Home Improvement

Can't I please just clone myself? LOL. I have been doing a bunch of stuff the last couple of days. Now I will probably be laid up for a couple of days in agony with my piriformis muscle in spasms.

Don't ever move into a house until it is finished!

Granted, I didn't have much choice, but it becomes a nightmare to do any kind of work on a house once you have it filled with crap. And, if you have a little extra money, you tend to blow it instead of putting it into work.

I didn't have any extra money, but I decided enough was enough and I was going to do some work on the downstairs. I worked my butt off this am doing a bunch of outside stuff-mucking animal houses and chainsaw work-and decided to run to the lumber company after lunch to pick up a bit of V-match pine. I figured if I whittle away at the work (no pun intended) it is better than pretending there isn't any work. ;)

I had a nice young college student load the lumber. IN conversation I learned that he is a business major taking calculus. This was while he was using a calculator to figure out how many pieces of 14 foot boards I need to make 300 linear feet. I had the number in my head and out of my mouth in half the time it took him to peck it out on the calculator.

So, I got the lumber home and cleared the area I was going to work on, and hayed the goats, and hauled all the boards into the house as it was starting to rain. Then I discovered that he had loaded 12 footers instead of 14. So, I was short 44 feet, and also the boards wouldn't work where I planned, as they fell short. That would mean painstakingly measuring and cutting each 3 inch row to match the framing-which for reasons known only to me is not exactly 16 or 24 O.C. as standard carpentry dictates.

The lumber company is an hour round trip, so I didn't want to reload and drive it all back. I called them up and they said just bring the slip in next time and they will credit me on my next purchase. Well, it was less than 10 dollars, and half my own mistake for not checking the boards before they were loaded, but it turned into much more aggravation than that.

I decided I did NOT want to measure and cut each row, and I had another place I could use 12 foot boards. Oh Yeah. You would not believe what I had to relocate to start the job. An overstuffed bookcase for starters. And a billion video tapes and a bunch of DVDs and Willow's art supplies-which are many, many art supplies.

I sat with my head in my heads and a pile of lumber in the house, wanting to bawl but not able to work any tears up. Well, no use sitting around moping, I tore everything apart and started on
t he project. I made pretty good headway, with Willow helping me by fitting in the opposite end of the board onto the previous row. She sorely wanted to help me hammer, but V-match or tongue and groove is fussy nailing. I was so tired and faint with hunger I dinged two of the last boards myself.

I fell short on materials, since I hadn't planned on working that section. We managed to pile books and videos off the couches and I managed to stir up some supper before quitting for the night. I don't want to put the bookcase back until the work is done.

Well, hopefully it won't take another 10 years.