Friday, July 1, 2011

Yeah. Piece of Cake!

So, today we started.  Just me and my little husband...
Clearly, you must have a "headquarters" area...with food, drinks,
sunscreen, hats, and chairs, and reading materials in the shade.
Can you find all of these things in the photo?

And then you need gloves.

Nice new gloves...a great retirement gift!
Or old and trustworthy gloves.
Here are my husband's last 3 pairs of gloves...
he's a hard workin' kind of guy.
Not at all sure why they shrink up as they age....hmmm.


 My first problem solving assistance.  We had to lay out the sill plates all around the perimeter.  Some had to be cut carefully to fit because we did not order extras.  So, how to know which boards to cut which pieces out of????   Hey, I have some sidewalk chalk in the car (couldn't throw it away when packing).  Let's label the spaces that need filled, and then label the boards that each piece will be cut from...using the sidewalk chalk!  Oh.  Hope it doesn't rain tonight....
See?  We need an A piece and a B piece...

And they, along with the G piece, will be cut from this board
using this lovely chalk.  I had to restrain myself from
off task doodling...don't know how long that will last.


Now, it's time to drive some nails...
Lay out the pieces...

...give the nails a head start....

...then whack the heck out of them.
The first nail driven! 
Did you just say, "WooHoo"?

OK.  So his form is possibly better than mine, but

my nail...the second one of thousands...is doing it's job just as well.

Wall #1 done.  Studs, sill plate and top plate. 
Wall #2 ready for window stuff. 
I'll learn the words for that stuff tomorrow...something about
king studs and cripples....

A husband happy with his first day....priceless!

And that is his granddad's bandanna getting a new chance at life.


All in all a spectacular day.  Good weather, good food, good progress. 
Oh, and our first non-working friends came to see how we were doing and they established a very nice precedent.  If you are coming to view the work we are doing - bring us an icy cold drink like they did.  If you are coming to help us work - bring yourself AND us an icy cold drink!  Gotta stay hydrated!

6 comments:

Constance said...

OMG I am soo happy for you!! And now that I've seen these pix, I might be just as excited as you for your new beginning. Super thrilled!!! :D

Donna said...

Just remember to bring icy cold drinks when you come! You are coming, right? Do you remember this far back with your house?

MonchyB said...

Donna, is this house growing somwhere in/near Kingwood?

Donna said...

Yes, Monika. We aren't in the city limits, but only 2 miles out of town. It is very quiet and nice!

K said...

There's a little family living down the block and around the corner. We pass their house every time we go to horses or to Cam's or Chaz' house. And we see them in church every week. They have two little boys, and the very littlest thinks G is Santa Clause. When he drives by them waving, the little boy runs to his mom and yells, "Santa Clause just drove by!!" He thinks Santa Clause is a member of our congregation for sure. If he saw your husband, he'd be conflicted - can there be two REAL Santas?

And look how cute you are - hammer and hat. A-dang-dorable. I was going to note on the other piece - G gets that ring-out-shirt thing when he rides up the mountain on his bike. I might sweat a ton, too, if he could ever talk me into doing it. Which he TOTALLY won't.

Donna said...

That is funny about G being Santa. Don gets Santa sometimes, but once when we taught the preschool Sunday School class in ABQ and a mother asked her little one how it went when she picked him up he said, "Great! Jesus taught our class today."
My bike riding is totally confined to down hill or flat land. I ride down our mountain and the little husband meets me with the car and bike rack...that's the way to go!