Part of what my friend John Early calls my “way-finding process” with this project involves simply standing in the space, looking at what’s in front of me, and thinking: what is the next thing this space needs?
The project is just too big and I have too little experience to be able to visualize the whole thing done at once, so I’m going in the approximate heading I think gets me to done while paying acute attention along the way and making course corrections according to what seems right given the new input. It’s not quite “totally winging it” but for sure it’s not “I have this all figured out already”. So far, it’s working.
Last night I was standing in FRHT and thinking, “You know, I really need one more window in here. The skylight will be good, but it’s 9 feet above this space and while it will provide some illumination, what it won’t do is provide a sense of space that you get from being able to look through a window. I’d better put one in.”
And then realized that I had to frame it out right then, before I finished the sheathing (which will be Saturday), if I didn’t want all the extra effort involved in retrofitting a window to a finished wall. It’s so much easier w/o the sheathing in place.
Step 1 – cut the studs (not shown).
Step 2 – trim off the nails that used to hold the studs in place. Don’t try this at home, kids! No leaning out of half-finished window openings, cantilevered power tools held at arm’s length, bending the blade… at least I had something in front of my eyes and some hearing protection 🙃.
Actually, really, I was quite stable and well-balanced (not so much with the “hanging out the window”) and the blade is made to be flexible for just such occasions.
Still, if this kind of thing fills you with concern, let someone else do it! And… if this kind of thing is TOTALLY OK with you, maybe you should cultivate a little concern. Not a huge pile of it, but at least a little 🙃.
And HEY! Who is that guy with the ever-increasing BALD SPOT? I don’t get a top-of-my-head view very often. The illusion presented by the little bit of hair in front has been betrayed!
There we go, all the nails neatly trimmed off and I didn’t (a) fall out (b) get a hot, sharp, freshly-cut nail in my face, (c) impale myself on the cut studs, (d) lose any digits or otherwise injure any body parts. Well done!
Frame for kitchen window. Yes. That’s better.