Weekend of Windows

[shadesofmauve]

Okay, not so much 'windows' as 'spots where windows will be,' but we made them!



This is the row of north facing windows in the studio. The open space is where I removed the old junky window; you can see the delightful view of the crappy neighbor's crappy fence and crappy ivy. The glow to the right is the great big eastern window. (The little piece of 1x is just a ledger board I put up to support a piece of plywood over the gaping hole).

Here's the same thing from the other side! EXCITMENT.


In this picture you can clearly see the gas line and why it has to move. Also the chalk picture of Grog dad drew on my wall.

Speaking of dad, here's my dad, taking apart my house:



Dad is much, much faster at taking apart my house than I am. The combination of girth, strength, experience, and sheer willingness to risk my house make a huge difference. Or as he put it, "You're worried? I've broken WAY bigger houses than this!"* I'm really trying not to call for help too often, but sometimes the extra muscle and/or weight makes the difference between actually doing the thing and just straining pathetically. In such instances I pitifully yell "Brute squad?" and dad yells "I AM the brute squad!" in an Andre-the-Giant voice and comes and is big at the recalcitrant thing.

Still, I made big strides in my demolition abilities on Saturday -- I used my circular saw unsupervised for the first time -- and while making plunge cuts, no less! GO ME!

I really need to work on my grip strength -- holding the guard back and holding the safety button while holding the 'on' enough to get it to actually work was hard. I have really long fingers for a lady, too -- it'd be extra punishing with smaller hands. I did it, though, and feel much more comfortable working the saw than I did last week. YAY!

I also used the giant framing nail gun without instruction and supervision. It's also intimidating (and HEAVY), but not nearly as difficult (I've used nail guns before, just not great big framing guns).

Between those two things, and watching the layout of the first window, actively helping measure and cut lumber
on the second, and self-directedly measuring/cutting on the third while dad fixed a mistake he made oops I'm confident that I could frame the last window -- the laundry room one, which'll be in the same wall, but lower -- by myself. It'd be faster with dad's help (and I can't get the lumber on my bike), but I COULD do it, and that's very encouraging.

It's also encouraging to write this out, because between cats, foot pain, house/housemate noises, and a random ten minutes of dread about the inherently temporary nature of the universe, I didn't sleep well last night at all. Woke up this morning feeling pretty damn depressed, worrying (again) whether I made the right decisions on those windows we just framed, bemoaning the messy house... all that.

But, hey, I accomplished things this weekend! And that was only Saturday -- on Sunday I cleaned the garage to make a better working space and moved five loads of mulch, on the theory that I'd be less stiff Monday if I kept my ass moving (which seems to have worked).

Comments

*applause off*

[t-c-da.livejournal.com]

Yay for the Princess Bride quotes (an obviously well educamated Dad!)

while making plunge cuts,
Last night at Men's Shed I was cutting a hole in a sheet of customwood that was held upright in a vice (the only one in the shed) with a hand held Skill Saw as various other guys were wincing about safety and all. Plunge cuts into a vertical piece of material, no less, but all good fun. We're attempting to resuscitate an ancient (~1950) flat bed planer which came without a motor. We got as far as firing up the scrounged motor we had for it to discover it was rotating in the wrong direction. So next week it's drag out that 1/4 horse 110VAC motor I rescued out of an old computer about 15 years ago and see if that will do the trick. And yes I do have a 240VAC in 110VAC out transformer to go with it. It's currently configured as a fan, but We Can Fix That!

Re: *applause off*

[shadesofmauve]

Dad is a cultured fellow, who liked to make sure we were educated in the classics. :)

"Men's Shed"? I'm guessing you're using 'shed' as I would 'shop' -- time and place for building things, yes?

My first plunge cuts were also into vertical material -- the side of my house -- but since it was the side of my house, it was rather more stable than what you had in the vice probably was! And I had a metal window frame to serve as a guide and keep my line straight.

1/4 horse motor in an old computer? For the fan...? If you need another, I've got one in the garage door opener I'm trying to get rid of. Shipping would only be exorbitant. :P

Re: *applause off*

[t-c-da.livejournal.com]

I was educated in The Princess Bride by my offspring. I think it was about 5 years before I actually saw the start of the movie as I kept coming in part way through. By that time I had at least two offspring that were word perfect on the entire script of the movie...

Men's Shed: a very loosely knit string of places around .nz where guys get to get together to fix/repair/make things together and help each other learn new skills in the art of Do-It-Yourself.

The 1/4 horse motor came from an old Prime Computers mini-computer - rack sized with about the grunt of the average non-smart phone these days...

Re: *applause off*

[shadesofmauve]

When I was a wee thing I thought it was a very serious romantic movie, you know. :P

I like the idea of a place to repair/make/fix and learn stuff! Obviously not so keen, personally, on the gender restriction, but it's a marvelous idea.

I shall sit here and be appropriately, youthfully boggled by your description of the computer.

reminiscence time...

[t-c-da.livejournal.com]

youthfully boggled by your description of the computer

This was the first computer system I worked on way back in 1968-71 which filled one floor of the building, did the computing for four government departments (Statistics, Treasury, Tax, Health) and the computing grunt of a Commodore C64 which these days doesn't even rate as a toy. The CDC 3200 cost about AUD1.25million in 1964, and the 2Gb microSD card in my cellphone which cost $10 five years ago has 87,000 times the memory capacity of the CDC 3200.

Yeah, computers have come a little way since I first started working with them...

and the world around here is still rattling away...

[stasia]

WINDOWS WINDOWS WINDOWS, OMG LOOK AT YOU OMG WINDOWS!!!

And yeah, it's great to be able to use all those tools. I'm building up my tool-use repertoire, but I'm way behind you. Go you!!!!

Stasia

[shadesofmauve]

The tablesaw remains my terrifying yet-to-be-overcome challenge. I've had lessons in how to use it multiple times from dad, and a few times from other people, but I've yet to hit that leap of knowledge/confidence where you can say "This is the right tool for the job, I'll just go use it" instead of "Uh, shit, will you help me with this?"

It's really exciting, though. This is part of why I wanted to do this project, and it's working! YAY!

Also, as long as the project is going dad's chop saw lives here, and it's really nice. :P

[pyoor_excuse]

Getting to use new tools is awesome - and especially getting to use the right tools, and good quality tools. It's ace watching you assembling your studio - and fascinating - because whilst I've done lots of jobs I've never done anything structural... The nearest I've done is taking down a non-structural wall in what was, once, our bathroom, in Slough. We've always unleashed the builders on structural stuff.

[shadesofmauve]

Yeah, I feel so much more capable now. It's a very good feeling! As for quality, the fact that dad's been bringing his stuff and leaving the nice chop saw here does help. :D The skilsaw/circular saw I used is mine, though, and it's nothing fancy -- it came in a set of 18v battery-op tools my folks got me for christmas two years ago, and this project is the first I've used it (the drill and sawsall have gotten a workout). I think there's something to be said for learning on a circular saw with less inherent power, though -- it's less likely to get away from me than dad's huge one, even if the battery makes it just as heavy.

As for structural stuff, I think you're missing out -- it's the best bit. Framing goes up fast, and is nice visible progress. All that fiddly stuff you've done is frustrating as all get out. :P Granted, I'm a bit wary when it comes to slicing into the studs holding up the side of my house... dad did that bit. And nothing fell over. :P

[pyoor_excuse]

Ooh, that reminds me. I need to sort out a battery for my circular saw still. Hrm. Not that I need it for anything, you understand, but it's a circular saw. Clearly it needs to have a new battery. Yes. Mmm.

As for structural stuff, my problem is I'm not very good at brick laying*. And pretty much everything in the UK is made of bricks. We have the odd bit of timber framing internally, but in our house everything except the infill under the stairs is solid brick. It does make the house feel nice, but it means I'm not touching any of it!


*Indeed, if I'm being honest, I'm pretty awful at it. The bricks under the sink look 'okay' but only in the sense of 'I'm going to paint them white when I get around to it and they're more or less out of sight, but really, they're pretty terrible. Also, it took me *aaaages* and I'm not convinced I was any better at laying them at the end of the job than at the beginning. Mind you, we've a wall that's trying to fall down at the bottom of the garden, so I may get to do some more with that.

[shadesofmauve]

Oh, right! I'd actually been meaning to add something along the lines of "Don't you lot build with bricks/blocks?" because I think that's much harder. Wood framing is very simple by comparison.

There are very few brick or block (cement block) houses in our area. One was for sale when I was buying, and I didn't even look at it, because I knew I wouldn't have the first clue how to do anything. :P

[t-c-da.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a part of the world that is geologically pretty stable (Adelaide.sa.au) so pretty well everything is made of bricks or stone. When we moved to Wellington we found almost nothing made of brick 'cos wood rattles and rolls with the ground movement while bricks tend to fall apart or over. On her first visit, Mum was horrified that we were living in a "cheap house" (by her standards) until we pointed out why houses were timber...

for what's happened around here in the last day or so, have a look at the picture parade here...