Saturday, March 6, 2010

What a day! Knowing we had power to the barn, P and I got up early and started loading up the truck with all of our power tools, a ladder, an old cd player, extension cords, snacks and of course the gun in case Brutus or his family returned.
We immediately plugged in the radio and were on a mission as we unloaded the truck. I set up a folding table and we put the chop saw on it. I ran extension cords, and carried the ladder to the back of the barn while P stocked her new bad ass tool belt. She then put her old one on me... I looked like a dumb Girl Scout, standing next to Xena the warrior princess. She filled my little pockets with screws, nails, my own tape measure out of my electrical tool bag, (which is very bad ass), I got my own square pencil, (carpenter's pencil I was informed), and a hammer for the little loop thing on the side of my tool belt. I tucked some kleenex for my runny nose into my empty pouch by my tape measure, and grabbed my level out of my bad ass electrical tool bag to improve the look....not so much. Oh well. Wood work is P's thing, electrical is mine....we are both just greatful we have different talents and can get by.
Our goal for the day was to get the window into the tack room...soon to be chicken coop. The room was completely sheeted and caulked already on the inside of the room...so to do as little damage as possible, we were going to cut some studs on the outside, cut a hole in the plywood, and reframe for the window. I grabbed for the sawzall, and Patty quickly came to relieve me of it. Come on now! How hard could it be?! After much protesting, she let me make the first cut....and I did just fine! She promptly pulled out her tape measure and began taking measurements...So I pulled mine out and measured too. She pulled out her pencil and began writing down numbers...I looked for my special square pencil and couldn't find it....It must have fallen down under my kleenex...
We began framing in the window...enjoying the country music and the almost 60 degree weather. We were both very impressed with how it was coming...it looked like a real window frame job! Then we cut the hole in the plywood with the sawzall...Ok, ok...it didn't go that easy...but we did it with only 2 bent sawblades when we were done. We then installed the window....with about a quarter of an inch to spare from side to side. That sucker wasn't going anywhere! We put in the window wrap, (cause we're so freakin smart to know a window needs window wrap...), screwed the window in, and started putting the wall back together...
We installed the insulation, and went to put the first piece of plywood up. I have no idea how you can measure ten times, everything is level, and things just turn out how you pictured. We threw up the plywood and Patty started smacking nails into the plywood with her hammer....Now I know size doesn't matter...but her hammer was like ten times as big as mine. She had a bad ass kill somebody hammer, and I had a pussy fisher price looking hammer. She told me to assist with hammering in nails. I went to the other end of the plywood and attempted to put a nail in. After a few taps the nail went flying over my left shoulder. She laughed at me, and I defended myself insisting it was my little hammer. She let me try with her hammer with no better luck. She informed me politely and with tons of love that you don't use two hands with a hammer. Who cares?! Hammers are dumb anyway! So she continued on her side, and I tried again. This time I whaled on it and ended up smacking my finger. I immediately thought I was going to throw up. Now P had hit her thumb with the hammer earlier, and was able to recoup within about 45 seconds. I needed about a 10 minute time out...the whole time thinking I was going to throw up. We finished the sheet of plywood and stood back to admire our work...We honestly couldn't believe how straight and level the barn is... Even more straight than the house I think...
We couldn't attach the bottom piece of plywood yet because we still had to install the chicken door which we didn't have yet. (More about it later).
We checked the time on our phones. We had been at it for 5 hours.
We packed everything up, the whole time admiring our new window.
I treated P to our favorite local Mexican restaurant for dinner. We discussed the chicken run, and I tried to share my ideas. She is a visual person, and has a hard time picturing things just by description...So I tried to show her with my hands...pointing them this way and that on how I thought things should meet up. She dipped her chips in salsa and looked at me like I was an idiot...or she was staring at the sawdust in my hair...but she wasn't seeing my vision. So I grabbed our knives and laid out a couple of splenda packets. We ended up laughing hysterically... Although quite funny, she began to see my architectural epiphanys...
When we got home we set up the new home for our chicks. We were pooped and our bodies were hurting but the babies could come at any time....we had to be ready...