A Bit of Destruction, Inside and Out
We had a big day at the house on Saturday. I met up with Bob early in the AM, and arrived at the house at 7AM (where we met up with Bob’s friend, Dave). As we were unloading both trucks, we noticed some deep tire tracks in the driveway.
The tracks curved over to our neighbor’s side of the yard, and a whole lot of sawdust.
We noticed a “No Parking” sign along our street last week, and saw a few big branches that were taken down. But in the yard, it looks like they took something big out (and also ground down the stump, as there wasn’t much left that I could see/find).
Down in the basement, Bob and Dave worked on running up two lines to the second floor (for the AC). We’re getting these put in now, so that everything is set up in the basement, and ready to go for when we begin work on the second floor.
One comment I overheard from Dave – he said to Bob “Wow, Bob… this is perfect! It’s like you knew I was going to be here!” I was on the first floor while they were in the basement, but catching this snippet of conversation was a nice moment. And one I feel represents Bob’s approach to his work, and something worth sharing.
While the two of them were working downstairs, I began work on a bit of demo in the upstairs bedrooms.
I focused on removing a lot of baseboard. Tore up a bit of the linoleum that was on the floor as well. We’re moving a few of the walls around upstairs, so Bob needed to be able to snap a few lines, to get an accurate measurement of the space available.
According to him, this wasn’t something we could estimate – and so we needed a direct way to be able to measure things.
Bob gave me a quick walkthrough, and then left me alone for the morning as I went about my work. First time using the Sawzall on my own, and I’ve still got all my fingers. Gonna put this in the “win” column.
In the master bedroom, where I tore up a lot of the carpet and also removed some baseboard.
Did my first bit of demo today, using a hammer to clear out a space near the floor. We’ll be going through here to take our measurements, so we needed this small opening to be able to get an accurate read.
It’s amazing how much debris I created, only making such a small opening. We’re going to be taking down several walls when we finally get to the upstairs… and boy oh boy, is it going to get messy.
But you know what? I’m really looking forward to it. Today felt really good to me, as I had a clear objective and figured out how to go about things a little more on my own. Now that I’ve done this small bit of demo, it’s a known quantity – I have a clearer sense of what the work entails, and can better predict how long it might take to finish.
It’s been fantastic to get Bob’s help on the house, and we will continue to rely on his experience and expertise. But this morning’s work was really satisfying to me, as it was something I could on my own. Granted, anyone with an arm and a hammer could do what I did… but it felt a little more like I was working on my house (as opposed to me simply helping Bob work on our house).
There will be more projects like this in our future, I know, once the basement and heating work is completed. More things that Bob will show me and Liz, and then let us do on our own. When the weather turns, Bob will be turning his attentions to his own house (and I will be trying my best to repay his time with my own). When that time comes, it’ll be me and Liz doing more of the work ourselves, directly.
Looking forward to those tasks, and to those days. Messy debris and all.
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