Since 1992
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By Bill Van Tassel
LEEDS — I was blessed 46 years ago to graduate from a great university with a well-rounded, solid education. Like many young people with the new sheepskin, I thought I knew a great deal about everything. However, I learned early on through one of my childhood peers not to think I was now the local Einstein. I thank him for a needed lesson in humility.
Two years after graduation I moved to Maine and soon learned another great lesson. Well, to be honest, I learned many lessons, but one near the top is this: Some of the most sensible and educated people have gotten that way without the benefit of a university education. In many cases, these folks also have more common sense than your average college graduate. Many of them have also attained great levels of skill in one or more practical areas that help manage rural life here above the 44th parallel.
I’ve known Seldon Brown of Leeds for about 20 years. He is a Vietnam veteran born into a Maine family of 12 kids – nine boys and three girls. He will be married to his wife, Rainie, 50 years in July 2018. He retired a couple of years ago from plant manager at Maine Recycling in Lisbon. He loves Gospel music and began in his early 60s to teach himself piano. He has memorized over a hundred Bible verses. He, like me, is a jokester and would now admit that at his age the verses come back a little slower. Being the same age, I can concur. It’s just one more way to make people laugh, something Seldon and Rainie both like to do.
It was Rainie who gave me the title for this vignette: “A Chronic Builder.” She quipped the phrase with an ever-ready smile and a knowing look while I interviewed them over a cold glass of sweet vinegar cider in their kitchen. Their home is a prefab, built in 1971. I didn’t know them then, as I had just come to Maine that summer for the first time. In any case, their property does not look the same as it did in 1971.
Seldon, the Chronic Builder, has done some renovation and additions. My college education tells me there is additive and subtractive architecture. In Seldon’s case it’s 95 percent additive. The first structure that he built was at the age of 12. His family needed an outhouse, what they called then a back-house. He taught himself to build it.
When he married Rainie, they had the prefab built. Soon Seldon built a garage. Next came a breezeway from the garage to the house. A deck was then put on out back behind the kitchen that later was enclosed to make a sun room. The sun room became a little too hot and a wall was taken out between it and the kitchen.
I should note at this time that Seldon is also a bit of a trash picker, yard sale customer and opportunist as far as appropriating building materials. Once when a nearby saw mill went out of business, he was able to stock up wood and built his family a chicken house.
Several years later, a new deck was built off the back. Now the topic of telephone poles comes into the picture. Seldon is gregarious by nature and over the years has made a lot of connections. This was made easier for sure by having 10 siblings. When telephone poles are taken out of commission they can be set aside for the public. For different projects he built over the years, Seldon transported more than 50 old utility poles from their former resting place to his home.
About 100 feet from the back of the house there is a large barn/garage type of building that he built next. The two floors house building supplies, a workshop and a spot for a vehicle. Now I’m just guessing that Seldon, needing a new project, was sitting in the sun room looking at that building and thinking, “What would be a unique way to get from where I’m sitting to that barn?” The answer came back – a raised walkway. More telephone poles!
The first stretch of the walkway stops soon at a gazebo-type structure with a nicely decorated place to sit and music piped in. In time, more walkway was laid on more poles, finally reaching the barn’s upper level. Laid on the wooden slats are the top portions of synthetic pallets, and the sides and railings are of sturdy wood construction making it a smooth, safe pathway.
During these years of “chronic building,” the Browns had two children, Eric and Amy. In time, grandchildren came. Seldon and Rainie both enjoy spending time with family and friends, especially grandchildren, so the next project was turning the upper floor of the barn/garage into an entertainment room. When completed, the area had game tables, television and other electronics, a player piano, and plenty of seating for a nice party crowd.
Following this came the construction of a small, quaint bunkhouse on one side of the walkway near the barn and a huge tree house halfway across the walkway. The tree house, like everything else, is supported by poles: technically not a tree house, but the whole structure is shaded by a nearby pine.
These last two buildings are well furnished in camp style and both have electricity. The grandkids have had much fun sleeping over at Bampy’s little city above the ground. One granddaughter spent many weeks living in the tree house.
During the later years of building The Outback, as they call it, Seldon would get help digging the base holes by hand from one of his grandsons. Others have helped with the appropriation and delivery of materials, including from one of Seldon’s brothers, Stan, who is an electrician. The entire project was accomplished without the use of heavy machinery.
It should be noted here that across the 35 years of these projects, our Chronic Builder very rarely bought anything at cost or anything new. When Seldon’s church was remodeled, he used the paneling and other materials that were discarded. As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
The results do not appear to be made from trash. Seldon’s materials have been high quality and are put together with solidity, accuracy and great style. The tree house reminds this baby boomer of Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson movie.
I would happily spend a summer’s night in the Brown’s Outback.
TOP PHOTO: Seldon Brown does some yard work by The Outback, a long-term construction project on his property in Leeds. (Bill Van Tassel photo)
