Tag Archives: build

You Get What You Pay For

April 7, 2014more stories and reflections, tiny house build, work and lifeBBS, Big Box Store, build, community, DIY, expert, fail, help, how to, LHS, Local, Local Hardware Store, Maselli's, Mead Clark, Professional, relationship, tiny house build, usefulnessseedswithwings

While I haven’t written here for a while, I feel an update is definitely due. This is not that update.

I’m writing to extol the virtues of the Local Hardware Store which will heretofore be referred to by the acronym LHS.

Big Box Stores (BBS) like Lowes, Home Depot, Friedmans, Amazon…They have everything a consumer could possibly need! It’s cheaper than going to that little store on the corner, right? Plus, they present options beyond your wildest dreams, right? How could an LHS compete with the shear magnitude and inventory at one of these places? However, I’ve proven again and again that, in the long run, getting something at your LHS is a lot less expensive than the cheaper big-box store.

To wit.

We’ve been dealing with a tricky septic situation here on the ranch for the past month or so, and it finally looks like it might be resolved in the near future. I needed some pretty specialized items and went to Maselli’s, our beloved LHS. Upon walking in, one of the owners (actually, I’m not sure if he is an owner, but he certainly takes ownership and knows everything) asked if I needed help. It felt a little like if a major league ball player asked if I needed help with my curve ball.

YES! I DO! I told him exactly what I needed, and he showed me to the PVC fittings. I picked out what I thought I needed, asked a few more questions about possible hacks for a flotation ball that popped off the septic pump (I’m currently using a tennis ball…which everyone approved of) and went to check out. The guy at check out noticed that I had grabbed two different pipe fittings, though they were both three inches in diameter. He explained that one is for drains, and the other for pressurized systems, and pointed out that the drainage one was noticeably smaller. Then I held up my pipe, and he asked if I had all purpose glue. “Regular PVC glue won’t work?” No, apparently my pipe isn’t the regular type of PVC, so I ran back and got the “290” glue like he said and came back to finish checking out. He further mentioned that my pipe plug was 6”, just in case, and I told him it was for a different project completely. He nodded and wished me a good luck.

This visit to Maselli’s, Mead Clarke, or my childhood LHS, Smith and Strebels, would have been the same. The professionals throughout the store offered their specialized help, and the checkout people knew what they were looking at and helped troubleshoot my problem before I had one!

Based on previous experiences in the BBS’s, I can imagine I would have wandered around without any help, left with different size fittings (even though they’re both three inches), inappropriate glue, and the wrong size pipe-plug. I’d get home, try all my fittings, glue the ones that did work with the wrong glue, spend time figuring out where I went wrong, ask Google perhaps, call dad, go back to the store and, after about eight hours, maybe get it right the second time. Instead, I solved it all the same day with the friendly, non-judgmental help from some real pro’s who love helping other people DIY.

So yes, BBS’s are cheaper if you don’t count time and frustration. The prices are lower and so is the quality. We’ve decided, unequivocally that buying something at an LHS for a little more money, makes up for the time, gas, and soul-drainage spent frequenting BBS’s.

For the sake of length I’ve refrained from enumerating my BBS follies, and LHS triumphs, but would love to hear about yours! Go LHS!

Wow… is that a new post?

January 29, 2014more stories and reflections, work and lifebuild, caretaking, community, framing, freedom, lambs, lesson, relationship, sheepseedswithwings

We’re back! Sarah and I took a hiatus from blogging and building and are just now getting back into the swing of things. The last three months have been a whirlwind of blustery New York weather, Christmas trees, and baby lambs. Yes, baby lambs and don’t worry… I come bearing pictures!

Every year (for the past three years) a friend and I run a Christmas tree stand at St. Marks Church in the Bowery in Manhattan. It’s a month of preparation followed by a month of fourteen-hour days slinging conifers in the cold. The stand is open twenty-four hours a day from Black Friday until Christmas Eve, and is such a unique, enriching community-building experience. This year a highlight for me was having Sarah come work with us at the stand. She not only heaved Fraser firs over fences with the fellas, but also put her superb eye towards making wreaths for us.

Sarah Making Wreaths — Sarah making wreaths

Joseph and Sarah + Wreaths — Joseph + Sarah + wreaths

One of Sarah's Wreaths — beautiful wreath!

I also realized that as part of my work for the stand I’ve been building a “tiny house” on the street each year. It’s a 4x8x8 structure that can cozily hold three people making espresso (yes…there’s been an espresso machine). This year I upped the ante with my newly-acquired building skills, and framed this little house in panels, built in a loft, and salvaged and installed a real door (in the past the door was hinges on a warped piece of plywood). Next December…when our house is finished…who knows what new additions will be found in the tree stand shack? Sky-light? Running water? H-VAC? We’ll see.

Tree Riders 'Hobo Shack' — Tree Riders’ “Hobo Shack”

Christmas trees wrapped, we flew back to California for some R&R at Tassajara, then back to the sheep ranch,where we had forty new baby lambs to keep track of. Laaammmmbbbiiinnggg Speeeeed! Out of the pot and into the fire we go. Two of the new babies didn’t bond with their mothers (a pretty common occurrence with first-time ewe mothers) so we are feeding them twice-a-day by bottle.

So the last month has been spent catching up on work with the sheep and lambs and observing the cycle of birth and death (to be continued in another post I’m sure). We’ve also been tying up loose ends from 2013, and doing some all-important planning for 2014 – house planning, work planning, well-being and health intention-setting, financial planning, and more. We erased our window, re-categorized some things, and believe that we now have a plan that will take us at least until July of this year…if not Christmas 😉

The tiny house is back to being built nail-by-nail, and Sarah is studying to be a certified interpreter (English-Spanish), and we’ll be posting here as we go…

Now…some sheep.

Cupertino and Anne Bo-Lamb relaxing by the tiny house. — Cupertino and Annie relaxing by the tiny house.

Lullabies from Lamby-bies. — Lullabies from Lamby-pies.

Cuper grillin me, as Annie looks on approvingly. — Lambie yawn

Lifting Heavy Things

November 26, 2013framing, learning curve, tiny house build, tiny house thoughts, working togetherbeginner, build, caretaking, framing, gender, hacksseedswithwings

by Sarah

I’ve noticed, both with building and with sheep ranch work, that many of the materials and tools we use are designed for people larger and stronger than me. We bought the ultralight weed-whacker with the easy-pull string, and it’s hard for me to get it started. The tubs of nutritional molasses that we give to the sheep weigh more than me. And the impact driver twists my wrist, rather than twisting the five-eighths bit into the two-by-four. I have felt small and weak in my environment before, but never more so than now, when I am spending much of my time on building and ranch care, and am working side-by-side with Joseph.

These tools were designed, and standard material sizes were determined, with a man’s dimensions in mind. Like many things in our physical reality. Those are very different than my dimensions. Of course, many women are also strong enough to use the tools with ease, but I am not, and may never be.

Instead, I am figuring out how I need to use tools and move materials. Sometimes it’s a little different, and sometimes very different, than how Joseph would. I’ve gotten more playful about this. It feels more like a creative challenge than a roadblock. How can I “hack” these tools that were designed for people with larger hands, stronger arms, etc., and make them work for me?

In the following video, I convince a sheet of plywood and a six-by-six piece of lumber to cooperate with me.

Occasionally, it’s been useful to be small, as in the photo at the top of this post. Screwing the nut onto the anchor bolt inside the Simpson Strong Tie is work for tiny, tiny hands!

I wonder, have any of you felt that you are taking action in a physical space that was not designed with you in mind?