We put some new flooring in this weekend. It gave me the chance to work with my hands – something I miss and would enjoy doing more often. While laying the floors down, I started drawing some parallels to what I usually find myself doing.
Tear down is a lot of work. We had to rip out the old carpet and pad, sweep the underlying concrete, and break out the old wood from under the baseboards. As you might imagine, this created a pretty sizable mess.
This process reminded me of tearing apart pieces of a stylesheet to get it ready to interface with new design. Take away too little and you’re left with a cumbersome & overcomplicated stylesheet. Rip out too much and you risk losing things later on. Tearing things apart should take time and careful effort.
One thing that struck me is how quickly the bulk of the labor flew by. Almost all of the actual work involved in laying the new floors went by in almost no time at all. We spent most of the time and effort on the last few pieces, cutting them to fit just right and carefully sliding them into place.
Some of the most challenging and equally rewarding pieces of work occur during the final stages of a project. This is where careful planning pays off. All the attention to detail, precise measurement, and triple checking comes to fruition when the last pieces fit together perfectly.
It took almost two full days of work to complete work on the downstairs. A lot of that time was spent carefully planning ahead. All the planning didn’t prevent issues from arising, but it certainly kept things on track and in the end, was completely worth the effort. Where we did run into issues, a bit of creative thinking saw us through.
I’d like to start working with my hands on a more regular basis. Being able to focus on a physical task is a welcome change of gears. The next time I approach a piece of creative work, I’ll use some of the lessons I learned this weekend.
My goal is to make two substantial things with my hands this year, not counting the new floors. I’d like to ask the help of anyone who reads this to ask me, bug me, and keep me honest to this goal.