Nailed it! Carpentry, my way
One of the major challenges to my attempts at carpentry is I detest dragging out a bunch of tools. Sawhorses? Overrated. Square? May not need it. Carpenter pencil? Who needs that when you can scratch a line with an old, rusty nail?
This is also the reason I attempt carpentry projects when my husband is not home. I know he’d be mortified by how I go about my work.
The first project I undertook this summer was repairing the manger in our barn. Some time ago, a small cow climbed inside the manger and broke a section of the floor. It used that hole to step (or fall) the short drop to the ground outside and into the pasture. For whatever reason, we simply blocked off that section of manger and ceased using it.
However, with my 10-year-old son as my assistant, I decided I could repair it. I measured, cut, (then remeasured and recut) and nailed boards into the bottom. I braced it, shored it and only got one blood blister and one inch-long cut in the process. When I was finished, I fed hay in there and cleaned my tools.
The next week, I decided, since I freshened my skills with a circular saw, I could finish putting up rough-cut lumber on my front porch. I mean, it’s ALREADY called “rough-cut,” so what I would be doing to it would fit right in, you know?
My son assisted again, and although we measured twice and cut once this time, I still didn’t drag out all of the tools that would have made it easier. He simply went down into the yard and picked up the pieces that fell over the railing I used instead of sawhorses.
And a length of 2-by-4 functioned as a square.
And if my husband reads this, he will certainly lock up all the tools.
That project also went well (read: hubby will be able to hide the imperfections with trim.) So I decided I would sand, restain and polyurethane the floor and some bi-fold doors in a rental property we have. To be completely fair, that was my friend’s idea, and she helped me with the sanding before taking a family vacation and leaving me alone to finish. When the day came to start the poly, I was actually a little nervous. I had never done it before, and I understand it can mess up an entire job if not completed properly. So I began with the door. I had it set up on – what else? – the porch railing and was trying to keep it propped open so I didn’t poly it shut. All of a sudden, I felt it was going to fall, so I reached up to catch it and – WHAM – knocked the open gallon of poly off the rail.
It did a complete somersault, spraying poly all over the porch and the driveway, before landing upright with only about one third of its contents still inside. “Well, there is at least enough to finish the door,” I thought as I went and retrieved it. I finished the door, wiped the porch down and called it a day.
Even I have my limits to how much of my skills I can take.
Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.