cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Lesson Learned A lesson learned yesterday afternoon: When you are laying out joists, you must be very sure to place them 16 inches on center with the 16 inch increments starting from the center of the rim joist - NOT from the center of the first regular joist. Otherwise this completely fucks your shit up when you are putting down the subfloor later. For some stupid reason, I had laid out and fastened the 'regular' joists first, spacing them out 16" apart like I was supposed to, and only afterwards did I place the rim joists at either end, slightly longer than the others so they would overlap the header joists. This was folly. Because when I started putting down subfloor starting at a corner of the building, the end of the piece of plywood came up just short of a joist so that the end of it is just hanging out there in space. It's not like this is insurmountable. It just makes things a pain in the ass because I have to cut each piece of plywood back to where it last fell on the center of a joist, thus wasting a whole bunch of material and creating more work for myself. Had I gotten everything perfect with the joist layout, I'd have already finished putting down the subfloor. Instead I have all of this fussy measuring and cutting to do on each piece before I glue and nail it down, so it will take me at least another 2 evenings to finish it. Maybe going into Saturday morning. However, this was really half the point of building this particular structure. This is the first proper building I have ever constructed on my own. I've done decks and remodels and stuff like that. But never actually built a house before. If you decide to learn to paint, you don't go out and buy a huge, expensive piece of stretched canvas that will cover an entire wall. Because you're going to fuck things up at first so you should stick to a cheaper, smaller canvas at first. So this is my little practice canvas. I'm making my mistakes on a small scale so that I don't make them on a bigger scale with more money sunk into materials. Having to pay for 2 extra sheets of plywood on this 200 sq ft building due to wasted materials from poor measurements is not so bad. It costs me 0. But if I'd done this same thing on an 800 square foot layout, that would be closer to a 00 mistake. And I'd be spending literally several full days dealing with the extra labor created by the problem. Now that I've made this fuck-up on a small scale, I won't make it on a big scale when I build my new house. It is important to not be afraid of fucking things up when you are building. Because nearly anything can be corrected or dealt with in some way as you go on. Worst case scenario is usually that you have created more work for yourself and will make less efficient use of materials. It's just wood cut into pieces and nailed together at right angles. This isn't rocket science. If you fuck it up, usually the problem can be fixed by cutting some more pieces of wood into different rectangles and nailing them on in just the right place. Come what may, I will eventually end up with a nice little building that will keep the rain out and the heat in and I will be very pleased with it. When you bake a loaf of bread at home, you're probably going to be happy with it even if it wouldn't win any awards. Is it as good as a baguette fresh from the oven in a Paris bakery? No. But so what? It's your bread and is perfectly good to eat. Eat the bread and keep making more and you'll get better at it. I think that people should look at more things that way. The whole world has gotten too professional. People feel like they can't or shouldn't try to do things because there are professionals who do it and set such a terribly high standard. But you know, the basic experience of baking your own bread is a worthwhile thing in and of it's self. Ditto for fixing the radiator in your car or building a house or making a cask of wine. I don't fully understand the conventional American concept of leisure. Sitting on a couch and watching TV. Or laying by a pool. The human purpose seems to be to *do* things. Make things. 09:51 - 2008-03-12 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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