November 17, 2007Gary and hubby worked on the bathroom today. While hubby worked on putting up the plywood walls Gary was busy cutting the beams for the roof. Alas, nothing in construction is ever a sure thing, especially when working with measurements that look great on paper but don’t necessarily apply to real life (what was that mom always said to us in school about learning math-‘you will use this someday!’ Like when you’re an adult and you want to add onto your bathroom and you’re too cheap to hire an architect to create exact drawings, yada, yada, yada…) Gary measured carefully and then began to construct the roof. But to no avail-the measurements didn’t quite work. No problem, these things happen. Actually they happened three times before the measurements worked. This little glitch of course delayed things a bit.
Now on to hubby's job- the plywood.
It wouldn’t be a regular work day without an injury.
Poor hubby suffered a splinter.
The weather was lovely so I decided to watch the construction for a while. Just watch mind you, not supervise. (OK-what planet are you from-when have you ever known a woman to sit quietly and NOT supervise men)! Anyway, I watched as hubby measured a large piece of plywood that was cut to fit the entire left side section of the window area (the window area of the bathroom has a large center window with two side windows-the entire thing is shaped like a Bay window). He would hold the plywood up, measure the section over the window opening, make a mark, measure again, make another mark, measure again, make another mark, measure again, make another mark, and then cut it. Then he repeated the process for each side around the window opening. This seemed very tedious to me. In essence he was cutting pieces to fit each section of the wall around the window resulting in four pieces of plywood. Hmmm…seems to me that there is an easier way to do this. But you know it is difficult to tell someone that there may be an easier way-especially when one has no prior construction experience, not to mention that I’m a girl. I was a little baffled as to why hubby was going to such lengths to do something that seemed so very simple and that Gary had not guided him on this issue. Finally I could keep quiet no longer! I asked hubby why he wasn’t nailing the large piece of plywood up and then cutting the window hole out making it one piece with a hole in the middle as opposed to four separate pieces. It seemed to me this approach would be much easier and faster and would achieve the same goal. Ironically, when I made this statement Gary looked down at me from the roof area and gave me a funny look-apparently he had mentioned something similar earlier on or maybe he had just thought it himself and being a fellow man knew better than to make the suggestion. Hubby looked at me with annoyance and said that he was doing it correctly. But I am a woman and not to be dismissed so easily. I went on to say that I had watched the neighborhood contractor do it this way for years. They always put a solid sheet of plywood over the entire section of wall and then cut out the window holes. Once again I received a disgusted look from hubby who continued measuring each piece to fit around the window opening. From what I could tell he had been working on this particular ‘project’ for more than an hour. Well, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about-after all who wouldn’t choose to take the faster, easier route to completing a project, right?
The weather was lovely so I decided to watch the construction for a while. Just watch mind you, not supervise. (OK-what planet are you from-when have you ever known a woman to sit quietly and NOT supervise men)! Anyway, I watched as hubby measured a large piece of plywood that was cut to fit the entire left side section of the window area (the window area of the bathroom has a large center window with two side windows-the entire thing is shaped like a Bay window). He would hold the plywood up, measure the section over the window opening, make a mark, measure again, make another mark, measure again, make another mark, measure again, make another mark, and then cut it. Then he repeated the process for each side around the window opening. This seemed very tedious to me. In essence he was cutting pieces to fit each section of the wall around the window resulting in four pieces of plywood. Hmmm…seems to me that there is an easier way to do this. But you know it is difficult to tell someone that there may be an easier way-especially when one has no prior construction experience, not to mention that I’m a girl. I was a little baffled as to why hubby was going to such lengths to do something that seemed so very simple and that Gary had not guided him on this issue. Finally I could keep quiet no longer! I asked hubby why he wasn’t nailing the large piece of plywood up and then cutting the window hole out making it one piece with a hole in the middle as opposed to four separate pieces. It seemed to me this approach would be much easier and faster and would achieve the same goal. Ironically, when I made this statement Gary looked down at me from the roof area and gave me a funny look-apparently he had mentioned something similar earlier on or maybe he had just thought it himself and being a fellow man knew better than to make the suggestion. Hubby looked at me with annoyance and said that he was doing it correctly. But I am a woman and not to be dismissed so easily. I went on to say that I had watched the neighborhood contractor do it this way for years. They always put a solid sheet of plywood over the entire section of wall and then cut out the window holes. Once again I received a disgusted look from hubby who continued measuring each piece to fit around the window opening. From what I could tell he had been working on this particular ‘project’ for more than an hour. Well, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about-after all who wouldn’t choose to take the faster, easier route to completing a project, right?
No truer more delightful conclusions have ever been made...
ReplyDeleteAnd to think you may have known what you were talking about, right?
Your Mom's advise would come in use sooner or later too... it's just that at the time it went in one ear and out the other.
Enjoy your week.
Susan