Mule

Mule

Man, I cannot get this garage done quickly enough. Particularly the framing. When people see how I'm doing it, they either get that distant stare like 'okay, I don't want to tell you what a moron you are, but I can't think of what else to say', or else they outright tell me I'm doing it all wrong.

See, the thing is, there are two basic ways to frame a wall. You can build it flat on the ground, then raise it up and nail it into place. Or you can attach the top plate and sole plate, and then toenail the studs in afterward. Well I'm doing the second option. And everybody thinks I'm careening toward disaster. The neighbor across the street has had his Dad staying with him for the past couple months, and so he hears all the racket and comes trotting over to 'have a look' since they're going to frame their carport in soon too. He sees the sole plate I'm putting in and starts critiquing how the concrete nails aren't in far enough, and yes, I know they aren't, thanks, but it was getting late, and the gunpowder blasts were really freaking me out and I figured I was going to tick off everybody on the street at dinnertime, so I left it unfinished. And then he's like, so you ARE going to frame the rest of it and then raise it in place, right? And I gave some sort of non-committal answer. I guess it satisfied him, so he left it alone and offered to bring over a rotary hammer to finish getting the nails in place. Great. (I've gotten to where I look to see if his car is there before I do any of the noisy stuff.)

Then a good friend of mine came over today and started kidding me that everything looked just like it did last week. Thanks Jon =). He did help me get some more nails into the bottom plate. He had also suggested I build flat and raise it too. He's the one person I feel like a turd for not taking his advice, as much as he helps me out with stuff.

Then I was outside just now nailing some studs in, and our next door neighbors, who are very cool by the way, come outside to see what's going on. This is a stadium activity, I'm finding out. And anyway, Carlos is like "I know an easier way to do that." I knew what was coming, so I said, "Let me guess, build it flat and raise it in place, right?" And he's like, "yeah, I can help you if you want."...

You know, everybody's just trying to be helpful, and yeah I'm a pedantic mule, but I've got my reasons. First of all, that wall faces the hurricane winds that blast this place 200 days a year, and I want a nice, sturdy, manly wall. mmph! Secondly, the concrete is all cockeyed, so no matter how carefully I measure, if I build it flat and then raise it, it's going to fit tight in some places and loose in others, and I don't want to mess with shims all over the place--I just can't imagine that being as sturdy. Or I could just do what the low-bid contractors did who built the carport facades and just leave places where the studs have big old sloppy gaps at the top and bottom.

But by toenailing the studs in place, I get to measure each one individually, cut it a little long, knock it into place nice & tight and nail away. It's a pain, and the boards want to shift, but it feels so good. Everything is just anchored in there nice and tight. So instead of having a wanky structure that finally gets strong once you put the siding on, I get to have a sturdy frame that gets veritably impregnable once I put the siding on. I mean, that's the theory anyway. So yeah, I've basically lost it.