theBarnstorming

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July 10, 2006

Not for Bob

Ok, for everyone not named Bob or Seiko Behr, here's the story: Robbi and I are conspiring to keep them in the dark regarding progress on the barn from here forward. Bob has it in his mind that he will be called upon to spend the month of August hanging 120 pound sheets of 4 x 12 foot, 5/8 sheetrock against the tall and sloping ceiling of the barn. He is trying to keep a stiff upper lip about it, according to the reports from Coffee Point, but Robbi can tell that the thought of it exhausts him.

Considering that taking the course of hanging the wallboard ourselves would likely result in delay, frustration, misery, and quite potentially serious injury, we have decided to go the route of hiring capable, experienced, savvy men with appropriate tools and forearms to do the work in our stead. They are slated to begin this week and, if the projected schedule holds, should be done by the end of July. Robbi and I are waiting like gleeful children for the moment that Bob and Seiko, having returned from Alaska, climb the stairs to survey the insulation only to find that the sheetrock is hung and finished. Perhaps even the outlets, ceiling fans and heaters will have been installed? Now I'm getting hubris, I fear.

Much of my energy last week was spent trying to get my hands on the 46 sheets of 4x12 sheetrock our contractor Eddie said it would take to finish the barn. The story is probably more interesting to me than it would be to anyone else, but suffice it to say that there were mountains and valleys of joy and despair in the quest to get the sheetrock to the second story of the barn. The problem being that carrying 4x12 sheets up the stairs was not a tenable option. While a boom truck could have delivered through the front sliding door that Michael and I opened a few weeks back, the electrical wires along the street in front of the barn were too close for comfort. Eventually Jimmy, the wallboard savior, hatched a scheme to remove our back bedroom window and, using the boom truck, slide the wallboard, sheet at a time, through our bedroom wall into the main room.

Enough of my ramble. Here are the pictures.

Behold, 26 sheets of 4x12 foot, 5/8 sheetrock:

Just to give you a sense of how long is 12 feet in the context of sheetrock, I placed my dog as a strategic marker of scale.

I know you can't get enough of this. Here's another look.

To recap the excitement that I missed. Jimmy and his boys removed this window.

And this stud. And the insulation I had hung on either side. And the wire that Calvin and his guys had strung between the studs at about waist height.

I toenailed the missing stud back into place, restrung the wire, and rehung the insulation. And things were good as new.

Except that now there were 46 sheets of wallboard waiting to be hung. By someone else.

A parting image of the glory of sheetrock.

I can't wait to see Bob's face.

Posted by bogenamp at July 10, 2006 03:20 PM

Comments

Posted by: ribbu at July 11, 2006 01:25 AM