No Family Rates Given

Heh. I seriously understand those signs I used to see everywhere like the one above now. As you know fair readers I am nearing the end of my Maternally enforced slave labor in finishing out the little cabin/mini-house for my Mother.

The insulation is all hung, the wiring all redone since she changed her mind half a dozen times on the final materials after the electrician left, the floor is laid, the paneling all (almost) hung and today I framed out a small closet for her.

A job that should have taken maybe 2 to 3 hours ended up taking more like 6. Why? Because as I worked my Mother sat there in a chair in front of an electric heater (complaining about being cold) and tried to tell me how to do it and then when I didn't do it her way demanded I explain why I wasn't doing it her way.

Now I admit I am no where near a professional carpenter. Far from it, but I know enough about it to at least be to the point that I know I suck at it even when my finished results look good to the untrained eye. I also know I don't have all the super expensive and hyper accurate tools I should be using so I accept the fact that I might be off square a 1/16th of an inch or so here and there. That's why the good Lord invented quarter round and edging don't ya know.

However when I am putting in a simple closet and I have to stop to explain why I used a solid 2x4" over the top but not on the bottom and then why it's better to not have to toe in a construction screw at an angle when ya don't have to....

My head was exploding.

Then she looked up and commented that the job would go much faster if I just used the end I had just cut from one 2x4" to measure the excess off the others. Now theoretically perhaps I can see how she might think that's a good idea but in practice I know from experience all that does is continue to expand any little inconsistencies or minor flaws from one board to the next etc. I prefer to measure and place each stud therefore if I screw up it only effects that one board.

I ignored her.

Then I ran out of construction screws because she forgot to pick some up and she suggested I could use nails. Well ok I guess although when trying to hold two half completed closet walls together I prefer to not have hammering added to the mix. I got down from the ladder and flattened out the end of the nails I was going to use to keep from splitting the pine 2x4's and she starts asking why I was wasting time doing that.

By that time I was fed up and ordered her out. She didn't leave but did shut up for a while until she switched to the part of nagging that if I had taken my carhart bib off she could turn the heat up a bit more. It was 68 inside by the thermometer and she was sitting in front of her heater shivering.

The last argument we had was when I refused to use two left over half pieces of paneling for one side of the closet wall unless I added in a horizontal stud. She never could grasp what I was telling her that you cannot leave an edge on think paneling hanging unsupported because it would warp eventually. She then told me that the other pieces weren't all supported on each side and I just looked at her like she was stupid. I'm like ahhh yes they are. Top. Bottom and both sides. That's why I have to cut them to end halfway on each stud. I don't think she believed me to be honest.

So I didn't even get to the edging today. Doesn't matter really because she can't move in until the weekend but I am not sure I am not going to kill her before then anyway.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!