a story

My aunt used to own a appliance repair store. They'd fix washers and dryers. As you could imagine, after several years of such work, they had a great many washing machine and dryer carcusses. So my aunt's boyfriend of about 25 years or more decides the best thing to do with these metal boxes is to fill them with cement and make a house.

So he and my aunt bought a large chunk of desert a few miles from a man-made lake. Yep, the same man-made lake under which is my great grandfathers ranch and orchards, and the field my grandfather used to herd sheep.

Al built the walls by lining these metal cubes in a line, leaving room for door ways, in the shape of a square, or at least as close as he could manage. Then, he set to filling this line of washers and dryers with cement, which you might guess is not an easy task considering you need two major things for this to happen. Cement mix and a great deal of water. Water which is a wee bit hard to come by in a desert. Especially, on land that hasn't been developed, which means no water, no sewer, no electricity, etc. Brilliant, eh?

Oh, yeah, and did I mention no roads. So, if it rains, you're stuck. And, it's the type of desert where the sun bakes the dirt soft and plentiful; the kind that kicks up a wind tunnel when you sneeze.

The bags of mix are easy. He manages to get a generator, which he manages to haul out the the piece of land; and he manages to get a mixer. I'm not sure how he managed the water, but who knows.

Regardless, he manages the project, at least the first floor of walls. After two stacks upward, he spaces a few here and there for windows. They use empty glass bottles for the windows, which cement between.

And remember the soft sand. And the lack of an foundation.

Well, after starting a second floor, which is basically a giant studio, he realized something important. Cement is heavy.

The giant washing machine and glass and cement house sinks.

Anyway, I haven't heard much about the project for some time; at least not this project.

The other project is a house they've built on some prime real estate. This one has water and gas and sewer, etc.

The house is pretty nice. However.

As an additional touch, Al’s taken the concept of the washing machine house to this project as well. The house is normal. But the entrance gate, and the surrounding gate, is made of, that’s right, washing machines and dryers full of cement.