La Canada - 1948

YEAR (FILE ) SUBJECT
---- ------- ---------------------------------
1947 (4662) John Griffin building La Canada home
1947 (9116) La Canada home under construction
1947 (4664) Paul Griffin with La Canada home under construction
1947 (4667) Paul Griffin with La Canada home under construction
1947 (8007) John Griffin with friends or work associates

We found it difficult to get Nephi Anderson to put in the modern improvements that we wanted. For example we wanted glass brick in the bathroom. He resisted this all the-way and it was not until I went down to the Glendale Glass Company and bought the brick and brought it up to the house that he would put it in. Then the section where it was installed was about half as large as we wanted it. He talked us out of lots of things that we wanted and that would have made the home more modern and livable, such as tile in the baths and kitchen. Finally I insisted on tiling the floor of the master bath and had to cut down the floor joists two and a half inches to put it in. I did this myself and it was a real hard job, but I have never regretted it.

Actually we found that we not only had to supervise the construction to get what we wanted but we had a constant battle with Nephi about it. In justice, though, I must say that Nephi cooperated in every way he could to help us save money in the construction. He let me do all of the work I could handle. Also Dad knew a plasterer who agreed to come down and do the plastering and let me mix the plaster. I figured I could save at least a thousand dollars this way, as plasterers' wages were $26 a day. Nephi got all of the sand, the plaster, and all of the button board on and right at the last minute the fellow from Utah refused to come down. So he had to find a plasterer who was willing to come in and take over the job and complete it. This was not easy to do and I am sure that I lost several hundreds of dollars because of having to handle it this way.

As the end of the year approached, I became very anxious to finish the house so we could get in by Christmas. I pushed everyone, including myself, to get this done but to no avail. We just couldn't make it. However, by January 15, 1948, the essentials had been done and the remainder of the painting could be done after we moved in, so we decided to make the move. I got Tenn and his two boys to help me move with a rented trailer and at last we were in our home. There remained much work to be done but at least we had a roof over our head that was our own, or on which we were making payments.

A short time after we moved in I went up to see Nephi Anderson to settle our account. He had everything added up on an adding machine tape with no basic records for me to look at. I gulped rather hard but did not insist that he get out the basic records. The items were as follows:- (not listed in this account).

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