Walls

Walls

With the completion of the foundation, I turned my attention to the framing of the exterior walls .I’m a framer at heart, it’s where I cut my teeth 30 years ago when I first started out and it’s still my favorite aspect of building homes. There is something extremely gratifying about showing up in the morning to a bare foundation and stacks of lumber and leaving at the end of the day with a structure built. Leave it better than you found it, I like that feeling.

I’ve been building walls longer than I’ve done anything else. I don’t want to sound braggadocious but, I can put them up very quickly and once they’re up, they’re up for good. I have an uncanny ability to build walls without even thinkinging about it. I spent decades creating well defined spaces, compartmentalized spaces with specific functions, when you’re in a specific space you know exactly why and what you should be doing while you’re there. You cook in the kitchen, sleep in the bedroom and eat in the dining room. This wouldn’t be possible without walls.

My wife, on the other hand, is all about the open concept,sure you’ll always want that private space where you feel comfortable and cozy but the majority of the space is “common space”, open for all to see, if it was up to her there would be no walls at all.

The thought of inviting people in and having everything out in the open, on display to be viewed by the masses is, well, uncomfortable for me at best. For Becky, feeling like you need to hide the clutter, dirt and dysfunction for fear of being judged, isn’t part of her thought process.

I do love the idea (in theory) of letting all the natural light and fresh air in. If I would get organized and do a little “decluttering”, perhaps get rid of things that I hold on to out of habit from my past that don’t really mean anything anymore, my place might appear a little more inviting and I’d feel better about letting people come in and look around.

But those walls...... They define spaces, set boundaries and to be honest, are a place of comfort. I fear no storm when I’m inside those walls.

But enough about me......

- What you have just read is my attempt at sharing personal information (which makes me uncomfortable) . My default settings are humor and sarcasm which tend to keep people away ( walls within walls within walls). I’m working on my “open concept”. Bear with me as I try to find comfort in the uncomfortable.

Let’s get back to the build

It’s truly becoming a family affair out on the farm. Chance, my soon to be Son-in-law, and my daughter came down last weekend and Chance, along with Owen Kruse and myself, framed all the exterior walls in 7 hours on Saturday! I find myself gravitating to more cerebral tasks like laying out walls, figuring opening sizes and placement for doors and windows. Not that others can’t do it, rather I can’t maintain the pace that they can when it comes to the heavy lifting of building and standing the wall sections.

The physical act of building walls, real walls, with young guys who are hungry for knowledge is a much better use of my time. As far as I can tell we’re all gaining and refining new skills.....I’ll help them learn about walls and they help me with my open concept.