Real Man’s Work

KB has been working hard at the barn, and it’s moving along like I can’t believe. While I am not actually involved in what’s been happening, and believe me when I tell you that a lot has been happening, I can still report on what’s being done. Plus, I’ve been given a list of jobs to do by KB, and when you’re training to be a real man, you can’t let established real-men down when they give you a job.

With this in mind, I have a few weeks to accomplish said goals, and there’s no time to waste, especially in light of the fact that I tend to work at a snail’s pace (lots of wasted time daydreaming of being a real man). Not having a clue contributes greatly to this phenomenon. The first order of business is to get some door knobs, and of course when I went to Home Depot, there were about 1000 choices, so I left empty handed. Typical.

Next, I need to clean up the barn. Since it’s been laying dormant for so many years, naturally it’s become a storage space for assorted projects in limbo. What’s truly amazing is the amount of junk you can collect over a few years. There are tools, gas cans, windows, blocks of wood, sheets of plywood, etc. The problem I face is where to put it. Normally I just move things around to make space to work in, but since the barn is moving towards becoming a home, temporary fixes won’t do. What I’ll have to do is get a bunch of pallets, which I thankfully already have, and lay the big stuff on it outside the barn, then cover it with a plastic tarp. Eventually the stuff will either get used or sold, but until then, I need space, or should I say, KB needs space, especially along the walls to put in the electrical.

I also need to rip these eight food 2X4s into 2 inch strips to extend out the wall. This is a pain, aggravated by the fact that the wood is wet. KB said my table saw is probably not strong enough to do the job, and I might need to rip it by had. Bummer, the table saw makes it so much easier, though the wood is heavy and the cuts are narrow. I asked him how I can tell if the saw is too weak, and he said the saw will start smoking. Yikes, was he kidding? Sometimes contractors like to give neophytes like myself a hard time. Then again, as I’ve found throughout life, you hear all sorts of stuff, but you never know until you try. With this in mind, I’ll try the table saw and see what happens.

Next up, I have to nail in the rafter brackets, which I was told I needed to do about three years ago by My Mentor. He recommended getting a nail gun, which would make my life much easier, but when have I ever tried to do things the easy way? Besides, nail guns are kind of serious, and not only do they scare me, but I need a compressor as well. By the time I round all that stuff up, I could just nail the darn things in. We’ll see.

Finally, I have to rip sheets of blue board and fill in sections of the wall before we insulate. KB keeps calling these sections something and I forget their names, so I can’t tell you exactly what it’s called. Ripping blue board is pretty easy, it’s foam board, after all, it’s just that it makes a complete mess. Fortunately, the weather is warming up, so I can work outside... in the mud.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.