contracting company, Fleetwood Construction. He built buildings. And he was very successful. I didn’t get to see my Grandpa often because we lived so far away. But when we did get together, there would always be a conversation or two about building. When I drew up a house plan to be entered into a contest, he enjoyed the craziness of my plan. Too expensive to build, too many angles, too many custom features, but a nice big house. I was obviously not trained to think of how something gets built, I just wanted it to be pretty and cool. That makes a big difference in a building being cost effective and very expensive. (I now realize I was thinking like an architect. Glad I didn’t go that route, they’re crazy!)

One of the topics that we often discussed was a house he had drawn up when my Mom was young. He never got to build it, for the mere reason that life got in the way. But you could always tell how proud he was of this house, and how much he wanted to build it. Unfortunately, through time, he had lost track of the plans, though he swore he still had them. He passed away in 1995, and I never got to see the plans.

We went to Utah for Christmas this year. We did Christmas morning with Karl’s sister, then went to my parents that afternoon. As my family sat around watching us open our gifts, I opened a gift I never thought I’d see. The house plans. I immediately started to cry, along with most everyone else in the room. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. My Grandma had found them buried in a pile of papers in what was once my Grandpa's office. What I hadn’t noticed when my mom gave me the package was that it said it was from Grandpa Harmon.

In 2005, I was contracted to draw a house for the lady that sold us our wedding rings. I’ve drawn numerous home additions and remodels, but never a full-on home. This was not only a home, it was a split-level duplex that totaled 4,570 square feet. And it was actually going to be built. For someone to live in. The awesomeness of this feat was crazy!

In the title block on a drawing, the designer fills in their company name and info. Since I am my own “company”, I’ve always come up with some fun name to put there. What I don’t think anyone in my family has ever known is the name I chose for this project. Realizing the enormity of what I was doing, and the thought of who had helped get me to this point, I named my company Fleetwood Design.
If you ever make it out to Sanford, Maine, check out this house. I designed it!!!!!