It's All About The Small Things

MCM (Master Carpenter Man or Majorly Capable Man) was here again yesterday for hours and hours and hours. With the threat of rain for Monday at 70 percent, it would be nice to get this whole side of the house thing back in place. So he worked for hours and... oh, you know.

The first thing he did was assign me the painting of a very long board. He suggested I would need rubber gloves and needed something heavy to stir this whole thing up with... It was aluminum tar roofing paint. Tar sounded pretty bad to me. I can't say I was thrilled with my assignment, but I did it. It took forever to stir all the tar off the bottom and into the oil that was floating around on the top.

Good old MCM had left directions in pencil on the plank: Paint this side. Arrows drawn and the word 'edges' gave me another clue. I did as directed. Later in the day when he told me to go paint the other side, I asked why he hadn't just told me that in the first place. Men.

I did mention in the title that this is about the small things. I'd never make a good carpenter. I just wouldn't want to take the time to do all those small things, and, let's face it, I don't know about them anyway.

I love the fact that MCM makes lots of notes along the way. The first picture shows him writing something on the wall... probably numbers to remember or perhaps something like 'Put nails on this side.' Not really... I was just thinking back to his painting directions for me. I haven't gotten over that yet.

He also checks boards to make sure they are straight. He did this at the lumber yard as well, but rechecks when getting ready to use them. I'd probably forget to do that if I was a carpenter.

Here we go checking if things are square. MCM is a man of details.

Speaking of small things, which is what we are speaking about.... see that lovely green thing in the picture... I know you've been wondering about that. It is a huge tub inverted over my kitchen skink and faucets to protect them. MCM knows the value of my having a sink, so he's not removed it yet. I know this can't last forever. At some point, it is going to have to go. In the meantime, it is a small piece of comfort to have my sink.






Oh, yes... things must be level too. By the way, I tried to get MCM to move the wall of the house out a bit and just add on to the kitchen. He said he would need a permit and just kept working. It was Saturday, and he knew he couldn't get a permit. Well... it would be nice to enlarge the kitchen. It really doesn't need it, but I just thought it was an idea.







I just took this picture from the inside this morning. The wood looks so much better than when he first started this Big Trouble fix. He isn't finished, as you can tell. However, he is getting there. Once again, I'm certainly thankful for his gift of carpentry.