Love is Building a House Together: A Tribute to My Parents, Part I

 Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #54 By Tonya Graham McQuade

"LOVE IS BUILDING A HOUSE TOGETHER" 

In this photo, my mom stands and dad sits beside this slogan,

painted on the side of the old house on Minta Lane before it was torn down.

For most kids, building a house involves blocks, legos, Lincoln logs, or possibly cardboard boxes. Perhaps, if they’re lucky, they might get to help build a fort or a playhouse in their backyard. In my family, though, building a house meant working together to build an actual house – one that we would eventually live in – and which my parents, Doug and Dotty Graham, continued to live in until earlier this year when they sold the house on Minta Lane in Antioch and moved to a senior living facility.

My dad’s birthday is this weekend, so it seems like a good time to feature him in one of my blog posts. I previously wrote about some of his building projects and his sailing adventures. In this post, though, I’ll discuss how he pushed forward to make a dream of his come true – and how he eventually brought the rest of the family along with him, teaching us a lot about determination, persistence, and what goes into building a house in the process. Of course, this is how I – then ages 13-14 – remember it. The rest of the family each has their own memories — but some of those memories come from my mom’s own pen in 1979, as you’ll soon see.

Photos of the old house at 2752 Minta Lane in Antioch

I still recall the day my dad purchased an old house sitting on a third of an acre on Minta Lane. We were living on Kendree Street at the time, where I had lived since I was four years old, and none of us were especially anxious to move. As a then-seventh grader, I was not privy to the conversations my parents had about this decision – but I’m pretty sure my mom was not a driving force in this move. She was a resigned participant at best.

We did not, however, immediately move to this new property. There was a lot that had to be done before they could start building, so for a while, my parents rented out the old house to another family. My dad, in the meantime, started researching different styles of houses, reading books about construction, drawing up and submitting plans, building cardboard models (I remember arguing for a bigger bedroom), and getting permits and ordering supplies so that he could start construction.

My dad's cardboard model of the house he designed

A picture of what the house would look like

My parents ultimately decided to build a passive solar house, using some of the design features they learned about from a similar community they visited up in Davis. That decision paid off in many ways over the years, helping not only the environment but their pocketbook – they were even audited at one point because their PG&E bills were so low. 

My dad did a lot of research into passive solar design.

Around this same time, President Jimmy Carter added solar panels to the White House in 1979 to set an example for a national campaign to conserve energy and reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, especially during the energy crisis caused by the Arab oil embargo. He said the U.S. could harness “the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.” [1] He tried to get the country to buy in to his way of thinking.

That year in his State of the Union address, Carter “presented an ambitious plan to put America on a clean energy path: 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2000. Part of his idea was to go far beyond simple hot water solar collectors and direct government research funds toward the development of photovoltaic cells, the kind that could put energy into the grid.” Ah, if only we as a country had continued down that path. [2]

Seven years later, under President Ronald Reagan, those solar panels were removed from the White House and never reinstalled. The Reagan administration also “allowed Carter’s financial incentives promoting renewables to expire…. Tax credits established in 1977 for homeowners installing solar water heaters ended Dec. 31, 1985.” [3]

My parents, though, were able to benefit from those incentives under Carter. And while I was not always a fan of our solar water heater, which sometimes was not as “hot” as I would have liked, I appreciate (probably more now than I did then) that my parents were so forward-thinking when it came to clean energy. Our front door featured a decorative piece of stained glass depicting the sun, and another sign in our house (made by my brother Andy) proclaimed, “The answer to the world’s energy crisis comes up every morning.” 

But I’m getting ahead of myself …

The old Minta house was very close to the street,

leaving plenty of room to build behind it.

The old house on Minta Lane was close to the street, toward the front of the property, which meant there was a lot of space behind it to start building the new house. Of course, that also meant clearing and leveling the property before construction could begin. This involved lots of pickaxing and shoveling and hauling. All of us were drafted to be workers in this process - especially as part of the “clean up crew.”

Working to clear and level the construction site

One of the more memorable moments happened when my dad was using a pickaxe to break up the soil to level the ground for a shed. Our job after he did this was to shovel the dirt into a wheelbarrow to haul to another section of the yard. This was certainly not a fun task to my teenage mind – but it got a lot more exciting when we heard glass break and discovered a now-broken canning jar with a roll of old paper money totaling $575 wrapped in an old popcorn bag inside of it. Years ago I wrote a poem about that memory, which you can read HERE if you are interested.

The summer before my eighth grade year, my parents started building the foundation of the house. That involved a LOT of digging – which my dad did by hand – as well as lots of lumber deliveries and precise structural framing. The solar design also required pouring a cement foundation, which meant all the plumbing and electrical had to be carefully laid out before the cement could be poured. I remember my dad was very concerned about getting everything right since it could not be easily corrected after the cement had dried, so he had someone help with some of this to ensure accuracy. He also recruited lots of friends – as well as family members – to help with the cement pouring, as these pages from their photo album show.

That's my brother Cam (age 10) in the top left and two bottom right photos;

Andy (age 5 1/2) appears in two of the photos as well.

Here you can see my mom, then 39, hard at work, as well as my dad's note:

"Waiting for Spring" to continue the building process.

A neighbor captured this photo of my mom nailing down the shed roof.

This page shows the shed, the foundation, 

and the view from the backyard of the Antioch hills.

While going through old boxes of cards and photos earlier this year to help my parents prepare for their move, I found this written description from my mom that included some details I had forgotten. I think her journal entries are worth including here:

6-25-79

Fence posts all in – Tonya and I put up three sections of fence Friday. Doug working on foundation. When we came to work on fence this morning, we were surprised to find it almost finished. I worked on front sections until I ran out of wood – got one section out of plumb [not aligned]. Hope it’s okay.

6-26-79

Took out four boards on fence to correct my error. Rest of fence was finished last night by McKains [our Minta Lane neighbors]. Tonya and I were disappointed as we wanted to work on it, plus her dad was giving her $1 a section! We helped Doug dig. What a miserable way to dig a foundation – by hand. Tonya and I picked on Doug – sometimes I don’t know how he can work so very hard! We only stayed until lunch. I took kids home then.

6-27-79

I left early with Doug. Kids stayed home. We worked on foundation. Digging is hard work. I have blisters. I can’t believe it will ever really be a foundation. Doug continues to plod onward.

6-28-79

Today more of the same – work. Dragged some heavy boards delivered by lumber company. Cam and Andy played space ships while we worked. Doug worked on putting forms up for concrete. It begins to take on a shape – be it ever so humble. Doug worked late – 5:30. I came home at noon again.

6-29-79

I don’t feel like helping today. Doug needs me to help do measuring. He left early to go to dump and get more pipe. Read a book until it opened at 8:00 – what determination! I only worked 1 ½ hours today. Andy’s last swimming lesson today. He’s doing so well.

Measuring, leveling, taking out trees, and building fences

6-30-79

It’s Saturday – everyone wants to play and not go to Minta to work. I’m behind in my work here at home. We put off going until 2:00. Doug, Cam, and I went over. Cam had fun watering trees and getting all muddy. Doug and I spent two hours measuring the levels of foundation! I like to think about the landscaping every now and then – what it would look like someday.

7-1-79

Sunday – roller skating at Golden Gate Park. What a blast it was.

I remember how much fun we had roller skating at Golden Gate Park. What a nice respite that must have been for everyone! I also like to think of my mom picturing what the landscaping might look like one day, knowing how beautiful their yard eventually was with its garden, trees, and flowers (more on that later).

Over the next week’s journal entries, my mom writes about preparing for Cam’s 10th birthday party, going to Contra Loma Reservoir with friends for a picnic and to celebrate the Fourth of July, staying home to clean the house to get ready for a visit from my grandparents (my dad’s father and his wife Donna), hearing about their recent trip to Canada, and taking my grandparents to see the Oakland Symphony at the Concord Pavilion. In other words, she lived a normal life and took a break from work on the Minta house. She then describes something about which I have no memory. I can't imagine how emotionally difficult those few days must have been:

7-8-79

Sunday after church we went to see some energy efficient homes in West Pittsburg. Doug is now very discouraged because our house seems so much bigger than the ones we saw. We are ending up with 1925 sq. ft., more than we wanted. We might decide to start all over!

7-9-79

No work done on house today. It is very depressing. Talked to Steve Ortega for advice. He’s a carpenter.

7-10-79

Went to Benicia today to look at energy efficient models. They were lovely – wonder if ours will ever look like that. Now Doug thinks we will stick with original plan in spite of its size and difficultness (?) to build.

7-12-79

Worked at house at 8:00. Came home at 10:00 to take kids to swimming lessons. Then we all went back and worked on house. Tonya and I stacked bricks with sand to help fill in foundation so we will not need so much cement. It is HOT today. Boys played in the big pile of sand we had delivered. After we had lunch Doug took Tonya and Cam to school and library with him in afternoon. They helped him work on new drafting room. I got some cleaning at home done. 

7-13-79

Went early to work at house. Doug and Tippy [our dog] went early again to get more brick so I could continue brick wall. Kids stayed home – except Andy came to play on sand pile. Only worked until lunch as it is HOT again!

That’s where my mom’s journal ends … at least, those are the only pages I found. That means I’ll have to rely on my own memories (and photos from their house building scrapbook) to tell the rest of the story. Once the foundation was completed, my dad had to focus once again on his regular job: teaching Industrial Arts at Antioch High School.

In the spring of 1980, though, he started framing the house. Then, in April of my eighth grade year, we moved into the old house on Minta Lane while we continued building the new house behind it.

A picture my brother Cam drew for my parents

Tune in next time to hear more of this house-building saga …

Endnotes:

1. Wihbey, John. “The forgotten story of Jimmy Carter's White House solar panels » Yale Climate Connections.” Yale Climate Connections, 21 February 2023, https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/02/the-forgotten-story-of-jimmy-carters-white-house-solar-panels/.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.