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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 thirdwhile 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).
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
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).
no subject
Date: 2013-08-07 04:13 am (UTC)From: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
no subject
Date: 2013-08-08 03:21 pm (UTC)From: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