First Saturday of Actual Work - 1/12

Phrases heard Saturday:
"This had to have been invented by a woman."

"We're at the 'whatever' point."

"I can't find a stud to save my life."

"Who knew they had that?" (a foot controlled lever-type apparatus that lifts sheet rock off the floor to make room for molding)

My shoulder muscles are hurting now even as I type this and it hasn't even been 12 hours since I left the Women Build site on Florence Avenue.

Much has happened at the house since I last posted a blog back in November 2007. When I last saw it at the groundbreaking ceremony, it was a muddy plot of land. When I drove up this morning, an actual house stood there. A house complete with doors, windows, a front porch and sectioned rooms.

Work started where the last crew had left off — sheet rock. Some had already been nailed up, featuring nice, straight pencil lines marking where studs are. Remember, you always want to nail sheet rock into a stead. Always. Otherwise, the sheet rock could buckle and collapse over time.

I don't know why we didn't draw those same nice, straight lines on our sheet rock in line with studs. I guess it just never occured to us. So, for the first 4 hours of the work day, the women and I were doing our best to line up nails up and down the sheet rock by sight only — gauging where they would need to go by what other nails were in place. We would hit a stud, I would say, 80% of the time. The other 20% was extremely frustrating and finding the stud after the failed attempt was that much harder.

When a wall was completed, nail heads more resembled the erratic pattern of smashed bugs on a windshield than anything else. (Sheet rock nails are supposed to go in 16 inches apart. Guess how often that precise measurement was taken? Right. Never. Our hammers were about one foot so we judged measurements by them.)

I hammered with two other women while two others measured and cut sheet rock. I hammered alllll day .... Not only are my shoulders sore, but my knees are scraped raw from kneeling on the subflooring to nail even though I was wearing pants and my right thumb is developing a blister even though I was wearing gloves.

I soon learned that I couldn't pick up sheet rock nails with a gloved hand so I tucked the left one away and kept my right on. The fingernails on my left hand suffered. They were the grimiest, most chipped nails I've probably had in my entire life. I loved it. I was getting down and dirty.

I have to admit I was anxious the morning of, afraid I had completely forgotten what I learned in the Lowe's training classes. But then it all came back to me, thankfully.

Hammering I had experience with. Using a motorized "saw" to cut through sheet rock I did not. But I learned how to use that bad boy Saturday ... and got a mouthful of sheet rock dust for my efforts.

Keeping looking in the Aiken Standard for new posts to my Women Build blog.