Rebuilding the House

Graham's moving, funny story offers quiet entertainment and a testimony to the power of work to heal grief as she tells of renovating her rural New Jersey home after leaving a Manhattan publishing job. Once shared by her and her late husband, George Schieffelin, the house was ``the one place that belonged only to us.'' In his absence, the retreat, graced by memories of love, brings him to mind in moments of despair or nostalgic affirmation. Graham acknowledges that initially she knew nothing of construction, but educated herself, exercising caution and gumption, and inspired by a need to justify her husband's faith in her ability to manage on her own, whether this meant hiring workers to reroof the house or merely trimming forsythia bushes herself. As she puts it, ``My house makes no claims, has no pretensions, is simply a house, grown worn with the passage of time. But it is a home. There is a nobility in its simplicity. And now that it has been repaired, I am secure in its embrace.'' (June)